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Messages - Satya

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1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: March 19, 2024, 10:11:03 AM »

I thought Costa Rica was a lot more progressive than Peru. Don't they pay farmers there to preserve forest? Things are pretty out of hand here. As much money as the government takes from the citizens, you'd think they'd actually do their jobs. If someone is clearcutting (and burning) a tract of land zoned as forest, you'd think it would be as simple as calling the police and the people being arrested within the hour. Instead, the Peruvian government opts for a much more bureaucratic process that inadvertently gives the offenders up to another month and a half to keep destroying more forest before the gov't forestry agency is obligated to visit the site.



It only is progressive in tourist areas and in media. the amount of money they pay for reforestation is enough to pay your yearly property taxes, not more than that. Laws here are very poorly imposed. after someone stole our electric meter, police itself tells us to put up a high fence, a camera, get a couple of guard dogs and some loud geese 😩. Their investigation ends at taking a report and photos of the "crime scene". Even violent criminals (caught during an organized robbery, for example) let go after 48 hours in many cases. and everyone burns plastic garbage though it's illegal, and does controlled fires of fields, though it's illegal, too. organic certification here is a joke, you basically just need to keep a journal and tick mark things you do, and tell the inspector "yes" or "no" for him/her to tick mark a form. The local organic association guy lives 15 meters from Delmonte fields and sells his produce in the farmers market as organic, and teaches others how to farm organically.
Many nasty chemicals that are prohibited in Europe and even in the US find their way here; common people think that Glyphosate is organic and that "soil doesn't have enough nutrients so we have to put in fertilizers" (direct quote, I'm not kidding....) no one ever using protection while spraying; lots of education is needed to prevent locals from ending up like in Madagascar, because Delmonte and Chiquita (the biggest ag players here) are doing their quick and dirty job of destroying the biodiversity and soil, and the local culture makes it too easy to use chemicals to make everything look "clean" and "neat", just burn all the grasses with glyphosate "only once", and you will have no problem with pasto - that's what our neighbor keeps telling us every time he passes by... he did it, and now he has a perfectly manicured soccer field that no one ever plays in.
I wonder how it is on Peter's side, because here in Perez it's very hard.

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: March 18, 2024, 02:59:30 PM »
but just the fact that I use irrigation and mulch made me part of the horrible ones....

What's wrong with mulch? I never heard anyone in the organic/regenerative space criticize the use of mulch. In my Environmental Horticulture AS program, the instructors drove the point home about all the benefits of mulch.
pineisander...why are you not mentioning that you use synthetic fertilizers? As far as I remember, Eric didn't like the fact that you were doing 100% clearing of the land before planting "permaculture" in its place, not that you used mulch. I understand you had lots of "bad" trees like melaleuca but 100% bulldozing of land and then creating a "permaculture" forest in its place is something I would consider quite questionable if you want to be teaching permaculture to others and be the example of it. Would be nice if everyone named things by their names, not tried to make things look like they're something they're not. then no one would argue.

3
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: March 17, 2024, 06:31:23 PM »
Thank you Epiphyte, I will save all the information for her. We are in a more rural area of Perez Zeledon, away from the shore. We can see the tallest mountain of CR (Chirripo) from our hill. Lots of jungle life by the quebrada, but cow people did major damage - removed most of the virgin jungle and infiltrated it with pasto - invasive pasture grass that is very hard to remove now, and on top of that created some landslides and soil deterioration from overgrazing. We're working on a combination of groundcovers and wind breakers to plant this rainy season, and hopefully the winds will be less severe after a couple years. Poco poco.
I have a large guanacaste tree that I need to clear off parasites and start planting epiphytes on. I was thinking that maybe insert orchid seeds into crevices of the bark with tweezers but will try your technique, too.



Janet, I got inspired by your family mini tractor operations and terraced the first hill  :D  I'm talking about it iand showing it in my recent farm video (what's growing during dry season). This would be the first terrace to be planted with mostly mango and avocado trees this year, hope for the best and that they won't be blown away by these crazy winds 🤞🏽

4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: March 17, 2024, 10:25:12 AM »
[Quick aside] Satya, I saw a couple of your more recent videos--your property in Costa Rica looks like paradise!


thank you; crazy amount of work to make it look like paradise))

5
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: March 17, 2024, 10:09:06 AM »
Epiphyte, do you have a video of how you planted orchids on that huge tree, the seeds that sprouted? My wife is very much into aroids and we have lots of large trees here but the winds seem to have removed all her previous attempts at planting orchid seeds and anthurium seeds, so she wanted to go deeper into the forest. Would appreciate a lot the technical details, how far from existing epiphytes, which location on the tree etc.
sorry, no video.  coincidentally a couple days ago i noticed that our recent severe winds, for socal, had completely dislodged a huge and very old clump of plants including an anthurium from 3 stories up on my tree.  somehow the clump was hanging entirely from its quarter inch drip tube.  basically my big mistake when i attached the bundle was that i failed to attach right next to it an orchid with really long and strong roots... such as a cattleya or vanda.  if i had done this then the orchid roots would have secured the bundle to the tree.  for this purpose something like a typical oncidium with short wimpy roots would have been useless. 

when i attach a cattleya or similarly sturdy orchid to a tree i don't use any moss.  it goes directly on the plain bark via fishing line.  i use a slip knot technique with the fishing line to attach the orchid as tightly as possible.  if there's any wiggle room the fragile orchid root tips will break off and the orchid won't get its roots on the bark and it will languish.  for less sturdy orchids like typical oncidiums i'll put some moss inbetween it and the bark.  string can work just fine but it isn't as aesthetic.  in some cases after the orchid has established you'll need to cut the fishing line or string to prevent girdling. 

for the rest of the epiphytes i use a decent amount of sphagnum moss.  on a table or something i'll 1st use fishing line to create a moss bundle with a wide variety of epiphytes.  i go around and around the bundle with the fishing line until everything is super snug and i can lift the bundle up without any moss or epiphytes falling off.  then i'll use fishing line to attach the bundle to the tree right next to a cattleya or vanda or similar orchid with roots that will grow into the bundle and make sure it stays on the tree.

for the orchid seeds, basically i harvested seeds of various epiphytic orchids until i had like a small handful.  i put the seeds in a large plastic bottle, filled it with water, and shook vigorously.  then i slowly dripped it all over the tree.  all the seeds that germinated did so within a half inch of the roots of orchids on the tree.  in my dry conditions that's as far as the fungus managed to extend from their home in the thick and succulent orchid roots.  i'm sure it's a different story in wet and humid florida.   

as far as location on the tree... bundles typically are closer to the shady side of the tree, while sturdy orchids are next to them closer to the sunny side of the tree.  in terms of horizontal branches i prefer to put epiphytes on the bottom of the branches.  it makes them slightly less susceptible to being trampled on by the usual suspects. 

staghorn ferns create excellent "pots" for all sorts of plants.  at a local nursery some critters planted some lemon guava seeds on a staghorn attached to a palm...



if you look closely at the top, the seedlings are starting to fruit! 

the old layers of shield fronds combined with the fine roots of the stags create a medium that drains perfectly but also retains moisture.  i'm sure the ph is really good as well.  i've seen everything from roses to aroids happily growing in stags.  a guy in queensland that i follow on ig has a queen anthurium happily growing in a platycerium superbum.

that's cool that your wife is into aroids.  so you can both watch fnf videos together since he's got a really nice collection of aroids growing among his rare fruit trees.  i've always loved aroids and it's been a trip seeing all the new varieties flood the market thanks to the huge spike in demand that has resulted from their popularity in social media. 

let me know if you'd like any more details.  getting plants onto trees isn't always the easiest thing, but it's totally worth all the extra diversity and the associated benefits.
Thank you for the details. This is for our farm in Costa Rica, we're at 1000 m elevation and the conditions are very similar to CA, cold nights and very dry 6 months with barely any rains at all. Last 2 months we had 1 small rain.

6

How much Physan PSPTA20 and water do you use for the mix to be sprayed onto the seeds and newly-sprouted seeds? It says 1.5 tsp/gal on the description. May it harm the newly-sprouted seeds? Is it toxic to humans?
Best


yes onur it's toxic, I'm surprised people still use this crap with all the information available at the fingertips...
From google: "Evidence. EPA's review of industry submitted toxicity data and the potential for human exposure concludes that this substance [alkyl benzyl ammonium chloride] poses a high risk for human health. A peer-reviewed publication reports some quaternary ammonium compounds cause reproductive toxicity in animals.
Quaternary ammonium compounds detected in human blood was associated with increased inflammation, decreased mitochondrial function and disruption of cholesterol."

7
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: March 16, 2024, 09:08:42 PM »


****************************



Epiphyte, do you have a video of how you planted orchids on that huge tree, the seeds that sprouted? My wife is very much into aroids and we have lots of large trees here but the winds seem to have removed all her previous attempts at planting orchid seeds and anthurium seeds, so she wanted to go deeper into the forest. Would appreciate a lot the technical details, how far from existing epiphytes, which location on the tree etc.

8
If this is seed seller Wong, i will not buy seeds from him again. In my case it was not failed delivery but rotted seeds. I bought a pretty large amount of various species and 95% already arrived rotted and moldy. And the real reason i am not buying from him again is because he did not seem to care much about the fact that they arrived useless.


I have only dealt with Maryoto once and i liked him for his honesty. I had already paid him for a large shipment but after a few weeks he found out that he can not ship from there due to phyto restrictions so he refunded me the whole amount effortlessly. 

9
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: BLACK FRIDAY SALE!
« on: November 29, 2023, 07:58:37 PM »
Did you get notification of shipping? I had ordered on the 24th, hoping to take them with me as i fly back on the 5th of Dec. I am not home now so not sure if they have been already shipped without notification and already arrived. Messaged both here and in the website but haven’t heard anything yet. I assume it must be very busy with so many orders, but really don’t want them to arrive after i leave as they will just die. I would rather someone else here have them if they are arriving late.

10
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: WTB Turpentine Mango Seeds
« on: November 27, 2023, 11:59:43 AM »
yes, please message me.

11
Looks like you can't be added to waitlist for some items.  I would check his site in March or Sept when he posts inventory for sale.

Janet


thank you Janet! I added many things to waitlist, hope they become available this season. Your work on the farm is impressive, we are about to start the similar volume of work, grading slopes with lots of berm type spaces, but small excavators are unavailable here so looking for alternatives - anything other than elbow grease  ;D

12
Hi everyone,

Just wanted to share my favorite source for root crops from a breeder in Washington.  He just made items available for pre-order for next season.

Cultivariable.com

He specializes in Andean potatoes, yacon, oca, mashua, and ulluco.
I’ve also ordered perennial sea kale and dwarf Jerusalem artichokes.
I love his potatoes.

Janet


Hi Janet, do you know what happened to Cultivaribles? Nothing is available, seems that he isn't taking preorders either. In his personal posts he's saying he's very disorganized. I am finally ready to plant roots but the web site is dormant.
Also, I'm looking for mashua negra, the only place I saw it was Indonesia... have you heard of anyone selling it?

13
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: November 03, 2023, 10:24:09 PM »
Satya,

I hope you will reconsider and start posting in the discussion forum again.  I would really be interested in hearing about how you are developing your new property in Costa Rica.  Your experience, insights, and results contribute to inspiring others to grow food and cultivate beauty.

I'm working on organizing my photos and thoughts for a post on my farm.  This thread is making me question how it will be received, but I guess I'll just have to write it and see.  In the end, I don't really need anyone's approval or validation, but I am open to learning from the experience of other growers.

Janet


Janet, thank you again for your kind words. I really don’t want to rub it in but our experience in Costa Rica would probably not be helpful as we have an unlimited supply of water both from springs (water association keeps its tank on our land and gives us unlimited unmetered access for a small yearly maintenance fee) and a water concession from the river on our property. Rainfall was very nice this rainy season which is coming to an end now, but summers are usually dry here, so we will probably need to irrigate veggie gardens and newly planted trees.


Soil is very fertile acidic and full of worms, and we haven’t even done any applications. The biggest problem is cow grass, as the area has been deforested and turned into pasture about 50 years ago. It's very aggressive and needs lots of elbow grease to remove.


Luckily, cow herders didn’t spend money on fertilizers or weed killers so we are chemical-free, and because it’s steep hilly, there are no DelMonte or Chiquita plantations around that our farmer friends in the valley are facing, with all their poisons. The biggest problem here seems to be high winds (we are at 1000m elevation), so the challenge for us in comparison with lowlands is to plant seeds directly into soil - that doesn’t work and we have to keep trees in pots until they’re strong enough to withstand winds, which is about 5ft tall/5g pot.


Shadehouse plants are very happy so far, without any fertilizers or irrigation, just on rainwater and lots of worms that were thrown into pots so worm castings for fertilizer basically, and even rare and finicky plants don’t show any deficiencies. Jaboticabas flush non-stop here!
As soon as we protected trees with shadecloth from the wind and burning sun, they perked up and greened up (after being in the open in our previous rental). Interesting thing a local farmer shared with us, native South and Central American trees do well without shade protection, but Asian fruit trees need shade for the first year of life, even the ones that are considered full sun trees and fruit only in full sun.
We also noticed that air layers take much faster here than in FL.


We are very lucky to have both wet and dry areas (up and down the hills), so we can plant both California-climate and Florida-climate plants, so we are super excited about annonas, white sapotes and mangoes and all the tropicals like monsteras, philodendrons and anthuriums, orchids and other pretty ornamentals, but also many cacti, yuccas and agaves. Local mangoes here on the farm are very sweet and abundant, so hopefully new varieties also perform at their best and not get the usual Florida problems, since they will have so much wind and aeration.


Another problem that we inherited from cow herders is landslides, but we’re working on the eroded slopes using vetiver grass (it has massive root system but is non-invasive clumping and doesn't bloom so no seeds), here in CR it’s very popular and widely used for erosion control.


As for insects, there is a new pest that we never had in FL - leaf cutter ants that can defoliate a mature tree in a day, and that has to be controlled somehow because we have seen lots of them on the farm. They “trimmed” an old mango tree fully, leaving no leaves at all… Yet to discover a natural control for them, many people recommend different anecdotal controls but others say they don’t work...


All in all, much fewer challenges here for growing anything, from potatoes & tomatoes to durians & mangosteens, so we are very hopeful and looking forward to our new fruit adventures.



14
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: October 31, 2023, 04:52:41 PM »
I have met Eric @ Florida natural farming personally and my youtube video on his farm has over 9K views now with frequent comments of interested growers in the video. That was 2 years ago, from my recollection, he was doing something different from the mainstream style of farming and something that resonated with what i/we wanted to do in our North Miami Beach garden. We were impressed with the new ideas that he had to share and implemented some of the techniques of the biodynamic farming in our garden. It was not that he was chased away from here, but rather an atmosphere was created in the forum in those days that made posting anything undesirable, much like when someone fills a room with black fumes and dust, and one would just escape the room to breathe fresh air. I have felt the same way many times and don't post in discussion forum these days. I have a long list of those who have behaved rudely with me and a longer list of people who have been kind, sharing and joy to talk to. Like with everything else: food, clothes, people - we choose based on our understanding and experience, and some are open to evolve and some get comfortable with their known ways of eating, behaving, growing, and anything that is out of their norm becomes uncomfortable, anything alien, be it culture or growing habits, makes them feel uncomfortable and want to defend by being aggressive against such change or such person.


I agree that forum is a great resource, and the fact that so many growers can post their growing experiences and taste reviews is invaluable. I respect their opinion on their choices but i will do my own way. I have thrashed people's growing ways in my channel and will continue to do so. But i am not going to say that this is the only way.

15
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: WTB turpentine seeds
« on: August 29, 2023, 06:54:02 PM »
I have about 25 seedlings in 1g. May be able to bare-root and wrap in sphagnum and send if you are interested. I will take $10 per plant. If you don’t find seeds please let me know.

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Cone-tainers question
« on: August 27, 2023, 06:19:53 PM »
I hate conerainers…never will I use them again.
It’s way too hard to repot trees. They would just not come out …I got really angry 😤
Get a slightly wider pit so it’s easier to repot.
I had the same problem with root pruning pots, was cursing while trying to scrape them out with a table fork. then one day by accident they got flooded and i was repotting the next day, and when the soil was completely soaked and soft, they came out nicely en bloc without any damage to the roots. From now on, I always soak them the night before transplanting, and I don't have to use the fork any longer))
The main problem with cone-tainers for me was the giant tap root and not many side roots, so if I were to plant in them again, I would drill tiny holes all along the cone. Considering they are on daily irrigation, because they will dry up very fast with this kind of aeration.
They did save a lot of space for me with the Brazil seed order - had great survival rate in them, and plants looked healthy for a long time without fertilizer. But make sure you only plant slow growing trees into them, for fast growing plants they are pretty useless.

17
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: ISO Goldfinger Banana Pup
« on: August 26, 2023, 10:00:20 PM »
John, Gold Finger is not one of the ones that I have grown yet. Mysore, Rajapuri, Manzano, Ice Cream, Orinocco, Dwarf Cavendish, and Gran Nain.

Satya, are you still looking for SK Carambola?


Yes, i am still looking for scions. I have 2 seedlings that i want to graft to. I had a tree and tasted Sri K before and really liked it. The tree stayed dwarf and compact. But it died, could not figure out why, probably nutritional deficiency and/or planted in the bad spot and got weakened.

18
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: ISO Goldfinger Banana Pup
« on: August 26, 2023, 02:56:56 PM »
I am sure many are growing here in South FL. Same as when i asked for a cutting of Sri K carambola nobody raised their hands. And i never asked the cutting to be shipped, would gladly drive there to meet or share something for trade or buy. Things like these put me off when i feel like selling grafted mango trees for $25 when people are lined up to buy for $60 from popularized farms. I always felt the forum to be a place to trade, to sell, to make rare plants available for better prices.


John, i also was looking for this variety and i bought a tissue culture online from Florida hill nursery. I was looking for Jamaican red/dwarf but they don't have in stock now.

19
Hi Kaz, this is very interesting. Hopefully there will be more interest in the forum for the yellow sapotes now. When i was offering scions for free nobody was interested, and probably it could have been because it was free  ::) . My grafts have grown slowly, one or two flushes since that time i grafted. Since i am in the process of moving out of the country, i will be selling the whole tree, 15g with 5-6 different branches grafted with #6 and #7 and one have a branch with suebelle. The rootstock is the seedling tree that you sent me. My best FL cultivar in terms of taste is also Younghan's Gold.

20
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: ID odd fruit
« on: August 12, 2023, 01:15:50 PM »
Yes mamoncillo or guinepas/guineps. Where were you at in Palm Beach? I'd like to go by there and buy some
They sell them on many big intersections in South Florida, mostly the ones that have long constant traffic jams  ;D  - exits from 95.... Hermacito means little brother, so probably the lady had a close relationship with the tree that produced the fruit.

21
Aren't the seeds very hard/long to sprout? If it takes for ever to sprout, might not be the easiest veg to start. In our climate, seedlings of surinam(e) spinach produce a similar fleshy tap root. Interesting to find out about oak seedlings, we have to weed lots of them out due to squirrel games.

22
Good morning, like everyone else I'm looking at the white okinawan bitter melon variety from Baker Creek.  I've never tasted bitter melon before.  Is it worth growing as a FL summer crop?  In these inflationary times, I want to try and grow some of my own veggies during the summer, but only things that are of decent eating quality.  I'm not interested in the arils that much, more the vegetable itself.  Is bitter melon decent tasting and will grow well in south FL summer?
Absolutely! The flesh to seed ratio in that variety is good, fruit is not very bitter like its cousins (Chinese or Indian bitter melons that are really bitter) and the vine is very productive. I have one plant and it produces 2-3 fruits every day. Just needs full sun and adequate watering if a dry spell comes.
Here is my vine:
https://youtu.be/g0KuhoBa4f8

23
interesting! I just shot a jyunpaku Okinawan bitter melon short, forgot all about the ripe fruit, otherwise would have included the aril info :)
https://youtu.be/g0KuhoBa4f8
To be honest, I don't care about the arils that much because I love the unripe fruit cooked as a vegetable or juiced for a shot of healthy - I harvest them all before they're ripe  ;D [size=78%] [/size]
All varieties of bitter melons' arils (red) of a ripe fruit (orange) taste very sweet, even the mini weedy ones.
Even the arils of an unripe fruit have a very different taste than the bitter melon itself. I wouldn't say it's candy sweet but has a very (very!) mild sweet flavor, I wouldn't even call it a flavor, it's probably a hint of sweetness followed by a very light aftertaste of bitter that doesn't last long. An interesting super subtle flavor if you ask me, but I really like the bitter melons of all kinds, and this one is very pretty, with mild bitterness,  the taste blends very well with other vegetables when you cook it, so all in all this vegetable has lots to offer and is worth growing, in my opinion, for many reasons. I would grow them for health benefits anyway, cherry or not  ;D


24
as long as you have taro (colocasia esculenta) they all can be cooked, it just varies by cook time. the bun-long Chinese taro is known here in hawaii as one of the most favorable with the shortest cook times. can be fully edible in 20 minutes of boiling. about two months ago i was desiring leaves. i went out to some of my plants and harvested a large pot full of leaves. we cooked them for 4 hours and it still had some slight itch. we cooked it another two hours the second day and still had some light itch. nothing horrible, but enough to notice. ive decided not to eat that one anymore. most of the small sized taro corms sold in stores/farmers markets here is the bun-long variety.
if youre up on your botany you can figure out what variety you have. but being on the mainland im not sure what other cultivars you have. we can narrow things down pretty quickly here in hawaii by assuming most are local varieties plus only a few commercial non-hawaiian cultivars. heres the best site ive found for information.
http://bentut.github.io/kupunakalo/index.php/kalo_varieties/detail/bun-long/index.html
id prefer to collect a specimen from a known cultivator and be sure about variety rather than messing around with unknown varieties. but ive yet to come across for sure known edible leaf varieties. ive found other taro relatives for short cook times, but for some reason taro is a hard one for me to find. even here in the apex of ancient taro cultivation
I also haven't had luck with cooking colocasia leaves - oxalates never broke down, however long I cooked it. When I was in India, I was taught a very cool recipe with chickpea dough wrapped in colocasia leaves and refried. They didn't have the slightest oxalic tingle. Maybe different species of colocasia? Unfortunately I have no way to check now, but the dish was delicious. Wanted to replicate here but no luck.

25
winged bean is perennial here, they die out for the winter but resprout once the rains begin. I heard that tubers are also edible but I don't kill the vines. They produce pretty well for me in FL, lots of flowers and pods.

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