51
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Depressing, Orange Sherbert Mango Broke
« on: July 03, 2017, 07:42:25 PM »
That really really sucks man. I'd get grafting ASAP.
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52
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: pina colada not washed out
« on: July 03, 2017, 12:38:49 PM »
The Dot was really nice, and Cac and PPK were solidly great mangos like they'd been all season. Well grown sir.
53
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: pina colada not washed out
« on: July 03, 2017, 09:25:27 AM »
Yep, that was me. Got two from you and they were outstanding. I picked up a Dot on Saturday that's going to be for breakfast along with some cac and ppk. 
54
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: co2 death chamber
« on: July 01, 2017, 06:18:39 AM »I would not kill possums unless the situation is really bad. They are one of the few marsupials in America. Turn them loose a few miles away. Tarp in the trunk of your car due to possibly pissing or shitting. With problem rats, mice, squirrels you drown them.
You will get bitten and scratched trying to transfer a possum into your CO2 gas chamber.
I think the idea with the chamber was to build it to accommodate the whole trap.
I'll also second the notion that I am pretty well opposed to killing possums. Those things devour ticks and besides being kind of gnarly looking don't really hurt much.
You know how you get crazy panicky when you try and hold your breath as long as you can? Rising CO2 levels are a big part of the sensation of needing to take a breath, and killing an animal with CO2 is a pretty inhumane gas choice in my book.
55
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: co2 death chamber
« on: June 30, 2017, 07:26:53 PM »
The little .22 CB shorts they sell at Walmart are actually quieter than my pellet gun. I wouldn't hesitate to use it to dispatch a varmint even in a densely packed neighborhood.
56
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: venus mango
« on: June 21, 2017, 05:07:14 PM »My Venus has gigantic leaves. Like nothing I've ever seen on a mango tree. I will try to post some pics later.
Mine too. It was in a shaded spot for a bit with the previous owner, and the new growth after about a month or so in ground here is similarly large.
57
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« on: June 21, 2017, 08:21:19 AM »Really? Does anyone hand-pollinate soursop? Mine seems perfectly capable of producing huge fruit on its own.
Both times Har has come to Fort Myers to talk to our Fruit club he has strongly encouraged folks to hand pollinate soursop to get the comically large fruit one sees pictures of from time to time. He also encouraged using your finger instead of a paint brush to apply pollen, because the sticky stuff tends to bunch up on the brush.
Next time you've got a soursop look at the distribution of the spikes you see that correspond to each segment. Where they're bunched together and the fruit is misshapen is a spot where better pollination would have yielded a larger fruit.
That was the gist of his argument, and it seems sound to me.
58
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Any South Florida Experience with Soursop and Sugar apple
« on: June 19, 2017, 03:51:12 PM »Here an update on my fathers seedling soursop tree.
Its doing really good. So far this he picked 4 this year
Probably another 40 more
Around 2.5 lbs each\
Here is the tree, about the size of a single story flat.
Second year fruiting
Congrats, that's a whole bunch of delicious fruit! Any chance of teaching him to hand pollinate so he can get some real whopper sized soursop?
59
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Cherimoya seeds floating
« on: June 18, 2017, 11:17:50 AM »
As cherimoya seeds dry they go from black to sort of a Chestnut brown. Rehydrating is the reverse, with them darkening starting at the point. Almost all of mine will float at first. I'll usually start them in hot tap water and stir the bunch with my finger whenever I happen to talk by. With each stir a few more sink.
60
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Any truth to story of Tim Thomson going out of business?
« on: June 14, 2017, 06:54:19 AM »I dont like how gleeful people are in tearing someone down who's trying to do something new. I think the gloating is much worse for us in general than any shortcuts thompson might have taken. I think we should celebrate the attempt or maybe be a bit disappointed that it was done wrong, but not happy to see him fail.
Your statement assumes not only that he knew what he was doing but that there is any chance of a cold hardy mango...not likely.
Another certain breeder visited him and just by his short visit knew he was full of _ _ _ _
I don't know enough about this fellow to judge for myself one way or another.
If this was a legit attempt at doing something pushing the limits of what mangos can do, I agree that it is awesome and should be encouraged. Being mocked for trying to do the seemingly impossible sort of goes with the territory though, so I'm not going to get too upset over folks dancing on this grave. For better or worse that's just human nature, and personally I'm not interested in pissing into a wind that strong.
If he was a huckster selling hype and snake oil, the failure deserves every last bit of glee. I freaking hate hucksters.
61
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Top 5 mango varieties for commercial production
« on: June 08, 2017, 09:16:26 AM »
Nam Doc Mai is huge in the asian community, and I think complies with all the qualities you're looking for.
Cunningham's Law states "the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." Quoted from: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law
(Don't tell anyone, but I find that offering an incomplete or poor answer to a question can motivate more knowledgeable folks to pitch in.)
Cunningham's Law states "the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." Quoted from: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law
62
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Custard Apple Pollination Question
« on: June 03, 2017, 09:54:37 PM »
Bees are irrelevant, Annona reticulata (called custard apple here in the US) is pollinated by nitidulid beetles, just like sugar apple, cherimoya and atemoya (which are called custard apples in Australia). Sure, custard apples will set fruit here in FL without hand pollination, but you will get more fruit and larger fruit set with hand pollination.
You mentioned this is the first time these trees are flowering. How large are they?
You mentioned this is the first time these trees are flowering. How large are they?
Yes. You will get little to zero fruits if you ignore it. Follow these simple steps
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YTaBVR-YrQc
But again, I'm in south Miami Florida, almost in the Florida Keys. The gentelmen in the video remarks that hand pollination is not necessary for locations like mine, let alone the fact that I have bee hives on my land. He is also discussing Cherimoya rather than custard Apple. That said, I understand it can't hurt but I'd also hate to start a practice that isn't necessary, seeing as this is my first go around. I may mark a few flowers I don't hand pollinate and see how they produce. I guess that's the only way to truly know.
63
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: your favorite research sites?
« on: June 03, 2017, 05:59:38 AM »
A Google search for whatever plant I'm looking for plus IFAS is usually where I start. Ex: "atemoya ifas" will get you any UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences articles on atemoya. Ifas articles are usually pretty decent on spelling out plant needs for anything that can grow in FL.
When I really want to break out the submarines, I use Scholar.google.com paired with sci-hub.io.
When I really want to break out the submarines, I use Scholar.google.com paired with sci-hub.io.
64
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: I feel like bragging a little
« on: May 26, 2017, 06:03:27 PM »
Congrats man!
65
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Fresh Jackfruit
« on: May 22, 2017, 10:57:18 PM »Ripe Jackfruit (NS-1) from around 5 pounds to 30 pounds on the tree at $2 per pound.You're missing a digit from your phone number Ray.
Call, text or email me. Don't PM me.
rayfbayer@gmail.com
412.860.777
Ray
66
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Flower Buds on African Pride
« on: May 20, 2017, 12:02:45 AM »
If you can dry and freeze the pollen, it will last up to a few months in the freezer. Reference: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304423805003717
I use one of those mini dehumidifiers inside a ziploc freezer bag as my dessication chamber. Just put your open pollen container in the bag with the dehumidifier for 90min, then cap the container and put it straight in the freezer.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000H0XFCS/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495252865&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=eva+dry+dehumidifier&dpPl=1&dpID=41DkN9qQr3L&ref=plSrch
I use one of those mini dehumidifiers inside a ziploc freezer bag as my dessication chamber. Just put your open pollen container in the bag with the dehumidifier for 90min, then cap the container and put it straight in the freezer.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000H0XFCS/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495252865&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=eva+dry+dehumidifier&dpPl=1&dpID=41DkN9qQr3L&ref=plSrch
67
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Are Atemoya seeds true to type
« on: May 14, 2017, 10:30:52 PM »
No. As most atemoya are only a generation or two removed from a pure cherimoya x sugar apple hybrid, they're generally highly variable from seed.
68
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Sugar apple pollination experiment
« on: May 11, 2017, 06:57:07 PM »
I have nitidulid beetles in abundance, and I don't think my multiplier is anywhere close to 10x on my sugar apple. On my Gefner atemoya though, fruit set is easily 6x, possibly as high as 10x with hand pollination.
69
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Adam Shafran?
« on: May 11, 2017, 06:53:37 PM »Adam is a super nice guy. I drove up there for other business, and he took the time out to meet with me; and we got a chance to tour the orchard until the rain decided to wash the pitangatuba juices off of us.
Now, I don't recommend just showing up, as we had been trying to connect for over a year--but both our schedules suck.
I had the honor of picking out some nice specimens, and took a gander at his in ground red jabos. Superb.
It is my understanding he has started another business as well, so the orchard may not be his only endeavor anymore.
Being a one man show is tough, so just be patient. Sometimes a break is just needed from it all, and his prices are too low for the effort. I highly suggest anyone who can to offer him more (tip if you want to call it) for whatever you buy and make it worth his time.
He is highly knowledgeable.and has a good thing going with FFF.
Adam is a really nice guy, and was a great host to us when we visited a while back. FFF is a great business, and I'd buy stuff from him again in a heartbeat.
Regarding the other business, the troll in me hopes his other business is a local business totally unrelated to tropical fruit, and the phone number gets regular calls from fruit nuts trying to track down a jaboticaba.
70
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Sugar apple pollination experiment
« on: May 11, 2017, 09:53:55 AM »I figured the day would come when my sugar apples would be too large to hand pollinate, so this year with them both getting rather tall, I stopped doing it by hand. The first two branches I watched closely had 7 flowers on them and as the dead flowers fell two stuck and the two little fruits are developing nicely. Coincidentally this is about the same rate of fruiting as I got with hand pollination over the last few years.
Granted it's only a few flowers, but as I watch them I hope that I see similar results over the next few weeks. Has anyone else left their sugar apples alone and watched them for fruit development?
My money would be on the difference being the % of large symmetrical fruit, not so much the % fruit set overall. I'm interested to see what other folks experience has been. There's a local grower here in SWFL with a few acres of sugar apples. He doesn't do any hand pollination that I know of, and his trees set about as well as mine does with hand pollination. My tree is a seedling from one of his and is pretty well identical in fruit appearance and quality. I definitely got larger fruit on average than I saw at his place.
71
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Sugar apple pollination experiment
« on: May 11, 2017, 09:29:59 AM »Not a hijack but quick sidenote...i currently have lots of flowers at the same female stage this morning..and very little pollen collected to hand pollinate... there's a row of pond apples with plenty flowers by the canal near me..can i collect pollen for hand pollinating the sugar apple?
You can try, but they're not likely to take since pond apple is more closely related to soursop than sugar apple. If they did, there'd be a good chance of your sugar apples tasting less than desirable because of pseudo-xenic effects seen in annonas, which means the pollen source can change the quality of the fruit.
72
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Please help identify this tree
« on: May 07, 2017, 04:56:30 PM »It looks like a strawberry guava( psidium cattleianum) but a close up of the fruit and leaves would be easier to identify. It looks like it has fruit
on it now? Take a close up of the plant in the pot as well.
I'll second that; it looks like strawberry guava to me too.
73
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: WTB Cherimoya seed or live plant not sugar apple
« on: May 06, 2017, 12:15:30 PM »
Personally I'm not convinced Dream is a true cherimoya, but rather a really good atemoya. That said I do have a few available grafted on either cherimoya or custard apple ( A. reticulata) rootstock in 1gal for $25 each. Shipping $15.
74
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Plinia sp. Otto Anderson Seeds
« on: May 04, 2017, 10:05:55 PM »Ray, does Otto live up to the hype? How does it taste compared to other Jabos?
It's beyond a doubt the best tasting jabuticaba by far. It has a unique taste unlike any other and has a thin skin as a bonus and that's also sweet. Imagine all the flavors of fruit loop cereal. That's as close as I can come to describing. I've never eaten a jabo as delicious.
I can confirm what Ray says, it is indeed the best jaboticaba I've had yet, among sabara, red and grimal. The froot loops description works, I can't come up with a better one.
75
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Rollinia... yum
« on: April 28, 2017, 08:21:45 AM »Nice size tree and fruit! How many fruit were on that tree? Was the fruit firm or snotty? I understand Rollinia are shy bloomers and low in fruit production. I am only asking because I'd like to hear other peoples experiences. I have a small tree and know that attempting to get it to bloom well, let alone fruit will be difficult in my climate. I think I see several flowers on my tree growing in now with the new growth, but only time will tell.That has not been my experience, though rollinia does do better in a humid climate like we have here. Mine is flowering heavily now, and generally sets fruit well on its own.
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