Sheesh I am beat, I drove 5 hours round trip today to attend mango mania at the fruit and spice park. It was my first time at the park and I was really impressed (wish they had something up here in Martin county like it). First we went into a room for a two hour presentation by chris rollins which was about the history of mangos in fl and general care for diseases, watering, and fertilizing. I learned a few things and found it very interesting. Next we had a 45 minute lunch break where I took it upon myself to get lost in the park, but literally I did get lost I had to pull out my iphone and use google maps to map out a path back to the gift shop via walking. Next time I'm bring the park map lol. That set me back a few minutes where I ended up late back to the seminar where Chris was teaching us how to graft mangos, definitely interesting. After that a nearby neighbor of the park treated us to authentic Thai sticky rice with diced kent mango DELISH! Then we went and sampled the mangos which there were probably 40+ different mangos. At this point it was confusing because the volunteers were cutting up delicious mangos in every direction simultaneously and since there was no line with 40 people in a confined area it was hard to keep track and not feel like you were missing something.

The last time I was down this deep in Fl for a fruit event was the mango festival at Fairchild gardens. Now if one could only attend one event be it mango festival or mango mania, let me say mango mania. Basically you get to sample way more mangos, with way less people, and see the fruit and spice park, and its not as hot because its earlier than the mango festival, this is my opinion.

Ultimately I am very happy I went, and now I need to figure out how to acquire Joellen, Hindi bensara, and 9816. The pics do not do justice to how beautiful the colors of Joellen (pink/orange) and 9816 (Bright deep orange) were, their taste was amazing too. Hindi bensara was probably one of the ugliest mangos I have ever seen but the taste was really good and unique, Chris was also really fond of it. Sia tong was pretty good too.

Here are some pics

In about a week ill be enjoying my honeymoon at playa del Carmen Mexico. What is in season there during this time? I know I'll mainly be where the resorts are, but can go out of my way to find the local fruit stands.


Sincerely,

Joep450

I have noticed recently that my sugar apple is flushing leaves and awakening from its winter dormancy. Along with those leaves are some small flowers. Last year I had many flowers but none were pollinated and I had no fruit set. Upon further research I found that there are two different stages of flowers and that they require certain pollinators (which my yard must be lacking) and that these are factors to low fruit yield in sugar apples....then I read that a tedious approach to hand pollination can circumvent these issues.

Does anyone currently hand pollinate their annonas? If so could you please share a working method for future use by myself and other forum members? In particular materials used in the process, pollen storage, and identifying the two different flower types.

Any direction is much appreciated.

_JoeP450

I have a Maha Chanok growing in a five gallon bucket and the thing has grown straight up like a bean stalk approaching 5 feet tall. It was planted a bit high in the 5 gallon and today the wind blew it somewhat over... I was going to wait till the summer to try this (my first graft) but I feel the wind was trying to tell me something today.

I pugged the maha in half and took the scion and splice grafted in onto a seedling store bought mango in three gallon bucket using black electrical tape, razor blade and plastic bag....very low buget l

Hey

Just curious if anyone has fruited lychee from seed, if so what cultivar was it, how old was the tree when it set fruit, how was the fruit quality, and how did the tree's growth habit differ from an air layer....inquiring minds what to know! I have a seedling lychee growing in a five gallon container and I think it is around 4-5 years old emperor seedling. It grows pretty slow and upright but then again it's in a five gallon bucket, growing it just for fun I guess...

_JoeP450

I bought a mango from the local grocery store and as always I just had to open up the seed. Upon opening I found a undeveloped or miniature seed. I have seen this before and usually just throw them away but this time I decided to germinate the seed. I am wondering if maybe from this stunted seed that maybe it will sprout a stunted tree which would be good to graft onto. Below you can see just how small the seed was when in comparison to the PLU# sticker!



_JoeP450

I know, I know this is totally sad/lame but two days ago in line at target I actually bought a pack of juicy fruit bubble gum to see if I could get somewhat of a jackfruit taste... Does anyone have any jackfruit left on their trees and would be willing to share some?

Also, I saw on excalibur's website: http://excaliburfruittrees.com/fruits.html , under jackfruit variety's; two new cultivar's that are coming soon "excalibur gold" and "excalibur red" anyone know any gossip on these?!?!

_JoeP450

I have a three foot avocado seedling which I grew from a store bought avocado almost a year ago and I was wondering if I was to graft this with a scion from a neighbors tree what would be the prefered method of grafting and also what time of year. If I recall I think I've heard during the winter is good for grafting avocado?

Thanks

JoeP450