The Tropical Fruit Forum

And here’s what the inside looks like when you crack one in half

Here’s the latest update on my male tree. The male tree started showing obviously differentiated bloom buds around November of last year per my reply # 674 on page 27 of this thread. Male buds started opening on 12/29/2023 per my reply # 686 on page 28 of this thread. Today, there are only a few male blooms remaining and all female buds are transitioning to vegetative growth. There are probably only about 10-20 small male blooms left on the male tree and they will likely release all their pollen within 1 week. This means that for this specific male I have, the bloom period at my location is approximately 4 months long with February and March as the main bloom/pollinating months.

Here’s a picture of a few of the remaining scraggly male blooms





If everyone can track their location, variety and bloom times, we can build a database that can help us decide which varieties to pair up with each other. The data will also be important for commercial farmers that may want to extend the fruiting season by planting early and late season varieties and also getting earlier or later crops based on location/climate.

Simon

Up potted my seedling plant. Currently flushing new growth

Nick, your seedling looks very healthy, will you be putting it into the ground eventually?

Thanks Ben, yes I’m definitely super stoked!

Jeramy, I’d agree it’s probably time to put that male on there. If you graft it soon, hopefully it will produce pollen for you next year.

Simon

A lot of the fruit are now marble size and I have not noticed any natural fruit drop yet. I was afraid to thin too much fruit but since it appears the trees are going to be holding most its fruit, I will have to do a heavy thinning this weekend. Check out how heavy the fruit set is.







Simon

Some of my Yangmei grafts on Californica had yellow leaves during the coldest part of Winter and they started turning green as the weather warmed.

Simon

Simon, that does look like a very high quality machine for the price.  It is $200-$300 cheaper than their old four roller, 800 watt model.  I might need to get one. 

Let me know how easy the wheels are to put on it.  I was thinking I could build or buy a cart to put it on.  That way I could roll it out from the garage when I need it.

Thanks,
Bill

Hey Bill,

I took my sugarcane juicer to work and decided that a cart would be a better option than putting wheels on the juicer. If I add wheels to the juicer, it will be too low to the ground and I would have to stoop down to juice.

After juicing a lot of sugarcane for a party, the strainer that comes with this machine is insufficient. You have to dump it frequently and even then, some fibers get through. My simple solution is to filter it a second time through cheese cloth and the juice came out super clean.

This machine is a beast and it was able to crunch through large canes without stalling. It is extremely heavy and although I was able to lift it by myself, I would highly recommend that two people lift it. If the company made a better filter, I would give it 5 out of 5 stars but for now, it gets 4.5 out of 5.

Simon

My young yangmei tree leaves are browning slowly one by one, and fell off, not many leaves left. Does anyone know what I can do to help?

Do you have a picture of your tree? Please give us some background. What rootstock is it on? Did you graft it? Is it imported from China?

Simon

Lets see the progress of everybody's yangmei

Here’s a couple pics of my Yangmei jungle.






Thanks Fruitfool, pinkturtle and ScottR! It would be awesome to get some homegrown fruit this year.

I also planted seeds from my Weee order last Summer and some seeds are just starting to sprout. I just ignored them like everyone else and they sprouted on their own.

Simon

Hey Brad, I’m glad I spoke with you before getting my new juicer. I think if I got the 400 watt model, I would have buyers remorse by now. I tested out my new juicer yesterday and I ran my thickest cane through it without cutting it in half and it easily pressed without stalling. My unit does not come with wheels so I might add some giant wheels from Harbor freight.

This unit was extremely easy to clean since the juicing chamber is completely sealed off. I just spray the top opening with a hose and lift the viewing window and spray everything out. This machine is a beast!

Simon

The fruit cracking can be caused by multiple reasons. In California, we often get cold weather which can lead to incomplete pollination. The resulting nubbin fruit often don’t have a fully formed seed and these thin seeded fruit crack at a significantly higher rate than fully pollinated fruit. You want pollination to occur during warmer weather. Often times, our trees will bloom multiple times throughout the year and at least one of the pollination events will occur during periods of warm weather.

The fruit cracking can also be caused by over watering and fertilizing at the wrong time of year. Try not to excessively water while your tree is holding fruit and avoid over fertilizing during heat waves. Fertilizers are pulled into the plant and changes the osmolarity of the fruit. If the osmolarity of the fruit becomes high due to fertilization and then the gardener waters heavily because of hot weather, the water will then be pulled into the fruit very quickly, causing the fruit to crack.

You can also try giving your tree some calcium in the form of gypsum. Frequent diluted feedings with kelp emulsion which contains auxins and cytokines can also increase Brix, fruit retention and size of your fruit. Yeast extract combined with kelp is also very good for mangos.

I’m not sure what the dark spots on your blooms are, I don’t like to give IDs without taxonomic identification using DNA but it doesn’t look bad. If you have fungal problems, it’s best to spray with Sulfur pre bloom and then again right before the blooms open. It’s also best to alternate what you spray. You can use an organic bio fungicide and then switch to organic copper and then back to Sulfur but your blooms don’t look like they need all that attention.

Simon

Hey Phillip,

Looking good so far. I’ve been meaning to make some more of these trees but work has been too busy. Please keep us updated on your progress with this tree!

Simon

If you’re in an area with Phytopthora, you should plant specific seedlings or clonal rootstocks that may have better resistance to Phytopthora.

Simon

I have a grafted tree with two varieties on it and one of them is yellowing out super hard while the other isnt.

Hey Nate,

Did you check the graft union on both varieties? I’ve had this happen to some of my trees where I rushed my grafting and the union was kinda sloppy. I believe there was a bottleneck effect with the transport of nutrients due to incomplete union formation that caused the slower growth and yellow leaves on my tree.

Simon