The Tropical Fruit Forum

At the Farmers fair held last week, in Santo Domingo, someone had an exhibit on some of the fruits grown in the DR.

Many of these are not well known by the general population though,  they were giving free "miracle fruit" samples, and people were getting a kick out of them, there seemed to be a lot of interest by passerby's  anyway, this is where I first touched my first fresh mangosteen, I later that night ate one,  I liked it a lot, the second one I tried the next day was already rotten inside.

Here is a quick video I shot of that exhibit,  note, some of these fruits have been picked like a week or so earlier so some are past their prime.
 
Frutas Tropicales, Feria Ganadera 2013

I have another video that I have edited, but have not uploaded, a video of the other exhibits, I will get it up in a day or two.

The interest in organic gardening and farming, has advanced our knowledge greatly in the last few years, better understanding of the cycles of pests, how nutrients are absorbed used, and processed by plants has made organic farming economically competitive with modern chemical farms,  its not just about growing healthier or tastier products, in the long run, organic practices may save on water usage, save on insecticides and may even surpass in some cases productivity.

And of course the other added benefits, of doing less harm to the environment, and the potential for being self reliant.

A lot of research has gone into boosting the soil, after all what is it that they say, "feed the soil, not the plant" , so how do we go about making the perfect super soil?

Obviously this will differ from yard to yard, and of course each plant has different requirements.

One group that has done a lot of experimentation and monitored results, are the indoor "Medicinal herb" growers,  and there is a tried and true Super Soil recipe that has been circulating around the web.  this is a stand alone soil, for containers. so you are starting from scratch.

Here are the basic ingredients:
8 large bags of a high-quality organic potting soil with coco fiber and mycorrhizae
25 to 50 lbs of organic worm castings
5 lbs steamed bone meal
5 lbs Bloom bat guano
5 lbs blood meal
3 lbs rock phosphate
¾ cup Epson salts
½ cup sweet lime (dolomite)
½ cup azomite (trace elements)
2 tbsp powdered humic acid

Just google Super soil recipe, and you will get more details on how to mix up the above, I did not want to link to any of those "medical herb" sites, on this forum.

Again the above recipe may be perfect for some plants, but not for others, looks to "rich" for mangoes in my opinion. but bet some fruit trees and especially veggies would love it.

Some products that seem to do wonders for the soil / roots.

Replacing minerals: 
heavily farmed soils usually have depleted micro nutrient minerals, and many sandy soils, just do not have them at all, as they were long ago leached away.  so replacing these elements using rock dust, is something that many swear by.   Azomite, Seaweed or other ocean products, and Glacial rocks are some sources used by products.

Humus and Fulvic acid:
I have been looking into this recently and it is just amazing, Humus is what makes plain old dead dirt into a soil.  it has been said that fertile top soil takes hundreds of years to just make an inch or two. but this is not true, adding mined humus to your yard / garden can start a chain reaction that will do this in just a few years, not decades or centuries.  Fulvic acid can even be used as a foliar spray, and transport minerals right into the plant.  humus / fulvic acid make the minerals in the soil available to the plant in a form it can use.

Biologicals:
Having beneficial fungi and bacteria in the soil, work with plants, protecting them from the bad guys, transporting nutrients to the roots, and decomposing organic matter into nutrients the plant can use.

What are some of your ideas for the perfect soil?
Which of the above substances have you used?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adhssib1ggE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5ItTiwlA_I

 

One of my mangosteen trees is showing heavy chlorosis on new growth.

background on this plant,  I purchased this tree and a few others, it was being kept in full sunlight, I know they do not like full sunlight  so young.  I planted one in a large 10 gallon  fabric pot.  with around 60% sunlight ( direct for a few hours a day shade for the rest ).  it did very well, new growth,  and the leaves were big.  then it started to send out its first pair of branches, the first leaves were not big, but they were green,  not long after that it flushed out a couple more leaves, this is when the chlorosis started.  in the picture you can see the healthy "older leaves" the new ones are almost yellow.

by the way, that necrosis on one of the leaves was caused by a mango tree branch rubbing against it when it was pushing out, seemed to have scarred the leaf.




Closeup


A healthy one for comparison  ( same age as the others )

While visiting some in laws this weekend, I noticed their Anonna reticulata tree was full of fruit, and knowing how difficult it is for them to pollinate , I wondered what would cause this.

I noticed that right next to this tree he had a A. muricata.

So my question is,  can a Guanabana tree pollinate a custard apple ? or are they naturally productive like that?

I just happened upon information on Diffuser Technology.  and believe this could be a very important system for people in arid areas or where water is expensive, or hard to get.

Some of the main features of this system are:

> Uses about 1/3 amount of water compared to traditional drip irrigation.
> works with low pressure, gravity fed systems*
> You irrigate the roots and not the top soil, so you have less weed problems. which also translates into
   less or no need for herbicides.

I have no idea how much these things cost or if they are made by other companies, below is a link to a pdf manual from one company.  I think there is a patent on this tech.

To me, the most attractive part of this is that they work on gravity systems, which means I do not need a big pump, that would easily be swiped by crooks. also in remote areas there is no power available.

www.chahtech.com/doc/en/Buried-Diffuser-English-Report-December2012.pdf

Anyone have experience with this?

here is a video on a similar setup, but they use Terracotta pipes embedded into the ground around the trees. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyBU4dtoTuM#


One more link to the "draining floater" which looks like a cool "new" low tech way of extracting water from sources, to use for irrigation

www.chahtech.com/doc/en/Draining-Floater-December2012.pdf

If you had to start from scratch, and all you had was 5 acres of land,  what do you think would be a profitable crop or business to put on it. with the intention of making a living with it.  what kind of fruits for instance do you think would have a good market and sell at a good price?

I am aware every climate region and area would be different.

Just ordered some papaya seeds ( Impulse purchase )  of these two varieties:

Surya

and

Pusa Nanha


I did find some information on these two cultivars,   Surya is a very productive hybrid,  ( around 100 lbs ) and has very high brix for a papaya 11-13%

The weird one though is the Pusa Nanha, its a mutant , created using gamma rays, Hmmm anyone else thinking Hulk? anyway, this variety is a super dwarf, supposedly can handle standing water,  avg Brix around 8%, and is a good producer.   this variety was created for high density planting and is perfect for container growers.

I was wondering is anyone has tried growing any of these? or has tried them ?

I think these should do very well in 10 gal. fabric pots i have.

Came across this clip, pretty good display of some different cultivars, I noticed some spelling errors, and origin mistakes,  but they cover a lot of varieties, maybe one you wanted to take a look at?

Mango varieties diversity

Although I believe Oscar can help me here, anyone that has an opinion is welcome.

I am going to order a bunch of scions from Oscar ( fruitlovers ) in December, but am trying to decide which varieties.  although there is some information online, on the cultivars, I would like members opinions, as they usually have tried more varieties.

There are a few I know I will get:  ( Rapoza, Gouveia, Ah-Ping )  but was wondering about these others.

Golden Glow
Harders
Momi-K
Pope
Mapulehu

or any other scion that Oscar has,  other Florida varieties I can get in Florida.

Looking for decent sweet mangoes, with little to no fiber. that might have commercial potential, these will be tested in the DR.

The CDC has reported that 103 people that have contracted Salmonella, is linked with Mangoes.
mostly in California,  so I am guessing these are imports, be interesting to see if they will be able to track it down.  If I had to take a guess, I bet it was the water in the hot water treatment plants. ( Hot dip for fruit fly ).

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-cdc-ill-salmonella-tied-mangoes.html

Seems no one has mentioned the Kesar mango in this forum,  Jeff you have trees listed for sale, but this is an open question to anyone that has them.  what can you tell me about them.  taste, fiber, disease resistance etc.

I know there are descriptions on the Indian sites, but to them all mangoes are sacred lol.

Ok here is the situation, I have a potted mango tree that was given to me as "Ice Cream", the foliage is exactly like what I have seen online, ( thin leaves ).  this year it has flowered for the first time and has set and has held on to 3 fruit.

The problem is the fruit do not look like Ice Cream,  they are big and more elongated than Ice cream I have had. 
( I will try and get a picture up tomorrow ).  the fruit is still on the tree.

What other varieties have leaves similar to Ice Cream?