The Tropical Fruit Forum

Oh darn, I thought they were talking about Hurricane Durian. I LOVE durian! 

"Never mind!"

Clay

Hmmm this may be my issue. I have had good luck getting leaves and stems out of the top tier mangoes I bought from FL, but haven't seen anything pop out of the Kent's from Costco save for a small root.

My Kent seeds from Costco are sprouting near 100% so far.

Clay

That's suck ass. This is why I want to move out of the people's social republic of California to rural southern Florida.

... Because everybody knows that nobody EVER steals stuff in So. Fla.!

I have a lot of friends in CAlifornia . Who call me and I call mostly about plants. But at a decent time not 12:51 AM. I know there is a time difference. I post my phone # on this forum to help, trade and sell plants. I will do nothing to help this person. That is what he was asking for help.

My phone has a programmable Do Not Disturb mode that I have set for silence from 10:30 P.M. to 6:45 A.M. Works great!

I'm trying to summarize my best approach for growing another mango tree here in Costa Mesa. From reading through this thread, I think I understand that the best approach is to plant a manila/ataulfo seed in the ground and let it sprout and grow. Then either do a graft when it is 1 to 2 years old, or wait until it is about 4 years old and top work the tree with the desired cultivar.  This practice will develop better root structure for long-term benefit.

My question is about the grafting part. As a newbie to grafting, if I get a 50% success rate with my grafting process, there is a pretty high probability of failing and losing my 2- to 4-year old seedling. I don't mind having a long-term project, but want to avoid having to start over from scratch each time one fails. In order to maximize my potential for success, would it be feasible to plant 2 to 4 seedlings very close together (maybe 1' to 2' spacing) in the ground (in the location where I want my tree to be) and going all the way through the grafting (or top-work) process to make sure it succeeds, and then removing all but the strongest tree? Or would the roots from the trees all mutually inhibit each other's development, thus nullifying any potential gains? Should I just stick with planting the seeds in pots, doing the grafting while still in the pots, and then transplanting to the ground after I know that the grafting was successful?

Clay

...  Carrie here ripens in Mid-July/Early August. ...

How about putting up a sign that says: "NOTICE - This fruit is not ripe until September/October. Don't waste your time harvesting until then."

Then in August, harvest your fruit and take down the sign.

Of course, if the idiots can't read, it would still be pointless.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. This is my first year to (hopefully) get some fruit and I'm not sure what to expect. I'll leave it alone and see how the fruit develops. If the limbs start looking too heavy with fruit, I may devise some crutches under them to give some support.

Clay

My Gold Coast mango tree has been in the ground for three years and is about 4 - 5 feet tall. The trunk diameter is about 2" below the graft line, slightly smaller above the graft line. Last year I removed all the fruit. This year it is setting quite a bit of fruit, for the size of the tree. I'd like to get some fruit this year. Do I need to thin out the fruit? Or should I just wait and see how much of the fruit it drops without my help? The fruits are about 1 inch now.

Clay

I make my own fish emulsion by up-cycling scraps from a local fish market and fermenting it like wine/cheese. Last year I made 40 gallons. It does smell similar to fish but with a sour/sweet component and may not be acceptable in a close neighborhood but the process had virtually no smell and even vegans found the smell to be tolerable. We do have raccoons and they caused no problem.

I basically scaled up this process using a 60 gallon sealed Greek olive barrel with an airlock. Whole fish was added to a lactic acid culture with sugar, the bacteria did the rest over a few months to liquefy everything except scales and bones. So, if you want something less smelly try fish hydrolysate instead of emulsion. It is a very good amendment and made use of something otherwise thrown into the bay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyTUQHjOfS0

The home beer maker in me thinks this sounds like a really fun and interesting project. Unfortunately, the vegan in me still thinks it sounds gross... The organic gardener in me is often at odds with the vegan in me, because so many of the organic fertilizers are based on slaughterhouse waste, manure and the like. I was hoping that buying the ready-made fish fertilizer would make it less repulsive, but the look and smell of the stuff is really pretty bad. I am hopeful that the smell will dissipate quickly. I got a gallon of the stuff, so I'm committed to trying it out. If all my fruit trees and veggies go nuts over it and start producing like crazy, I may learn to get along with it. Nasty stuff!

I just got back from Trader Joe's in Costa Mesa, where I found some nice California Keitts for $1.99 each! The ones in the front by the avocados look a bit over-ripe, but back by the Deli case area, I found another group that was greener, firmer and fairly large. They will sit on my counter for a few days before I dig in.

Enjoy!

As I recall, nitrogen fixers such as legumes, work with microbes to take nitrogen from the air (N2) and produce water soluble nitrogen compounds such as ammonia. Using the plants as a green manure releases that nitrogen to the soil as the plant breaks down.

I've been getting some nice Kents from Costco for about two months. I sliced up several boxes of them and dehydrated them so I can enjoy them for a few more months. Today I was at Costco and saw they now only have Tommys.... No wait, what is that in the back? A few boxes of Keitts (from Mexico)! So I bought two boxes of those to try out. The price was right: 6 mangoes for $5.49. I'll let them sit for a few days to sweeten up a bit. If they are good, I'll go back for more and get the dehydrator back out.

Haven't seen any California Keitts though.

Nice set of pictures!

The tender top leaves look seriously deficient in Zinc and Copper, and the previous flush looks mildly deficient in Iron--- so the new growth is probably also deficient in Iron.

Spraying the Southern Ag Citrus micronutrient mix at a dilute / weak / lowest-recommended rate, with  some kelp added, on the new growth and on the still-hardening-up previous flush, in the very early morning, or before sunset, would be more effective than the drenching in this case--- as you have already found that not enough is rising from the soil, to some portions of your tree.

As Ibliz pointed out, the scorch marks do look like thrips damage--- but that still needs to be verified.

Do you have a traditional magnifier, in the 8X to 16X range?  Or a digital camara phone attachment to take microscopic pictures?

The stem blackening looks like anthracnose.

I picked up a jug of Iron & Zinc chelate liquid and did a foliar spray this morning. My Myer lemon was also having some yellowing on some of its leaves, so I sprayed my citrus trees and my apple tree while I was at it. It looks like Home Depot also has the Southern Ag Citrus nutritional spray in stock, so I'll pick up a jug of that next time I'm over there. How often should I use it? Monthly? Weekly?

I don't have any macro attachments for my phone or camera, nor a microscope, so those pictures are about the best I can do.

Should I prune off all the damaged areas and just let the healthy areas grow? Or will the damaged areas sprout out new healthy leaves after getting the foliar micro-nutrients?

I did get a soil test kit and tested around a few of my trees. I got pH readings in the 6.0 - 6.5 range, which doesn't seem too bad, although 5.0 might be better.

Thanks for the suggestions!