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Messages - FruitGrower

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1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Anyone growing rare artocarpus?
« on: February 26, 2024, 11:57:09 AM »
Even in South FL, it can be challenging to grow the rare artocarpus.
Breadfruit, jackfruit, the hybrid, kwai muk, and lakoocha are pretty bulletproof down there
What's tougher is the marang, cempedak, and SE Asian ones. To my knowledge, no one has done pedalai. But marang has been fruited.

Greenhouse wise the ultra tropical ones can not be fruited due to size restrictions. Now this is just a generalized rule, and some artocarpus stay smaller, eventually they still get too big for the regular greenhouse. Also, some artocarpus like the pedalai only fruit on mature leaves. And when you prune back a tree in the greenhouse, it forces them to make more immature leaves. So, it's a never ending cycle (ask my friend)

Now you could do jackfruit, hybrid, kwai muk, lakoocha, and some Chinese artocarpus in a greenhouse. Although they will get big eventually, pruning can make it happen. And these tend to fruit at smaller sizes also.
Tropical Fruit Hunters in Ohio fruited jackfruit, and several members here have some nice sized artocarpus up north too.


I know of a S. Florida grower with a 25 ft+ pedalai but it hasn’t flowered last I heard.

Do you know if the grower that fruited marang is on here? I would love to as a few questions.

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Anyone growing rare artocarpus?
« on: February 25, 2024, 09:37:29 PM »
I just started growing marang this past year. They’re coming out of their first winter and held up pretty well.

3
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Marang
« on: January 07, 2024, 09:13:39 PM »
PM sent.

4
Covid changed my tastes for what I grow but in a very different way. I used to not bother with things I could get at the store more practically than growing it (avocado, nuts, etc), but after seeing what even a small disruption in the supply chain looks like I’ve moved back towards growing more of those fruits.

5
Hey there, the south side of my house is fairly close to my property line. I have junk trees that were used as posts for pepper vines but pepper doesn't work well in my area any more. These are currently shading the back of my house and patio and when I cut them down, as they don't provide fruit or good wood, my house is gonna get baked by the sun. The property line is about 8 meters to 4 meters away from the house. I was gonna plant a jackfruit tree every 4 meters at the boundary line and let them grow tall to block the sun as they tend to grow fairly tall and narrow where I live. I already have about 7 to 10 varieties of jackfruit, and about 20 trees so I don't really need more jackfruit and was wondering if anyone has any other suggestion for faster growing trees that are more vertical then horizontal? I am in the subtropics with very hot dry summers with rain season in fall and cool weather winter and spring.

I think jackfruit is a great choice but another one that has fit that criteria for me is breadfruit. I also just started growing Marang and that seems to grow fast and vertically but I don’t know if it will be as dense of a tree as the others (I’ve see some online that are not). 

6
Sadly if you live in Florida your trees will certainly die from HLB, NO MATTER what chemical you use.  The only thing that has been found to work is covering the tree with the screening that the people use when growing under cups.

I second and third this as it has been my experience with over 3 dozen citrus trees over 7 years. Nothing I did stopped the psylid from infecting my trees except the protective netting. With that in place, citrus has been relatively easy to grow for me.







The notable exception to this has been finger limes.

7
Sadly if you live in Florida your trees will certainly die from HLB, NO MATTER what chemical you use.  The only thing that has been found to work is covering the tree with the screening that the people use when growing under cups.

I second and third this as it has been my experience with over 3 dozen citrus trees over 7 years. Nothing I did stopped the psylid from infecting my trees except the protective netting. With that in place, citrus has been relatively easy to grow for me.







8
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Picking my first Xie Shans
« on: October 04, 2023, 11:26:42 PM »
My Xie Shans are starting to change color.  They should ready to pick soon.



Nice! Would you mind sharing how old your tree is and how the fruit quality is once you harvest?

My tree, about 3-4 years old, produced its best crop this year but the fruit quality was poor; I wanted to see if that was a function of the age of the tree or environmental factors.

Thanks.

9
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Picking my first Xie Shans
« on: October 03, 2023, 01:37:26 AM »
For Ponkan, when it is ripe, the skin will get a little puffy, so if you squeeze it, you can tell the skin is not tight to the inside flesh. You can always taste one fruit when you see it turn yellow/orange to see if it's sweet. If I leave the fruits ripe on the tree to long (2-3 wks after orange color) then the inside flesh will be dry with not much juice.

Thank you 🙏

10
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Picking my first Xie Shans
« on: September 30, 2023, 11:59:44 PM »
I have a large citrus tree which is multi-grafted in the front yard. That tree has some good size Ponkan branches that always has good tasting fruits. I think your green ponkan is the normal fruits and it will not turn color for another few months. My tree has many Ponkan fruits now similar to yours, but that is normal for my tree here. The fruits will turn color from November - January when my fruits are ripe here.

Here's my Ponkan fruits from previous years (ripen in December).






I appreciate that input. I did intend to do that with the Ponkan as the flavor was there, it was just too acidic.

Do you have any recommendations for other sings I should be looking for?

11
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Annona deceptrix for sale
« on: September 28, 2023, 12:26:03 AM »
PM’d you.

12
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Picking my first Xie Shans
« on: September 14, 2023, 06:54:30 PM »

Does this not getting orange color in warm climates apply to other citrus or just satsumas? I have other types and wondering if I should do the same.

On a related note, do citrus need heat or cool to sweeten the fruit? I keep reading conflicting information.

Thanks again!

Citrus peels change color due to the loss of chlorophyll in the peel from cool weather (just like fall leaves up north). I believe you will only have an issue with your early season fruit not turning color. The mid and late season varieties should get enough cold to turn color. Valencias will go from green to orange and then back to green (around June if they make it that long) as chlorophyll comes back into the peel.

As to your other question, it is my understanding that warm weather durring ripening increases sugars while cool weather increases acids (flavor). Its the balance between the two that make the fruit taste good. Some fruits naturally have high sugars and others have high acids. That is why some varieties taste better when grown in California and others taste better when grown in Florida. That being said, a lot of old Crackers say that cool weather makes the fruit sweeter. I wonder if this is just the natural result of the ripening process or if there is an effect from the dry weather that comes with the winter months concentrating the sugars that are already in the fruit. I'm sure that made things crystal clear for you.  ::) lol!

Thank you both for your responses and Galatians, this helped me tremendously as I’d never gotten a clear answer on this.  What you say makes perfect sense. I’m going to bookmark this thread and report back what I observe with my varieties now that they’re coming into production.

For comparison, I cut up a Ponkan I knocked off the tree and it was much juicer and flavorful but very acidic, with no sweetness. Here’s some pics.








13
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Picking my first Xie Shans
« on: September 14, 2023, 04:28:25 PM »

I did as you suggested but the fruits were dry and bland. Do you think they may get juicer with time?

FruitGrower, I suspect that this crop of your fruits are already overripe and will only get worse with time.  However, as Millet said the quality of future crops should improve as years go by. 

I suggest you pick some of the greenest, least ripe-appearing fruit and see how they are.  They may be better than the yellow ones.  If they are, you should probably pick all of the fruits immediately and make a note to pick them green next year.

Thank you. I did as you suggested and picked a green fruit that is close to full size and it was much better than the overripe ones (I picked the other one with color for wither comparison), though still not great. I’m hoping the fruit improves with tree age.

Does this not getting orange color in warm climates apply to other citrus or just satsumas? I have other types and wondering if I should do the same.

On a related note, do citrus need heat or cool to sweeten the fruit? I keep reading conflicting information.

Thanks again!

14
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Picking my first Xie Shans
« on: September 13, 2023, 07:58:52 PM »
Absolutely the fruits of any citrus variety become better with the age of the tree. Each year the fruit will improve.  Generally a 5 year old tree produces high quality fruit.  I remember Dr. Malcolm Manners writing on the old forum, the very best fruit he ever ate was from a 25 year old grapefruit tree growing on the grounds of Florida Southern University.

Thank you Millet, this is one of the things I had considered. It makes sense as the tree is only 3-4 years old.

15
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Picking my first Xie Shans
« on: September 13, 2023, 05:30:02 PM »
These may be optimally ripe while still green even in cooler areas.   I suggest picking one of the yellow ones and see how it is.   

I recall reading that in very warm locations such as yours citrus may not ever color up properly and if you wait for orange it may spoiled.  I have an off-season crop of Dekopan/Shiranui/Sumo now that is still only half yellow but I think is actually overripe, because it matured during summer.

I did as you suggested but the fruits were dry and bland. Do you think they may get juicer with time?








16
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Picking my first Xie Shans
« on: September 12, 2023, 09:30:38 PM »
My Xie Shan fruited for the first time this year and the first fruits are coloring up.  Can anyone give any insight on what factors I should look for to pick it at optimal ripeness. I am in Miami if that helps.  Thanks for any insight.

Here’s some pics.








17
Citrus General Discussion / Picking my first Xie Shans
« on: September 12, 2023, 08:26:06 PM »
My Xie Shan fruited for the first time this year and the first fruits are coloring up.  Can anyone give any insight on what factors I should look for to pick it at optimal ripeness. I am in Miami if that helps.  Thanks for any insight.

18
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Good Florida atemoyas
« on: September 12, 2023, 12:32:56 PM »
Can't really speak to the AP since its not the commonly grown here.
The bud wood was sold to me as arka sahan, but its doesn't seem to be that either, on another thread a few other growers chimed in and said it was probably AP.
Either way, the fruit isn't great, trying to top work it now


The other two are spot on.
Finally has a prime Dream and it certainly deserves all the hype it gets from the Florida annona growers.

Thanks for updating us. I’m going to top-work my AP? that I got from you. Out of the 3 I have left, it’s the slowest growing. Calostro and H. Pink Mammoth are growing much faster.








19
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Rosigold v. Dwarf Hawaiian?
« on: September 04, 2023, 08:43:58 PM »
I'm in the market for an early season mango. Location is coastal, zone 11a. I want as many opinions as I can get on these two varieties.

Thanks in advance.

I won’t comment on taste since that’s personal preference but I do think Rosigold is just a bit earlier than the DH.

20
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: TM Red Jack Fruit
« on: September 02, 2023, 11:15:06 AM »
I would call it more reddish-orange. Here’s what’s left.The darker sections of the bulbs are a pretty close representation.


21
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: TM Red Jack Fruit
« on: September 01, 2023, 11:05:01 PM »
I was able to cut up my jack and I’m pretty sure I have the real thing. Even coming from a neglected tree and picked early, it’s one of if not the best jackfruits I’ve had, especially the darker/ riper bulbs from the bottom. The latex was minimal but there was an average amount of rag.

22
I PM’d you about the abius, I’ll take them.

23
I used the Bayer in my potted citrus a long time ago. It didn’t stop the psylids and they all got HLB and died. The only method I’ve found effective and I mention it whenever I can, is to grow under a protective netting.
Sorry it’s not exactly what you asked but, like others posted, in Florida, you have to expect psylids and ime the Bayer Advanced did nothing for them. 

24
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: TM Red Jack Fruit
« on: August 27, 2023, 10:17:56 PM »
I’ve been following this thread as I have a TMR tree that just fruited for the first time this year. Unfortunately, it’s at a rental home and I don’t go there often. I went today and saw that 1 of the 2 fruits were rotten, so I went ahead and picked the other, but it appears I picked the other one prematurely, so I don’t think it will be a good example. Nonetheless, here’s some pics.












25
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / WTB Marang Seeds
« on: August 27, 2023, 03:11:30 AM »
Looking for Marang seeds, please post PM me.

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