The Tropical Fruit Forum

I have been having the same issue

Great.  It will be warmer in may anyway:). I live  in nj and work in manhattan so I am around. I plant my fruit trees in the TCI but, sadly, only get down there two or three times a year.  Dave

Wow! Fantastic setup and photos lycheeluva. I was in Brooklyn today with the family and picked up a soursop on Utica. What type of grow lights to you have? Is there a local source for those?  Thanks, dave

Berchemia discolor...  But it has never fruited.

From what I have read, raising the amount of organic matter in or on top of sandy calcareous soil is key to  lowering ph. A heavy mulch will also give the garden sulpher a layer to linger in rather than passing right through the root zone. Do not overdo the sulpher in any one treatment. 
Peat moss, which is very acidic, can also lower ph but must be incorporated into the soil. Some people claim pine bark or pine straw mulch will also lower ph but others say it loses it's acidity when it decomposes.    Dave

Quote from: jeffhagen on February 14, 2012, 01:56:03 PM

Yah, I highly doubt he grafted it :-). Pine Island did have grafted male trees for a time. They had been selling them at one of the fruit council meetings up north. My guess is that they originated at Pine Island. Where PI got them is anybody's guess. Pretty mysterious little tree... But now I can finally have a mate for my female :-).

Makes sense. Do you know if PI still has grafted male trees? I may need to buy some.

A problem about the male and female that I was told is that sometimes the different males don't bloom the same times as some of the grafted females.

Are you going to approach graft a branch of your male onto your female tree?

Before Hurricane Ike took it down,  I had a huge Half male/half female spanish lime on my property that I am told was planted almost 50 years ago. The female half bore huge amounts of fruit so they must have been blooming at the same time.   Miss that tree...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/us/15forage.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Foraging%20severson&st=cse

An interesting article on foraging. Apparently many abandoned properties are considered easy pickings.

Quote from: Saltcayman on February 06, 2012, 08:46:17 AM

Great topic!  I just finished a book that explores this subject and our passion for fruit in a pretty funny way. "the fruit hunters". By Adam leith gollner.  Anybody else read it?  Dave

The author of that book, Adam Gollner, came and visitied me before writing that book, and there is a little section in there about me. He is a funny guy, a great writer, but not very good with recording his facts. But all is forgiven as he makes you laugh!
Oscar

Very cool Oscar. Why let the facts get in the way of a good story:). It seemed like he was exaggerating just a bit. I will have to look back and figure out was parts he got wrong about you. dave

Quote from: Saltcayman on February 05, 2012, 12:19:51 PM

The turf pro sounds like a great suggestion. Thanks. Does anyone think their is a downside to using a hose end sprayer?

Too much water ....you need one of these. I would go with a window cleaner spray bottle until I got one....which actually works great but you cannot reach higher leaves with one. But maybe you can get enough of the good stuff on lower leaves to keep the tree happy

Thanks sands. I will look for one. Dave

Quote from: Saltcayman on February 03, 2012, 09:38:57 PM

Hi everyone, I have been lurking on the other forum for a long time and decided to join this new one. I don't know much but I have been working on a tropical fruit orchard on a small dry island in the Turks & Caicos islands. Combatting drought, poor soil, hurricanes and my own ignorance, I have finally started to get some trees growing but not really fruiting yet. Really working on the soil by heavily mulching with ironwood needles, seagrass and wood chips and starting to add micros and sulpher. It is a red laterite soil as in parts of the Bahamas and lacks just about everything... Also started spraying with foliar micros but am only there two or three times a year.  Just wanted to say thanks for all the vicarious advice and I look forward to getting to know you all.  Dave

Welcome, Dave.  Glad you decided to join the fun here on the new Forum.  Do you have much of an issue with salt intrusion? You guys have been in the cross hairs of a bunch of Hurricanes that were near misses for us in recent years. How long has it been since you began your planting there? And, more importantly, what are you growing?

Harry

Hi Harry, hurricane Ike hit my place head on. Lost half the roof on the house and a huge Guinup tree. The roof was easy to replace...  I wasn't there but I think there was torrential flooding the week before Ike from hurricane Donna and I lost several loquats but most of my small trees made it through. I am about 15 feet above sea level so intrusion was not an issue but when i say there was not a leaf or bade of grass on the entire island, i am not exaggerating. That was in 08.  I started planting in 06 and have lost half of everything I planted due to drought, salt, scale, heat,white flies,  sun...  I have learned to mulch, build shade coverings, irrigate...I shipped in a ton of earthworm castings and tried to only plant saline and drought tolerant trees and plants. I am growing nance, black sapote, sapodilla, otholite gooseberry, Malay apple, sugar apple, soursop, Carrie mango, choquette avocado, jambolan, Indian jujube, breadfruit, strawberry guava, tamarind, Guinup, mulberry, panama cherry, Barbados cherry, natal plum, neem, canistel, loquat, caimito, mamee apple,  hog plum, finger lime, fig, kei apple,  key lime, pomagranate....  Some are five years old others I planted two months ago. A lob or of love, or insanity, not sure which:) I have learned a ton from reading your posts. Thanks:)

I bought a green finger lime from larry's orchids and tropicals on eBay. It was a very nice plant and inexpensive. They are in Michigan. Not sure if they ship to Florida.