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Topics - Pancrazio

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51
Tropical Fruit Discussion / My first lychee air layer!
« on: August 22, 2013, 07:32:40 PM »
This is my first air layer with a lychee.

It took several months to be done: i put it up in May and took those pictures just two days ago.

The plant is a Sweetheart cultivar. All in all, has been pretty easy, but i made a mistake that almost costed me the success: i didn't eliminate the cambium layer under the bark by scraping it , and it almost healed the inch of bark i cut away by producing an abundant callus.

So, if you plan to do it, don't forget to scrape the cambium!


The plant after the tin foil removal, showing the air layer.



The plastic was filled with roots, so i thought it was ready.


The removed plant. It's just a foot tall.


That's the actual callus. It almost covered completly the cut, healing it,  as you can see: it is continuous between the bark. I guess that this could have lead to a failure on the long run. 

52
Tropical Fruit Discussion / A bunch of questions.
« on: August 20, 2013, 05:58:05 PM »
Even this year, i haven't been able to obtain some fruit from my Glenn mango.
Things aren't progressing nicely and i need some advice by people much more knowledgeable than i am.

We have had an horrible beginning of summer; till 24th of june we had nights with lows in the 50F and i think that it may have been one of the worst spring i ever had. However, even if this time i saw several fruitlets,



none have been able to develop in a complete fruit. Every single one fell on the ground when it reached the size of a nut. I have always checked the ones that dropped and never a single one got a embryo. I think that they must have been killed by my cold nights. I refuse to believe in other reason because the plant was in open air, accessible to bees and wind, so it should have had enough pollination by itself. But still, no embrios for me!

The plant itself seems fine,



But the rootstock has started to suffer from a strange disease:


(the depressed zone are place where the cambium died)


(front view: higher in the picture you can see the previous year damage completly healed; below this year damage, the plant hasn't been able to heal trough it)


(back view; this is the only living portion of the trunk which is actively supporting all the fluid exchange between the plant above the ground and the roots)


 The last two winter i had a localized necrosis on the trunk near the soil level in my greenhouse. I thought it may have been a cold damage, but the next year it healed almost entirely. This year, in spring, it has shown up again, enlarging further and destroying all the cambium layer on a large zone of the trunk, in the same place on the trunk as the year before (and even if it was a way milder winter than the 2011 winter); i think that the plant may be beyond salvation even if i understand what may have caused this damage, simply because there's too little cambium left: however i would love to understand what it may have been because it may be a problem even in the future (i kept some copper+sulphur covering on the "suspected necrosis" all winter long, fearing it may have been a bacterial or fungine disease).

So my question are:

1) Is Glenn a good choice for a mango in an extreme climate? Glenn seemed to have everything; early bearing, good flavour, manageable size, good resistance to pathogens, good productivity, good looking fruit, and so on. But it is a mono, and i think that monoembrionic cultivar can't do a good job when it comes to cold climate because if the sexual embryo dies there aren't some other embrios to replace it. Am I right?
2) What are the temperature dangerous for the embrios of a mango? Has anyone reliable data?
3) What kind of cultivar would you place in my setup if you were me? I need something wich get mature soon. I was thinking about Florigon or Rosa, if i will be able to put my hand on one of these. What do you think about those?
4) What do you think the pathology i see may be?
5) Would you attempt to save the plant and just substitute it?
6) Would you attempt to air layer the plant higher than the sickness?

Thank you!  :)

53
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Wanted: Want to buy some mango scions
« on: June 22, 2013, 05:02:32 AM »
I'm willing to buy some mango scions of the following cultivars:
Pickering, Rosigold, Maha Chanok, Coconut Cream.
This is reserved for members with at least 100 active posts, or for the nurseries.
Please contact me via PM with an offer, if interested. We can make arrangements there.
I may be interested also, if you have them, in Okrung, Julie, Nam doc mai, Icecream, Cogshall. But those are worth mentioning just if you have one or more of the first four.
Many thanks.

54
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Caterpillars on mango flowers
« on: June 12, 2013, 03:52:00 PM »
I have noticed some caterpillars/inchworm on my mango flowers. Should I be concerned?
What i should use to eliminate them?

55
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Avocados: 2 trees, 1 hole?
« on: June 12, 2013, 03:21:51 PM »
I have a couple of avocados I'm willing to plant, but I'm out of space. I was wondering if they take this planting method well; also, i need to keep them in check so i'm asking suggestion about that. I know that they tend to become monsters pretty quickly.
The plants are a Mexicola and a Bacon, they should have good chance at pollinating each other, so 2 tree 1 hole seems a good solution also for this reason.
I'll take any suggestion-experience-idea; I won't be able to graft both the plant on the same rootstock because i needed some selected rootstock to help the plants in surviving my winters.

56
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Interesting site for grafters (and expecially european members)
« on: April 06, 2013, 08:15:55 AM »
I've done a quick search here, and seems nobody has talked about it yet.
It was unknown to me too till few days ago (its reasonable because i don't speak french at all).
An Italian friend of mine has shown me this site:
http://www.fruitiers.net/bourse.php
Basically it is a collection of members that put their plant material on share, and agree to exchange each other grafting material for free.
You can add your plants, your varieties, and agree to send them to the ones asking your. You, in the meantime, will be able to ask for plant material to other members that have put it on share. More details are explained on the site: of course this only works inside the european union, and between the states that have a free exchange maket (and haven't any phyto problems).

This is my page:
http://www.fruitiers.net/inventaire_de.php?membre=pancrazio
Iě'll be adding some more plants in the near future.
I think it is a great way to increase our collection, save rare cultivars from extiction, and overall enjoying our hobby. 
I haven't any connection with this site, just tought to share.

57
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Copper+Sulfur or just Sulfur?
« on: March 30, 2013, 04:24:04 PM »
My mango is about to put out the first flowers spikes. But the spring has been very cold till now, and, overall, very very humid.
However. I treated the spikes with copper and sulfur, but, since probably i'll go on treating them for a long while (and probably i'll be forced to do weekly sprays) i'm worried about putting an excess of copper on the plant. Can i just treat it with sulfur  and get about same results? I don't want to select pathogens resistance to copper, but in spring i can't avoid treatments.

58
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Wanted: Parafilm grafting tape
« on: March 19, 2013, 03:19:56 PM »
I'm searching for a company that is willing to ship to italy some boxes of parafilm grafting tape.
Does any of my fellow forum member know were to get any?
Thank you.

59
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Sweetest Mango
« on: March 09, 2013, 03:23:38 PM »
I often hear talking about mangoes with a great balance between sweet and acid.
Overall, for most people this seems to be related to the "quality" of the mango itself.
That being said, the enjoyment of a mango can vary a lot. I, for one, especially appreciate the sweetest fruits, but it is still unclear, to me, which kind of mango has the sweetest fruit.
So, here we go: what has been the sweetest mango you have ever eaten?
Has it been "one of a kind" or that cultivar is a consistent bearer of particularly sweet mangoes?
Do you think the growing environment played a role, and what kind of role?
I'm curious. :)

60
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Eating rambutan seeds?
« on: December 19, 2012, 02:47:45 PM »
I have found several sources reporting rambutan seeds as edible after boiling or roasting.
Anyone has experience in cooking them?
I have a handful of these and i'd love to try them.

61
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Cold Tolerant Bananas
« on: December 16, 2012, 08:34:43 AM »
Quote from: fruitlovers on December 15, 2012, 02:16:45 AM
Bananas will grow and fruit in much colder places than NE Thailand. I've seen them fruiting at 6000 ft (1900 meter) elevation in Sikkim, India where they get snow in winters. I've posted about this in another thread before. For coldest tolerant bananas google Sikkim + banana and Darjeeling+banana. They have several cultivars that are snow tolerant.

I must have missed that thread.
I'm doing some research to see if there are some kind of bananas that can fruit in our souther european climate, and so far seems that that things can be done, but definitevly the right cultivar still needs to be found. I wonder of many of the banana cultivars used in northest india/souther china have been able to reach the international hobbist banana market.
The next year i'll try some cultivar that seem reasonably cold hardy, and we will see. I'm aware of chini champa, helen's hybrid and pahari kela, but if wonder if there is some other plant that should be tried. 

62
Recipes / Mango/Avocado Gelato
« on: August 10, 2012, 08:28:56 AM »
I almost got crazy trying to figure if i should have used the word gelato, ice cream, sorber, sherbet, or whatever for this recipe. I ended using gelato, since it is how i call it at my home, even if probably sherbet is the right word.
Anyhow, i tried this recipe and it was good also with tommies tommies of the grocery store, so i guess that for those of you having accesso to better mangos, it can be pretty good. Also, gelato can stored in freezer for several months, so it can help those mango maniacs wich don't want to eat mangos from grocery stores during winter.
Ingredients are putted togheter very simply, but if you want to make it you need an ice cream machine. I own one, and it's woth the money. Gelato is appreciated pretty much by everyone, and making it yourself saves a lot of money. That's the exact model i own



Anyhow, you need:

Ripe Mango: 350gr
Milk: 250gr
White sugar: 150gr
2 teaspoon of lemon/lime juice.

Pur everything in blender and mix until very smooth. Then put it in the ice cream machine. Let it go as much as it needs. Once the mixtue becomes tick, you are done.

You can basically do it with any sweet fruit with same proprtions, i have done it with apricots and it was very good too.

You can also do it with avocados. But since avocados aren't sweet, you should put a bit more sugar in it. I made it with some ripe avocados, and i used the same amounts of the previous recipe; just a little more sugar, 200gr. Since avocados are so fat, the result is incredibly creamy.

If you want a little thrill, add to your mango icecream, just before eating it (expecially if it very cold, otherwise you will melt it too much) a little of gewurztraminer wine. ;)

63
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Time needed for grafts to take
« on: July 11, 2012, 08:48:42 PM »
Hi
I have recently (3 days ago) grafted a mango, a glenn over turpentine.
While it's pretty straightforward to understand if it didn't take (i guess that the scion will simply wither and die) i also need to understand if the graft take because i grafted on a side shot of the plant (i wanted to keep the other side shoots for future grafts, in case this will fail) and i'm not sure the graft i just made will sprout as soon as healed because the plant has still lots of apical dominance. I'd like to cut the other twigs of the plant, if i'm sure it has took, to encourage sprouting. So basically, how long takes for a graft to heal?

64
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Rootstock reproduction
« on: July 03, 2012, 09:10:04 PM »
Last year one of my graft died. I kept the rootstock to regraft it.
This year, to my surprise, the rootstock flowered. I have been very surprised because the rootstock is very young (no more than a feet hig and pencil thin). Now, to me is obvius that the rootstock was just physically young, but physiologically adult. How this can be possible? Do they reproduce rootstock with cutting? Micropropagation?


65
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Mango stem damage?
« on: July 03, 2012, 08:40:18 PM »
Hi.
I'd like to say that i discovered recently a damage on the stem of my mango, but quite frankly, i can't. This deformation on the stem apparently has proceded for quite some time, but i really can't understand when it started, and it goes so slowly that i can't understand if it stil going on. The only think i know is that some part of the stem, under the bark, seems whitered and shrivelled, like if it is "sucked out". As you can see it in the picture, seems that under the bark something is going on, but i don't want to remove the bark away because if i'm wrong, i can do some serious damage to the plant.
I wondered if someone has esperienced something similiar: the plant above the damage seems to feel good, i wondered if it can be a dieback of the cambium due the the fact i removed the structure (the damge is on the south side of the stem) and the sun can have scorched the stem (i have had some minors scorchs on leaves). But yet it can be some fungine/bacterial/parasitic disease, or some kind of cold damage from the winter showing just now, and i'd like to hear your opinions.



Too bad the damage is below the grafting point.

66
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Earliest Polyembionic Mango?
« on: June 22, 2012, 08:39:43 PM »
Hi guys,
As you may be aware, i'm in the middle of experimenting with mangos in a less than suitable climate.
This is my second year with a mango in ground and even if i had the luck to be able to let him survive our harsh winter (an achievement that i'm not sure will be easy to accomplish every year), still it doesn't seems to bear fruit as it should be.
The mango itself is a Glenn, so, as you can see, a monomebionic.
Last year the plant was putted in ground (in may) and it was able to bring to maturation 2 fruits, but, unluckly, both of them were embrionless. As you surely know, fruits without embion are underdeveloped, and even if they can mature, remain very little. Last year every single fruit, both the ones wich fell off the tree, and the ones wich matured, were embrioless. This year the problem remains, and all the fruit wich fell from the tree, have shown the lack of an embrio.
Now, i think that this is due the fact that during the embrio development we get some low temperatures during night (under 57F) that, even if aren't unable to damage the tree and the fruit, kill the embrios.
I have read around that polyembrionic cultivars are more resistant to this because the nucellar embrios take the place of the sexual embrio and allow the fruit to continue the development.  So, if the last fruit that holds on my tree today fall, i'll think to substitute it with a polyembionic mango, to see if i get better results.
The question is: wich ones is the best?
Keep in mind that i need the following caracteristics:
1)Early bearer (around the time of a Glenn, or just a bit - few weeks - later),
2)Resistant to sickness (it will stay in a cold and wet environment for 6 months year)
3)Polyembrionic
4)Decent bearer (it will by my only and main mango tree)
5)The most cold hardy, the better

Regarding vigour, it is a non-issue. So far i have noticed that my mangos hardly grow, probably because the short growing season gives them just the time to flower, fruit, and after that there is pratically winter.
It won't be easy to dump the glenn, a plant that was just about perfect for every need i had, but it is pointless to keep it if i don't get normal fruits.

67
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Mexicola Avocado
« on: June 10, 2012, 09:40:16 AM »
As you can imagine i live in a subtropical/temperate climate where not many tropical plants can be grown outdoors all year long.
Lately i have developed an interest for avocados, and having heard that mexican cultivars are somewhat "cold hardy" i have done some research.
Apparently the most cold hardy variety is that "mexicola" one.
( http://www.avocadosource.com/journals/fshsp/fshsp_vol_96_pg_212-215_1983.pdf )
Since i live in a climate were temperature steadily decrease during winter, with nothing like artic blast, and since (apparently) avocados show some degree of acclimatation, i guess that where i live mexicola could (potentially) also outperforms the values showed in that paper. Basically this could mean an avocado capable of bearing fruit here, with minimal effort.
(A friend of mine own a random seedling avocado from store bought fruit and it has survived 14 years - even if some years it has been killed to the ground - and this year it has also flowered; so i guess that a selection famous for its cold hardiness should outperform at least that plant)
Anyone has experinces with this cultivar or pushing limits for avocados?
Also, wich is the northernmost avocado you are aware of? Wich cultivar is that?
Before trying to get a mexicola (not an easy task here) i'd like to hear about the experiences of other avocados growers.

68
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Lime?
« on: April 14, 2012, 09:21:55 PM »
Can someone please tell me the scientific name of the lime you have there in Florida? I'm going towards Citrus x aurantifolia, but i'm unsure because apparently some other citrus get the "lime" name... so when i read "lime" in recipes i always wonder what kind of lime are they referring to...

69
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Double grafts?
« on: April 11, 2012, 06:45:30 AM »
I was wondering: has somene ever tried to graft a really vigorous mango over a dwarf one (for istance, a Valencia Pride over a Julie)? This way you would have a valencia pride over julie and julie over the turpentine. I'm wondering if grafting this way could lead to a seriously diminished growt of the most vigorous mango, with all the dwarfin benefits we ask for (easier fruit reach, easier size control, but same fruit quality and flavour). I'm pretty sure that this isn't a new idea, but i'd like to hear about the results.

70
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Searching for some jackfruit advice
« on: April 07, 2012, 03:08:18 PM »
I'm willing to give a try with jackfruits.
I don't have any source for grafted plants right now, so i think i will go with seeds. It's way easier to obtain them. I will post later in the appropriate section a message about the seeds i'm searching, but for now i'm just searching for advice. It is pretty likely that i'm missing something obvious (like flowering time, pollination, and so on) ad i'd like to have it pointed.
I'm thinking about growing a jackfruit more or less like a potted mango, bringin it inside the greenhouse during winter and keeping it out in summer.
First, i checked the varieties listed here:
http://www.virtualherbarium.org/tropicalfruit/jackfruit-cultivars.html
and here:
http://www.sarasotafruitandnutsociety.org/information/TropicalFruit/jackfruitvarieties.htm
According to those sites, the Golden Nugget seems the most promising variety for me. It is an early one, wich is good because my short season, and it has little fruits, wich is needed for a potted variety. I think about going with Golden Nugget seeds.
But i need to know the following things:
Does jackfruit seedling come reasonably true to the parent?
Does it need cross pollination?
How much cold hardy is it? If it can't take an extended time at 34F i won't be able to grow it here.
Has someone see it grow in pot of reasonable size and still produce fruit?
Thank you very much for your suggestions!

71
Tropical Fruit Discussion / I need advice on pruning
« on: March 29, 2012, 02:22:07 PM »
I started to remove some of the frame around my mango, and i'm approaching to the days when will be possible to prune it.
As you may already know, i want this plant to stay small and bushy to be able to keep it under the frame i built. The plant itself is a Glenn mango.
This gonna be the first pruning of this plant for me and one of the first pruning experinces on mangoes at all.
I have watched some of the fairchild videos on mango pruning still i fear to break something and do a mistake wich will take years to recover. And of course, i want to eat my own mangos as soon as possibles.
Now the question is: how do i prune it?
I took some picture of the plant and of the frame to show you what i'm talking about.



This is just to give you a scale.
Then, this is where i'm willing to cut:




The red lines are the cutting spot, the blue one is the point where the plant is grafted. After this i hope to keep the plant in control for some years with tip pruning, and some limb cutting from year to year.
I won't do this before a month, because i want to use the branches removed to learn to graft, and i need more heat, but i'd like to hear your opinions now.
Thank you in advance!

72
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Identifing a dwarf mango
« on: March 11, 2012, 02:20:18 PM »
Hi everyone.
I'd like the help of the people on this forum regarding the identity of this mango.



The owner of the plant is an user of an italian forum wich lives in the very south of italy.
The plant itself, showed in the pictures, is, according the word of the owner, 15 years old. The owner told me that this plant has been bought to him as gift from canary islands, and the buyers didn't care about taking the name of the plant, but i think that (maybe!) the name can be found in the list of the plant growed by ICIA (list below).
The picture has been taken during the night, so the color of the fruits isn't clear, but the owner has said to me that they are yellow with a red/purple blush. They weight about 600g (1,3 pounds). The plant itself have never had any fertilizer.
This is another pic of the fruit:



Do you have any clue?

ICIA list:


13-1                           
Adams                     
Ah Ping                             
Alphonse                   
Ameeri                     
Amini                       
Anderson               
Ataulfo                       
Big Yellow                 
Bombay                     
Bombay Green           
Carabao                       
Cogshall                       
Chene                       
Davis Haden             
Edward                 
Eldon                       
Fairchild                 
Fascell                   
Gaylour                 
Glenn                     
Golden Lippens       
Gomera-1, Manga Blanca   
Gomera- 4, Manga Fina   
Gouveia                   
Haden                 
Harders                   
Harris                   
Irwin                   
Isis                   
Jewell               
Julie             
Keitt               
Kensington       
Kent               
Lancetilla       
Lily               
Lippens               
Mabroka         
Madame Francis         
Magshimi
Manila               
Manzanillo         
Maya             
Momy K           
Mulgoba               
Mun    (Nan Dok Mai)
Nimrod           
Oliveira Neto       
Osteen               
Ott                     
Pairi               
Peach               
Pirie         
Pope               
R2E2               
Ruby                   
San Andrés 1       
S Andrés  2           
Sensation             
Smith               
Torbert           
Tommy Atkins       
Turpentine Gomera-3   
Valencia Pride     
Van Dyke     
Winters           
Zill                   
Zillate             
Zifrin             

73
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Potted lychee pruning
« on: February 26, 2012, 04:31:55 PM »
I have a young sweetheart lychee that seems willing to start growing after the winter.
The question is: how i should prune it? Obviously the objective is keeping the plant small, since it should stay in pot for his entire life.
I have seen a lot of video a heard quite a bit about mango pruning but now that i came to this little plant i realized that i haven't a clue about what to do.
Any suggestion? I know that we have here some avid lychee growers that for one reason or another are forced to keep their plant in pots... i'm seeking advice.

74
Recipes / Florence Fennel and Oranges salad
« on: February 25, 2012, 06:31:17 PM »
Fennel and Oranges salad

This is my favorite way of eating oranges during winter.
This recipe is used mainly in Sicily, but nowadays you can find good oranges everywhere in italy, and fennel is also widespread. Dunno, if it is used even in USA, but anyway... here it is.
This is very simple but as with everything very simple, the single most important thing is the good quality of your ingredients.
So, just take a florence fennel bulb,
one orange (i use navel oranges; the sweeter, the better),
olive oil (use the best olive oil you have, we use 2 kind of olive oil in every house here, and for this recipe i use the best),
salt,
pepper.

Wash the bulb and cut it in little chips. Unpeel your orange and separate the segments, then break them by hand in 2 pieces. Try to keep the juice inside the segments, but is important that you break them by hand because a little of juice will give flavour to the fennel. Put salt and pepper. Mix everything with a fork. Put 2 tablespoon olive oil on it and mix once more with the fork. Buon appetito!

75
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Degree-Day
« on: February 23, 2012, 06:32:37 PM »
An interesting question for those who lives in a place where plants need to be kept indoor during winter is: "Will my plant fruit here?"
Usually we assume that if a plant can be grown outside without a cover, or a very minimal one, it can fruit.
But some calculation can be done for those who a forced to use a pot, taking in account your climate data (average max and min temperatures for each month). So, if you have those data, even if you don't have a first hand experience of someone tring to grow something tropical in your zone, you can calculate if something can produce mature fruits where you live.
I found this extremly interesting and useful when i tried to understand if mangos were able to fruit here (if you are curious, i just have the bare minimun requirements).
Unluckly anyway, for mangos there is a great lack of datas. The most important one is the total value of degree-day, while the base temperature, if you lack more precise datas, can be assumed at 12C (54F).   
Anyway, for those interested, this is how this method works: It is called "Degree-Day".

http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=56494

This site allows you to see the "degree day" for your specific location. Just choose "cooling" to see the accumulation ABOVE the base temperature (this tool was inteded for energy management):

http://www.degreedays.net

This study gives some insight on how it works for commercial orchards.

http://industry.mangoes.net.au/userfiles/file/FR605%20Heat%20sums%20to%20predict%20fruit%20maturity%20in%20Kensington%20Pride%20mangoes.pdf

If people keep track of the day of the flowring of their mangos (and the day when the fruits are ripe), over several years they can calculate the required degree-day for that cultivar.
I hope this useful for someone.

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