The Tropical Fruit Forum

Even though my yard is exploding in mango blooms, I haven't seen ANY. In past years, I could find my dog's poop within minutes with the swarm of flies covering it but today? none. I can now  leave my sliding patio door open when I go out for a minute and in the past I could not!  My GF is over 25 miles north of me and she has the same situation.

Are the cities spraying excessively for mosquito control? If not what's going on?

I had a great papaya tree die of old age and in it's sunny spot I put a 5' tall Ruby Red guava. I've had bad luck with guava they always got inundated with scale and the fruits have had fruit fly.

This one is in a spot right near my back door so I can pay more attention to it and hopefully catch problems before they get out of hand. I have a good supply of mesh bags and horticultural oil to battle with.

This coming spring I plan on making room in my yard for as yet undetermined varieties. 

Slated for the axe are:

Excalibur Mamey. After 12 years of die back and no fruit, this one goes for sure.
White Sapote. After three years of performance like the Mamey I pulled it.
Peaches. Even though I have gotten fruit and the two I have are healthy, the crops after 9 and 11 years have not been large enough to justify the space.
The soursop was completely cleaned of foliage by this last cold snap, it's been (putting it mildly) a shy bearer and as of now its only use was adding leaf litter and shade to the yard :-)

I may once again try guava. I've had great luck with large number of fruit, but had serious fruit fly issues. This time I'll try bagging the fruits much earlier.


 

I have a Fairchild #2 and I always pick them ripe and I would like to send some to Connecticut. How ripe or what stage of  ripeness can I pick them to ship?

I figure to send them after the first of the year but since I never tried ripening them off the tree I do not know if they will ripen once picked? Right now they are fully colored but still hard as a rock.

I L-O-V-E persimmons, I mean as much as any top tier fruit I've tried but the Cali persimmon industry does themselves no favor with the horribly incorrect and misleading package verbiage...

"Sweet Honey Flavor, Ready to eat NOW" 

Imagine Chiquita putting THAT on their GREEN, hard, immature bananas? 

No, these persimmon will not be ready for weeks until they get squishy like an over ripe tomato, after that? WOW!!!  :-)  Egads, the persimmons in the pic will be astringent and destroy any possibility of persimmon growers gaining a repeat buyer! 

My GF's granddaughter sent her a small lemon seedling which she wanted to see fruit sooner than the (unknown cultivar) seedling would. So, she went to Lowes and snipped off a Meyer cutting (bad girl) and asked me to graft it onto the seedling. I used a cleft and the tree and scion were perfectly matched in thickness. It's been two weeks and the cutting is still as green as when I grafted it and the tree stem has sprouted several new branches under the graft, and I have not uncovered the scion yet.

My Q's.

1. I've grafted Mango before and know when a graft took or not but since the scion is still bright green I do not know if it should wither and die if the graft did not take.

2. Should I clip the new branches that have erupted under the graft to send more resources to the grafted scion?

3. Assuming the graft took, when should I remove the wrap from the scion? After new growth sprouts?

  Thanks

Over the summer I store trimmed branches to use as kindling. Most fruit trees are not as good as pine wood scraps but this summer I pruned my lemon drop mangosteen heavily and the wood (even small branches) is outstanding kindling.  It burns fast, hot and unlike most fruit woods instead of going instantly to ash it turns into hot red coal like material which lasts a longer time than any other kindling I have used.

If you have  mangosteen and a fireplace or firepit keep your trimmings instead of chucking them out.

My Mango, lychee and annona are having their worst season ever while my sapodilla and canistel are and have been consistent producers.

Anyone else having similar issues? Suspected causes?




 

Last year I got a couple of tiny fruits, but this is my first decent crop from my little tree... maybe a dozen fruits on it. I have to say, they're  not what some might call "top tier" but they are quite flavorful if not quite as sweet as a few other annonna  I have but juicier, no doubt both issues likely due to the copious amounts of rain recently.

I'm already looking forward to next year when the little five foot tree grows a bit more can support more fruit.

Anyone else with a Mauve that's in a similar taste envelope?

This year my lemon drop has a bumper crop. Their flesh to seed ratio is poor, and eating them out of hand is not so rewarding, so I use them primarily to flavor water (one of my few beverages) using a garlic press to extract the juice.

Come and take as many as you like. PM me for info.

PS. The tree has scads of volunteers, also free for the taking.

I have never grown tomatoes in Florida, but one appeared a couple of months ago out of nowhere in my yard. I suspect a bird or other animal passed a seed in its scat.

This vine tomato is growing for a while now, it has grown like a weed and I have had to tie it up to limbs on the lychee it sits under to support its rather heavy weight.

So far 5 tomatoes have set, but I pulled the largest today (about 1.5" to 2" across) as it had a translucent spot about the size of a quarter on one side (it was not touching anything else) and the pulp had turned watery. Is this some indication of a problem with the vine, or is this normal fruit attrition?

I've rarely had a second crop but I'm delighted when I do... it spreads the season out longer. This year (4/30) my Madame Francis started a second bloom when the first is only a couple of weeks from ripening. Anyone else getting a second mango bloom?

I have a bunch of 3"-5" Lemon drop mangosteen seedling / volunteers which I am going to  pull from beneath the parent tree soon. If anyone wants some or all bring a shovel, pots and soil and take all you want. Local North Broward Florida only, no shipping, sorry.