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Messages - BahamaDan

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1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2023 Mango Season
« on: June 15, 2023, 11:48:32 AM »
Quote from: achetadomestica on June 11, 2023, 02:51:54 PM
Today's pick
from top to bottom
Glenn
Pickering
Florigon
2 Alphonso and 1 Mallika

I picked the Alphonso at a friends and as I was driving down the road
there was an aroma that filled the car. WOW! I can't wait to eat them




How do you like the Glenn compared to the others in that list? Our local nursery is getting a new shipment of plants this week and I've been trying to decide between picking up a Glenn or Kent to add to our mango collection.

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Need help with Annonas.
« on: June 15, 2023, 11:41:49 AM »
Quote from: achetadomestica on August 14, 2020, 08:46:42 PM


















Heres 3 pictures of my sugarlata seedling. It is 3 years old and has 6 fruit on it.
I also added a picture of the area under the tree. Annonas grow real easy in my yard.
I have never added gypsum. I use different manures and this year I have been
using 8-4-8 diamond R fertilizer. It's amazing how much all my annonas are growing
this year. October is getting close to when my trees go dormant. I would still trim the dead
branches out and give the trees some miracle grow drench. I live in a county where there is no
fertilizer ban. I think the gulf courses and the condos are the problem not a guy that wants a couple
fruit trees to grow? This time of the year I give very small amounts of fertilizer often with the rains.
I usually don't use foliar spray on the annonas cause the leaves seem to repel the spray.
You could also spray the leaves with Miracle grow if you don't want to drench.

What application rate are you using for the diamond R fertilizer? I have their 12-4-12 formula (label below) but it doesn't have any instructions on the bag and I don't want to overdose my trees.



3
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Sugar Apple Surface Roots
« on: June 14, 2023, 09:39:31 AM »
Quote from: skhan on April 23, 2023, 10:52:01 AM
Are you sure those are roots and not some type of another fungus?
I believe I've seen similar-looking things in bags of old mulch i have laying around.

Your trees look pretty healthy to me.
I've never had great success with sugar apple. Though atemoya grows great.

I assume the trees are in full sun, how are your minor element levels?

That is a good point about the fungus; I have also seen similar activity in moist or aged bags of mulch myself, although the growth under the mulch around my trees looks a bit different I would say.

I am glad to hear the trees look healthy; although unfortunately they seem to have taken a worse turn recently. I originally attributed this to the constant deluges as we are currently in our rainy season, but on closer inspection of the leaves it appears to be some sort of deficiency. All of our trees are in full sun.
I took some pictures of the larger tree's leaves as below, the younger tree's leaves look similar (excuse the over-greening affect my phone applies). The first three pictures are mature leaves whereas the last two are of new growth that is a few weeks old. What kind of deficiency does it appear to be?




I did apply some Sunniland "Azalea, Camellia And Gardenia Fertilizer 8-4-8" a while ago according to the label directions; my logic was that fertilizer for acid loving plants would be more appropriate given our soil is very alkaline (decomposed limestone). Unfortunately after reading the SDS some time later I realized this fertilizer actually contains limestone, apparently up to 60% by weight, so could the symptoms possibly be excess calcium-induced?

4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Sugar Apple Surface Roots
« on: April 23, 2023, 12:04:13 AM »
Has anyone else noticed a lot of surface roots on their sugar apple/annona plants?

This week I tested my soil and it tested deficient (near void) in phosphorus so I bought some triple superphosphate to remedy the deficiency. Today I was applying it to various fruit trees and when I raked back the mulch on this small sugar apple tree that's planted on a slight mound, I noticed lots of roots were growing right up on the level where the bottom of the mulch meets the soil surface; basically up through the mulch. Here are some pictures:

The tree before raking back the mulch





The surface roots I found after raking back the mulch







The white spots near my hoe in the below picture are patches of fungi colonizing the mulch.
 


Curiously this was mostly happening only on the cypress mulch instead of the generic red mulch, even though cypress mulch is supposed to break down slower. Unfortunately I couldn't mix the triple superphosphate into the first few inches of soil without chopping up a lot of the surface roots so I abstained, however I did rake the mulch back over the surface roots after applying the granules and watered everything in thoroughly.

Reference picture of the leaves



It's been exactly one month since I laid this mulch down, and I've started using various fertilizers like fish emulsion. Despite the leaves being so nice and green, this tree has actually been growing very slowly and barely put out any flowers this season and hasn't set any fruit, so it was a bit cathartic to find out there was an actual deficiency behind the lack of performance.

There is also a much more established sugar apple tree planted a few feet away in a mound containing the same type of soil, and it has been displaying the same slow growth and lack of blooms/fruit set, so I also applied the triple superphosphate under its drip line.

Here's that tree last October and today after its mulch was raked back. All the defoliation in the recent picture has been there for some time prior to the very recent pruning as I've only clipped the marginal branch ends to get started on a shaping framework for the tree. You can see the wood coloration difference between the older tree branches on the lower left and a water sprout that became the dominant leader shoot.





How long does triple superphosphate usually require to take effect?

5
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Spring Rain on the Way for South Florida?
« on: April 12, 2023, 11:47:00 PM »
Quote from: johnb51 on April 12, 2023, 11:23:49 AM
Much more rain coming down today.  So many mangos knocked down from trees from strong winds the last few days.  :(  We can't win.  :'(

I feel this sentiment; all the wind has knocked down the last of the few tiny avocados my tree had set. I'm trying to convince myself it was for the best since the tree is still small :P.

6
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Does Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) grow in Florida or California ?
« on: April 06, 2023, 12:10:33 AM »
Quote from: BahamaDan on October 15, 2015, 09:37:46 AM
Tamarind definitely does not take 10 years to produce from seed, at least in my experience. My mother planted some seeds about 4-6 years ago, kept one and gave one to my grandmother. Ours fruited last year and has lots of flowers now, and my grandmother's fruited even earlier.

I too am curious as to what the normal duration is from fruitset to maturity, and perhaps cultivation or NPK formula advice.

It was a bit surreal reading through this thread this evening during a search for tamarind growing posts, coming across the above comment, and nonchalantly glancing at the username only to realize it was posted by myself. :P

After a decade or more, we are back to our previous house whereat my mother had also planted a different seed-grown tamarind than was referenced in my above comment. To my recollection, this tree is also part of the triad of trees grown at our last home and my grandmother's house. In either case, I am reviving my previous comment to see if anyone has an update on my original query about fertilizer recommendations?

Unfortunately, after being torn down by a severe hurricane and losing most of its main trunk, as well as being neglected in the years we were living elsewhere, the tree here has not been flowering nor fruiting discernably for the past year or two at least. I have recently repainted my thumb green and undertaken an effort to revitalize our fruit trees, and today purchased and broadcasted some Sunniland 6-1-8 fertilizer around the root zone, however I would be happy to hear about other fertilizer suggestions.

Pic is from April 2021, about 1.5 years after Hurricane Dorian which uprooted nearly the entire tree:


You can see the remnants of the original trunk laying horizontally near the ground, and the offshoots which have since taken over to form an upright 'U' of main branches on either side of the original trunk's base. The upright main branches are now about 10+ feet tall and have lots of healthy-looking foliage, but no flowers nor fruit. I am also toying with the idea of hard pruning the tree to bring it down to a more manageable height, and purchased a hand saw along with the Sunniland fertilizer, but would not be sure how best to approach the task given my limited experience.

In total, the tree should be 15 or more years old by now, and I suspect the lack of flowers and fruit may be a fertilizer issue as the other same-aged seed-grown tree I originally referenced at our previous home still has unpicked ripened pods hanging from its branches. We have extremely sandy soil if that helps with fertilizer recommendations, and I am in the initial works to have bulk wood chips trucked in to begin the process of amending the yard with additional organic matter.

7
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: "Sweetheart" lychee flowering in southern California.
« on: November 24, 2018, 05:42:28 PM »
I've noticed the June plums are in bloom at the local hardware store in its garden department, but not the Mauritius nor the Brewster lychees.

8
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Multigraft Annona harvest
« on: November 21, 2018, 01:02:56 PM »
Very nice tree, what rootstock are you using? And what kind of grafts are you finding to be most effective?

9
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: pics of Brads yard + updates on fruiting.
« on: November 17, 2018, 03:48:59 PM »
Quote from: gunnar429 on May 25, 2016, 02:42:24 PM
mulberry doesn't need frost, that's for sure.  The dwarf everbearing type grows readily from cuttings and fruits even when young.  I found LSU Purple to be the best fig I have tasted yet (over Brown Turkey, VdB)

Funny to read this topic after such a long time and see some of the same situations still relevant to my current gardening endeavors. Unfortunately most of my plants were killed by Hurricane Matthew back at the end of 2016, and being that I was busy with both school and work full-time, so I'm just now getting back into it.

Since this post I have found a couple mulberry plants in yards here, although not frequent, so they do indeed fruit without frost. I also bought a dwarf mulberry recently from the local hardware store, not sure if its a dwarf everbearing or girardi dwarf etc, any thoughts?:








I also bought another one that has huge leaves but smaller fruit I believe, it's just labeled mulberry here so I'm not sure, and I don't think I took a photo of it yet. I also airlayered a branch of a guava tree at our other property over the summer, and I have it as a container plant at home but the ants seem to love that one's pot.

Shame that there aren't any LSU Purples on sale here right now, being that they taste so good in your experience. I do currently have a fig, one labeled Nero, but haven't been consistent with watering so I haven't gotten a fig to maturity from it yet. I have been eyeing a Chicago Hardy fig that came in to the local store recently, seeing as they seem popular and produce well, but I'm not sure how the variety fares down here in the heat and humidity compared to the northern US?

Lastly, how often can I prune mulberries? I realize it's supposed to be our "dry season" here now but we've had unusually frequent periods of rain, so even the dwarf mulberry I bought a week or two ago is still putting on new growth. The other one with large leaves has a couple random limbs that are long and spindly, sort of a bush habit than a tree habit, and very low-leaning so if possible I would prefer to prune it back and perhaps train one limb as a leader in an upright growth habit. Or should I just be staking it? In comparison, the "Dwarf Mulberry" has smaller, more aesthetic leaving and is also growing more in a shrub/bush habit but also puts out decent side-branching so the limbs aren't oriented all every-which-way or leaning towards the ground. Both still in containers.

10
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango Pests, Diseases, and Nutritional Problems
« on: January 29, 2018, 05:10:46 AM »
Quote from: Guanabanus on January 27, 2018, 03:31:58 PM
BahamaDan, I see very green grass under the tree, right up to the trunk!

Check for WeedEater damge to the trunk.
Check to see if this small tree is a dog's habitual place to pee.
Check for high-nitrogen fertilizer's having been applied to the grass.

Guanabanus, you're right about the grass. I thought it was clover so I left it but upon recent examination it appears to actually be Oxalis.

We don't own any weedeaters, we just mow around the perimeter of the trunk.
We have no dogs either, we do have an outside cat though.
We also don't apply any fertilizer to our plants (bad I know lol).
Any other possible explanations for the partial dieback?

11
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango Pests, Diseases, and Nutritional Problems
« on: January 26, 2018, 10:51:47 PM »
Good day, adding this post to this thread instead of creating a new one since my query seems to fall under the heading. I did some grafts of mature mango scions onto a seedling mango a week or two ago since it's a couple years old but has never flowered, and I was checking them a couple days ago. The ones I have checked so far haven't taken, but more importantly I noticed what appears to be some sort of dieback on the leaves. It's affecting a fairly significant number of leaves too, has anyone had anything that looked like this?



I should mention that the dieback has been there for a while probably, I just never actually looked at the leaves specifically so it didn't come to mind. The leaf parts that haven't died still seem healthy, so not sure what's causing the partial dieback. No sooty mold or other fungal problems on the tree that I'm aware of, although there's an older established fruiting mango about 15-20 feet away that doesn't have the leaf partial dieback issue but does have some sooty mold on a couple lower branches. That one seems to be growing fine overall though and is presently flowering.

12
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Graft mango question
« on: June 28, 2016, 11:18:43 AM »
Quote from: simon_grow on June 27, 2016, 07:13:42 PM
The more practice you get with grafting, the better your success rate. Much of it is about timeing like fyliu says. I like to prepare my scions by removing the leaves and waiting for buds to start swelling before grafting.

Unlike fyliu, I have had excellent results with extremely aggressive rootstocks. I simply remove most or all other branches so that the plants best bet is to push the grafted scions. I like to use rootstocks that are showing some sort of growth in progress as this tells me the sap is flowing.

Simon

Simon do you remove the branches before you graft the scion to the rootstock, or after you have grafted and the graft has taken but before the scion flushes growth? I have a four year or so mango seedling that I'm thinking of grafting a couple mature scions onto a couple branches of, in order to hopefully get some fruit.

13
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Spondias fruit question
« on: June 17, 2016, 01:19:49 PM »
Yea sometimes it's a waiting game lol, is that yellowest one from your tree too? Also ours aren't shriveled so not sure, do you water the tree?

14
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Spondias fruit question
« on: June 15, 2016, 12:13:05 PM »
Oh okay, they do look a little differently than mine, more shriveled I guess, but still very spondiasy. I'll try to remember to upload a pic of mine later. They do root stupefyingly easy, I literally just broke a branch like wrist thick off my grandma's tree and stuck it in the ground at home and a couple weeks later it started pushing leaves, smaller cuttings would work too I'd think. Probably root one in the other part of the yard before you cut the tree down, just in case.

15
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: best tasting guava ?
« on: June 15, 2016, 12:04:21 PM »
Quote from: gnappi on June 10, 2016, 01:46:25 PM
GUAVAS ARrrrghhh.

My first year growing ruby supreme and pink were pest free, had lots of delicious fruit but the next year scale got to them big time.

I really like them but till recently have had terrible luck with scale that I could not control.

Not long ago I started using horticultural oil in addition to strong stream water spraying and hand scraping scale off and I seem to be gaining some ground.

My lemon and strawberry and Alahabad (the Alahabad has not fruited) all seem immune to scale but do get fruit fly larvae so the fruit get bagged.

My pinks, and Mexican have rebounded and set some fruit. The ruby supreme (my fave) is hanging on but no fruit. My Thai white languished so I put it out of it's misery.

So, being a glutton for punishment I found a silly expensive 3 gal. Barbie pink hoping to make a go of it.

This is my last ditch effort to have guava, fingers crossed.

I thought there was a program in Florida for the eradication of the fruit fly?

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Smallest fig?
« on: June 13, 2016, 12:19:04 PM »
Okay, how much watering and fertilization do you have to do to get figs that size?

17
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Smallest fig?
« on: June 10, 2016, 04:28:03 PM »
Quote from: simon_grow on June 10, 2016, 01:06:54 PM
My best friend and I both have a Violette De Bordeaux fig in a pot for about 3 years now and both our trees produce lots of super tasty figs on a small bushy tree. If you look up VDB, most pictures show a tiny fig but with good fertilization and watering, the fig gets much larger. Here are some pictures of a couple VDB figs that are almost ready, they are not fully black yet. In certain months, the figs are much smaller, this is the first crop of the year and I started harvesting a couple weeks ago.

Simon




That's pretty impressive Simon, what size pot is it in?

18
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Spondias fruit question
« on: June 10, 2016, 04:18:27 PM »
Okay, based on Google ciruela can refer to either the spondias purpurea (red one) or spondias mombin  (yellow one). Since don't seem to be ripening up yet they're probably the mombin, mine are still green and hard too but I know it won't be till towards the end of summer till they start to ripen.

19
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Spondias fruit question
« on: June 10, 2016, 10:20:21 AM »
Ciruela is the local name? The red ones are starting to ripen up here already, while the yellow ones here don't ripen till closer to the fall, maybe late August or September

20
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: pics of Brads yard + updates on fruiting.
« on: May 25, 2016, 01:29:37 PM »
Very impressive greenman, its good to see so many plants are growing so nice for you. A couple questions: does your Mexican Cream Guava get fruit fly? I just bought a small one a couple weeks ago but I remember my grandmother's tree used to have little worms in the fruit, it hasn't put out guavas in 10+ years or so though so not sure if that would still be the case. Does your LSU Purple Fig have fruits that are holding? I bought that exact variety last summer, its in a 12 or 13 gallon container and was putting out some figs but after the last bout of rain we had when I checked the tree all were gone. Lastly, do you know if mulberries need frost to fruit reliably and well? I'd like to get one if not, and I've seen them in stores but don't think I've ever seen one grown by anyone here so not sure if they can be. Again, great yard!

21
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Does these Caimito look healthy
« on: May 25, 2016, 12:52:45 PM »
Quote from: Cookie Monster on May 24, 2016, 09:35:28 PM
Since you're in coral springs, you very likely have 6 - 12 inches of 50 / 50 mix (sand + muck) on top of limestone rubble. You can lower the pH of the top 6 - 12 inches, and that is sufficient for feeder roots of your trees which normally only dwell in the top foot of soil.

If you have a normal 1/4 acre lot, 50 to 100 pounds of sulfur is good. But be very cautious around annonas -- go light on those, as they seem to be sulfur sensitive. The other species don't mind sulfur.

You may not need iron. The soils that I've had tested in this area (northern broward) have sufficient iron. You just need to get the pH down.

Consistent application of a complete fertilizer (with micros) does wonders.

None of what I've said above applies to most of Dade county, where marl is the most common soil.

Quote from: skhan on May 24, 2016, 09:08:27 PM
Just fertilized it today. I can throw some sulfur on it to. How much? My soil has a lot of limestone so don't think it's going to reduce the pH substantially.
What about iron drench?

So what would apply?

22
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: West African Sugarloaf pineapples - what a stunning fruit!
« on: May 07, 2016, 01:06:05 PM »
Once I knew how to look for them I've found seeds in all the pineapples store bought (Dole etc) here and in the US.

23
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Issue on leaves
« on: April 21, 2016, 03:15:36 PM »
Quote from: bsbullie on April 20, 2016, 08:22:55 AM
In South Florida, it is a year round battle with leaf miner.  I recommended to drenching the tree, and any other citrus you have, with imidacloprid 3 times a year.  The affected leaves will not change but the new flushes should come out clean.  I would also add to your regime to spray with copper fungicide.

Are you using the same strength as per bottle directions, but 3 times a year, or a third as strong as one bottle-direction application but thrice yearly?

24
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Soursop Pollination
« on: April 15, 2016, 04:03:26 PM »
 Wow, they look delicious already.

25
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Is it possible to graft a male branch onto a female tree for pollination?
« on: April 09, 2016, 12:22:34 PM »
If the male tree you intend to get the branch from flowers around the same time as the female tree, most likely the mwle branch will also flower around the time as the female branches of the tree once grafted onto the female tree.

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