The Tropical Fruit Forum

About 4-6 years ago I bought a beautiful SES2 white sapote in a large pot (sorry I'm pot size impaired so don't know how many gallons it was) and at first it was as healthy as my other fruit trees but gradually it declined. It would lose all of its leaves in mid-summer, re-sprout, and as the leaves got to maturity the branches they were on would die back again.

There are no pests, fungus or mold on it, and the trunk has continued to increase its trunk girth. It now has fully developed leaves and for the first time in years it has new growth with mature leaves. The problem is the leaves are all pale green and the largest are wilting.

This tree gets the same fertilizer (the excellent stuff from Excalibur in south Florida) the rest of my trees thrive on, water as needed, but I read they didn't like too much water so I even tried withholding water since it's established but last year the leaf decline did not change. This year I've been watering a bit more, maybe the reason it's doing a bit better?

I've given it foliar spray, and neem as prophylactic /  preventative measures but still it looks sick. After 5-6+ years in the ground I'm about ready to give up and put a Jabo in its place. Anyone have any ideas?

Here's a pic, you can see the pale old growth and new pale growth

My fairly large Glenn (3-4" trunk and +12' round canopy) had just bloomed profusely. It's the first bloom for it and the largest mango I have had for its first bloom. I had been hoping for it to be an early bloomer!

Anyone else have mangos blooming?

Invariably there's waste from fruit trees, cooking etc. and I keep a large hole dug to throw fallen carambola, household fruit and veg waste, as well as uneaten cooked pasta and veg (and the cooking water used in preparation) and such.

I don't see any down side to this, does anyone else do it?

I have a Julie seedling, an unknown mango, and a "watercado" all grown from seed.

The Julie child is quite different from the parent. The fruit is small and very sweet, and they so far have come out different colors every year. Purple, rose color, red, maybe this season it will stabilize.

The unknown mango had horrible fruit the first two years it fruited, I thought it might be a turpentine, but its third year the fruit was very sweet, fibrous (not a problem for me) and a bit spicy. I was going to chop it but now I'm going to keep it.

The Watercado grew HUGE and broke under its weight of fruit two years running even though I pulled much of the fruit off when it was small. The fruit was fabulous and everyone who had tried them agreed, and clamored for more! The size became a problem and it breaking under the weight of the fruit broke a few nearby specimens, so it got the chainsaw.

So what has anyone here with success, or failure to get a decent tasting fruit by breaking the no seedling is true to the parent rule?
 

I have 8 coffee bushes which just now are starting to give me enough coffee beans to roast and drink in decent quantity. I wash then dry the beans on low heat in a toaster oven, and roast them in a Melitta roaster (low volume) and a popcorn popper (also low volume) with good results then grind in a BURR grinder. The coffee is excellent!

I have half of the bushes in partial shade, the rest in full sun and the trees in the shaded area are producing more cherries.

Is anyone else growing, roasting, brewing it here in the US?

I posted this in another forum, thought you folks would like to see it too.

A couple of days ago I got the heebeejeebies worrying that the two nicely colored fruits on my tree (in my front yard) would be taken by a poor homeless guy who would bite into the hard not yet ripe fruits and throw them away... NOT!!!

I have thieving affluent neighbors who take what they want and this year I beat them :-) No doubt they have no idea what they are!

So, I left them on a windowsill and one came soft today. It was my first home grown persimmon and I only have store bought to compare it to. It was small, about 2x the size of a golf ball, but very flavorful, medium sweet about the sweetness of a ripe papaya. A lovely surprise!

I can't wait till next year now after the little tree grows a bit. He's only 3' tall and the two fruit were on it when I took it home early last summer.

Now that my two trees are actually bearing, I'm starting to wonder (after reading about them) about the "Chocolate persimmon" Does anyone in south Florida have first hand experience with these? Maybe a source too?

Well, these are the first I've seen here, generally we get smaller astringent varieties from "up north".

These are much larger than I've seen on the ease coast, bigger than a baseball... maybe the size of a good navel orange.

One is getting nice and soft, I hope to have it tomorrow.

Anyway.... Does anyone know where in California is the growing region for these persimmons?

I don't know why, but people who regularly graft take for granted some things that aren't obvious to newbies. I've never read a detailed description on selection and description of cuttings.

For example...

"Select a dormant scion"

I "assume" that dormant means no new leafy growth, if that's wrong please correct me :-)

But... I have several mango trees that have growth from last spring, all branches are still green and most are over 3/8" 1/2" in diameter. Everything that has bark is over an inch  in diameter. Are green branches candidates for selection?

Next up is WHERE is the branch a scion. Assuming you have unlimited number of branches to select from, which is best... do you pick the LAST section of the branch, middle, or the oldest section closest to where it erupted from the older branch.

Are cuttings different from ones you will graft onto a rootstock from those if you are top working?

Are all leaves stripped from the branch before grafting? Also assume no transportation is involved, simply cut and walk it over to the new host.

Finally for transportation (mailing purposes) should leaves be stripped and what care to the cut end is required, again as above which section of the branch is best suited to transportation.

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I've read a bunch on the subject and haven't seen these details on selection and handling.

A few weeks ago I got some Longan from Louis the grower in Davie and I put the seeds in pots. Now they are sprouting and I'm thinking...

Can Lychee be grafted successfully onto longan rootstock?

If not, how long do Longan seedlings take to fruit? I think I'd like to grow these, since Louis had several trees full of fruit these may be very suitable to fruiting in the climate down here?

 

The last two guys I had who delivered clean mulch are gone. Does anyone have a source in the tree trimming business that sells clean tree chippings?

I found Louis selling Thai white guava trees and went to take a look. WOW!!! If you like to buy fruit he has longan, guava, and sugar apples now. I bought a 5+ year old Tikal sapodilla in a big pot (I'm pot size impaired) two seedling Thai Guava, and a seedling Bangkok lemon Jackfruit all in 3 gal pots for fifty bucks (prices were quantity calculated) and he also has ornamental stuff.

He's in Davie (954-643-8881) so most anyone in South Florida can get there. Give him a jingle... but be aware he's Vietnamese and a bit hard to understand

I would like to move a sugar apple and I'm wondering if I should. It's about 8' tall, and the trunk is around 2" in diameter and has been in the ground ~2 years.

My Geffner seems to be happy near it but I think a sunnier location will be better for it? Also I can fill a hole I have if I move it. I don't want to kill it, it's a cool tree and VERY dark green but the place I move it to will have another sugar apple nearby maybe helping pollination?

So, the questions I have are:

What is the likelihood it will die.
Will breaking the tap root make it less wind resistant or lack of water tolerant? I suspect yes on both accounts
Is a simple shovel around it to break the surface roots and wait a couple of weeks  to dig it out a sound method?

Does anyone have any other advice?

Last night I saw the nicest (but dying of thirst) pink guava. I have yet to have a pink guava that didn't get infested with scale. How do nurseries do it???