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Messages - treefrog

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1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: FL frosts and freezes 2017
« on: January 07, 2017, 09:29:53 PM »
26 forecast for tonight.  all buttoned up and the heat is on.

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Cold hardy mangoes
« on: January 05, 2017, 09:31:34 PM »
when i was growing up in winter haven in the '50s and early '60s, there was a mature mango tree near the intersection of 4th st. and avenue a s.e. i remember it dropped fruit into the street and was a nuisance to kids riding bicycles west on avenue a.  it had been there for years.  for all i know, it still is.  it was near the top of a hill, and had good cold air drainage.
i still remember hitting a mango with my bicycle tire and busting my a$$.

3
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Are you enjoying mangos from your freezer?
« on: December 31, 2016, 08:43:44 PM »
to get frozen mango out of the plastic freezer bags, instead of the microwave i rinse the bag under the hot water tap in the kitchen sink for twenty or thirty seconds.

4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango flowers before xmas?!
« on: December 16, 2016, 12:50:39 PM »
blossoms all over my maha chanok (spelling may vary).  others pushing buds, some too early to see if they are blossoms or vegetative

5
zands,  one hole or multiple?  depends on the size of the stump.  drill them nice and deep, that helps with the washing-out.  also, there's no rule you can
t re-fill the holes.  another cupfull of ammonium nitrate's pretty cheap.  around here it comes in fifty pound bags.  about eight bucks last time i bought any, but that was a while ago.  it might be ten bucks by now.   like i said, waaaaay cheaper than a grinder.  probably cheaper than the gas to run a grinder.

6
rabbit works well in almost any recipe for chicken.

7
I've been trying the approach to rotting stumps -- I assume that would work better for folks like you in more tropical locations?  I rented an auger from the tool lending library and drilled fairly big holes in a stump, and then filled it with cheap high N lawn fertilizer.  The problem is that we don't get enough rain to keep the stump soaked, and when it rains it's not warm so I haven't seen much decomposition.  But I figure it'd work for you.

it depends on how much of a hurry you are in.  i use a one inch paddle bit drill and ammonium nitrate fertilizer from the feed store.  two or three  months later, no stump!  lots of decomposed wood and bark breaks down into humus.  also the roots decompose.  a little "rid - x" septic tank activator speeds things up.  i sprinkle a little on with the ammonium nitrate.

waaaay cheaper (and quieter) than a stump grinder.

8
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango Fertilizing During Fruiting
« on: May 29, 2016, 08:47:51 PM »
Thank you Har and everyone for the input.

I have some triple phosphate to use for the 0-0-16, and a magnesium soil additive and a calcium soil additive (these are all solids) which would cover the macros.

Where do people get micronutrients? Searches on google and amazon seem to have only liquid products for hydroponics or are from India and I'd rather get something local (south Florida). Also preferably online because I do not live near any town or even stores like Home Depot, etc.

Thank you,
Erica

most micronutrients are easy to find.
calcium and magnesium?  dolomite lime is a mix of about 50% calcium carbonate and 40% magnesium carbonate, the rest being other minerals.  likewise seashells, though proportions may vary.
boron?  a pinch of borax
manganese?  alkaline batteries are manganese dioxide and carbon crunch up a "c" cell and you'll have more than you need.
iron?  zinc?  drop some galvanized nails in a liter of club soda, screw the top back on tight, and overnight, you have a solution of ferrous carbonate and zinc carbonate
copper?  most garden stores sell copper sulfate.
organic micronutrients?  everything that has leached out of the land for the last brazillion years is in the sea.  after a storm, go to the beach and pick up a few bushels of seaweed, bring it back, rinse it well to get rid of surface salt, and put it in your compost pile - or use it for mulch.
more sulfur and magnesium?  epsom salt is magnesium sulfate

9
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango Fertilizing During Fruiting
« on: May 29, 2016, 01:49:36 PM »
potassium sulfate (available at the feed store) will give you potash to support fruiting and sulfur to bring the ph down a little.  as always, light applications more often are better than large doses on a one-shot basis.

10
for nests away from valuable plants:

wait for sunset, when all the little buggers are home for the night.  pour 1/2 cup regular unleaded gasoline slowly into the nest opening.  cover the opening with an inverted bucket.

that's it.

gasoline vapors are heavier than air.  as the gasoline evaporates, it will flow down into the tunnels, displacing the air, suffocating the ants.  even the queens.  expect to have a "dead zone" of soil about a yard in diameter for a couple months.

11
"...wife agrees to let you..."
i used to have a wife, but i had to shoot her.  we were out on the desert and she broke a leg.  miles from the nearest vet.

now i do as i like, and don't need anyone's permission.  life is good




having a greenhouse is even better.

12
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Bamboo leaves as mulch?
« on: May 20, 2016, 03:27:19 PM »
bamboo is botanically classified as a grass.  i would bet its mulching and composting qualities would be very similar to grass clippings, allowing for the difference in particle size.

13
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Will these mango seeds sprout
« on: May 19, 2016, 03:25:09 PM »
those look like  mexican ataulfo, often marketed here as "honey mango."  if so, they are polyembryonic, and likely to breed true from seed. 
if you plant the seeds, you will likely get more than one sprout per each.  i have always heard that the smallest sprout is toe one most likely to be a clone of the parent tree.  snip off all the others.
good luck.

edit:  i went back and did some reading.  opinion is by no means unanimous about whether it's the biggest or the smallest that's a clone of the parent tree.
good luck

14
living paradise,

you have mail.

15
pineapples - like all flowering plants - only set viable seed if the flowers are pollinated.  in nature, pineapples are usually pollinated by hummingbirds.  some areas (hawaii) have no hummingbirds, and pineapples there are seedless.   pineapples are often self-sterile, and flowers pollinated by their own pollen will develop nonviable seed or, more often, no seed at all.
if your pineapple has seeds, it was raised where there are hummingbirds or (rarely), other pollinating vectors. 
hope this helps.

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Costa Rica farm for sale . . .
« on: May 16, 2016, 10:59:55 PM »
beautiful!  if i were twenty years younger, i would be very interested.   but then, twenty years ago, $180k would have been out of my reach.

17
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Opinions on a custom soil blend
« on: May 07, 2016, 12:27:10 AM »
a nearby garden center sells a blend of 50% decomposed pine bark.  16% decomposed hardwood, 16% mushroom compost, and 16% composted poultry litter - all screened for 3/8" particle size down to dust.  (i know it only adds up to 98% - but the guy's a gardener, not a math prof.)  i get great results with it for all kinds of uses.  it costs me $35 a yard, and i have to haul it about 20 miles.  i just got another yard today.



18
Tropical Fruit Discussion / lemon zest mango? maybe?
« on: May 06, 2016, 10:29:19 PM »
i just had a mango from whole foods that i think may have been a lemon zest  it was light yellow with an undertint of green.  black freckles like coarse ground black pepper.  plump sigmoid in shape, perhaps twelve ounces
the first taste tone was a pronounced "lemon."  not the lemon of a fresh lemon, but the lemon of a lemon flavored hard candy.  sweet and pleasant flesh, almost totally fiber-free except right next the the seed.
there was a label with the words:

ORGANIC
Francique
Haiti
followed by the number:
694314

a very nice mango.  sorry, no pic, i ate it.

does this sound like a haitian - raised lemon zest?

EDIT:
i just found the answer.  i googled mango francique haiti  and found that francique is a variety unique to haiti.  it's a very good (not quite great) mango, worth the two bucks each that they cost.  the article i read said that whole foods usually only had them for a short time each year.  they're there now if you want to try one.


19
durianlover,
coffee grounds by the bucket all by themselves, you're probably right, but as part of "all of the above,"   ...if your other inputs include some  limy components like egg  shell, crabshell, etc, they all balance out and  ends up buffering each other.  the more components,the more diverse, the better.

20
dubai's a port.   that means there's some shoreline somewhere near.  gotta be seaweed, some driftwood or other flotsam.  pick out the plastic bits, wash off the surface salt, and bury the rest in trenches or pits and plant around them.  bucky fuller used to say "pollution" is just a word for resources nobody's found a way to harness.  is there a starbucks?  other coffee shops?  coffea arabica is the hometown crop.  there's  gotta be a lot of coffee grounds.  cut a deal with whoever cleans up at starbucks etc.  a couple bucks (a couple dirham?) for a five gallon bucket of grounds.  if it comes with paper filters, that's o.k.  paper filters break down into humus too.  i'll bet there are barber shops in dubai.  human hair is high in protein and  slowly breaks down  into nitrates.  adds texture to the soil too - think coir with nitrates.  cut a deal with whoever sweeps up at the barber shop.  check to see what people are throwing away.  dryer lint?  how much dryer lint does a big laundry operation generate per day?  i bet their clean up foreman would love to pocket a few bucks for a couple garbage bags full.  a trench full of dryer lint would act like a giant sponge, and slowly break down into a strip of improved soil.

21
i would suggest "all of the above."  manure, wood chips, coir, peat moss, and anything else that's available and cheap.  free is better.  anything that once lived will live again.  seaweed with the surface salt washed off, agricultural or food processing wastes (fruit peels, egg shells, coffee grounds, vegetable peelings, crab and shrimp shells, nut shells - including peanut, etc)  if you can, run it through a compost pile.  if that's not convenient, spread it on the soil and till it in.  top dress with something cosmetic like bark mulch if appearance is a consideration.
more is better within reason.  adding more from time to time is better yet.

22
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: pineapple propagation
« on: May 04, 2016, 11:55:29 PM »
interesting question about in-ground plants.  digging them up would be necessary.  this would unavoidably stress the plant

...however, this whole exercise is presumably to stress the plant and kick it into reproductive behavior "survival mode" as a response to stress.   i don't have a lot of in-ground pineapples.  (zone 8b with finite greenhouse space).  if someone else tries it,please let us know what happens.

23
Tropical Fruit Discussion / pineapple propagation
« on: May 04, 2016, 12:36:16 PM »
i'm trying a trick on one of the white jades i got from adam a year and a half ago.

 i have heard it is possible to trigger a blossom by laying a plant on its side for a week or so.
a while back, i had a potted pineapple plant (kona sugarloaf) fall over on its side and get neglected for a couple months.   in this case, it did not bring on a blossom, but rather a frenzy of offsets.  the mother plant put out fourteen suckers, many of which have now fruited.

today, i picked out one of the potted flying fox white jades and laid it over on its side.  it's pretty well grown, maybe a little small for fruiting size.  i'm just going to leave it on its side for a while and see what happens.  perhaps, it will trigger a blossom.  perhaps it will trigger a reproductive frenzy.  either one of those i'd like.


24
possibly salt injury.  not necessarily sodium chloride type salt, but potassium chloride.  check your fertilizer to see if it uses "muriate of potash" to supply potassium.  muriate of potash is another name for potassium chloride.  mangos don't like chloride.  see if you can find a fert with putassium sulfate instead.  mangos like supfur.

25
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Weed abatement
« on: April 28, 2016, 06:58:44 PM »
i've had good results with a "hula hoe."  they come in several brands and with several names.  basically it is a stirrup-shaped blade on a handle.  it cuts the weeds at or a little below ground level.  it can be used to cut under the mulch at ground level.  you may need to rake the mulch back smooth.

https://www.google.com/search?q=hula+hoe&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwit952atrLMAhWEVD4KHXJwBY8Q_AUICCgC&biw=1467&bih=655

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