The Tropical Fruit Forum

Seriously weird year so far, not a single one of my mangos: coco cream, lemon zest, seedling ivory, ice cream, Maha chanok, NDM, sweet tart have bloomed yet but my sweet heart lychee has, nuts right?!?

-Joep450

Hey can either of you guys post pics of the leaves of your suspected Emperor Lychees (mature and newly flushed)? Would appreciate it. I recently planted out a 4ft seedling lychee that was growing in a pot at my mothers. I suspect it is an emperor because the original fruit was very large with a large seed, fruit was given to us by a Cambodian friend living in Bradenton FL. The leaves look slightly different that my sweetheart lychee.

-JoeP450

https://twitter.com/jonerlichman/status/935669547650002944


-Joep450

Hey Forum,

Anyone in FL actually growing and fruiting this? See there are a few places to purchase this but have never seen any growers talking about or pics of locally grown fruit. I’m almost considering growing just as the leaves are super unique and pretty to me as another tree in my yard.

-Joep450

Trying to bide my time till mango season🙈

-joep450

SimonGrow,

That assessment is a spot on description of Lemon Zest.

-joep450

This tree is only about 4 feet tall, the split is an inch or two above the graft.

That tree looks really rough, sorry. Probably better off buying a new one, or maybe make a clean cut right below the break but above the graft line and remove the top portion maybe it will send out a new shoot.

-joep450

Hey Forum,

Hope everyone affected is ok with minimal damage. Wanted to start this thread and so we can compile enough reports to get an overall idea of how well certain tropical fruit trees hold up against hurricanes. Please be specific on what measures you took to protect your trees and post pictures with how they fared. After surveying my yard it seems certain trees were harmed more due to their location on my lawn but also based on the type type of tree.

Pervuvian apple cactus: pushed over and will need to be straightened and staked, also in same pic oro negro 🥑 just chilling and not affected, maybe partially due to near house privacy wall and also zip tied to an electrical conduit pipe hammered into ground about 3 ft for support. Lisa atemoya: battered badly, was zip tied to electrical conduit stake and zip tie broke. Seedling ivory mango: no precautions were taken too the storm like a champ, leggy branches are bent but not broken. Naha chanok: no precautions and tree is bent over and will need to be stakeked.  Seedling sugar Apple: beaten to a pulp, no precautions were taken, hope this guy survives.  Coco cream: gave it a heavy pruning, some branches are broken but overall it fared way better this year vs Irma than it did last year vs Matthew. Cereus bar monstrose: limb was broken off, also not pictured multiple limbs of various dragon fruits blown off. Sweet heart lychee: this tree was most exposed and took the storm like an absolute champ, no precautions were taken. Not pictured are my citrus (tangelo, grapefruit, lemon) all handled the storm well.

In summary for me at least I would rank lychee, citrus, avocado, mango, cactus, Anona in terms of hurricane resistance.

















-joep450

Last year during Matthew my coconut cream was badly ripped up, so I cut it down to a ft length on either side of the fork. Something about its long vigorous spindly growth habit that it caught the wind really good vs other mango trees in my yard. After the cut it literally looked like a stick. It has grown back quick this year and going into Irma I decided to level off the higher branches and then thin out the remaining canopy. Maybe it will fare better this year.



-joep450

DF- dragon fruit, zamorano actually.

-joep450

Sounds brutal, just an idea but would it make sense to have drought tolerant shade trees on one side of fruit trees to protect your trees during heatwave/drought?

-joep450

Last night my wife and I started watching Ozark on Netflix and just couldn't stop, next thing we knew it's was 2:30am and like wtf it's way past time for bed. Go to walk the dog and noticed my DF were flowering so of course my wife n I are out almost 3 am taking nighttime photos and trying to hand pollinate.


...my neighbors think I'm nuts.








-joep450