The Tropical Fruit Forum

Can we treat Annona Reticulata the same as Squamosa and Atemoya by pruning branches by 1/3 to 1/2 and stripping leaves to encourage new branching?
Or should Reticulata be managed differently?

Thanks!

We're new to dragon fruit growing and see so many people keep them in pots. Is it not good to just put them in the ground? We would be growing in zone 10a SE Florida.

Hey guys,
We are building a new home on a standard residential lot (80x125) and looking for some help on placing our tropical fruit trees on the new property.
Location is SE Florida zone 10a. House faces NE. Not opposed to planting in the front yard as well. Which of these will tolerate shade and/or dappled light?
Which (if any) can tolerate that winter wind from the north/northwest?
Planning out a food forest design is not easy..

Current collection of trees:
Several Mango trees
Avocados
Sugar apples
Atemoyas
Ilama
Soursops
Rollinia
San Pablo custard apple
Florida Peach
Loquats
Bananas
Jaboticabas
Moringa
Pomegranate
Ice Cream Bean
Tamarind
Abiu
Papaya
Blueberry
Apache blackberry
Achacha
Lemon drop garcinia
Luc's garcinia
Guinep
Santol
Cambuca
White sapote
Mulberries

 

What color should healthy roots be on mango trees? Pretty much all the ones I've seen are brown or reddish brown, compared to roots of citrus or other plants that are white, off-white or yellowish in color. Is this normal for mango tree roots to be brown or dark in color?
Thanks!

We’ve been using Espoma soil acidifier every 2 months as the label instructs on our potted mango trees. Anybody have a better or more efficient way of keeping container soil acidic? We’re forced to hand water with the hose during dry periods as we live in HOA and use a Boogie Blue Plus filter to help with chlorine & chloramines but we all know city water ph is alkaline.

I know people suggest adding peat or pine needles or using acid fertilizer like holly tone or down to earth acid lover fertilizer but it seems no matter what we add to the potting mix, if we continue to use alkaline water to irrigate I don’t think the ph will ever reach optimal range in our containers.
Therefore I am thinking we need to focus on adjusting the water ph.
Some of you mentioned using rain water exclusively which is a great idea, but we have no way to collect and store that much rain water.
I have now begun to investigate reverse osmosis systems. The other option is possibly adding some (soil biology -safe) acid to the hose water either through injection or mixing in a large vessel and water the plants that way.

My first thought was citric acid like lemon juice, but some articles state citric acid will kill soil microbes. No good.

Even then, adding acid to the hose water may fix ph but we still have the ppm or tds factor..

On another note, we have calibration solutions being delivered tomorrow to check the accuracy of our ph meter.

Any insight or suggestions? Squam, Guanabanas, Cookie?

Been using Espoma soil acidifier every 2 months as the label instructs on our potted mango trees. Anybody have a better or more efficient way of keeping container soil acidic? We’re forced to hand water with the hose during dry periods as we live in HOA and use a Boogie Blue Plus filter to help with chlorine & chloramines but we all know city water ph is alkaline.
Comments, suggestions are appreciated.

Hey guys,
So we've been using Osmocote Plus for a while now on our container grown mango and other tropical fruits. I noticed there is no mention of it containing calcium, which I know is important. What's the best way to supplement calcium when fertilizing with Osmocote Plus?
Would something like Espoma garden gypsum work?
@ BSbullie, Cookie Monster, Guanabanas, Mark in Texas

Hi guys,
We have a Winter Mexican variety we purchased in a 3gal container back in late December 2018. Haven’t done anything to it really besides potting up. It’s currently residing in a 30-40gal air pruning pot and growing like crazy. The problem is, we’ve let some of the branches get out of control and it has a strange growing habit. As you can see from the pics it’s lopsided. Much stronger growth on one side of the tree. It has two branches down really low and one of them clearly dominated. Also the central leader kinked and turned to one side at some point. This thing grows wild like an octopus. We want it to remain healthy and vigorous, but balance it out a bit. Not sure if we should prune off those low branches, cut them back a bit or just leave it be to do it’s thing..
And should we be tipping when branches reach a certain length or what is common practice with Avocados?
We’re pretty good with managing mangos, but not so much avocado obviously. It was doing so well we didn’t want to interrupt it’s rapid growth and now we sort of have a mess on our hands.

Little guy 12/30/2108


Low branching. One clearly dominated.




Path of dominant lower branch


Clearly lopsided growth




Central leader went haywire. Have to keep it pulled upright with the nursery tie tape.


What do you guys think we should do with this thing?

Thanks in advance!

Our Coconut Cream mango had buds swelling just before hurricane Dorian. Just before the storm was about to hit we moved all plants to garage and left them in there for about 3 days. It flushed while in the garage.
We moved them back outside and it seems some of the new flushes are in shock and not developing properly. Do you guys think they will correct themselves? What should we do about this?

Hey guys,

Just got this Geffner Atemoya from a friend yesterday. As you can see the branching has started pretty low to the soil surface (maybe 5”) and it has 2 very long leaders, 1 short leader and a few scraggly branches. What exactly should we do to get this thing to grow into a proper shape? We need to start training this thing ASAP. We just put it in the Air-pot this morning with some Promix BRK 20.
Thanks!

Hey guys we are thinking of repotting a few of our mango trees. Not going to increase container size, but changing the potting mix that has broken down, become dense and has decreased drainage. I normally use the 5-1-1 blend on most of our other plants and it seems to work well, but we are considering trying a new blend of Pro-Mix BRK 20 and Repti Bark. I know some have suggested straight Fafard 3B. Not able to find that locally.
I should also mention that we are transitioning to the root maker or air pot style containers for all of our mango trees.
Do any of you guys have comments or suggestions? We love input from the seasoned growers out there.

A young branch broke off our CC mango during a wind storm a couple weeks back. It was hanging by a thread so I snipped it off. Didn’t do anything to protect the exposed wound. Do you guys think the tree will be ok?
Found this bee digging around in there this morning..

Haven’t seen growth like this before. So many leaves this close together and all the little nodes. Normal?