The Tropical Fruit Forum

Dragon, you can find Big Jim at most the local nurseries in San Diego. They sell it at 99 Ranch market as well. The fruit is sweet, low acidity but early fruit can be a bit bland which some people may like. The late fruit is exceptional. They are not really ready when they are yellow, they must be orange to orange yellow to reach full potential. For those that like a bit more tart and less sweet, harvest when yellow.

I recommend people multigraft their tree to get all the different flavor profiles each variety has to offer. I have both white and orange fleshed fruit on my young tree. I believe my tree has been in the ground about 3 years IIRC but I cut it back a lot in order to graft new varieties onto it.

Simon

Here's a cluster of large Big Jims.

Simon

My Big Jims get huge. They are large without thinning and are huge if you thin 1/2-2/3 of the fruit. here is a large big jim, not the largest on my tree. Pic was taken about two weeks ago. fruit next to a jumbo chicken egg and a jumbo quail egg.



Simon

Here are some baby DOT mangos from my Turpentine rootstock tree with LZ as an interstock.


Here are some baby DOT fruit from my Double Stone Grafted tree. 2/3 of the panicles were removed in order to avoid snapping the tree in half during strong winds.


Simon

Paul, you seedlings look like they are doing great. Please keep us updated on the progress of these DSGs.

I have encountered one major issue with DSGed mango trees grown in cooler climates. The issue is that the grafted trees will flower and try to hold fruit the very first year because the cold weather will induce blooms. This causes an unnecessary waste of energy in producing blooms that may have otherwise gone into further vegetative growth.

I propose two new suggestions for those growing in colder climates.
1) innarch two seedling trees together and Do Not graft mature scion onto the tree until it is more established. At this point, the upper cannopy can be top worked with mature scions from a named cultivar. This technique will require a lot of work and my second suggestion may be more practical.
2) graft and grow the DSGed mango trees as explained in this thread but keep them in a pot treated with MicroKote or use an air pruning pot. Instead of immediately planting the tree into the ground, keep the tree in pots and gradually step up the pot to a larger root pruning pot. When the weather gets cold, move into a greenhouse, I use my garage and keep them under artificial lights. When they reach a decent size, perhaps in their second or third year, plant them into the ground.

This technique is also a lot of work but for those of us in colder climates, controlling the temperature or working with I grafted seedling trees is the only alternatives I see. Leo Manuel has excellent results planting seedlings into the ground, letting them establish to the point of fruit bearing and only top working trees with undesirable fruit.

I have one DSGed mango tree that I kept in my garage over the winter and it is my only tree that did not flower. Flowering is an extreme waste of resources when my goal is to achieve a large mango tree.

My next step is to remove all the fruit from my in ground DSGed trees and see if I can spur vegetative growth by increasing nitrogen levels in the leaves through foliar spraying with a Nitrogen fertilizer. I'll keep everyone updated.

Simon

It is small cell cancer in her lungs. She is also on blood thinners so she can't eat too much leafy greens. She is also taking broccoli sprouts and shiitake mushrooms for the cancer. She will soon be getting proton radiation which is more targeted.

Simon

Angelica Keiske Chalcones

Simon

Here's the pictures, didn't mean to derail my own thread but the Angelica Keiske is something I hope more people on this forum will grow and bring into their diet. There is a lot of recent research on Angelica Keiske and the Chalcones it contains.

Something wrong with post image, script error.

Anyways, here is some research on AK/Chalcones
Diabetes
Angelica Keiske Diabetes

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/17583349/
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1271/bbb.110927
http://www.dyna-nutrition.com/newsletter/ashitaba-diabetic-diet/?v=7516fd43adaa

Cancer

 
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/815621/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25138130
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0223523415300350
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264901942_Advances_in_Chalcones_with_Anticancer_Activities
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6613775_The_development_of_chalcones_as_promising_anticancer_agents
Fat
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/25406632/

Simon
 

Hey everyone,

See reply 21 for amazing new finding

My in laws are determined on having their own fresh supply of Noni so I purchased a plant for them from a Plantogram.com. I've done a lot of Internet searches on growing Noni and it seems to be a very easy plant to grow although it will be difficult to keep it happy here in SoCal because the literature says it doesn't like temps below 55F and can defoliate and die below 45F. My nightly lows are now averaging 55F.

Does anyone have any recommendations, tips or tricks that may help me grow this terrible fruit? I've tried Noni juice from a bottle and it was mixed with fruit juice and I nearly vomited. The thought of the fruit is enough to make me dry heave. My inlaws drink the bottled pure Noni juice on a regular basis and they have no issues with it.

I plan on keeping the Noni in a pot with rich organic soil and will grow it outdoors during warm weather and will bring it into the garage during the colder months. Noni is a fast growing plant so I may not be doing this long before it gets too large to move. Once it gets large enough, I plan on keeping it outdoors trained right up against the south facing wall of my house and hope that it will be large enough to handle the cold unprotected. We do get to around 32F, couple hours of frost, but I'm hoping the trees roots will be able to pop new growth and not get completely killed in Winter.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Simon

Horrible,

Everything was going great until an animal dug at the base of the potted seedling lychee and knocked over the pot and snapping the small branch. Calluses were already forming and I'm positive the graft would have taken. I will perform more of these grafts this year.

For future experiments, I will be using Mauritius or Brewster seedlings as I believe they may have better adaptability to our high pH soils and grow with much vigor here. I will also test out the micro air layer technique I described above when I get some free time.

Please post here if you decide to try either of these techniques, I would love to hear and learn from other people's experiences.

Simon

Angel Red is an excellent Pomegranate that can get relatively sweet and has excellent sugar acid balance. AR is also a very heavy producer. My Parfianka also bears really well here in SoCal and IIRC it is slightly more tart than Angel Red. Both varieties are much better than Wonderful.

Simon

JF, your memory is incredible. I do remember now that you mention it. I wonder if trees grafted onto Lavern Manilla or other specific rootstocks will impart disease resistance?

Shane, it is still best to send out a sample to get it analyzed so you know exactly what it is. The bottom portion of your LZ still looks healthy so it can still recover. I get wounds that leak sap when the weather gets cold. The product JF mentioned sounds promising.

Simon

Neither, after trying both pots you mentioned and the fabric pots, I have finally switched to regular nursery pots coated with MicroKote. The pots with the holes in them are a mess to use because soil comes out of the container and they are also a big waste of water. MicroKote treated pots can be watered like regular pots with the added benefit of root pruning.

Also, as bsbullie mentioned, make sure you use the appropriate soil.

Simon