The Tropical Fruit Forum

Hey Joshua, you are just a few hours from me as I'm north of Liberia.  No I haven't found it yet here. Not sure if I will.  I did visit Ark Herb farm last year and was very impressed, got many plants and seeds too. Not sure if he has it now.  For anyone that is looking in the states, I saw last month that Pete at his Green Dreams Nursery n Florida has Kava and will be selling it finally once he has propagated it out.

Hey Peter,

OK, thanks.  I have talked to Gary Zill's, quite out of my budget for his grafted trees, I think I just need to stick with seeds and then maybe graft as needed.   I can graft the black sapote if I need to, just need to get the seeds-seedlings going for root stock then make a trip south to get branches from quality trees in 6 months if grafting is recommended for that tree.  I might need to take you up on buying the red Jakfruit seeds from you if you can put them in the mail that may be my best option. 

Avocados do very well here and I have quite a few trees but they aren't mixed in with my Cacao.  I figured they were too heavy shade, so my mangoes and avocados are in their own area.  For my cacao, I have my permanent trees Guama, guanabana, and Cashew inter planted between every 4th Cacao vertical and horizontal for one hectare, and I think the Guama have done the best for me due to its height, quick growth and reaching branches (still waiting on fruit, maybe 2020).  Many of my Cashew trees have blown over and block out nearly all the sun which those cacao aren't too happy about, so looking for something else for those areas and others where I still need some cacao upper shade. 

I am growing 5 sapodilla trees in their own area where I wanted a lot of shade for my dogs and have been quite slow growing for me here.  I'm expecting 100% shade from them, so I don't think I would do those intermixed between the Cacao.  I would consider the canistel. I haven't had canistel, but it looks like something I would like to grow and eat (have seeds?).  My mamey sapote have grown very slow as I had them in too much shade the past 4 years, so I dug them up and moved them (only 4' tall) and hope they do better in full sun.  Do the Canistel grow any faster than Mamey and Chico sapote, or do all the sapote family have about the same slow growth?

I've even considered doing some large Guapinol trees for upper shade with the cacao as the neighbors have said they are wind resistant and always have leaves during the dry season.

Professor     

Hello Peter, thank you for the info.  Aren't Jackfruit a bit of a crap shoot on genetics not true to seed so really unsure what you will get as far a fruit quality if simply producing from an un-grafted tree? 

I also wonder if Jackfruit could then work as a middle or upper level filtered shade tree for inter-planting with Cacao (maybe 12m), as well as provide a good wind break, since we are so windy here.  Do you think it could work well for that, or does it have to dense of a canopy/shade? 

Also, regarding my area with the dry season we have, do you think Sapote Negro would grow here?  I'm not sure about the dry season tolerance of that tree as I haven't seen any of them up this way.  Professor
 

Another point... I read that in India they do graft breadfruit onto their wild jackfruit so I figured its likely that I could do the reverse.  Given that the jackfruit tree could naturally be twice as large as the breadfruit, not sure if I would get a smaller dwarf version, or have any issues with the tree not being able to handle the weight of the fruit, it may be best just to go with growing the jackfruit seedlings and graft to them instead of taking the risk with the breadnut.  I may however try grafting the jackfruit onto some of the 4 year old breadfruit trees that I have to get a tree with both fruit if the center trunk is not essential for support of the heavy fruit.

Hello, Paul's jackfruit which is orange in color is known here simply as red Jackfruit (Jacka in spanish pronounced as "Yaka").  Typically a bit firmer than the yellow variety.     

Hello friends,  for Costa Rica I was wondering if anyone knows what the harvest season is for the black sapote when the fruits are available in the markets.  I am looking for some fresh fruit and or just the fresh seeds to plant here.

Thank you 

For a long time we have intended to manage melapona bees in hives, harvest some honey, etc. But it's one of the things we still haven't managed to accomplish yet. There are a plethora of different stingless bees here. The most useful is one that I can't remember the name of.  It is known for having a
tubular entrance to its hive. Our farm has sections of forest throughout so these guys are pretty much everywhere. There are other stingless bees that are pests, they eat new leaves and flowers on citrus for instance.
Peter

Hello Peter,  I know this is an old post, however the bees you are referring to that make the tiny wax tube entrances are the the tiny stingless Mariola bees (Tetragonisca angustula) and I have been raising two hives of these for the past two years here in Costa Rica in simple open space wooden boxes.  Honey yield for these bees is 800- 1000ml/year normally harvested in April each year.  This year I built 6 professional wood hives specific for these bees having 5 frames in them and I split my two hives into four hives.  I have also just set out 22 swarm traps to catch more of these bees, however I was wondering if anyone here knows if these Mariola bees will swarm in the rainy season since their food source is decreasing or if I will only be able to catch them in the dry season?

Thanks, professor.   

Hello Peter,

Thanks for the suggestion, I will check into it. To be sure the winds are super strong right now.  They will be dying down pretty soon I expect as the heat really sets in the next month.  The dry season length up here depends a bunch on the elevation.  Down in Liberia or LaCruz its like a desert close to sea level but we stay green essentially all year even with the 3-4 months of hardly any rain.  We are at 800' elevation and with the hills also the sun sets an hour earlier than down in the planes.  Parts of our finca do dry out more than others as it depends on which hill if facing the South sun, but others do fine.  As in the Caribbean islands, in the dry summer it can be like a desert on the West Caribbean side of the mountains whereas on the East ocean side at the same time it can have lush tropical forests.  I checked out a topographical map of estimated rainfall for Costa Rica before I purchased the property.   

Hello Everyone,  Just a simply question that I haven't been able to find online.  This is my first season I have decided to adjust my pH higher due to the acidic soil here and I have read it should be done in the dry season.  I'm in Costa Rica and my dry season this year will be 4 months of which I am half the way through.  So, I was wondering if anyone knows if its better if I put the calcium down now, 2 months prior to the rain or is it better to wait until a week or two prior to the rains of the rainy season starting?

Thanks

Hello,

I was thinking this bug is an aphid, but can anyone confirm?  It jumps and can fly a short distance.  I have seen the aphids on the Cacao as well, but not sure about these exotic looking little "suckers".  They are lined up all along the stem of the fruit as in my prior pics with the ants farming them or at least eating the sap they are sucking.  However, just wondering if I need to address these differently if they are not aphids.  (An African voodoo mask or an alien face comes to mind).  Here is a close up...





Thanks, professor

Hello and thanks for the suggestions so far.  The ants are a small variety of black ants (pretty standard looking) that do not have stingers, only bite a little, they aren't the leaf cutters which here in my area are a red color.  I have noticed these do have colonies which tend to be in dead wood and the ants don't like to be in the sun at all.  They seem to be located closer to the edge of my farm on one side where I have a forest.  I have one shed where there is a large colony living in some wood the termites left behind, I need to deal with this group also, but I think there are several colonies because I don't see them travel too far from one location (less than 100'). 

I don't think "Tangle foot" is sold here in this country, but i could search for it.  Possibly this could be a solution if I could make a home made version of "Tangle foot".  I'm still looking to identify the ant and as Tuanis suggested maybe this can help me know more about them so I can take out the colonies.  I may also try a paint mixed with cinnamon powder and calcium carbonate to paint the trunk with (thanks for the suggestion) if I don't come up with anything else better to experiment with.

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention is that is looks like these ants are farming aphids as well on my trees, so they do like sweets and that is why they are also on my soursop/guanabana fruits.

Update...  It looks like what I have are The common black garden ant (Lasius niger).  I like the idea of the Borax ant traps, if I can find Borax or Boric Acid here in CR, and then make a crystallized solution they should take it back to the colony and kill it.  I am in hopes the natural beneficial bugs will take out my aphids that have developed.

Thanks