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Messages - Pancrazio

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101
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: When is this Kona Sugarloaf ready
« on: July 14, 2016, 08:12:16 AM »
Thank you for your input!
I'm not going to hijack the thread, however, my main problem seems that pineapple don't like to sit for a couple of months at temps in the range of 34-50F (that's how it goes in my unheated greenhouse from Dec to half February). Dunno if this brings problem to the roots, physiological disorder or what, however my plant start to grow again just at the end of July and well, basically in 3 years they didn't grew much from the fruit top i used to start them. Was wondering if there's some variety/method that can help me with this one. Seems absurd that i have some mangoes hanging and lately i managed to flower a dwarf namwah, but pinepples do refuse even to grow.

102
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: When is this Kona Sugarloaf ready
« on: July 14, 2016, 07:18:17 AM »
Hey Van, where do you grow this plant?
I have been tempted to grow a pineapple for some time, but so far my only attempt has been unsuccessful. Care to share any tip?
Like the soil mixture you used, and above all, how do you treat it during winter.

103
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: How about a satsuma in zone 7 on a south wall?
« on: July 09, 2016, 07:43:17 PM »
Barrels of water are an cheap, easy to set up, and surprisingly efficient way to keep the temperature high under a enclosure. In last 4 years i have been growing a mango in zone 8 with nothing else than barrels of water (around 120 gallons) to keep it warm, and sun during the day to warm the barrels. And i live at 44N so my sun is pretty low during winter, night are pretty long, and also since i'm in a mediterranean climate, often overcast. Still...

The principle to give minimal effort is a good one. Over the years a plant has to prove itself Exceptionally Good and Worthwhile to justify all the time spent, and the effort done to keep them alive. Eventually the novelty effect wears out, so you'll be willing to do so much effort just if the plant is really good, or the effort is sustainable - evenmore if you plan to grow several plants.

However when attempting something hard (like growing a plant outside its growing zone), i think that first you've got to attempt to reach you goal, then simplify. For instance the first year with my mango i used 1 gal container to store the water instead of barrels because the 1 gal containers were more efficient (in my imagination) for heat exchanging. They may have been; but the work of filling then one by one was simply too much time consuming and tedious; so the next year they were gone. The plant survived and i got some simplification.
Of course simplification can't go on forever, but you get the idea. You get your plant to live first, then you try to push the most lazyness it can stand before dying.  ;)

104
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: Satsuma cuttings
« on: July 09, 2016, 07:20:43 PM »
Well, since i sacrificed just a twig to this small experiment, even if things don't work out, no damage is done!  ;)
Similar twigs and similar methods have given me good results on limes and citron, but then again with that plants i was working at the end of winter and also they are well known "easily rootable" citrus.
At this point i just have to hold and see how things develop. I think that will be pretty easy to see if they have actually rooted when i'll remove the cover, because in the middle of summer I imagine that a twig without root will wither!

For sure having a satsuma on own roots seems convenient for someone growing it outside of the "comfort zone".  ;)

105
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Success planting an Avocado after 8 years of failures and 5 dead trees!
« on: July 09, 2016, 07:11:00 PM »
Quote from: simon_grow on July 03, 2016, 12:34:33 AM
Has anyone else had success using this method of direct seeding avocado seeds and grafting onto the seedling? I just visited my friend and his tree is doing great. He has also grafted a couple other varieties onto the Reed seedling right next to the Hass I grafted for him.

Hi!
I have always wanted an avocado in my home,  so after 3 dead trees i have been looking forward to apply this method to get finally the plants I want. Last year I managed to seed two avocados in place. I guess they were pinkerton seeds (grocery store). I was hoping to have them grafted with a couple of cultivars: one of them was Mexicola and the other one is a chance seedling a friend of mine grew that was able to withstand pretty extreme cold snaps (-8/-10C or 14/17F) and of decent quality. 
At the end of last summer i was able to graft only this variety on the seedling i planted... but too bad, after initial the initial attempt to push (graft was healed) the winter came, and the union point died back during winter (is a common problem for me, i think because if grafts joins too late in winter callous tissue can't differentiate in mature enough wood before winter comes.... and winter for me is pretty cold/damp).
So, this year started again with two seeds, but i didn't plant them directly in ground - in fact I’m ashamed to admit that grafting low in the stem young avocados that were already situated in a hole in the ground has been remarkably difficult for me. So i prepared a couple of pretty long pots, filled them with the soil taken from the exact space I’m going to plant the avocados (it is pretty rich in clay, actually) and i have grown the seedling there. I think that they will be ready to accept graft in a couple of week.
I have just a major setback in the fact that i'm unable to locate a source of Mexicola avocadoes in europe, but as far asthe other avocado is concerned, i should be able to get at least a plant.
I hope to be able to obtain, using the same soil of the desired location and the pot growing, bot the advantages of this method and the easiness for grafts of the pot grown plants.
Too bad avocado seeds are really slow to sprout, the two plants i'm about to graft are from fruits i used in january.

106
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: Satsuma cuttings
« on: July 09, 2016, 04:39:31 PM »
Some of them rotted, but some other are pushing out new growth, so i'm going to assume they did take.
So, yes, satsuma can be reproduced by cuttings.

107
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Now that some of the mangoes are starting to wind down...
« on: July 09, 2016, 11:35:44 AM »
At my place last flush can be as late as October and i have seen sign of flower induction already in December. But then again, I’m not the average mango grower, so i guess that my experience are more on the side of "what is theoretically possible".

108
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Homemade calcium fertilizer
« on: July 02, 2016, 07:32:19 PM »
i thought to egg shells too, but shouldn't I dissolve them in some kind of acid? Lemon, or something easily digestible by bacteria?

109
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Homemade calcium fertilizer
« on: July 02, 2016, 04:05:02 PM »
Since I'm homestuck i can't buy any fertilizer in local shops.
But, as far i can see, some of my bananas have developed a calcium deficiency.
So i was wondering if there's any way to enrich the soil with calcium with common household items. In normal circumstances i would use Calcium cyanamide, but right now i have an hard time accessing it. Before eventually placing a mail order, i was wondering if...

110
Cold Hardy Citrus / Re: Ichang Lemon
« on: July 02, 2016, 09:28:27 AM »
I've got one of them. As for now is just a small plant that i did graft on P. trifoliata just the last year. Looks pretty thorny! More than a yuzu anyway. so i would suggest the plant one where children can't reach.
Will leave the plant outside this winter, i'm curious to see how it behaves.

111
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango fruit pest - how to treat it?
« on: June 30, 2016, 05:48:39 AM »
Thank you. I'll take this suggestion in great regard, because my bananas has started to show some strange growth that i consider a sign of boron deficiency, so it may be that my soil is boron deficient, an eventuality i never considered before. 

112
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango fruit pest - how to treat it?
« on: June 28, 2016, 12:40:22 PM »
Hey guys,
just to let you know that the disease looks to have stopped its spreading, just after 1 methyl thiophanate spray.
A this point, either it  was some kind of fungus, or the sudden exposure of young fruits to the heat during the last heat wave. Pests are to exclude, apparently.

113
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Smallest good-tasting mango cultivar?
« on: June 26, 2016, 04:56:19 PM »
Quote from: barath on June 24, 2016, 05:53:15 PM
I ask because I'm trying to find good varieties to try in milder CA locations where the accumulated heat may not be enough to ripen larger fruited varieties.  (This general approach seems to work in many other types of fruit, so my hope is it will be true for mangoes as well.)

Honest question: can i see any paper where this is stated with any evidence that fruit size is related to quickness in ripening?
Would be very interesting from a temperate fruit grower point of view.

114
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango fruit pest - how to treat it?
« on: June 26, 2016, 04:52:48 PM »
Quote from: bsbullie on June 26, 2016, 09:34:41 AM
How big are the damaged mangoes in that picture?  When you cut a damaged mango open, is there any evidence of insects in the damaged areas?

The mangoes in picture are around 2-3 inches long.
I haven't been able to cut one open today, i hope maybe tomorrow. There wasn't any sign of insect presence in the one i did cut but the damage could have indeed been insect damage; i noticed some kind of spongy black tissue, like there were some galleries, but no larvae inside. Not that this excluded anything; also the fungus as previously mentioned could be the result of insect activities, because some insect have fungus hosts.

Quote from: bsbullie on June 26, 2016, 09:39:50 AM
32 Celcius is common temps in Florida and other mango growing regions.  I have trouble believing that is the issue (doesn't really look like burn damage).  If the sun's heat were the culprit, I would also expect there to be leaf burn damage.

I agree with you; 32C isn't enough to damage a mango in normal cases. What doesn't make turn completely my nose to the idea is the fact that we come from a REALLY cold and wet spring with no warm episodes whatsoever (20C max temp, 12-15°C temps min), and i removed the cover of my mango (wich works also as UV screen) just at the beginning of the warm spell (4 days ago). But i agree with you i probably should see at least some degree of leaf burn if the heat was such an issue. There may be the case when the fruit that (make sense) have a worse heat dispersal mechanism than leaves, may be damaged while the leaves say just fine?

As for now i attempted a spray with methyl thiophanate, it's a wide spectrum fungicide, systemic, should at least give some kind of protection. I'm avoiding copper for now because i'm worried about the fact that in high heat it could result as phytotoxic.

Will try with confidor if i don't get any changing from todays spray.

Too bad i hurt badly my knee in last days and i can't give the plant alla the care i'd like.  :-\

115
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango fruit pest - how to treat it?
« on: June 26, 2016, 09:29:25 AM »
This looks indeed remarkably similar. Also, we passed in a week from a maximum daily temps of 22C to 32C.  Also, now that i think about it, alla the damage is towards the external part of the canopy. This doesn't exclude insect damage (external ftruits are more accessibile) but makes heat another suspect.

116
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango fruit pest - how to treat it?
« on: June 26, 2016, 09:14:27 AM »
Quote from: bsbullie on June 25, 2016, 07:51:44 PM
Again, that does not look like sap damage.

Onr problem is this isdue is in Italy,  not in a normal mango growing region so the damage may not be something easily determined based on what may be common to Florida or California.

This is indeed true; also i have another layer of complexity to add since my mango is grown very close to a vegetable garden, so there is a quite ample number of species wich may be host of pest pretty close to the plant, and this can add further problems.

Quote from: bsbullie on June 25, 2016, 07:51:44 PM
I will still lean towads the damage above being either fungal or bacterial in nature and not caused by pest (but I may be wrong).  It does not appear to be any of the common anthracnose damage seen here.

It's not similar to antrachnose indeed. What it misses is the complete blackening of the skin; also the climate now here is pretty dry and in my understanding this is detrimental to atranchnose. This of course doesn't exclude some other sort of fungal infection.

I was thinking to use some kind of wide sprectrum fungicide. What do you think about methyl thiophanate? Is well tolerated by mangoes?

Quote from: TonyinCC on June 26, 2016, 07:44:00 AM
I had very similar damage to several species of fruit in the Southeastern US.  The specific pest causing the problem in my location in South Carolina was a stone fruit pest,a weevil called plum curculio. Is this pest in Europe , or from Europe originally, or maybe you have a similar species?  I grew plums and peaches as well, and the damage on your mangos looks a lot like what happens to peaches or plums.It also attacked apples. The insect would cut a small semi-circular slit in the fruit to lay an egg and once hatched the larva would burrow and cause some damage but was unable to complete its life cycle in the wrong fruit species. This would explain what you see when you cut a fruit open.If plum curculio attacks the wrong species,the larva can travel and damage about an inch into the fruit before it dies and then the fruit tries to heal over. It also would attack pears but they were less susceptible to damage than apples. Stone fruits were completely ruined,but apples were mostly usable for home use when affected areas were cut out but too damaged for sale. I suspect your problem is an insect pest attacking the wrong species of fruit in a similar manner. With any fruit, once the skin is damaged,secondary fungal infections can ruin the fruit. In my case, if I sprayed with the proper insecticide at the time the damage first appeared, scars healed over and fruit was fine. Imidan was the best and safest insecticide for Plum Curculio if that is what caused the damage. Various species of stinkbugs can damage many species of fruit by sucking on them,but the fruit is usually just deformed and still usable for home use if it doesn't rot from secondary fungus infections.

I think that for now will try both the approaches, just because it is my first crop and i want at least some fruit.
Firstly i'll try with some funghicide, later i'll go with some insecticide, then we will see.

117
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango fruit pest - how to treat it?
« on: June 25, 2016, 11:50:39 AM »
Thank you for your more in dept view on the matter.
The fruit appear to have some entry holes where appear to be something affection the fruit, but i can't tell if its a mold, a insect or something else. Just the pucture is very small. In some cases like the one you see, you can see some sap oozing out of it, but i don't think the sap itself is doing damage.
Also i'm willing to exclude fruit flies too because it's to early here for them.
I hoped to have gottern some kind of common mango disease, but this doesn't seems the case. So i guess i sould try to treat for generic disease and see what happens...

118
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango fruit pest - how to treat it?
« on: June 25, 2016, 09:45:47 AM »
Thank you guys.
Yeah, it's nasty and i don't know how to deal with it. Funny thing is, the plant never got any rain on it since last october, so i hoped to have it pretty protected by any fungus/bacteria... but this doesn't seem the case.
The fruits once cutted show small galleries, but i haven't been able to locate any worm. So i can't telle for sure if they are a insect or a collapse of sap canals.
Should i try copper  -> insecticide (i'm assuming confidor? because it's systemic) then to bag the fruit? Could this help?
What i should use to bag the fruits? Small papaper bags can work?

119
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Mango fruit pest - how to treat it?
« on: June 24, 2016, 02:58:07 PM »
My mango fruit have started to show some kind of damage from a unknown, to me, pest.
I'd like to get help on identifing and eradicating it.





120
Citrus General Discussion / HLB stories
« on: June 24, 2016, 11:10:10 AM »
We talk a lot about HLB but i never see anyone with first hand reports.
id anyone find it on his own plants? How did you recognize it?

121
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Grafting question (inter stem)
« on: June 19, 2016, 03:18:27 PM »
I suggest you to take a look at the Bitters manuscript, it details the effects of interstock in citrus quite a bit.

122
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Parafilm tape question
« on: June 14, 2016, 04:36:18 PM »
At my place they need usually 3 weeks. If alive after 3 weeks, you are ok: even if they don't push, they will push at next growth flush.
Regarding removing it, it's up to you. If you want to remove it, however, don't attempt it before the new growth has hardened. I have snapped some scions by being impatient.
To make grafts more secure, you can use some rubber bands. They hold the graft tightly at first but the sun usually makes for a weaker and weaker rubber over the time and they fall pretty son after the graft has taken (my low quality rubber bands hold just few weeks in full sun).




123
Temperate Fruit Discussion / Re: Moving to zone 8b
« on: June 05, 2016, 06:59:23 PM »
I have been able to overwinter a Dwarf namwah outside, unprotected, this year (minimum temperature around 20°F).
If you average temperature stay around 20°F or maybe something more you can grow still a lot of interesting things but things will ask you some effort.

124
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Top 5 heavy producing Mango Trees?
« on: June 03, 2016, 05:28:06 PM »
Tommy Atkins?
Isn't heavy crop the whole point of tommy atkins production?

125
Citrus General Discussion / Re: pummelo and mandarin varieties consult
« on: June 03, 2016, 03:57:58 PM »
Quote from: Zafra on June 01, 2016, 08:07:25 PM
i can't get budwood unless i'm a licensed citrus dealer, so i'm out of luck

As someone dying in hope to get some scionwood from CCPP, i was really curious on how you were able to get some from US.  ;D
Turns out it isn't possible.

Would love to help you on varieties selection, but i guess our climkates are too much different.

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