The Tropical Fruit Forum

Hey Paul, I envy your early start.  I, too, left the U.S. and bought a farm.  It's a tranquil environment, but intellectually challenging and hard work at the same time.  Welcome to the forum.

John

How long are the seeds viable?

John

When I plant, I assume roughly half of them will thrive, a quarter of them will live but not up to their potential, and a quarter will not be worth keeping alive.

I'm not going to treat my farm like a chemistry lab, using chemicals to treat every leaf and root malady.  However, I try my best to plant each fruit in an environment close to it's ideal natural habitat.

Next month, I will transplant 4 rambutan that are less wind tolerant than I thought.  I'm also working to put Hass avocado on disease resistant rootstock.  That's about as far as I go to keep things alive out of their natural environment.

John   

I've only got Avocados grafts to take, which are softer wood than Mangos.  My mango grafts have all died.  Your success gives me hope that I can graft some mangos too...someday...  :-)

I've also had a harder time grafting mango, compared to citrus and avocado.  However, I've done enough now to have learned two things:
1) The mango scion wood should have swollen, almost breaking-out buds to be successful.  I've had a lot of scions stay green for more than a month but simply would not push new growth, and die after that.
2) Mango rootstocks in the ground have been more successful for me than mango seedlings in bags.  Presumably it's because the in-ground plants are growing more vigorously and pushing more sap.

John 

As Steven says, plant your grafted avocados in the ground soon. 

I would rather a fresh, fast-growing one-gallon grafted avocado than a 30-gallon one that has been in the nursery three years.

Thanks for the advice.  I'm learning a lot this year from this forum and also from what is happening "on the ground" with my small farm.  Next year I'll be doing similar propagation of avocado, mango and citrus and intend to get both mango and avocado in the ground earlier, even if the mango is not grafted yet.

During the next couple of weeks I'll be clearing the brush in the planting area for the avocado.  Hope to have most planted in a month or so.  Watering until the rainy season (Nov/Dec start) will be a chore, though!

John 

Steven,

The results of my latest avocado grafting were far more successful than my first.  Your tips helped.  The scions had more swollen buds this time due to rain the prior week, which I think improved the result. Auxilary buds took just as well as the terminal buds, and I can not see any difference between short (2") scions and longer ones (3"-4").  Here are a couple of photos (click photo for a larger image):

Some grafts are flowering!


Some are still to early to call successful, but I think I'm achieving over 80% on approximately 70 grafts.   This will give me enough seedlings to cull out the runts and only plant the most vigorous.


John

I think it may be illegal for you to propagate your own citrus in Florida without following the rules outlined here: https://www.flrules.org/gateway/RuleNo.asp?title=CITRUS%20NURSERY%20STOCK%20CERTIFICATION%20%20PROGRAM&ID=5B-62.011

"5B-62.011 Requirements for Citrus Propagation.
Commercial and dooryard citrus nursery stock shall be propagated according to the following provisions unless exempted in Rule 5B-62.016, F.A.C.
(1) Propagative material including budwood, air-layers, cuttings and all topworking material shall be from source trees produced or grown in accordance with Rule 5B-62.012, F.A.C., and for which a Certificate of Source Tree Registration (DACS-08072) has been issued as specified in Rule 5B-62.017, F.A.C.
(2) Budwood shall be taken under the direct supervision of a witness authorized by the Department. Budwood from each source tree shall be wrapped separately. Each bundle shall be labeled showing variety, the tree identification number, and the number of buds counted or estimated.
(3) All propagative material data including topworking shall be recorded on a Source Tree Bud Cutting Report (DACS-08172) and submitted to the Bureau of Citrus Budwood Registration at the time of collection. Persons authorized to fill out a Source Tree Bud Cutting Report (DACS-08172), shall sign a Certification To Witness Registered Budwood form, DACS-08111.
(4) Propagations from each source tree shall be maintained in nursery rows or on greenhouse benches so that each group can be traced back to an individual source tree. Nurserymen shall use permanent tags to label each separate group of propagations with the source tree registration number.
(5) All citrus nursery stock and propagative plant parts shall remain within the approved structure at all times or be moved under protective cover.
Specific Authority 570.07(23), 581.031(1), (3), ( 8 ) FS. Law Implemented 570.07(2), (13), 570.0705, 581.031(1), (14), (17), (23) FS. History–New 12-26-06."


The definition section states that:
"(17) Citrus Nursery Stock Certification Program. A mandatory program administered by the Division of Plant Industry whereby nurserymen, growers and other people propagating citrus, including all dooryard, own-use and commercial plantings, are required to propagate citrus in accordance with these rules."

Wow!  That's pretty strict.  Is compliance with this law very high, or do many hobby growers violate it?

One of my soursops has brown sections on many leaves.  What might it be?  How to treat?

Not an Oscar-quality photo, but it was windy today and I only took this one shot:



It is not affecting my other soursops, but looks similar to a leaf problem I have on all my rambutan (which I've almost given up on due to this problem).

The season now is dry and cool, which means 70-80 degrees f, but high humidity.

Any clues appreciated!

Thanks, John

John probably you do well there growing Monroe it is a late season fruit of good quality. Also I'm experimenting with a new variety I got from Fairchild called Utuado also late. Do you sell your fruit commercially?

Thanks for the Monroe recommendation.  The next time I am in Australia I plan to seek out some good varieties.

I've only had my farm for a little over a year now.  All my trees are young, except for a few dooryard trees here before me and the fast growing ones such as papaya and banana.  I'm growing mostly citrus, mango and hopefully avocado, but also a little of a wide variety.  It's just a hobby farm.  15 acres.

John

Consider trimming off the lowest, older, leaves from papaya and banana when cyclone-strength winds begin.  It greatly reduces their wind-resistance making them far less likely to blow over. 

When the winds on my farm are approaching gale force, I take my machette and whack a lot of old leaves off  the papaya and banana.  Not a bad time to trim other trees, too.

Planting seeds is the primary way new avocado trees are started in Fiji.   I don't know of anyone here grafting avocado, besides myself, and we have no 'named' varieties (yet).

I have the good fortune of having friends in many villages, and ask some of them for the trees that produce the best fruit.  Almost universally, people knew which trees produced their favorite avocados.  I used these trees for my scion wood.

All the avocados here are the large green West Indian type, but I have some grafts from one avocado tree that had purple-skinned fruit.

Here's one of my recent avocado grafts that couldn't wait to flower:

I haven't tried burying a jackfruit cutting deep, but jackfruit is generally difficult to start by branch cuttings.   Consider trimming off almost all the leaves if the roots are nearly nonexistant.

When transplanting seedlings or rooting cuttings, I try to match the strength of the plant above and below the soil level.  For example, when I am transplanting a breadfruit root sucker I will cut off most of the leaves if the roots are weak or few.  If I am digging up a young tree to move, destroying half the roots, I will cut off half the growth above the soil level so there is enough sap to serve the leaves.