The Tropical Fruit Forum

Thanks Kevin, Oscar, and T.J.

Well, all this talk and advice got my juices flowing again, so Mr. Caimito and I finally bit the bullet and repotted everything but the Cherimoyas (hasta la vista) and one of our papayas.

Weeks ago I had assembled some gritty mix and ordered some Superoots pots, so we finally did it.

Relying heavily (i.e. exclusively) on the advice of several of you, Mr. Caimito and I carefully unpotted everything, cleaned the roots carefully by hand, then in a 75F water bath, then soaked in a 75F bath with 1tsp each of Dynagro Grow and KLN per gallon for 15-25 minutes.

We then potted in the superoots pots (3-gal equivalents), which I outfitted with rayon mop-thread wicks (just in case I need help gauging dryness). Plants were watered-in thoroughly with the leftover nutrient bath.

What we found when bare-rooting the plants was very eye-opening. The Coffee and Papayas had light-colored roots that had circled the bottom of the pot - relatively healthy, considering. But this indicates that something else other than root rot was hindering these plants. Nutrient deficiency? Light? Air quality? Not sure, but definitely looking at lack of air circulation as a major player. The light is puzzling to me...though likely we've incorrectly attributed some plant symptoms to the light being too close.

The Mango and Muntingia, on the other hand, had very small root masses, and the roots that were there were nearly black and smelled funky (I didn't sniff the healthier looking plants  ). You can see the difference in the pictures below.

For the muntingia, this wasn't so much of a surprise since it looked pretty bad. I was annoyed, however, that the Muntingia's pot had a very clear PWT, a line where the soil turned quite wet and the roots stopped. (though fixing this was the whole point of the gritty mix).
The Mango I knew had issues but was surprised that (1) the soil was as damp as it was considering I hadn't watered it in 3 weeks or more, and (2) that the plant had managed to flush growth a few weeks ago despite the horrid-looking root system.
Here are some pics of the event:

		muntingia
Papaya	Mango	Taking a bath

We raised the light in the tent considerably, placed several trays of water in the middle and aimed the fan over them for increased evaporation and thus humidity.

This whole thing began around the idea of air quality, but now that we've repotted like this, I am assuming the higher priority is high humidity. So we've closed-up the tent to keep the moisture in. Opening a side flap for 30 seconds or so drops the humidity 10%. With the light on, we're up to 65%. Peak during the light off-cycle is up to 83%.

Not sure if the Mango and Muntingia will make it, but figured it couldn't hurt.

If anyone has any suggestions on making the transplants successful, we'd welcome that.  Thanks!

Thanks for the input, Simon!

I will have to get back to you....I put annotations in the video explaining several things that you addressed in your reply, but it appears that the annotations didn't stick. Very frustrating - that took me a little time to do. Going to Youtube now to see what the deal is and will get back to you.

EDIT:
Oh, no-  now the annotations do show up...the text in the video providing commentary. Did you see those when you watched?
They address some of the things you mentioned like the light, my watering method, etc.

At any rate - thanks for the help. As you can see, we are complete newbies at this. Basically we've never grown anything in a pot in our lives until we started trying to grow this stuff. Maybe not the best place to start! But as you say, definitely have learned a lot but still more to go, obviously.

EDIT 2:
I think maybe the annotations don't show up on mobile phones: they don't show on my iPhone 4S but they show fine on my PC.

Thanks again everyone.

I managed to take a video of the tent with commentary, so folks can see what we have going on.

But first, here's a picture of where we started (wow this makes me even more depressed! LOL):


Grow Tent

I surely hope we are indeed not having off gassing issues, as this would be a pain to remedy.

As for watering, I think definitely our issue has been overwatering versus underwatering. Hence all the fungus gnats. Weeks and weeks ago I was convinced my issues were related to root rot (compounded perhaps by the gnat larvae), so I got all the components for textbook Al's Gritty Mix and also ordered some superoots pots. Then I came to understand that transplanting tropicals can be very dicey, so I've held off. (I've been busy too).
But Henry and I decided that before we just give up (at least with these particular plants) we would try the repot. The goal is to do it tomorrow - I've gotten lots of advice from other posts and PM's from folks so I feel mostly prepared.

My main concern is keeping the humidity up, so I'm now thinking of putting each plant in it's own large clear trash bag, inside the tent.

Any suggestions are welcome - Again thanks to everyone for their input. Some really great advice here. .too much to thank each of you personally 

Oh but one question to TriangleJohn - do you know if there's even any hope of fruiting these papayas considering they were grown from seeds from a grocery-store fruit? I haven't researched it yet...

Hey everyone,

Mr. Caimito and I have been laying low for a while. Sort of in a state of depression. Since moving our plants into the grow tent, things have really gone downhill fast. The plants are clinging to life by the root hairs.

One thing recently occurred that has turned me into somewhat of a conspiracy theorist.
My grandfather-in-law recently passed away. He was an avid fruit gardener who loved to try growing any and everything. When he died, we were given a 3.5 foot tall papaya tree in a pot. The tree looked wonderful - deep green, healthy leaves with no sign of any problems.
He had been growing this plant indoors in Kentucky, just in his living room near a large, south-facing window, right next to a heating vent, in a pot with just regular ol' dirt in it, from what I can tell. To boot, the pot was so dry the soil had pulled well away from the sides of the pot.

It was quite a shock to see this huge, healthy papaya doing so well in these conditions when ours have practically died in what we thought would be ideal conditions in the grow tent (warmth, light, humidity, etc).
This then got me thinking about how well our own plants were doing until they went into the tent (granted it was summer/fall).
Combine this with another puzzling experience - I tried to get some basil and cilantro going in little gro-dan rockwool cubes. They sprouted quickly in their ziploc bags but didn't last long once they were exposed to the air, yellowing and eventually blackening despite a watchful eye.

Crud! I can't even grow basil for crying out loud!

Something has to be wrong. So I remembered coming across the topic of outgassing (offgassing, out gassing, whatever) when researching grow tents.

Some quick Googling turns up some people (pot growers, of course) who are CONVINCED their tent was killing their plants in side-by-side comparison situations. It sounds very similar to what we've experienced.

The tent we bought was some no-name made in China thing from a dude on Craigslist.

I am now getting more and more convinced our tent is gassing our plants to death.

Yes? No? Suggestions?

Our house maintains about a 60-65 ambient temp at best in the winter and we have very limited south-facing window space (currently occupied by our fig and the giant papaya which is doing pretty well even in the cool, drier air).

I don't know if it's safe to put the plants out in those conditions. I suppose another alternative is to strip the tent off the frame and throw-up some clear plastic.

Or I may be totally crazy and there's something else killing our plants (poor soil, improper humidity, fungus gnats - all concerns of mine).

HELP!  We're literally at the end of our rope on this one. Considering throwing in the towel.

Cool!  Would these be sweet like Jackfruit chips or savory like durian chips, do you know?

Hi,

Thanks for sharing the photos. When I grew strawberry guava, my fruits were always very seedy.

Tomas

How noticeable are the seeds? Are they crunchable/chewable or do you just have to swallow them whole?

Quote from: Triloba Tracker on January 27, 2014, 07:22:22 PM

I think it would be wonderful to meet several of the forum members.  It's always a stretch for us to make it down to South FL but it's not outside the realm of possibility.

It would be awesome to meet you guys too! I will make sure I can source a place to get some fresh mangosteens, durian, and rambutans if we do it. Are pawpaws in season then too?

Good thought! But alas, no, pawpaws aren't ripe until September or even October (at least around here, from my experience). Drat!

Simply gorgeous. Well done, good sir!

Totally Rad!  Can't wait to see the pictures.

Gorgeous stuff...so jealous! Nice work 

Quote from: fruitlovers on January 10, 2014, 03:54:48 PM

Palm oil is probably worst type of oil to eat.

Anything you find in a supermarket  - canola, peanut, sunflower, most olive oils, never mind the heavily processed things posing as oils - rates much, much lower.  As for for palm oil being not good for your health, I also need some references on that one.

Not questioning what you are saying at all, but I truly am curious to get Oscar's thoughts. I may have something to learn!

I am very conscientious about what I eat so I'm always looking to learn more.

I agree that supermarket oils are scary...

Jackfruit Chips. I get these at K&S World Market in Nashville. Made in Vietnam. I could eat a whole bag in one sitting.

Wonder if anyone else has the same issue?

They claim to be only Jackfruit and Palm Oil....I hope that's true. They range from somewhat airy to very dense and hard (watch your teeth), and from very sweet to just mildly so.
Batches seem to vary too...this bag and another weren't as strong in flavor as ones I've had before.

These sure help me get by until I can get my next fresh Jackfruit....