Aha. That would be 10 feet apart in-row and 14 feet between rows. A little tight, but I guess it would work. Also assumes a perfectly square plot, and you'd lose a tree space per row (along the axis where you're staggering them). But the an acre has 43,xxx sq feet, so you have an extra 3k+ square feet, which would make up for most of the row stagger loss.

I was only able to fit about 38 trees on a 1/4 acre plot, but I used 15 foot spacing (both in row and between row).

I have 180 trees planted on roughly 1 acre. My spacing is 15ft.  1 acre = 40,000 sqft, 5 acres = 200,000 sqft, 1000 trees on 200,000 sqft = 200 sqft per tree. If entire 5 acres was used and the trees are planted in a square pattern, they could be planted 14ft apart.

Quote from: Cookie Monster on September 13, 2018, 09:59:20 PM

Yikes!

Quote from: Future on September 13, 2018, 08:00:46 PM

Quote from: Cookie Monster on September 13, 2018, 04:33:20 PM

Yep. That's why I was so excited when these new cultivars first started being released. I got coco cream and lemon zest literally the day they were released.

Gary was able to eliminate 90% of the seedlings before planting them out based on leaf smell. But he did plant out 1,000 seedlings and wait for them to fruit -- which is quite an amazing feat. I don't think anyone else in the U.S. has ever had such a huge mango improvement project. And, how did he manage to cram 1,000 trees into 5 acres? I think that translates to about 8' spacing between trees.

Quote from: johnb51 on September 13, 2018, 04:03:56 PM

10,000 seedlings!  And the number of years devoted to this.  I'm absolutely amazed by the undertaking.

6ft actually!

Yep. That's why I was so excited when these new cultivars first started being released. I got coco cream and lemon zest literally the day they were released.

Gary was able to eliminate 90% of the seedlings before planting them out based on leaf smell. But he did plant out 1,000 seedlings and wait for them to fruit -- which is quite an amazing feat. I don't think anyone else in the U.S. has ever had such a huge mango improvement project. And, how did he manage to cram 1,000 trees into 5 acres? I think that translates to about 8' spacing between trees.

10,000 seedlings!  And the number of years devoted to this.  I'm absolutely amazed by the undertaking.

Yes, they can last for years.

What’s the shelf life on these things?  Is it good to stock up and hold it for a year or so?

Don't think it's due to girdling roots. Girdling root would cause a tree to be weaker in a wind event, or perhaps lead to a slow decline? Going from healthy to dead is really odd.

Nuts! Never seen that before.

I see what looks like a graft line at the base?

I heard that quality issues have been a problem for longer than the past year. What I was told was that Gary hasn't been as involved with nursery op's as he used to be. I think it's a combo of that and the booming housing market + booming economy which have driven up demand.

I think the issue can be partially mitigated by going to zills in person and selecting trees vs using delivery and having them select trees at random to go on the delivery truck. I haven't been up there in probably 4 years, so I'm relying on word of mouth and pictures I see on this forum of little spindly 3 gallon trees.

During the Zill's quality heyday, a typical 3 gallon would have 6 - 7 full flushes (whether branched or unbranched is largely irrelevant -- the point being that they were well grown and ready for pot-up to 7gal), and were barely a year old from seed.

Fortunately mango trees do grow rapidly if dropped into the right environment. But there were some serious bargains back during the economic downturn -- including bearing jaboticabas for under $40 .

Some of the recent trees may be small since demand has been so high following Irma and they aren't staying at the nursery so long.
All of mine were reasonable size and good quality but I bought early this year and heard the demand was very strong. When I was selecting there I went for diameter over all other factors, then if some had branches reasonably high I went for them, height was my last concern. Most trees I planted got tipped the same day I planted them if they hadn't started already.

I could tell none of mine had been in pots too long, all I did was run a knife up and down down vertically and criss-cross along the bottom to find anything circling and there weren't many, only toothpick size or less.

Do they move? Mine are stationary galls.

Probably iron and manganese deficient?

Quote from: Cookie Monster on September 10, 2018, 04:24:06 PM

My 2 "miami" soursops have the same issue. In my case, it's benign.

It does look like it's lacking in nutrition. Leaves are chlorotic.

Jeff, if you expand those photos, it looks like some sort of aphid-like critter in the center of that white "cocoon" like crap, whatever it is.  Do you agree?  I have a 4K screen, so maybe it takes the higher resolution to see it??

And it is definitely lacking something nutritionally.  Maybe low iron? 

Can you take a more closeup photo of a few of those things?

Mangoes aren't overly picky with regard to potting soil. Your vigoro mix is probably fine.

Best mix would have a lot of sand in it. Mangoes love sand. Zills HPP uses sand + sawdust.

Peat plus perlite and pine bark fines works.

Nuts. My venus still has a few mangoes hanging on it.

My knee jerk reaction would be to store in fridge, but not sure if that would fiddle with dormancy pattern?

Sounds too young to set fruit. Keep it well fed with potassium to help with winter cold resistance. Anecdotally, I noticed mine fared a lot better when fed up on K before winter.

Sometimes soursops can take a couple of years worth of flowering before they finally set fruit. Per Har's guidance, I've found that Zinc and Boron help with fruit set (via foliar sprays). Also per Har's guidance, allowing the scale and other insects to munch on my tree actually increased fruit set (I think they are responsible for pollination). So, resist the temptation to make it look pretty by treating it with insecticide. They also like to be watered regularly.

Oddly, my two "miami" grafted soursops have been shy bearers, but a random seedling from a neighbor often produces dozens of fruit per year, even though all trees are roughly the same size and enjoy the same treatment regimen.

You can hand pollinate, which for me results in gigantic and perfectly shaped fruit.

And yah, I think fruit setting now is at risk of hanging over the winter.

ha! Heat tolerance in socal? You guys are wussies!

Its banned in sarasota county FL.

Its imported from asia with no regulation so tainted stuff comes in or people add crap to it and they sell it in pot shops and people get sick.  Then the nee jerk reaction is ban it.

I highly doubt anyone that is growing their own has had issues.  Apparwntly you just vomit if you take too much.  Making it really difficult to over do it. 

A few leaves and you can really get good energy and heat tolerance for working outside in the sun.