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Messages - simon_grow

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51
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 17, 2024, 10:29:44 PM »
I would let one branch of the rootstock grow out in the hopes it is a male.There is a good chance your Dongkui will eventually fruit without a male but that can be many years down the road so you can potentially lose many years of fruit production without a male.

When you let the rootstock grow, be very careful that it doesn’t take over the tree. The rootstock sprouts seem to grow vigorously at the expense of the grafted portion of the tree.

Simon

52
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 16, 2024, 03:17:15 PM »
Thanks RevivalROOts,

I killed many Yangmei plants before I finally got it dialed in. How are your trees doing? I’m sure there’s other members with trees that are getting big now. Once you get them onto healthy rootstocks, they grow like weeds.

Simon

53
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Store bought Mexican mango seedling
« on: January 13, 2024, 07:45:33 PM »
I’m assuming you mean the greenish to reddish Mexican mangos, if so, those are Monoembryonic and the fruit will likely be different than the original fruit that you ate. They still make great rootstock and the fruit can still be similar to the parent because the farms typically grow the same varieties next to each other so the pollinating parent is probably the same variety so it would be what is termed “selfed” or pollinated by itself. Even if it was selfed, there will be a rearrangement of the genes so if the genetics was diverse, it will likely be different from the parent but if the genetics of the parents is not diverse, the fruit could be somewhat similar to the parent fruit.

Simon

54
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 12, 2024, 08:50:41 PM »
An Hai buds



White Honey



Big Black Carbon from Bills order



Wandao


Dongkui


Early Hard Hermaphrodite male blooms opening up






Simon

55
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 06, 2024, 03:43:52 PM »
I officially have tons of male blooms and pollen from my hermaphrodite tree. I shook the branches and can see a ton of pollen flying off the plant. My females a a bit behind but with my hermaphrodite plant being so big, there are a bunch of branches with buds that are in much earlier stages of maturity that should sync up with my female varieties.





Simon

56
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 06, 2024, 02:47:57 PM »
Hey Seng, that’s great info. From the previous group buys, the price goes down significantly if you purchase more trees. For bare root trees, I would recommend reading the through the previous group buy threads for information on how best to revive the trees and what to watch out for in regards to the potential of root knot nematodes.

Simon

57
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 05, 2024, 10:53:38 PM »
Nick C and K-Rimes, looking good on those seedlings! Once the seedlings get to about 5-6 inches tall, they start to grow very fast.

I have not tried ordering from chinaglobalmall but if they’re legit, it’s a bit of a hassle to get the permits and schedule the USDA inspections. Also, the bare root trees can be difficult to revive. Bill would probably be the most knowledgeable about legally importing trees from China and the price goes down when you order more trees.

Simon

58
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 03, 2024, 12:25:48 AM »
Welcome to the forum junglerv. Nate from wildlandplants.com should have some male scions soon. Perhaps he will have some female scions as well so you should inquire.

Check out his website at  https://www.wildlandsplants.com/

This forum occasionally has group buys to bring over trees from China. These trees are bare root, required by law, and are difficult to establish but is a much safer route than the illegally imported trees that come with soil and roots. There is a good chance that the plants with soil and roots are harboring nasty insects/ pests/ organisms that could potentially be devastating to your garden so please don’t consider these trees. If these trees are brought over, you could get a visit from the authorities.

Best thing to do is to purchase trees that are grafted onto rootstocks grown in the USA. These trees will be more expensive but the survival rate will be an order of magnitude higher than the legally imported bare root trees. I know people that purchased 20-30 of the bare root trees and every one of them died.

I know there are people that started grafting Yangmei onto USA grown rootstocks so hopefully the trees will show up for sale in the near future. For now, it would be a good idea to plant some rootstocks such as M Rubra, Cerifera, Californica and Pennsylvanica.

Simon

59
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 01, 2024, 09:15:55 AM »
Hey Seng, my grafted Dongkui bloomed last year but did not produce any male flowers, only female flowers. It is blooming again this year so I’ll check for male blooms once the buds open up. I probably will get fruit from some of my varieties but only because I have male blooms on my early hermaphrodite plant.


I believe Shane has a Biqi seedling that produced a few fruit (without a male plant/graft) after approximately 7-10 years, I don’t remember exactly but it’s a huge tree.

Simon

60
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: December 31, 2023, 03:09:59 PM »
Hey Seng, those varieties will eventually produce some male pollen and you will get some fruit eventually but if you want fruit sooner and you want more fruit, it’s best to have a plant that produces pollen wether it’s a male or hermaphrodite plant.

Fang from the CRFG has a Dongkui from the very first group buy and his Dongkui did not produce fruit for many years. If I remember correctly, his tree did not start producing until he grafted a male onto it.

The grafted trees can start producing blooms when they are very small so you can be losing many years of production if you don’t have a dedicated pollen producer.

Simon

61
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: December 29, 2023, 05:42:22 PM »
I also just found this bloom that looks very similar to my male Cerifera blooms. I’m guessing this is a male bloom because it definitely looks different than my female blooms from last year which had pistils.



Simon

62
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: December 29, 2023, 04:46:52 PM »
Here’s an update on my early Hermaphrodite blooms. They are just starting to open up the blooms and the blooms are opening from the bottom to the top. It’s still early but it appears these first buds that opened are “male” because I don’t see any stigma/pistils. My other female varieties are also blooming heavily.

Simon

63
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Harvest this week in San Diego County....
« on: December 26, 2023, 08:35:34 PM »
HoneyHart also tends to have a slight yellowish tinge in the flesh color.

Selma is another variety that looks different because it can have a pinkish red tinge to the flesh color near the skin.

Simon

64
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Harvest this week in San Diego County....
« on: December 25, 2023, 08:30:02 PM »
Nice looking fruit, I’m guessing it’s not Dr White because the protuberances are a little too elongated but Cherimoya phenotypes can be affected by the pollen if I remember correctly. Dr white is also usually much larger by this time of year but the smaller fruit next to the larger one is siphoning off some of the nutrients.

Simon

65
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango tree grown in California from a Florida mango tree’s seed
« on: December 23, 2023, 02:35:50 PM »
I would recommend that you plant your trees and just take care of them the best you can making sure you don’t over water. Parts of LA can have a lot more heat units than at my location and your Florida Turpentine rootstock trees can grow fine. Mango trees prefer good draining soil.

Your seedling trees should grow well until they naturally bloom. All your grafted trees will likely bloom in the first Winter and this can cause your grafted trees to become droopy. To prevent this you can remove the majority of each panicle to take some weight off. I would recommend removing fruit from your trees until they reach a good size. Good size means different things to each gardener but in general terms, you want to remove fruit until your tree is established and has nice strong scaffold branches capable of holding the weight of full sized mangos.

Simon

66
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango Pests, Diseases, and Nutritional Problems
« on: December 22, 2023, 07:31:16 PM »
Quote from: Staradventure on December 22, 2023, 04:15:03 PM
Good afternoon. Hope all is good. Was told I might be able to get a little help with a young mango I have. It’s a grafted plant I put in the ground around April this year. I immediately topped it to promote some scaffolding branches to grow. The pictures are the only growth it has put on since then. The original leaves are still present however they are slowly drying out. The leaves and lack of new growth arent a supper concern as much as the crazy growth pattern on top.  I haven’t had any real success in identifying the problem and was hoping for some help in that and what I can do to help the tree thrive instead of simply survive.




At a quick glance, it may look like Mango malformation disease but I see you are in San Diego and I’ve seen this on multiple occasions and it usually coincides with the colder weather. Your tree was probably preparing for a push of growth and fungus or the cold weather started disrupting the hormone signals in your tree. It could still be MMD but it’s difficult to know for sure without sending in samples into the lab for testing.

Either way, you have a grafted tree and your tree will attempt to bloom every winter from here on out unless you keep it warm in Winter. This is why I recommend people plant seedlings and push vegetative growth as much as possible in the early years and graft only once the tree is large enough to safely hold fruit.

Simon

67
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango Pests, Diseases, and Nutritional Problems
« on: December 22, 2023, 07:15:22 PM »
Quote from: Calusa on December 11, 2023, 08:58:19 AM
I have some scale and sooty mold on my Glen mango. Is neem oil suitable to kill the scale, or is there something more effective?

Neem oil will work but it will take many applications which will need to be re applied if it rains. The neem oil can also burn your plants if it’s hot and sunny. Try to rid your tree of ants. You can use tanglefoot to prevent ants from going up your tree and farming the scale.

Once you get rid of the scale. You can use something like Azera combined with a spreader/extender so that the organic insecticide will last longer in rainy conditions. You can also use horticultural oil to suffocate the scale.

Simon

68
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango Pests, Diseases, and Nutritional Problems
« on: December 22, 2023, 07:08:08 PM »
Quote from: love_Tropic on November 25, 2023, 07:00:52 PM
Any idea what’s going on with Kent seedling, it’s around 1 year old. One of the branches just died, so checking the root and found some thing like a white fungus covered over the roots… help please…
Will hydrogen peroxide work?




I’m not exactly sure what the white stuff is but it could be actinomycetes. Branches on younger mango trees can die back due to infection from open wounds that allow pathogens to enter. In marginal mango areas such as cooler parts of SoCal, branches frequently die back around winter.

The roots look relatively healthy to me. Since you exposed the roots, I would expect some transplant shock so be gentle with you tree by keeping it out of direct sunlight while it recovers.

Simon

69
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango tree grown in California from a Florida mango tree’s seed
« on: December 21, 2023, 08:00:55 PM »
I’ve grown plenty of trees from seeds from Florida grown mangos and the vigorous seedlings make excellent rootstocks. Also, the turpentine trees can grow fine especially if the vigorous varieties are grafted onto the turpentine rootstock.

The main issue with the Turpentine rootstock trees is that, in the past, some of the nurseries sent pot bound and J rooted trees. The other issue is that for shipping purposes, most nurseries prefer to ship smaller trees. The smaller the tree is, the more difficult it is to grow in colder climates such as California.

The cold induces blooms on our grafted trees and this significantly slows down the vegetative growth of our trees.

If you can find Turpentine seeds or seedlings that are not pot bound or J rooted, they make excellent rootstock.

For anyone growing mangos in colder/marginal climates, I highly recommend planting vigorous seedlings and don’t graft with mature scions until your tree reaches a large size.  Better yet, plant Polyembryonic varieties such as Sweet Tart or CAC and push them to grow as fast as possible in the first 2-3 years or longer before they naturally bloom. Once a seedling tree blooms, it’s Ok to top work it because it will likely bloom every winter from then on.

Aside from the California Super Mango Rootstock technique, I have another technique that has worked well for me.

I just plant a seedling, preferably from a Polyembryonic variety and grow it until it blooms. If it hasn’t reached the size I want, I top work it with scions from a younger seedling that hasn’t bloomed yet. This will conserve more of the trees energy by minimizing blooms. With this technique, I sometimes get blooms from below the graft union. The bloom basically comes out directly from the secondary or tertiary scaffold branches.

Simon

70
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 Tropical Fruit Forum Website Fundraiser
« on: December 15, 2023, 12:56:48 PM »
This is my favorite forum! Thanks for keeping this site running. Big thanks to all the admins and forum members that share their experiences and knowledge on this forum. Happy Holidays everyone!

Simon

71
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mangos in san diego
« on: December 12, 2023, 03:01:58 PM »
Brad, those mangos look great, please let us know which ones are your favorite. In a mango tasting of locally grown mangos this year, Sweet Tart and Venus were at the top of the list. Lemon Zest was not in the tasting however.

Simon

72
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mangos in san diego
« on: December 12, 2023, 02:59:15 PM »
Quote from: palmcity on December 09, 2023, 12:04:30 PM
Quote from: simon_grow on November 03, 2023, 05:32:43 PM

I have horrible Powdery Mildew at my place but my Pineapple Pleasure grows fine and fruits fine for me. Last year, I had a bumper crop so this year, I only got a few fruit. The fruit are large and taste excellent. To me, they taste like a giant PinaColada. The Pineapple Pleasure nubbins are smaller, more round and are sugar bombs.

Hey Brad, I’m glad your mangos are getting established and starting to produce. I remember how difficult it was for you to get them into the ground and to prop them Josh’s they were young. Now that they are established, they should fruit well for you. Our cold weather which is horrible for young trees because it induces early blooms is actually a benefit if your trees are large and established.

Simon
Just curious Simon,
Which month do you prefer your blooms to set & hold fruit till maturity in San Diego area?

Asking out of curiosity as it sounds like your fruit are just now approaching the ripe stage.

Just as an experiment, I have one Keitt left hanging on a tree now in S. Fl and I will let it stay till it falls off or is eaten. At least in S. Fl. for this green mango it ripens very slowly once the temperature drops near 70 and less hours of sunlight occur late in fall. I assume it is the same in California presently. I believe my keitt bloomed and set fruit in March and could be picked Aug.. for primary crop or left to hang if willing to eliminate predators. 

I was surprised that Glen in California was still not ripe for the other poster on this thread as it is not a green skinned mango at maturity. Glen if set fruit in late Feb. to early March are usually ripe in S.Fl. in early June.

Hey Palmcity,

It depends on the weather for any given year. The early blooms which usually begin in November/December, if set, give some of the best fruit because they will ripen earlier and get more heat close to harvest time but these early blooms in Winter are usually infected with Powdery Mildew and do not set fruit.

The early and mid blooms at my location usually don’t set fruit because of the high bioburden, especially PM. I get the best fruit set when the weather is warmer so the late blooms usually give me the most fruit but these late blooms usually ripen in December and the Brix is sometimes lower.

I get blooms as late as June in some years.

Simon

73
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Prune my 12’ tall Manila to manageable size
« on: November 21, 2023, 11:06:49 AM »
If the scaffold branches are low enough, I would keep the scaffolds and top work them. If you need to bring down the height of the tree, I would stump the tree and bark graft in Spring. If the bark grafts fail, then I would let a few selected water sprouts grow out and graft them.

By bark grafting immediately, you could save several months of waiting for the water sprouts to form and grow thick enough to graft over. If you do wait for the water sprouts to grow out, I would recommend bud grafting the sprouts as opposed to Z, cleft or other types of grafts. The bud grafts are easy, give you a better union, you use less scion material and you can orient the bud wherever you want your future branches to grow.

I’ve top worked many large mango trees in SoCal and I’ve learned that it’s best to keep as much of the scaffold branches as possible, as long as the branches are low enough and are in healthy condition.

If you do attempt to bark graft in Spring, make sure you add a wick to drain the excess moisture and make sure you cut back on watering if you head back or hat rack the top of the tree. Drowning of grafts was my biggest challenge when I first started top working larger mango trees.

Simon

74
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Starting a farm in Southern California
« on: November 21, 2023, 10:47:04 AM »
Janet, this is an awesome project your family is working on. Seems like you did a lot of research on how best to collect and recover water so that’s excellent planning on your part. Careful planning, in regard to what type of fruit tree to plant where will also be critical. Please keep posting updates on your awesome farm project!

Simon

75
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: November 18, 2023, 04:27:03 PM »
These buds may be blooms as well.




Instead of individual buds, these buds look more like a cluster or rosette of buds.

Simon

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