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Messages - BohicaBob

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I live on a lake and have discovered what kinds of microclimates I have on my one acre property.  I have 24 mango trees, 8 avocado trees, 5 lychee trees, etc. north of Orlando, 9B.

On 1/30/2022 for example, I found the lowest temperature in a couple parts of my yard where I have mango trees got down to 29 degrees F, while other areas like down near the lake where I have 6 mango trees were above freezing.  I frost-cloth covered a number of mango trees in those colder microclimateson 1/29/2022, but I did not put in incandescent lights because I believed the meteorologists (dummy me :( ) that my area would only see 31 degrees F.  Anyway, all of the other mango trees that were not protected were just fine and produced some nice fruit this year. 
 
There are different kinds of avocado trees, some are what I consider super-cold-hardy, some cold-hardy, and other kinds not-cold-hardy at all for this area.

Learned where to put my lychee trees in my back yard the "hard way" so to speak as well. :D

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Coffee
« on: August 27, 2022, 02:47:10 PM »
One of the coffee species I have is Red Catuai.  I enjoy eating the flesh for they are semi-sweet. Then I process the beans for later roasting.


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How about Key Limes that were grown, generation after generation based on their size?  One fruit club member planted the seed of the largest key lime fruit he found in 1951. Then when this tree produced fruit, he planted the seed of the largest fruit on that tree.  On and on.  I got the 10th generation Key Lime tree from our fruit club's raffle table.  Most of the fruit on this tree are 2"x1".  But in 2019, one fruit on my tree was 3"x2" but it had only one seed which I planted and keep it a pot, waiting for fruiting.


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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida mangos in Hawaii. All good??
« on: February 22, 2022, 12:00:03 PM »
In Olinda, Maui you will see large and old mango trees ... but no fruit. Elevation there is 3,500' for so. :)

5
Denise gave me a couple of her Denise mangoes two seasons ago.  A fantastic mango in many ways.  The aroma of them sitting in the kitchen was memorable.  But eating them was a mango treat I'll never forget.  :D

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Central Florida Mango Trees
« on: June 03, 2020, 10:56:01 AM »
There are a number of large mango trees in several micro-climates in the metro Orlando areas in fact, like Winter Park for example and Windermere for another.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Squirrels
« on: May 23, 2020, 03:58:52 PM »
I protect fruit with plastic clamshells and/or plastic bags along with trapping squirrels. It's been a challenge all these many years to harvest anything from my yard!




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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Tebow(Young) mango
« on: July 18, 2019, 01:03:51 PM »
I harvested all of my Young mangoes last week.  All have ripened properly this week and are simply wonderful fruit.  By the way, I've eaten dozens and dozens of mango varieties in 60+ years and this variety is just one of my favorites - maybe that's why I have two of these trees in my yard.  :)

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Let the Lychee war begin...
« on: May 21, 2019, 08:20:25 PM »
Here's a picture of how I protect my lychee fruit.  Dangling from the lychee trees are holographic tape (looks a bit like a snake in fact), rubber snakes, and old CD and DVD disks.  Oh, and my large (I have more than one) animal trap contains fresh sunflower seeds for the squirrels.  I catch a few almost every week.


11
Calamondins make an incredibly tasty pie.  I use my favorite Lemon Meringe recipe and substitue Calamondin juice.  Wonderful!  You can make some tasty cakes as well.  The juice can be used in drinks, smoothies, etc.  The tree is very cold hardy.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Monster avocado
« on: February 21, 2019, 12:39:52 PM »
My uncle and aunt in Waipahu had a seedling avocado tree in their back yard. The fruit was of a different shape that this one and a bit heavier on average, some about 5 pounds in fact.  The shape was that of an elongated green gourd with a small seed at the bulbous end.  It was delicious.  I got a couple scions from a cousin last year but I was not successful in grafting them.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Oro Negro Vigor and cold hardiness
« on: January 12, 2018, 01:13:46 PM »
WGphil: I like Day (I have 3 Day trees  :) ), Brogdon (had 4 in the 1990s, back to a newly-planted one now), Fantastic, Brazos Belle, and Mexicola.  I'm not a fan of Bacon and maybe I'll top-graft that tree.  I have eaten but one Joey last year, so I'll have to see this year, but you could ask the squirrels about the Joey fruit they ate last year before I could stop them.  :-\  I created a Winter Mexican graft a few years ago that is coming along slowly.  I've never eaten a Winter Mexican but I know of a person who has lots of them so I'll be sure to try one this year.

I'm trying to get some budwood from a seedling avocado tree in my cousin's back hard in Waipahu, HI.  The fruit is out of this world tasty and HUGE and shaped like a long gourd.  Some of the fruit weigh around 5#.



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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Oro Negro Vigor and cold hardiness
« on: January 10, 2018, 10:33:20 PM »
I have had success with cold-hardy and super-cold-hardy avocados in my yard over the past few years.  The cold-hardy ones I have include Mexicola, Brogdon, Day, Bacon, and Winter Mexican.  The three Day trees and the Winter Mexican I grafted myself.  The Day trees are some of the fastest growing trees I have ever planted.  Thankfully the Days have slowed down in growth otherwise I'd have to prune them.  Two of the three Days suffered slight leaf burn from last week's freezes but their emerging blossoms are fine.  The third Day in located closer to the lake I live on and is frost-protected a bit by a Live Oak tree and a Southerm Maple tree overhead.  I have two Mexicolas out in the open on the north (and coldest) part of my property - no cold damage whatsover to the leaves and emerging blossoms.  The Brodgon is young (though I had a 25' Brogdon in the 1990's) and the Bacon (with blossoms) were both unaffected by this latest cold snap as well.  The super-cold-hardy species I have were unaffected as well and these are also located on the north side of my yard: Joey (another graft of mine), Brazos Belle, and Fantastic. 

Several winters ago, I had a major freeze (<23 degrees F) which destroyed the flowers on the cold-hardy varieties but the super-cold-hardy species were unaffected including their flowers amazingly.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Chilly Florida AM
« on: January 04, 2018, 10:10:58 PM »
It's so cold the birds hope to get warm on my cats ...  :-[


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"There are several sources for historic weather records. http://www.intellicast.com/Local/History.aspx is one.
There probably isn't anywhere in the continental US that doesn't have record lows above freezing. Warmest areas are on the East and West coasts where the oceans moderate temperature. The gulf coast suffers mid-continent effects so is more extreme. In addition to Florida, Coastal California is another region that has few freezing days but the dry climate isn't ideal for tropicals and real estate costs are high. Hawaii is the only US state that doesn't get freezing temperatures but it isn't 'continental'."

Hawaii has many freezes at higher elevations.  Just checkout the mountainous webcams to verify snow at this time of the year. Elevation is important even in the tropics.  In Olinda on Maui (elevation 3,573 feet), mango trees will live but not produce fruit - it's too cool/cold for fruit set.  On the road just before you enter Kula Hospital is a very old and scraggly coconut palm that's been this way for decades at ... 3,028 feet in elevation.

17
By recommend, are you referring to their cold-hardiness or their taste and flavor?  All of the super-cold hardy ones do very well in my area.  Now I can only speak to Joey, Lila, Fantastic, and Brazos Belle personally regarding temperture tolerance.  Flavor?  I've enjoyed all but the very small Joey tree's crop because the squirrels stole all the fruit last year! These trees really produce when mature too.  In fact, the squirrels don't know which tree to raid sometimes because of the quantity.  Friends have given me Poncho avocado fruit which I found to be good-eating and the tree is another super-cold hardy variety for this area.

18
I have two mature Mexicola Avocado trees, three mature Day Avocado trees plus other much more cold-hardy varieties like Brazos Belle, Joey, Lila, and Fantastic.  About 3 or 4 winters ago we had temps down around 22-24 degrees F for one morning.  Note that all of these trees had blooms on them at that time.  All the outside blooms on the Day and Mexicola trees were destroyed except for the blooms located inside and nearer the center of each of these threes.  Almost none of the other super-cold-hardy varieties' blooms were affected by the low temperatures.  Interesting, the Day and Mexicola trees produced another set of blooms a month or so after the damage. The Mexicola trees themselves (and Day too) were not damaged however.  Thought I'd share my experience with Mexicola.  I'd recommend the super-cold hardy varieties if you expect below 22-24 degree F and lower temperatures.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What are some flood tolerant trees?
« on: October 27, 2017, 09:12:45 AM »
Mango trees might be somewhat flood tolerant and I'm about to find out.  After 46+ days of "lake watering" caused by Hurricane Irma here, my mango trees are hanging in there.  The Dwarf Hawaiian has bloomed and the Sweet Tart to its right just finished another flush.


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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango Blooms in October in Florida?
« on: October 26, 2017, 06:10:17 PM »
Update after 45+ days of "lake watering" after Hurricane Irma.  The blooming Dwarf Hawaiian mango and Sweet Tart mango (on the right of the Sweet Tart) are still hanging in there.




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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Mango Blooms in October in Florida?
« on: October 15, 2017, 11:10:04 AM »
Since Hurricane Irma blew threw East Central Florida last month, my mango trees have been doing some interesting things.  My Dwarf Hawaiian, for example, has produced lots of blooms now that its roots have been submerged for over 4 weeks, while my Sweet Tart flushed out.




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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Here Comes The Rains Folks !
« on: May 01, 2017, 09:13:22 PM »
Not a drop at my place in Longwood, FL!    >:(

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Original Haden Mango Tree
« on: February 28, 2017, 09:37:02 AM »
Very true about Hawaii and Hadens.  In fact, on Maui, the Haden was THE mango to grow and/or buy for as long as I can remember despite the fact that this species has serious problems with anthracnose and other diseases when grown on the wetter side of the islands.  But growing Hadens in say Kihei or Lahaina worked very well.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Original Hayden Mango Tree
« on: February 26, 2017, 09:45:05 AM »
My in-laws purchased an old mango grove circa 1970 in Haiku, Maui that dates back to the 1920's. The two main mango varieties on the property are Haden and Pirie.  I used to pick the fruit and sell them as no one has cared for the orchard for some 60+ years as far as I know.

Nevertheless, the surviving trees, as you might expect in the tropics, are simply huge and at times incredibly productive. 

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Are your lychees blooming?
« on: February 26, 2017, 12:04:11 AM »
Lots of blooms and fruit in 2015. Not one bloom in 2016.  :(

But lots of blooms this year on my Brewster, Sweetheart, Emperor, Mauritius, and Bengal lychee trees  :)

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