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Topics - TheWaterbug

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1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Wrong Way to Support Banana Bunch :-(
« on: August 10, 2022, 11:44:14 AM »
I was worried about this eye and string not being strong enough to support my banana plant and its bunch. I was wrong, about many things:









I suppose the good news is that the bananas were almost mature, or at least the top-most ones were. They were starting to turn yellow:





So, given what's happened, what's the best thing to do? Will the collapsed plant still do anything for the bunch? Or should I cut it off now?


2


The roots have been chewed completely off. Can it be saved? I have it in a bucket of water right now.


 



3
I should put "seedling" in quotes because I think these were propagated by tissue culture:





But in any case, they're about 6-8" tall right now, after adding a leaf since this photo was taken.

They started without any root ball to speak of. They came in those little starter cups that are ~1" square x ~3" deep, and tapered towards the bottom. I was amazed that that much plant could grow in that little soil.

So there's no corm to speak of, yet.

I'm also not sure when I should put these in the ground. They seem a bit tender right now, although they've been pretty happy being outside for the last 10 days. Weather is in the low- to mid-70s these days, but it will get colder and windier as Fall marches on. It never freezes here in Los Angeles, and the coldest nights go down to the low 50s.


I put two larger banana plants in the ground in the Fall 2 years ago, and they didn't make it.

4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Water droplets on my banana seedling leaves!?!?
« on: September 23, 2019, 06:05:43 PM »
I recently received a 4-pack of Ice Cream Banana plants from Hello Organics/amazon. They were in tiny little soil plugs (I think they're grown from tissue culture), so I put them in medium pots to get them established on my window sill. They seem to have taken well to the transplanting over the last week. My 4-pack was actually a 5-pack because one of the little plugs actually had two plants, and both appear to be viable:


Here's the odd thing. Every morning when I come out to the kitchen to make my coffee, I see little droplets of water on the ends of the leaves:







It's not dew, because these plants are indoors, and my indoor humidity is quite low.


Can I assume that this is a good sign, that they're actively taking up water?

5
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Poor results starting Ataulfo seeds :-(
« on: March 03, 2019, 02:00:22 AM »
About 2 months ago I bought a box of Ataulfo mangoes from my local 99 Ranch market for the specific purpose of planting their seeds and grafting onto them later. I much prefer the Indian style mangoes, but I've been told that Manila rootstocks work better in California.

I put more than a dozen into various pots and/or jars of water, on my counter on a heat mat, outside in the open, and outside in a little greenhouse, and after 2 months I have only two surviving seedlings, both doubles. One of them has a 4" primary that looks pretty good, but its fraternal twin has only one leaf:






The second seedling is a pair currently less than an inch tall, but otherwise looks pretty good (I'll post a photo tomorrow, when it's light).

The other 10+ seeds either failed to come up at all, or else sent up a shoot that stalled or died. Here's what those look like:



I had 4-5 of these come up with two tiny leaflets that never grew, and then the whole thing withered, turned black, and died.

I tossed out all of these dead ones today, and most of them had 4-5" of roots going down, and when I broke the seeds apart I could often see shoots with leaves curled up inside.

Is this a common problem with polyembryonic seeds? Or did I not wait long enough? Or am I just doing this at the wrong time of year? Or am I doing something else wrong?


I put another 8 seeds in the dirt today . . . .

6
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Yet Another "ID This Mango" Thread
« on: September 26, 2018, 02:46:24 PM »
Should we make a permanent thread for Mango IDs?

Anyway, I "discovered" this productive mango tree very near my home in Los Angeles:









The present owners of the house (who, apparently, have been the victims of mango theft in the past, a hanging crime in most countries) do not know the origin of the tree or the cultivar.

Is there anything in those photos that is definitive or suggestive? Or does it just look like any of 100 different varieties?

I'm most interested because it's growing vigorously and fruiting well in an environment that is pretty much exactly like mine. They're less than 2 crow-flying miles from my yard.

7
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Where to buy Mango Trees for Los Angeles?
« on: September 26, 2018, 02:26:57 PM »
I'd like to buy a few varieties, perhaps Sweet Tart, Lemon Zest, and 2-3 others. I'm not thrilled with paying $$$$$ for shipping, but I'll do that if it's the best way to get a good tree. But I'd prefer to pick up locally so I can talk to the nursery about best varieties and save on shipping.


I know the tree landscape changes frequently, so who has good trees for sale for shipment to or pickup in Los Angeles?


Any other varieties to recommend or not recommend for Los Angeles?


Thanks!

8
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Vegetative propagation from fruit tissue?
« on: September 16, 2018, 11:44:18 AM »
Just curious: what other fruit, besides pineapple, can be vegetatively propagated from purchased fruit? This post about a yellow dragonfruit with a tiny stub of vine on it got me thinking. That particular case is only marginally interesting, because it doesn't happen very often.


But could the stem of an apple or pear be induced to root? What if it had a leaf on it?


What type of tissue is typically used for tissue culture propagation?


(let's leave patent issues for a separate thread and just talk about what's biologically possible)





9
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Idiot-proof grafting tool?
« on: December 19, 2017, 08:27:56 PM »
I've never grafting anything before in my life, but this looks interesting:


https://coziza.com/products/coziza-grafting-tool


$29. Is it worth a try? I still need to try grafting my passionfruit vine this coming spring . . . .

10
Tropical Fruit Discussion / How to open a mango seed. . . .
« on: October 20, 2017, 07:58:44 PM »
I've watched some videos and read some sites recommending that people use scissors, or a knife, or even a screwdriver. <shudder>


I use a spoon. Easy and safe:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP9CPO5o5ww

11
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Does self-pollen compete with cross-pollen?
« on: October 12, 2017, 06:47:15 PM »
I'm asking because I have dragonfruit varieties that need cross-pollination, but I suppose the question is valid for other plant species as well:

If a plant cannot be pollinated by its own pollen, but its own pollen gets brushed onto its stamen stigma, will the incompatible pollen then prevent successful pollination if compatible pollen is also brushed on?

e.g. will the bad pollen be "ignored" by the flower, or will it compete with the good pollen?


edit: fixed error

12
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Pineapples--The Half Pot Experiment
« on: September 08, 2017, 05:57:11 PM »
Los Angeles is cooler and considerably drier than the regions where pineapples normally grow. Mine grow, but they don't get very big (the plant or the fruits), and they take a long time to fruit (2.5 - 3 years). I'd been growing them in terra cotta pots, filled nearly to the rim with soil.

A friend suggested that I use black plastic pots, filled only halfway with soil. His theory goes as follows: the black plastic collects heat and creates a "humidity well" near the base of the plant, which keeps it happy. Pineapples are allegedly shallow-rooted (despite my photographic evidence to the contrary!), so having a half-filled pot doesn't hurt them.

I decided to try this, so I took 4 propagules of approximately equal size from Kona Sugarloaf plants, and I put two of them in half-filled black plastic and two of them in filled terra cotta. Here's a size comparison, with one cu ft of soil in each:





And here are 2 of the 4 propagules, planted. I added more soil to the terra cotta pots to top them up:






All 4 plants are on a timered watering system with a fertilizer injector and Spot Spitter waterers. Check back in 2 years to see how this goes!

13
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Planting avocado tree on a slope?
« on: August 29, 2017, 06:45:41 PM »
I keep hearing drainage, drainage, drainage is key for avocado trees, and I've read two separate guides that recommend "building up" instead of digging down.


But how does this work on a slope? There's really no practical way to build up that big a mound on a steep slope, especially on the downhill side.

14
My parents have had a really nice plum tree in their Los Angeles front yard for 40 years, but it's finally done. It'll make a small handful of fruit this year, but the trunk is rotted out, and branches are just falling off. It's time to call it a career.


We're thinking of replacing it with a grafted cocktail tree with plums, peaches, nectarines, etc. Where can one buy such a tree in California? A lot of places that sell these trees online are prohibited from shipping into CA.


Thanks!

15
Citrus General Discussion / Watering a lemon tree with A/C condensation?
« on: August 07, 2017, 04:37:00 PM »
I put a small lemon tree (really a bush) in front of my house, and it happens to be right next to the condensation drain from my air conditioning system. So I re-routed the drain pipe so it fed directly into the tree's well. I figured it would be a good match, since I'll get condensation when it's really hot and the A/C is running most often.


Are there any significant downsides to using condensation for water? I know it's going to be semi-distilled, so it'll lack minerals, but that can be remedied by appropriate soils, mulches, and fertilizers, right?


The tree seemed to like it for the first week; I have a new flush of growth!



Then I found out that I can get up to gallon per hour of condensation 😱, which is way too much for one little tree. So I also need a way to use this source to water other plants in the vicinity. I'm not sure if I can use a classic drip-watering system (as I use for my garden) because this water source has no pressure and very low flow. It's a drip or dribble when it's running, but it will run up to 15 hours a day when it's really hot outside.

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Kona Sugarloaf is Fruiting!
« on: August 02, 2017, 10:00:40 PM »
I bought 4 of these from wellspring100 via eBay in January of 2015, and they're finally fruiting:






All 4 are fruiting at the same time, and are at approximately the same stage. It sure took them a long time to get going. For the first year or so they hardly grew at all.


I know a lot of people have been disappointed by their purchased plants being of a different variety than promised.


Based on the leaves and coloring, do these look like genuine Kona Sugarloafs?


How big do they get, compared to Smooth Cayenne (which is what I assume all my other plants are, since they're propagated from store-bought fruit)?

17
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Is this mango foliage?
« on: December 30, 2016, 04:12:09 PM »
I bought a Kent tree from Plant-o-gram 2.5 years ago, and it died, probably due to poor care.


But there are shoots coming up from the ground, and I'm thinking they might be from the rootstock:





I didn't want to dig down too far and kill it.


Do those look like mango leaves? Does anyone know what rootstock Plant-o-gram uses?


If that's not a good variety I could try grafting on a Keitt scion once my Keitt gets further established.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / December Keitt Mango in Los Angeles?
« on: December 16, 2016, 07:34:52 PM »
I bought this Keitt tree from Plant-o-Gram 2.5 years ago, and it's done a lot of nothing since then, partially due to my own neglect. So I've been ignoring it for months, and a few days ago I stumbled up on this:





Whoa! I wasn't expecting fruit for another year, at least, and certainly nothing this size (I have big hands). Had I seen this earlier I'd have plucked it off, but now that it's this size I feel like I should just let it ripen.

Or will it? It's in the high 60s/low 70s here in our Los Angeles December. January might get slightly colder, but not by too much.


How does one determine when to pick a Keitt?



If this tree will produce Keitts of this size, then I'm going to stop neglecting it (e.g. clear out the weeds, support it better, kill the gophers, etc)!

19
My specific question is about cross-pollinating dragonfruit, but I'm sure the general question is applicable to all flowering plants.


If B requires cross-pollination, and can be successfully pollinated by A, does that imply anything about the ability of B to pollinate A?


Or is there no relation?

20
My friend has an avocado tree of unknown origin in her backyard. Here it was, in full bloom, back on April 20, 2013:





She says it was there when she bought the house ~10 years ago, and it had never fruited until just last year. This year, on Hallowe'en 2015, I stopped by her house, and it was full of fruit! I took a few and let them ripen on my counter for a week. I ate one a few days ago, and then this morning (13 days from picking) I opened another one. It looked and tasted substantially the same as the one I opened on Day 7:





It's roughly the size and shape of a medium Hass, but greener. The skin is thinner, but still barely stops a knife when I hold a half in my hand to cut slices in the shell.





This particular fruit had this odd cavity right above the seed.





The flesh is nearly fiberless, and has the right color. Texture was almost right, but slightly under-ripe. But it wasn't rubbery.


It's watery (you can see liquid on the cut surfaces) and just tastes like nothing.


Can anyone guess at the likely lineage? Based on what you can see, did I just pick it way too early?


Or is this cultivar just a waste of space?


I have Hass, Reed, and Holiday trees in my yard and my neighbor's. Should I top-work her tree later this year and make the world a better place?

21
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Date Palms for Coastal Los Angeles?
« on: October 23, 2015, 05:54:15 PM »
So I was at my local Wal-Mart (of all places) to buy some pineapples, and here's what I see in the parking lot:



I picked up the one fruit I found on the ground. It smelled like a date, and it was sticky. It was also covered with bugs, so I didn't taste it. But it sure seems like we have a date palm, here. The parking lot has quite a few of them, and they're all bearing right now.

So what cultivar might this be? And what good tasting cultivars will do well in this climate? I'm about 7.5 crow miles southwest of this Wal-Mart, in a little valley near the coast, but facing inland. I saw this post about Medjool dates in Coachella, and I'm tempted to order a few, but they don't have anything for less than $35/box (including shipping).

Anyone else in Los Angeles growing dates?

22
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Pineapple Roots?
« on: October 04, 2015, 03:02:35 PM »
I know pineapples are supposed to have shallow root systems, but this one looks pretty robust. I planted the crown from a store-bought pineapple about 3 years ago, and then in February of 2015 I harvested my first fruit:

 

It was pretty good! I twisted off the slips and suckers and left the ratoon shoot to grow.

6 months later the mother plant still hadn't died back much, but the ratoon plant was pretty big, so I figured it needed a bigger pot. I pulled it out, and here it is:



That's a size 11 shoe there, for scale. Yes, the pot was very undersized for the plant, but that's a lot of roots! Moreover, I'd been noticing recently that, when watering this plant, the pot would hold almost no water. Whatever I poured in the top started leaking almost immediately out the bottom.

So I frayed the rootball a bit and put it in a 19" pot from Home Depot with some fresh cactus mix. We'll see how it does!

edit: added YouTube link

23
I have a store-bought Frederick purple vine that's producing some nice-looking fruit, but it's all still green right now. On Friday I was walking by, and I saw that two had fallen off. They look like they shed normally--the stem looks like a clean break at the abscission line. But they're clearly not ripe:



The cat hair brush is there so I can calibrate for color if I compare later photos. I guess that's kinda gross, in retrospect. Sorry!

Anyway, will fruit that green have any chance of ripening and sweetening up? Everything else on the vine is still glossy and green, green, green.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Replace Magnolia with Avocado or ????
« on: September 27, 2015, 09:30:31 PM »
This tree is right in front of my front door in suburban Los Angeles. Based on the seed pod it looks like Magnolia Grandiflora.




It needs shaping, but it's probably about 25-30' tall right now, and it looks quite healthy. But I'm not really a big Magnolia fan. After all, if it doesn't produce anything edible, why keep it?

Would an avocado do well, here? It gets reasonably full sun, but the root area is somewhat constrained:



Then again I learned at this weekend's CRFG's meeting that avocados are shallow rooted.

Are the needs of a magnolia compatible with the needs of an avocado? I'd love to put a mango here, but it's probably too close to my sewer piping for comfort.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Worst deal ever?
« on: September 18, 2015, 05:11:26 PM »


Tommys. For $18.99 a box.

I'm just gonna leave that right there.

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