The Tropical Fruit Forum

I wanted to take inventory, thought I'd post it here.  Suggestions are welcome, get rid of this, add this, whatever.


Avocados to date:
Mexican avocado
Marcus Pumpkin
Loretta
Want - 1-2 more avocado trees.

Mangoes:
Mallika
Cotton candy
Coconut cream
Ice cream
Glenn
Valencia pride
Edward – not doing well, probably will replace
Peach cobbler
Alfonso
Nam Doc Mai
Florigon
On the list to get – Orange Sherbet and Lemon Zest of course. 

Pineapples - several
Cinnamon tree
Star apple white – literally has thousands of flower buds right now.
Star apple purple – no flower buds??
3 Custard apples
Red custard apple Tobago Pink
Jackfruit – 3 types
3 Soursop, Sunrise, I need to get the other two types.  (I’m becoming addicted to soursops.)
Ross Canistel
Macadamia nut
Cashew nut
Yellow dragon fruit
Red dragon fruit - I believe it's American Beauty, not sure.
Apple – Golden Dorsett
Apple - Anna

Peanut butter fruit
Achacha
Two types of Mulberry
Mayme Sapote
Black Sapote
Silus Woods Sapodilla
Jabotacaba – type unknown – will hopefully fruit soon
Geffner Atemoya – unbelievably productive, I had to cull numerous fruits.
Lisa Atemoya
Russian pomegranate
Rollinia deliciosa – seems very happy, grown almost a foot in a month.
Ice cream bean (Tripled in size in about 4-5 months)
Blueberry patch – all highbush (Mounded pine bark fines) About 7 plants.
Hog plum (It’s tripled in size in about 3 months)
Kohala Longan
Mauritius Lyche
Red lady papaya
Fig tree type unknown - not great, to be removed.

Citrus:
Tangerine trees - 3 unknown types – 2 are great, 1 to be replaced.
Kumquat tree – HUGE kumquats, biggest I’ve ever seen.
2 navel oranges
Meyer lemon
2 Valencia oranges
2 Honeybell
2 satsuma tangerines
2 Mandarin oranges
2 Cara Cara orange trees
Key lime
Blood orange
Star Ruby grapefruit (not doing well, getting impatient)
2 Ruby red grapefruit
Large white grapefruit type unknown – but EXCELLENT

Banana patches, 8 types:
Ice cream banana
NamWah banana
Red banana
Cavandish (I know – why?)
Apple Banana
Gold Finger
2 other types of bananas

2 UF best peach trees (If you don’t have these – GET THEM, these are freaking to die for!!)
Yellow dragon fruit
Red dragon fruit
White dragon fruit (not sure why I bought this)
Barbados cherry (I love this tree!!  It never complains, all it does is grow and produce thousands of cherries all year!  3rd year in the ground and the fruit just gets better and better)
Three coconut trees
Five cocoa trees

My son brought these home from a friends house, his friend knew nothing about the tree, but my son raved about the fruit.  They are not nearly ripe so I can't cut one open to show the inside yet.  I have not seen the tree or anything, but he says it produces tons of fruit.

I'm thinking Kent??  Some of you mango snobs care to give an opinion?

Thanks!!

Hello, I'm still trying to help my trees recover from Irma, and the 2 weeks of being underwater, followed by 2 weeks of soaked ground.   Does this look like iron deficiency?  It is new growth, still soft.

Here is a pic of new leaf growth on a grapefruit tree that has been in the ground for 2 years.  I do use a good grade of citrus fertilizer with micro nutrients, but the last batch I bought I think only had 1% iron. 

To me, this looks like iron deficiency, please let me know if you have an educated opinion.  I also think it could use a touch more nitrogen, just a touch - agree??

Here are the pics.  The second pic is slightly out of focus, but has light coming through from the back. 






This is what I bought for an iron drench.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0053NDZJW/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_7

Hey all, I just got a box of wax jambu apples.  I've been reading and find articles literally all over the map.  An L.A. Times article said it makes them go bad faster, other articles say it makes them last 3 days, another says 7 days???

Has anyone refrigerated them, and what was the result??

Thanks!!

To refresh everyone’s memory, I have a young badly girdled custard apple tree that I want to save.   I had originally tried a bridge graft but I have no idea if it will take. I had another idea and that is to treat the girdled area as an air later and just get new roots to form from the top of the girdled area. Curious as to if anyone had any comments on this.    To me this makes more sense than relying on the bridge graft to carry the tree for the next 20 or 30 years. Does anyone disagree?

Been looking for some time on the SW coast of FL. and I can't find one.  I'd prefer not to mail order and Amazon rips you off on the one they offer.  I'm willing to drive to the other coast for the right tree.  Any leads appreciated, I'd prefer one in excess of 3' tall.

Thanks!

I have a Walmart about 15 minutes from my house with a larger than normal garden department.  I run in from time to time and actually make a good tropical fruit tree find, here is my latest, some bugs got to it after I got it home, so out comes the Neem Oil.  It's over 4' tall, Kohala Longan, for $30.00 I don't think it's a bad find at all, clearing a place for my new trees this weekend.  Once in a while, we get lucky!

Well my Haas avocado isn't doing that well, but to be fair, it's been absolutely ravaged by deer a number of times.  They strip almost every leaf off of it every chance they get, I finally put a fence around it.

It dropped almost all it's leafs after a cold snap this year, then produced tons of blossoms.  Only 3 fruit have set, but again, the deer also nearly killed the tree - yet again! 

I hear they just don't do too well in my area.  Any truth to this?  If this is the case, I'd rather pull the tree - or top work it???  I guess I'd have to know the root stock to make that decision.

Thoughts?  Will a Haas thrive in Naples, or will it struggle?

Thank you!

I have a Geffner Atemoya that I ignored for a few days, and now it has a TON of flowers opening up.  It is my understanding that this strain is self pollinating, I just bought the tree a few months ago, it stands a good 8'-9' tall, and I paid a premium for its size and age of course and it appears very healthy. 

Questions:

1, should I attempt hand pollination for a Geffner?  It is surprising to inspect, flowers that are only open about 30% have no visible pollen, I assume they are female??  Flowers that are open much more have a lot of visible pollen, I assume male?  So it goes female day one, then male day 2?? 

2.  There are a LOT, and I mean a lot of flowers on this tree. I am taking good care of it, but it can't have much of a root spread.  It was in a 25 gallon pot and appears very healthy.  I'm assuming the consensus would be that I pinch most of the fruit to allow root development, agreed?? 

I plan on feeding it well, so far I'm impressed with the tree and plan on buying most of my stuff from this nursery in the future, it is located in Bokeelia. 

Thanks!

Been looking for a reasonably priced, larger achacha tree.  Any ideas?  I STRONGLY prefer to buy locally as I know shipped trees can get stressed, especially if shipped bare root, etc.  They seem to take a full year to just recover from being shipped bare root.

Also, anyone recommend another sapote tree for my climate and soil in SWFL?  I have a Mamey, just put in the ground, about 4' tall.  Maybe a white or green if they will fruit in my area?

I think I have a tree buying problem.

OK, I just got a Geffner Sapote, and I have several other trees, mostly citrus.  Most of my 2.5 acres are in 100 yr flood zone.  I have multiple citrus, blueberries, 2 mango, 3 avocado, 2 jackfruit, although the main tree does not appear healthy.  I have apple ( not even in the ground yet) and many others, what would you recommend without destroying any good, native trees?

I am interested in:  Ice cream bean, Mamee Sapote, and peanut butter fruit ........

Am I missing anything?  If you could only have 5-6 fruit trees in 10b SW Florida, what would those me?

I'm still in a buying and planting phase, so input appreciated.

I had a client that works for the Naples Botanical Garden, he had just cleaned out an area and had a pickup load of trees and gave me a couple.  They were labeled, but at least one of the trees appears mislabeled.  Both trees were very stressed, exposed roots in the pot, clearly hadn't been watered or fed.  One appears to be recovering, one doesn't look so good.  We have had a cold snap of late (by SW FL standards) so I'm hoping it just went dormant.  I repotted both, giving them water and light feedings.  Hope to rehab both and plant this spring once the rains start. 

I was told they were both jackfruit, obviously wrong.  One is labeled Artocarpus heterophyllus (Jackfruit), but has tulip shaped leaves, clearly isn't a jackfruit.  This tree appears to be on the mend.

Second tree is seriously stressed and it doesn't look so good, but again, I hope it's just going dormant due to the cold weather.  I just remembered, it had a fire ant nest in the pot, perhaps they damaged the roots?  I've heard they can do that.  Anyway, it is labeled as Annona Reticulata, and has leaves that resemble Jackfruit.

I don't think the labels got switched as one was secured with pretty heavy wire. 

If the one tree has fire ant damaged roots, what to do?  Cut back the tree to give the roots some relief?

Thanks in advance!