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Messages - Galatians522

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1
The frozen cubes make great smoothies. I froze 14 gallon zip lock bags last year and also made mango popsicles.

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Lychee flowers fail or win? Help pls
« on: March 26, 2024, 11:05:13 PM »
Relax, it looks like a normal bloom to me. And yes, males are first to open shortly followed by females and then a few hermaphrodite flowers (hermaphrodite bloom does not tend to make high quality fruit from what I have observed). It is very rare to see completely all male bloom on a tree. The only time I have ever seen that is as the result of a freeze about the time the flowers were going to open. Some varieties have a lot more female blooms (like Mauritius). Sweet Heart has way fewer. Remember, out of that whole panicle with hundreds of blooms only around a dozen will end up as fruit. So, there don't have to be many female flowers...

3
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Annona reticulata on Annona squamosa
« on: March 25, 2024, 09:57:13 PM »
Sugar apples (a. squamosa) have been really finicky for me while cherimoya (a. cherimola) has been easy.  I see that they are graft compatible, does it sound like a reasonable idea to graft seedling sugar apple onto cherimoya rootstock in the hopes of improving its tolerance for wet soil?  I am assuming this is why my sugar apples struggle.

Yes, grafting to cherimoya will speed sugar apple growth and increase leaf and fruit size according to the article I read.

4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Campbell White Sapote HELP?
« on: March 25, 2024, 08:40:13 PM »
I would check to see if the soil in the pot is too wet. They don't like wet feet in my experience. The other thing I have noticed is that they are sort of semi-deciduous here droping a bunch of leaves and looking trashy. Then they flush out and start looking good shortly after. Jaboticaba does the same thing.

5
Orinocco is good when deep fried. I have not tried dear Puerto Rican.

6
A few years ago I went up to central Florida and stopped at a couple of abandoned citrus farms that were clearly in decline. Neither seemed to be over run with weeds or vines but a good half of the trees were dead or dying possibly due to lack of watering, fertilization, or the effect of cold snaps. The fruit on them was very good.

Things have not been the same since citrus greening (HLB) has spread through out the state. Now the trees start to die within a month of the owner walking away. Before HLB, citrus grew wild all over this part of the state. The only thing that kept it from getting listed as an invasive species was the influence that the citrus industry had in state government. Fruit on the surviving trees in abandoned groves is fairly sweet in my experience especially if it was a valencia grove. Hamlins were never as sweet but production was higher.

7
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: wtb moon drop grapes
« on: March 22, 2024, 09:41:40 PM »
There is a very low chance that they will survive and fruit in Florida for any length of time (unless you have a plan to keep them from getting infected with Pierce's Disease.

8
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Looking for skinner mulberry
« on: March 22, 2024, 09:38:56 PM »
Josh Jamison has it here in Florida. You'll just have to wait until its back in stock. Or maybe call and ask to be put on a waiting list.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://codycovefarm.com/product/skinner-mulberry-budwood/&ved=2ahUKEwiCyY6Qn4mFAxWRTjABHe4sC6sQFnoECCQQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2VGIa2srJuayC70AEDv_VC

9
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 FL Mango Season
« on: March 22, 2024, 03:37:56 PM »
I don't know if this was mentioned but does anyone know if adding a wetting agent to the sulfur/water solution would help with distribution?

Yes it does. Use only wettable sulfur (I would recommend microthiol disperss) and add a spreader sticker according to the instructions on the label.

10
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Whats the "biggest" mango
« on: March 21, 2024, 05:56:34 AM »
Springfels are massive. There was a mango talk that I went to years ago and the guy who gave the talk had one on his display table that I first thought was a papaya from a distance. I think one of the pineapple series mangos from Zill is a seedling of Springfels and is also quite large. Lara Farms has a mango they say is quite large.

11
I don't know of a source for scion material for Hood and don't have a tree myself. I think Just Fruits and Exotics carries the trees along with several other places. The research I have done on compatibility with apple says that you would likely need 2 interstems. First you would have to graft a cultivated pear, then Winter Bannana apple, and finally a low chill apple. If I remember, the thread that I read on the Growing Fruit forum seemed to undicate that the Winter Bananna apple was not directly compatible with Callery pear. You might check that forum for scions of Hood, though. I am not on there and just read occasionally, so I don't know what is available. But it might be worth a shot.

12
Pineapple will set fruit on its own. I don't know if callery will bloom at the right time to act as a pollenator.

13
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: So much for chilling hours
« on: March 20, 2024, 10:47:21 PM »
The number of chill hours or minimum temp to stimulate lychee flowering varies a lot between varieties. I have seen lists of well over 40 varieties trialled in my local area on the Tablelands from least to most chill hours needed in sequence. Some like Tai so which maritius is form and kwai mai pink can flower at times when temps don't fall below 50f.
.

What specific varieities were they? Are Mauritius, sweetheart & xianjinfeng included on that trial?

Sweetheart would fall among the various strains of Fai zee sui in my opinion.

14
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Can I use old pot?
« on: March 20, 2024, 10:27:32 AM »
Spray it with hydrogen peroxide.

15
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: So much for chilling hours
« on: March 20, 2024, 10:18:53 AM »
Oddly enough, while we have had no severe cold, it has been chilly all winter--which is what lychee needs.

About what temperature is the threshold between chilly and severe cold? I planted a lychee last summer.

Mike T's response is very accurate. It varies based on variety. From personal experience with the varieties we have in Florida, anywhere between mid 30's and low 50's is good for lychee bloom. Below 30 concerns about freeze damage begin, but that can vary based on variety as well.

16
Also looking for something that will do well in Tampa that can be grafted over kaffir pear. Not sure the roots., but it's coming back with big old thorns
Sounds like Callery pear roots. Almost all pears are grafted on that in Florida. Maybe Pineapple Pear or Hood would work in Tampa those are the old standbys.

17
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: So much for chilling hours
« on: March 19, 2024, 08:27:10 PM »
Lychee bloom is strong everywhere. I would estimate about 90% of trees are blooming throughout the county. Oddly enough, while we have had no severe cold, it has been chilly all winter--which is what lychee needs.

18
It used to happen a lot here in Florida with our citrus groves. Its a lot of work to the pull vines out of trees and cut the Brazilian pepper bushes down, etc. Very few of the trees ever died, though. On occasion it is helpful to have an overgrown grove. Particularly durring freezes. The vines take the brunt of the cold at the tops of the trees and the bushes help hold the heat in. In one particular story I heard recounted, the only grove to survive a freeze had been abandoned a year or two before. The higher price of fruit the next year paid for the grove to get cleaned up and then it still turned a profit.

19
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Do you leave leaves under trees?
« on: March 18, 2024, 11:09:54 PM »
We keep our lychee leaves. They make a good mulch and put nutrients back into the soil. The only readon you would remove leaves is if they are harboring a pathogen of some kind.

21
Looks like a micro nutrient defficiency to me. I'm not familiar enough with papaya to tell you which one. I would expect a viral disease to be more random instead of following the veins exactly.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 FL Mango Season
« on: March 12, 2024, 10:08:26 PM »
Can someone tell me what's with the gray blooms on my Maha Chanock? Is it mold or is it the weather?




Classic powdery mildew.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Triploid artocarpus breeding
« on: March 11, 2024, 10:32:05 PM »

24
I grow Tropic Sweet and Ein Shimer(sp?). Both have been in the ground for close to a decade, neither grow very fast nor do they produce much. If I get a couple apples each then its a bumper year. It never crossed my mind that RKN could have something to do with it.

RKN can feast on those roots but it would become obvious after 2-4 years. Trees would basically get stuck on survival mode then eventually give up and succumb. Most rootstocks if not all are prone as far as I can tell.

Southern Crabapple was used as a rootstock years ago. It is native to north Florida and has a measure of RKN resistance. However, there was some question about it imparting extra tannins to the fruit and was mostly discontinued. Tannins are great if you want to make hard cider (so I hear), but not so good for fresh eating apples. Malus doumeri might be a good rootstock option for the deep south and Florida if you could get your hands on it. Its native to Taiwan and Vietnam but pretty rare in the US.

25
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Best Self Fertile Sapodilla
« on: March 10, 2024, 08:26:47 AM »
I'm pretty sure the older types were not self fertile. We had one for 15 + years that flowered but never really set fruit until we bought a Molix. When it finally set a few fruits, they were round and grainy (Brown Sugar?). My dad cut it down.

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