The Tropical Fruit Forum

Thanks for the replies everyone! I have the most immediate access to the Organocide so I'll try that first, but under what category should I follow for the soil drench? Most of the rates are listed for foliar sprays.

Link to the info sheet: http://www.yourplantdoctor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Plant_Doctor_Pint_Concentrate_Labels.pdf

I water it about once a week, but we did have some heavy rains a few weeks ago. Soil generally dries out between waterings.

Some fruit that we picked recently, we let them hang out a little longer on the tree this year. The one I'm holding in my hand was the biggest one we've ever had and it weighed in a little over a pound:

Hey everyone, thought I'd share some pictures of a few interesting looking leaves that my smaller Jackfruit tree has produced!




And here's an update picture of my bigger Jackfruit!



Happy growing!

Simon - A viral disease is something I'm hoping it isn't either I was asking about the sprays because Dyna Gro has micronutrients in it as well, though in lesser amounts than the Southern Ag. I also had a question re: the Vigoro pellets. You mentioned to cut the recommended amount by 1/3-1/4 per month and I assume to follow the amounts listed for "other tropicals" rather than citrus/avocado?

Something I've noticed is that the newest growth (i.e the leaves that have shed their sheaths) haven't changed at all in size or appearance. Also, there have been a few times in the past where the tree seems to go dormant and not put out any growth at all and some of the leaves did turn orange and fall off, though I don't believe they are similar in appearance to this particular case. Worth noting that one of the times this happened was in the late summer, I believe. I'll have to dig around and see if I can find some pictures from back then.

Do you think it'd be worth it to send out leaf samples to labs at this point or am I just overreacting?

Thanks for all the help again!

Har-I haven't seen any evidence of mites or thrips, although mites have been an issue in the past (especially with my tomatos). I'll take a closer look tomorrow.

Fertilizer, mulch, and nutrient spray have all been applied at this point. Daytime highs continue to hover around 100 here in the SGVt, which probably isn't helping things. I've posted some update pictures as well as a picture of another jackfruit seedling that I sprouted that has a leaf showing discoloration+spots, though I'm not sure if the two cases are similar in nature:

Jackfruit Update Pics (All of the leaf pictures depict different individual leaves, I just wanted to show different "stages" if you will of how they're turning orange):







Other seedling leaf:

Simon - Is this an acceptable choice for mulch? http://www.homedepot.com/p/Earthgro-2-cu-ft-Groundcover-Bark-88352185/100355687

Jeff - Thanks for the info re: soil tests! Definitely worth the investment and I will be using them from now on

Most of the easy home soil test kits for pH and N-P-K are highly unreliable. N, P and K are mobile and usually appear first on older leaves. With Nitrogen deficiency, the older leaves are noticeably yellow and occur on the entire leaf in general, not just between the veins.

Older leaves that are shaded often turn yellow and are very similar to N deficiency symptoms so you have to look for other indicators such as patterns of yellowing and leaves falling off.

You mentioned that previously, when your tree was in a pot, you gave it N,P,K fertilizer and when you transplanted it, you mixed in Foxfarm and MG garden soil, both of which have NPK and Foxfarm also has lots of micronutrients. Because your tree was transplanted about two months ago, it's roots have not established yet but your trees roots will have access to the mobile nutrients in the soil when you water.

You can Foliar feed along with ground applications of fertilizer. You need to put your tree on a good fertilizer schedule. Palm tree food is good for Jackfruit here in SoCal but it may be difficult to find it in slow release form. It may be easier to use Vigro fruit tree slow release pellets from Home Depot as your slow release and then you can Foliar feed with the citrus nutritional spray about every two weeks.

You can use a conductivity meter, I have a Blue lab model, to test your liquid fertilizers drenches but this is for advanced gardening and gets really technical.

Simon

Thanks for the info, Simon! Regarding the slow release food, is the Vigoro product you recomended the spikes one like this: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-Fruit-Nut-and-Citrus-Fertilizer-Spikes-15-Count-154306/203111123

I have used Osmocote Plus slow release pellets before, would these work as well? It's this one: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Osmocote-Smart-Release-2-lb-Plant-Food-Plus-Outdoor-and-Indoor-274250/204687687

16-4-8 Vigoro and 15-9-12 Osmocote

In regards to the foliar feeding - I did test it very early in the morning yesterday on two leaves, but they don't seem to have responded well. I diluted it by half the recommended amount just for testing purposes. I've attached some pictures for reference, only the one circled in red was sprayed. I forgot to snap an after picture of the 2nd leaf, I'll have that tomorrow.

Before:



After:


Also, any thoughts on the watering schedule - especially in this heat wave?

Big thanks for the help!

Sorry for the late replies everyone! Just one quick update before I get to the replies. A friend allowed me to use one of their Luster Leaf Rapitest kits. Working on the NPK ones at the moment, but the pH seems to indicate in the neutral range, +/- 0.1 I would say from 7.0. Obviously not 100% accurate, but at least gives me an idea I suppose.

Har - The evidence does seem to point to a micronutrient issue. Hopefully the foliar spray that Simon suggested will help.

Thera - As the leaves have gotten older, they've always gradually turned dark green since the very beginning so I just assumed that was the norm.

Greenman - Definitely did lose a few smaller roots during transplant, but it didn't show any signs of shock after transplant; quite the opposite actually, it seemed to be responding rather well to its new home up until very recently. I do need to look into a mulch with the summer heat, no doubt. A small fraction of native soil was mixed in but it was mostly new.

Rob - You are absolutely right in that I have babied it throughout its near 2 year lifespan , but I kinda figured I'd have to because I didn't think it would be able to grow out here in SoCal, at least not in an area right next to the coast. About 27-28 miles out from the coast here in the San Gabriel Valley and more than 120 miles north of San Diego, I believe. Do you think it'd be fine to water deeply everyday assuming daytime temps are in the 90s and dry? I do agree I need to up the amount of sunlight it gets, but I want to make sure I've got any nutritional deficiencies covered as well.

Andre - Thanks for the input and agreed!

I'm a bit confused about your description and your pictures. You mention your younger leaves are showing yellowing symptoms but your picture shows some older, fully hardened growth that are dead. It is really important to know wether it is the newer growth or older growth tha at is affected because I'm trying to determine if it's a mobile nutrient or not.

Interveinal chlorosis on older leaves indicate Magnesium deficiency, sometimes you will see some purple on the leaves but not always.

Nitrogen is also mobile so you will see it occur on older leaves first and younger leaves will still be green but your symptoms don't appear to be Nitrogen or at least not Only Nitrogen because Nitrogen deficiencies usually show as uniform across the leaf and veins whereas Potassium deficiency is usually between the veins and on leaf edges.

Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorus, Nickel, and Magnesium are considered mobile and symptoms usually appear first on older leaves.

Iron, Calcium, Sulphur, Boron, Copper, Manganese and Zinc are considered immobile and typically show symptoms in younger leaves first.

Yellowing of younger leaves can be Iron or Calcium deficiency or virus, toxicity or incorrect soil or water pH causing nutrient lock.

See this useful guide. http://hortipm.tamu.edu/ipmguide/nutrient/diagnosi.html

So is it your older leaves or younger leaves affected or both?

Based on what I see, it appears to be Magnesium but I'm only guessing because I need more info such as your soil pH, water pH, hardness of your water and how you fertilize. Often viruses or incorrect pH can mimic nutrient deficiencies.

Simon

Hey Simon,

Thanks for the response! From what I can tell, it's the older leaves that have turned orange and started dropping, but they didn't have that sort of yellowish coloration that the newer growth has if that makes sense. The new growth isn't turning orange or dropping off, it just has the yellow coloration. I'm not at home at the moment so I couldn't tell you  the specifics you requested, but I'll try to get some of that information when I do get home. In terms of fertilizer, I haven't fertilized since it was transplanted about 2 months ago because some of the soil mixed in at planting had slow-release fertilizer in it already (Miracle Gro all purpose garden soil) and I was worried about the risk of burning. The fertilizer I used for it when it was in a pot was Dyna Gro Liquid Plant Food 7-9-5.

Hey everyone! Hope those of you in the SoCal area were able to protect your plants from the recent heat wave. That was brutal I've been watering my jackfruit more often because of it and the summer heat in general, but I noticed today that the soil line had dropped a bit since I first transplanted it. Some of the roots are starting to show as you can see in the picture below (the reddish part of the trunk is the exposed part). I know the general advice is not to cover the roots up with more soil because you might suffocate them, but mulch should be fine right? What kind of mulch would be best suited for this or does it not matter?

Thanks a bunch!

It grows very fast...when do you think it will flower?

I'm not sure, but probably still a while away. Still cool to see how far its come though!

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've posted here and I've actually been wanting to get around to making this post, but I've been pretty busy lately. First off, wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has replied to all of my posts in the past where I've asked for help Really appreciated the advice and tried to implement them as best I could! As far as this post goes, I don't have any questions or concerns, I just wanted to share a little album I put together chronicling my jackfruit tree's development.

A little background - I planted it from a seed that I thought had sprouted a root while inside the pulp of a "Mexican" jackfruit that I bought from the supermarket. I'm actually not sure the specific variety ("Mexican" is what the labeling said), but it did taste good! I stuck the seed in a small plastic container and it sprouted in about 2 weeks in mid-September of 2014. It is now (as of this original post) mid-June of 2016 and a month ago, I successfully transplanted it into the ground here in the San Gabriel Valley of Southern California. When I went to measure it last week, it was about 65-66 inches tall, so roughly 5 feet, 5 inches. It seems to be adapting to its new home nicely - it's grown about 4-5 inches and plenty of new leaves since the day of the transplant.

Here's the link to the entire album: http://imgur.com/a/LCazs

Here's the earliest picture from that album (December 2014):


And the most recent (June 2016):


I'd be more than happy to answer any questions about it Once again, thanks everyone!

Thanks for that wealth of information goosteen! The wind issue is something that has been nagging at me for a while, and I'm quite glad that I had my potted plants indoors during the most recent windstormy event!