The Tropical Fruit Forum

First the good - am picking handfuls of these limes from a small potted thorny tree, have been for months.



The bad - have an 8' H thornless Mex lime in a large RootBuilder pot that is notorious for going thru the same drill every year about this time (it's cold now).  Sets hundreds of blooms and fruit while leaves simultaneously drop then being almost leafless the fruit drops due to a lack of carbos, etc. and the tree stays dormant until spring.  If it set fruit AND pushed new foliage everything would be fine.

i have a few tweeks planned due to low light for the section it's under.  This time of the year it gets very little strong light due to a rather dark roof covering (Palram SolarSoft 85), which will be fixed come spring by changing over to a clear in this section of the roof.  Nexus Zephyr greenhouse.

Shorter days, cooler nights and my mangos are going dormant.  Stupid question - do mangos have a dormant, dry season in nature?  Am growing Pickering and Mallika.  Don't know their origin.

Mark

Cados sourced from Rivers End Nursery Farm, Los Fresnos, Texas.   Wrapped and cushioned very well, shipped in a large USPS flat rate box. No blemishes such as black spots.   Will order pitaya and other goodies next. http://www.riversendnursery.com/

Wilson - 3.31 lbs., 2nd photo.  Yech!  If I wanted water I'd just open the tap.  No flavor. Fine texture, large seed.  Tried to cover up the bland watery flavor by making guacamole with lots of garlic and onion.    Would probably make a great smoothie.

Brogdon - black, 13.6 oz., not bad.  Good flavor with fair-good oil content, creamy, very large seed, PITA (messy) to process. 

Day- green - average weight 10.6 oz - Now there's a great avocado!  Every bit as rich, creamy and flavorful as a (correctly) tree ripened Hass. Fine for slicing or guacamole. Easy to peel and process.  Medium size seed. (Since there's been interest here in Day I'll be happy to take a photo when I cut another one.)  Definately worth planting if your clime matches.



Wilson:



Mark

I can't get a Meyer lemon or Rio Red grapefruit to push foliage.  Yes, we've had a cold winter and very cool spring but my greenhouse temps peak in the 90's so heat isn't the issue.  My water source is about 76F.  I'm blaming it on FD rootstock, which I'm coming to hate compared to sour orange.  It not only shuts down when the roots get cold in winter but doesn't support "normal" growth. 

Any ideas of how to push them?  I've used high N foods and that hasn't helped.

As an aside, the new Arctic Frost satsuma is doing very well.  Supposed to be super cold hardy and delicious - down to 10F.

I'm stumped, and have looked at everything I've applied regarding culture.  (I keep a very detailed journal.)  I can't stop the bronzing of Gwen leaves.  Wouldn't care if it was the old ones, that's to be expected but it's happening on the spring flush which really worries me.  Thought it might be chlorides.  Nope, not that.  Water quality?  Rain and a bit of well water from time to time.  Flushed well in case of too much plant food. 

Now........I've read where Gwen can be difficult to grow....doesn't like cold, wind, temp extremes, but this is really frustrating.    It does get quite a bit of wind, some of it being quite dry the last couple of months.

HELP!

I've always used and enjoyed T bud grafting on citrus.  It's easy and has been fool proof resulting in 100% takes.  So.......I had one piece of Stewart scion left with 2 nodes....decided to play games with it.  I was worried about whether the bark would slip on 1/2" wood, one was fairly green and another already woody or lignified.  Took a grafting knife and did the T cut about 1 1/2" long on a Joey and a Brogdon.  Using the hook point of the knife, starting at the top,  I flipped back the bark exposing the cambium.  Sheesh, this is a no brainer...slipped super easy.  Took my bud, slid  it behind the bark and wrapped it.  Very clean, perfect total bark coverage over the budwood.....couldn't believe it. Could hardly see the cut, it closed up so well. 

That's the good news.  The "bad" news is the Stewart budwood came to me in mid January and there doesn't look to be any viable tertiary dormant buds at the node where the primary and the secondary petiles had already grown out.  The budwood was in excellent condition kept in damp cold conditions - still plump, firm and a bright green.  If nothing else it was a good exercise.  I will use T budding in the future.  Top and side cleft and veneer is a PITA with a lot of failures for me.

Would love to hear other's experience with T bud grafting and have a question - what time of the year does avocado bark start slipping whereby it's ready to accept budwood?

Mark

Any one know anything about this nursery - quality of stock, service? http://www.floridahillnursery.com/pineapple-plants-c-11  Can any one recommend an easy to grow hybrid?  Will grow them in a greenhouse in large pots. 

Mark

Mod edit: fixed subject

I harvested my first Oro Negro after being advised it was ready as soon as it turned black.  I left it hang for about 10-14 days longer.  Bottom line, it sat on the counter for at least 3 weeks and wasn't ready nor did it ever ripen.  I could tell the oil content was low and it never got soft and creamy.

Now, I have another gorgeous ON that's been black for at least a month with more on the way.  The skin is as shiny as an 8 ball.  What are the indicators other than skin color that I should look for that determines maturity?  Does the fruit peduncle (stem) turn brown, lignify or stay green until cut?  Should the skin lose that shiny hue and turn dull?

Reason why I ask is my experience with grapes.  Other than measuring the brix there are other sensory indicators that one can use to determine "perfection" - seeds will be brown and crunch between your teeth as opposed to being green and soft and the cluster's peduncle with turn from a green to a brown.

I've had this Pickering in its new home for about 3 weeks and it is sending off an incredible flush of leaves already, about 4 new leaf sets.  The new leaves are much larger than the previous, older dark green leaves.....that's a good thing.  Being new to growing mangos and their phenotype profile and growth habits, is it normal for them to droop while young like this and will the leaves gain some turgor, or could this be because of my N rich soil consisting of organics, horse manure, and blood meal that is really pushing the growth?  Thought I had balanced the N out a bit with bone meal and potash but now I'm beginning to wonder.

The newly arrived mango from PIN was upcanned from the 3 gallon pot to a 24" RootBuilder pot, 1/2 organic 1/2 inorganic custom blend. No heat stress since we're getting cold fronts, moderate R/H, plenty of soil moisture with excellent drainage, moderate to high light.

Wow, what a great fruit (Catalina), totally unexpected.  I have a new respect for Florida avocados.  The ones we get in the store are terrible, always have been.  Peel almost fell off on its own, meat was creamy, faintly sweet, rich, golden yellow, no strings and no bruises.  Seed easily popped right out without leaving any paper.  With a tad more oil this would be the perfect avocado for me.  We first tasted it straight, then with S/P, then some lime, and finally made guacamole to go with our tacos dinner last night. 

The Catalinas were gifted by an expert Florida grower  (thanks CTMiami!) with one going a whopping 30 oz.  (note the egg and Hass on the granite).  From the time picked it took 5 days to ripen the fruit at room temperature.  Needless to say, we could only eat 1/2 of one of the "smaller" ones - 2 lbs.

Anyone know the race?  I know it's of Cuban origin but is it WI X G or pure WI?  IMO, this would be a perfect fruit to cross with something like Sharwil, Reed, Gwen, Hass or any other high oil cado.

Mark

Got in 2 beautiful condo mangoes (Mallika and Pickering) from PIN yesterday and put them in bottomless RootBuilder pots which I made up to about 24" D. Also shown is a Oro Negro in a larger pot in which I cut the cables, added about 3 more panels, and tied them together with cable ties.  That is the Rootmaker system - to expand the pots while inducing a large fibrous root mass.  The value is much higher vigor, production, smaller pot size because the root tips are terminated by air/light which induces a very fibrous rootball.   That allows for much greater root mass which translates to more uptake of water and salts.  The hundreds of extruded downward pointing nipples have 1/4" holes which directs the root out into the air whereby it's terminated (burned). Side benefit is NO root rot.  Click (zoom) on the 1st photo for more detail.  Root tip pruning is the only way to go for me, been doing it for years. 

I'm into organics so my (open and airy) mix consists of 50% organics (composted horse manure, regular compost, pine bark mulch) and 50% in-organics (washed builders sand and coarse vermiculite).   Alfalfa horse cubes were soaked in water and this tea and pulp was used to add moisture to the mix.    Alfalfa not only contains beneficial minerals but an alcohol based growth hormone called triacontanol.   It took an entire tractor bucket load to fill those 2 mango pots.

I collect rainwater and use a small transfer pump and garden hose to water.  Works like a champ!



Pickering in the foreground, Mallika in the background.



PIN Oro Negro in expanded pot, first time fruiting, holding 8 fruit.





Young Reed sporting a new haircut.   I veneer grafted the scion to a Florida pit raised as rootstock. Transfer pump on column.



Mark

Curious as to how much light mangoes require to bear well.  I have good light and incredible diffusion from the Palram SolarSoft polycarb covering on the greenhouse.  Footcandle readings average about 5,000 which is half of the typical 10,000 f.c. you'd read if the meter is pointed at the sun, clear summer day, high noon.   The greenhouse gets full sun from sunrise to sunset.  IOW, a little less light but for a longer period of time than someone growing on the east side of a house.

Citrus are bearing heavy and some of the the older avocados are just beginning to fruit......all the citrus and avocado trees love the conditions. 

Am thinking about putting in dwarfs, Pickering and Mallika, spaced about 6' apart potted up in RootBuilder pots.

Thoughts please....

 

As you know, hurricane season has got off to an early start with TS Chantal which is modeled to skirt Florida and maybe cross over it into the Gulf heading west.  How do you handle your trees like mangos and avocados?  Pick the fruit 12 hours in advance?  Stake?

I'm not new to hurricanes FWIW...rode out many in south Texas.  We got the eye of Celia which wiped out the Corpus Christi area - mass destruction, no electricity for 3 weeks, etc.  Been downplayed by the media, but the anemometer blew off at 165MPH at the Port Aransas airport and wind gusts were estimated to be up to 225mph by the local weather experts.

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201303_model.html

Mark