The Tropical Fruit Forum

It's clear that deciduous and evergreen do and do not go dormant.  But what terminology describes species that replace their leaves annually versus others that seem to keep their leaves forever?  I have mangos with leaves still there at the base of a 4" dia. trunk tthat were there when the plant was 1 foot tall!  Grumichama also seems to keep all leaves forever.  But avocados clearly replace all their leaves annually.  What do we call these two types of plants?  Keepers and replacers?

Having any Fernandez seed and/or fruit this year? 

I want to extend the fruiting season of my Sugar Apple (Annona Squamosa). If A.) I pick off half of the early flowers, or B.) I neglect to hand pollinate them, will it produce more late flowers/fruits?  I have a couple of late fruits and I want more fruits to be late fruits.  Thanks!

Fruit on our Brogden tree is starting to show splits in the skin, while still on tree, and before turning black.  Also some fruit falling before turning black.  Also some fruit getting round, sunken spot at the skin cracks, but decay is slow/surfical. Now we're seeing small fly worms in these round sunken spots.  Seems these problems are avoided by picking sooner, before skin turns completely black. Extra hot & wet year.

We have a planting spot in which four young trees (1 Mamey Sapote, 2 Canistels, 1 Jamaica Cherry), planted there successively, died from root rot within a year.  So we replaced the soil there and planted a young Rollinia.  We think we should do more and remove a gallon volume of soil around the root crown for a couple of weeks, so it can dry out real good, then add it back in, twice a year for a few years.  Does anyone's experience suggest that this strategy could be helpful?

Brogden is a Mexican - West Indies cross with thin/smooth black skin.  The skin turns black while on the tree.  Is anyone's experience that the flavor/quality is better when picked before turning black?  It seems waiting until they fall gives best flavor/quality but someone may have suggested better before turning black.

Thanks for your thorough reply.  So it's all leaves, whole leaf, that is yellow on both acerola #2 and jackfruit #2, while each has a healthy green companion, same species/size/age nearby, without the dense oak roots.  So I really don't think the watering/fertilizer amount are at issue.  Turns out the jackfruit finally died and the root crown was girdled from soil line down 1.5 inches, that is, the outer cambium layer was gone. Below that, the root was healthy looking.  It doesn't look like the same kind of root rot I've seen on other trees because that is black, and extends into the feeder roots.  I don't think this was a mole because the familiar tunnel indicators are nowhere in sight.  I dug down on the acerola to look for same symptoms under soil line, and that root crown looks healthy. 

Permaculture practice in a food forest allows wild plants to grow, then we cut them so leaves/stems become mulch on top and roots become compost under ground.  We have lots of wild annuals that we ask if it's better to cut them while green or just let them mature/die.  Hay is more nutrition as animal feed than straw, so we assume cutting green is better but can we have the nutrition breakdown gathered by the great scientific/industrial machine in the sky?  It may be that when plants mature/die, the nutrition elements are drawn back down into the roots.  We suspect that only nitrogen is lost to the atmosphere.  So what are the answers?  This informs our choice of when to cut these plants.

Any recommendations for nets to cover red cattley guava trees to protect from fruit fly? Assuming carribean fruit fly but have not actually seen flies.  Larvae look like fruit fly. Eggs are laid when fruits are green, and fruit is ruined before full ripening.  All fruits are ruined, every year.  Bonning suggested pruning in fall, forcing winter fruiting, but winters too cold apparently for fruit to develop.  Too many fruits to bag.  Must use net.  Thanks!

My rollinia, about 6 ft tall, 1 inch dia. trunk, very healthy, vigorous, in November 2019 after 1 year in ground developed this cambium layer fungal deterioration under the bark in many spots along the trunk, and all branches were devastated by this so I ended up with nothing but a trunk.  In January 2020 the trunk started leaf budding again, so now, Feb, a few new branches are growing on out.  This was after my first rollinia (5 ft tall) died completely from this fungus along the trunk (with a dozen young fruit on it!).  Since my newest tree is surviving, I think if one gives them special treatment, like cover the trunk with moss to protect from sun, lower the soil PH like some guys said (oak leaves, etc), mulch heavily like some said, water well, maybe it can tolerate the fungus.  I know they have extremely shallow root systems - I've seen large rollinias easily knocked over by wind.  Thanks everone for the input.

Has it ever had frost damage? I have had what looked like very slight damage to a trunk before that then rotted from underneath.

Never any frost damage on this second tree.  But it is rotted looking, dark brown/black under the paper-thin outer bark layer, but the heartwood is preserved, so this is the 1/8" cambium layer, I think.

xmario, the 2 rolinnias were 2 to 3 years old when planted, and died 1 to 2 years later, so 5 to 6 ft tall trees, trunk diameter 3/4" to 1 ", vigorously growing, even fruiting when killed by the fungus.  I think they were as healthy as they could be, so this is a fungus they have no defense against, out of their native range.  Florida is full of crazy pathogens.