I was dropping my daughter of at a church for gymnastics class and decided to take a walk around the property and found some old fruit trees in the back portion of the area. I saw a sapodilla tree amongst others and started checking around for some drops. I noticed one hanging low on the tree and when I checked it it was soft and perfectly ripe. I snatched it off and tried it. It was just as about as good as any other sap I've had. But I thought saps don't ripen until picked. The fruit didn't look damaged in any way and was connected to the stem. Is this normal for sap?

These varieties seem to be precocious, especially 47-18. I've been pulling fruits off to help them put some energy into growth but I just can't bring myself to pull off every one. Here is a pic of the 47-18 with the fruit I harvested last year. I don't know why this isn't more popular I really enjoyed it! very sweet, and I like mine a tad on the chewy side sometimes so I picked it early (just a little soft) and it had a really nice texture chewy but soft flesh. These were both developed by Har Mahdeem. 4-5 = 'Priestley' atemoya x A. reticulata var. 'Fairchild Purple'   47-18 = 'Gefner' atemoya x A. reticulata var. 'San Pablo')

47-18 (I have three fruits developing now)






4-5 with a nice purple fruit developing on it right now

I sometimes stop at random houses if i see a lot of fruit trees in the yard  and the owner is outside. He showed me around and then stopped at this avocado and asked if I had any idea what it was. Not sure so I figured I'd post a pic and get some ideas.

Sold out...I'll attempt more grafts and maybe I'll have seeds later in the year.
Thanks to all who inquired!

Just wondering if there are any fruit trees that are completely tolerant of salt? In other words, they would be planted in straight beach sand. With a high water table subject to flooding. I found a list by UF but was wondering if anyone has tried planting where high tides and storm surges could immerse the plant for a short time with salt water. Please let me know your experiences. I'm not interested in coconut palm. Here is the best list I could find but not exactly sure what defines 'tolerant' in terms of salt.

http://lee.ifas.ufl.edu/Hort/GardenPubsAZ/Salt_tolerance_of_different_fruiting_trees.pdf

Has anyone used this before? I picked some up a while back to use in combination with my foliar feelings but the label stated it was for herbicides and pesticides... I mixed some into my foliar spray the other day and haven't noticed any ill side effects...just wondering of I got the wrong product?

http://www.winfield.com/Farmer/Products/ProductCategory/ProductDetail/ECMD2-0057928?Cat=Adjuvants&Seg=For%20Farmers&MarketSeg=Surfactants&bCat=Adjuvants&returnUrl=

I know this has been discussed before but I see a sharp contrast between my A. diversifolia and all other Annonas when it comes to flowering. Last year I had only a few flowers show themselves even after defoliation of diversifolia. This could have been be due to the young age of the tree. My 'Genova Red' which is over 6ft tall by around 6ft wide has never produced a flower by itself without assistance. This year was seemingly no different. In an attempt to get some fruit set this year I tried stressing the tree, by eliminating all water, and dropping plenty of K and micros. Still, nothing…So when it began growing in leaps and bounds I decided to start stripping leaves again…This year it seems nearly ever leaf I've stripped has produced a flower. My 'Pajapita' is pushing flowers too after stripping. Though all my other annonas were pushing flowers already and setting fruit, I decided to strip some of their leaves also. Though my other annonas did push flowers it was only about 1 in 5 strips producing a flower. I really hope I get to try an Ilama this year!

Here are some attempts of Ilama onto Atemoya rootstock. It's been about 3 weeks. Some are starting to push and others are swelling. Is it to early to tell? I did about 15 grafts and they are all either pushing or swelling. Everyhting was a veneer except for one cleft.

Here is a pic of the original 'Providence' Mango tree. It was a chance seedling from Walter Zill's grove. He believes it has 'Kent' parentage, though was just a guess as this seedling sprouted from a pile of rubbish on the back of his old 'Kent' grove before it was top worked over. It has much slower growing habit though Walter would not call it a dwarf by any means. This is a late-season mango, that gets very large, on  par with a 'Kent'  if not better..





Pic from last years 2.5lb mango: 

Mango season is finally here! I got to try my first mango of the season today with Chris over at Truly Tropical. They have some Rosa available. Flavor was great, very citrusy, little resinous taste... Chris said that the Dwarf Hawaiian should be ripening up next. I really enjoyed those last year. She also has some Caimito left for sale. I also saw a forum member there (mangorific), I think, anyway, get over there and get some fruit...

Excalibur has released a new avocado called 'Baxter Brut'…anyone heard of it? Molina didn't know anything about it when I asked…also they released the 'Molina' avocado for sale too…I liked this one when I tried it last year..

Since running out of room at my house I decided to utilize the empty space around some of the stations..so far I planted out 5 Crunchy Lemon jackfruit seedlings and today I popped a Sweet Tart, lemon Zest and Coconut Cream mango tree in the ground. I also put a Navel Orange in I got last week at Lowes for $15 on the reduced price shelf...funny thing is I planted these Zill's varieties of mangoes right along Miner Rd. I think Lawrence Zill and Chalres Miner (of Miner Rd) helped introduce mangoes to Boynton beach quite a few years ago..



I also planted a nice herb garden raised bed.

I love stumbling upon these rare gems of old orchards. I really wish I could buy one just to save the history of it. This orchard sits where there is now a church. I imagine what is left is only a fraction of what stood. I was bringing my kids to a parents night out function for foster parents when I pulled in the back of this church. It was dark so i couldn't get very good pics. I'll go back and try to get permission to get a better look at these trees and maybe we can try to identify some of them old boys when they fruit. My camera couldn't focus very well but in the distance there are more trees that I just couldn't focus in on.

http://youtu.be/WYvG5JICnRA