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Topics - Cookie Monster

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26
Tropical Fruit Discussion / The Cookie Monster Orchard Project
« on: September 05, 2014, 06:41:55 PM »
Whoo hoo! Nothing like a clean slate. I bought the vacant lot next door and trucked in 250 cu yards of delray beach topsoil to raise the lot about a foot with "real" soil (not this alkaline junk that they gave us on my lot).

Planting commences this weekend. 38 trees will fit on that baby!

The neighbor's think we're nuts :-). Fortunately all have been really positive about the project, including the HOA, city, and neighbors. One neighbor told me, "it's better to have ag than another crazy neighbor." :-).

I'll update when the planting finishes!



27
I just upgraded to the Mackissic 12PHT8HMC, so I no longer have a use for it. I've used it for about 6 years. It's in "fair" condition. The screen blew a hole, and I temporarily mended it, but there's no telling how long that will last. I've been told by a former Mackissic dealer that the Mackissic Mighty Mac screen will fit the Grizzly. Whether that's true or not, I cannot confirm.

The motor is a briggs & straton 6.5 industrial commercial. I upgraded the clutch from the stock clutch to an industrial clutch that has lasted several years. I replaced the carb a year or so ago. I also replaced one of the bearings (I still have spare bearings that I will give you.)

I don't know how much life it has left, but it fires up every time, and the motor is probably worth at least my asking price. If you're mechanically inclined and /or have a welder friend, you could probably keep this thing running for many years to come.

Retail price is $800. My asking price is $150. The manufacturer has stopped selling it, but this is the one: http://www.grizzly.com/outlet/Large-Chipper-Shredder-w-Briggs-Stratton-/G0594

The machine is a nice combo of ease, power, and safety. I've put my hand a little too deep into the shredder hopper a couple of times and walked away with nothing more than a sore finger. When I did that on the Mackissic, it tore a big chunk out of my finger and tore my leather gloves to shreds. Needless to say, I'll never be doing that again... :-/ The chipper end is also too slim to fit an arm down, so it's what I consider very safe (unlike the mackissic -- an entire arm could go in there, I won't be wearing loose clothing around that monster).


28
I need 3 or 4 really good Florida avocado trees with the following characteristics:

 - Sets fruit outside of mango season
 - A good substitute for california avocadoes

Lately, I've found that there are some pretty darn good west indian type cadoes, and I have a few new spots to plant a few trees (we bought the lot next door to us :-). I bought an oro negro and am looking for 2 or 3 more that are oily / rich and that will give me a long season worth of cado lovin.

Suggestions?

Carlos?

29
A couple of months back, a Vietnamese fellow was visiting, and I was telling him about my bad luck with annona fruit set. He told met that the secret is to put rotting fruit at the base of the tree, which attracts some sort of pollinator. He said that what he does is to simply plant a carambola right next to his annonas (the carambolas fall and rot).

So, I tried it. We now toss all of our fruit scraps at the base of my Lisa atemoya. Right now I have a dozen fruits, and practically every flower is setting. The tree has only been in the ground for about 18 months, so 12 fruits (with more in the way!) is fairly impressive, especially considering that I've never had any luck with annonas in the many years that I've grown them.

I know part of the success is due to excellent car by Har in addition to the fact that this is a tree grafted by Zill's HPP and is on cherimoya rootstock.

Has anybody else had similar experiences?

30
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Wanted: Mammea Americana Seeds
« on: January 24, 2014, 07:30:15 PM »
Need a couple to graft up a couple of promising central american cultivars... Willing to pay $$$

31
Tropical Fruit Discussion / The Return of the Moyas !!
« on: January 03, 2014, 08:43:09 PM »
Check these babies out. Cookie Monster ordered a box of Heaven from Park Hill Orchards again.



This year's supply isn't quite as big as last years. Last year we ordered like 40 pounds worth !!

I just started digging into these babies, starting with the Pierce.

The pierce are insanely sweet and incredibly delicious. Taste like little green balls of vanilla and honey. When my wife had the first one, she told me, "I'd move back to California just to grow these." It sounds like a joke, but I actually gave the idea some thought !!

I just wish that God would have planned it differently -- mangoes in the winter and moyas in the summer!! That way I could eat mangoes in the beautiful south florida winter and then move to socal to eat cherimoya during the awesome socal summer!!

Now I'm having trouble deciding which are better -- moyas or mangoes!!

32
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Vexator -- 8 years to fruit. Is this common?
« on: November 25, 2013, 11:20:04 AM »
Both of my 8 year old vexators have little pea sized fruits on them for the first time (whoo hoo!). The bigger of the two is roughly 8 feet tall and wide. Is it common for them to take so long to fruit?

33
where would cookie monster go to find a few yards of quality top soil for a raised garden??

34
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Wolf Spiders == Awesome?
« on: November 18, 2013, 11:30:41 PM »
I made a funny discovery the other night. I was walking around with my headlamp and noticed what appeared to be hundreds of glistening water droplets on the mulch. I don't know why, but I had the urge to look at one closely, and low and behold it was not a water droplet but a pair of spider eyes staring at me.

Turns out that all those hundreds of little sparkles on the ground are actually wolf spiders. When I did a little research on them, it seems that they are aggressive little buggers that feed on things like BEETLES, preferring to hunt them down vs spinning a web.

Then it occurred to me: if they eat beetles, then what would stop them from eating Evil Sri Lankan Weevils?

They are apparently attracted to the mulch. So maybe mulch brings wolf spiders which then eat sri lankan weevils???

Just a theory, but makes me happier to know that yet another beneficial is attracted to the mulch.

Anybody know if wolf spiders eat evil sri lankan weevols???

35
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Cookie Manster's first Atemoya(s)! YIPPEEEE
« on: September 24, 2013, 09:54:05 PM »
After roughly 6 years of attempting to fruit an atemoya here in my pupey "soil" I finally have 2 (TWO) little baby 48-26 atemoyas peeking out from underneath the foliage. They are already thumbnail sized, so I know that it's fo realz. (I'd take pics but my wife has the camera with her on vacation. :-)

I've previously tried unsuccessfully to fruit:

 - a 48-26 from excalibur (sugar apple rootstock)
 - a petch pack cheech and chong
 - a gefner

Each had their spots for several years before getting yanked due to not producing a single fruit.

This 48-26 that fruited has only been in the ground for less than a year and came from Zill's (cherimoya rootstock).

It either fruited because of Har's meticulous care or because it's on a more favorable rootstock (or both).

Cookie Manstar gonna be eating atemoya this winter !!

36
The sell-off continues:

 - 7gal Spanish Lime 'Montgomery' $40
 - 3gal Spanish Lime 'Montgomery' $20
 - 7gal Spanish Lime 'Sasa' $50
 - 3gal Spanish Lime 'Sasa' and 'Jose Pabon' $25
 - 7gal Green Sapote 'Whitman' $40.
 - 3 - 4 foot tall Achachairu (seedlings) $25
 - 3 gallon Cushman mango $20
 - 15 gallon Bell carambola $50
 - 3 gallon Mamey sapote 'Lara' $20

Local pickup in Tamarac, FL only. Message me for directions.

37
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / giant 7gal $40 fruit tree bonanza
« on: June 28, 2013, 09:53:59 PM »
Lots of really nice / huge trees for sale in 7gal @ $40 a pop. Some 3gal too. Local pickup only. We're trimming inventory -- transitioning from plant sales to fruit sales.

pim sane mun, fernandin, langra banarsi, lemon zest, coco cream, sweet tart, sunrise, lancetilla, julie, pineapple pleasure, choc anon, madame blanc, dot

lots more. ask for info. PM for address.

38
YEE HAWW! I haven't had many coconut cream mangoes. My in ground tree probably has a good 15 or 20 hanging, but they won't be ripe until later in the summer. But my potted tree collection has a few that are ripening. Today I ate one -- and it knocked my socks off. Tastes just like coconut cream pie. Sweeter than hack, buttery, with a hint of coconut and a subtle citrus odor. YEE HAWW! Squam was right about this mango -- it RALKS!

39
Hey all you smart honkey tonks: who can tell me why the carrie mango sometimes sets good crops and why it sometimes sets poor crops?

I've noticed for some time that the flowers my carrie trees send forth during the winter months (Nov - Feb) hold very few fruit. They will either fail to set fruit, or the fruit that is set will drop when BB-sized. However, flowers that come later in the year (Mar/Apr) set and hold a much higher percentage of fruit. Why is this?

Possible theories:

 - Iron / Manganese deficiency exacerbated by cold weather (which slows uptake)
 - Cold temps from northern fronts cause flowers to drop
 - Cooler temps encourage fungus issues

Who can solve the Carrie mango riddle??

40
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Emperor Lychee in-ground success stories?
« on: March 31, 2013, 08:26:58 PM »
Hey there fruit cowboys, I'm just wondering if anybody in South Floriduh has had any success with in-ground emperor lychee trees. I've been growing one in a big container for several years, and it's been rather consistent on the bearing. One time it fruited so heavily that it went into shock and nearly croaked; I had to remove all the fruit to save. However, I know that they are quite finicky when it comes to soil, liking neither muck nor high-ph limestone 'soil'.

If any of you chlorophyll rockstars have had success with lychees in ground, how has the fruiting habit been when grown in ground?

41
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Kesar Mango
« on: March 12, 2013, 07:07:37 PM »
I'm rather impressed with the kesar so far. Mine are just starting to flower. Disease resistance seems to be really strong, and based on the couple of the small trees that flowered last year, holding power seems to be really good. The flavor was incredible -- very complex with a nice dark orange flesh. It will ultimately take a few years to get a full evaluation of the tree here in FL, but the kesar has the potential to be a backyard star.  Dr Campbell spoke very favorably of it. When his tree gets big enough, I suspect that we'll see it as a curator's choice selection in the near future.

42
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Any So Californians growing Naomi mango?
« on: March 09, 2013, 08:31:08 PM »
Seems like it might be well suited to the socal climate, but I don't think it's been widely distributed due to the patent (which I think just recently expired).

http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/28/7/755.full.pdf

44
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Genipa americana (Iguantil, Jagua)
« on: February 26, 2013, 06:35:40 PM »

45
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Do your neighbors think you're a freak?
« on: February 24, 2013, 10:07:41 PM »
When you look at satellite images of your yard, is it super easy to pick your house out from the neighbors?

Can you figure out which home is owned by King Fruit Hoarder in this picture? What's funny is the trees in the neighboring properties and cul-de-sac were johnny appleseeded :-).



46
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Cochin -- A jackfr00t for container growing??
« on: February 07, 2013, 09:03:38 PM »
Jackfruit doesn't normally make a good container tree, The root system is aggressive, and the trees start to decline once the roots fill out the container. Also, grafted, in-ground trees regularly take upwards of 4 years to start producing fruit. So, in order to fruit a jackfruit in a container, you pretty much need to grow it in a gigantic 200G container.

Well, I think the cochin maybe the exception to this. I have a 3 to 4 year old cochin in a 15 gallon container that seems to be producing FRUIT. It flowered last year and set no fruit. However, this year it has about a dozen flowers and what looks to be a female flower.

The tree has been very slow growing with a non-aggressive root system and has been quite content to live in a container. I think the fact that the fruit are small (2 to 5 pounds) is conducive to the tree being able to fruit without needing to be large.

I'll take some snaps tomorrow. I'm really intrigued by this little guy. He may win over my heart and a spot in the yard :-).

47
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Potassium Nitrate to Induce Mango Flowering
« on: February 06, 2013, 09:44:45 PM »
I was just talking with my brother-in-law about our poopy mango season, and he said that what the growers in El Salvador do is spray the trees with potassium nitrate at the rate of 4 grams per liter (they use the metric system :-) once a week for about a month at which point flowers should start emerge. He said some cultivars require more and some less, but it's trial and error to figure out what concentration works.

Anybody else have sperience with this? I'm going to give it a try.

48
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Phtyo-fos + Keyplex??
« on: January 29, 2013, 06:58:48 PM »
Hey there tropical fruit gurus. Does anybody know if it would be OK to mix phyto-fos and keyplex to use as a foliar spray? Are there any adverse chemical reactions that I should be aware of?

Any recommendations for a spreader sticker that doesn't cost a tooth and an eye?

49
Hey fellas, most citrus trees in my area perform poorly due to alkaline soil. Most everntually croak. I've noticed that there are a few mandarin trees in my area that do quite well and bear reliably despite the puupy soil. Any idea what cultivars of mandarin are the ones that can deal with alkaline soil like that?

50
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Bigfoot Spotted in Southern Tamarac
« on: September 16, 2012, 08:52:25 PM »
You may remember a few month back there was some discussion on the forum about the legend of the poly-embryonic avocado. Well, it's been spotted and photographed in my backyard! I was clearing out some old container plants and found this. The seed broke off when I yanked it, but it was indeed one seed (not two). Despite some literature claiming that this is a 1 in 1,000 occurrence, there's actually tree in our neighborhood which seems to produce all poly-embryonic seeds.



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