I have a third mango bloom, presumably induced by that chill we had here in South FL a couple of weeks ago. Right now, I have large mangoes from the first bloom (Nov of last year), tiny mangolettes from the bloom of about a month ago, and newly emerging blooms -- all on the same trees! This is going to be a very long mango season :-).

In 12 years of mango growing, I don't ever remember having mango blooms emerging in April. And I certainly don't recall having blooms spanning a 5 - 6 month period (Nov - Apr).

We're supposed to hit lows in the low 50's this week! This should be sufficient to induce bloom on the holdouts.

https://weather.com/weather/5day/l/33321:4:US

7Springs already has the best prices. An extra 10% off is a great deal.

http://www.7springsfarm.com/

A Vietnamese couple stopped by today and demystified the name of the Cac / Coc mango for me. It's actually spelled Cát, and the meaning of the word is "sand." The mango is named "sand" because of the prominent black lenticels that the mangoes develop. The more lenticels, the sweeter the mango according to this couple.

The pronunciation sounds like "gack," which is probably why the mango was named "cac."

Does anybody know of a budwood source of the Tehuacan / Victoria orange in the US? It's a mutation / budsport of a valencia that has absolutely zero acidity. I find it insipid, but my wife loves it. It's very popular in El Salvador, but I haven't seen it yet in the U.S., and I'm afraid to bring back budwood due to the potential for disease transmission.

Now that our mango trees are in bloom, it's time to start thinking about fungus abatement. For those of us with larger collections, it doesn't make financial sense to purchase fungicides in small quantities (via Home Depot, Amazon, etc).

I found a place that sells a wide array OMRI listed products in bulk sizes at very reasonable prices. The place is called Seven Springs Farm (http://www.7springsfarm.com/).

I've ordered from them in the past and had a really good experience. This year I ordered a flowable sulfur product called THAT (http://www.7springsfarm.com/that-flowable-sulfur-2-5-gallon-on-sale/). It's not (yet) OMRI listed, but uses the same micronized sulfur that is found in powder OMRI listed products. Even with shipping, the overall price is really good. I could probably find a comparable product at a slightly better price by driving to AFEC or Helena Chemical, but the convenience of home delivery is awesome.

Is it just me, or does anyone else remember that there used to be an off topic section? All in the sudden, it vanished. Poof... :-)

The rumor mill must have been right. I only count about 100 on my 4 year old tree. Darnit, I should have listened to the generalizations / anecdotes about Dr Campbell's trees being unthrifty. Who's this crazy Gary Zill anyhow?? Ugg why didn't I listen to the pros!









My golden queens are sizing up nicely. I think these babies are going to be over 5 pounds when they ripen. Flesh on the drops has a deep golden yellow (hence the name?).



Hard to see, but the Dot is also a shy producer. Darn, I should have listened to the xperts at blind island nursery. This tree sucks.



Finally got around to snapping a shot of my larger vexator.

Anybody know what's lacking in Broward / Dade soils that leads to poor condition of emperor lychee trees? I've seen the same thing in many different soils -- all in-ground emperor lychee trees do horribly.

Mine was growing exceptionally well and beautifully for many years in a 15 gal pot (mixture of black kow, peat, perlite, sand). As soon as I dropped it into the ground, the decline started.

Do they need acid soil? Anybody know?

I just upgraded to the Mackissic 12PHT8HMC, so I no longer have a use for it. I've used it for about 6 years. It's in "fair" condition. The screen blew a hole, and I temporarily mended it, but there's no telling how long that will last. I've been told by a former Mackissic dealer that the Mackissic Mighty Mac screen will fit the Grizzly. Whether that's true or not, I cannot confirm.

The motor is a briggs & straton 6.5 industrial commercial. I upgraded the clutch from the stock clutch to an industrial clutch that has lasted several years. I replaced the carb a year or so ago. I also replaced one of the bearings (I still have spare bearings that I will give you.)

I don't know how much life it has left, but it fires up every time, and the motor is probably worth at least my asking price. If you're mechanically inclined and /or have a welder friend, you could probably keep this thing running for many years to come.

Retail price is $800. My asking price is $150. The manufacturer has stopped selling it, but this is the one: http://www.grizzly.com/outlet/Large-Chipper-Shredder-w-Briggs-Stratton-/G0594

The machine is a nice combo of ease, power, and safety. I've put my hand a little too deep into the shredder hopper a couple of times and walked away with nothing more than a sore finger. When I did that on the Mackissic, it tore a big chunk out of my finger and tore my leather gloves to shreds. Needless to say, I'll never be doing that again... :-/ The chipper end is also too slim to fit an arm down, so it's what I consider very safe (unlike the mackissic -- an entire arm could go in there, I won't be wearing loose clothing around that monster).

A couple of months back, a Vietnamese fellow was visiting, and I was telling him about my bad luck with annona fruit set. He told met that the secret is to put rotting fruit at the base of the tree, which attracts some sort of pollinator. He said that what he does is to simply plant a carambola right next to his annonas (the carambolas fall and rot).

So, I tried it. We now toss all of our fruit scraps at the base of my Lisa atemoya. Right now I have a dozen fruits, and practically every flower is setting. The tree has only been in the ground for about 18 months, so 12 fruits (with more in the way!) is fairly impressive, especially considering that I've never had any luck with annonas in the many years that I've grown them.

I know part of the success is due to excellent car by Har in addition to the fact that this is a tree grafted by Zill's HPP and is on cherimoya rootstock.

Has anybody else had similar experiences?

Check these babies out. Cookie Monster ordered a box of Heaven from Park Hill Orchards again.



This year's supply isn't quite as big as last years. Last year we ordered like 40 pounds worth !!

I just started digging into these babies, starting with the Pierce.

The pierce are insanely sweet and incredibly delicious. Taste like little green balls of vanilla and honey. When my wife had the first one, she told me, "I'd move back to California just to grow these." It sounds like a joke, but I actually gave the idea some thought !!

I just wish that God would have planned it differently -- mangoes in the winter and moyas in the summer!! That way I could eat mangoes in the beautiful south florida winter and then move to socal to eat cherimoya during the awesome socal summer!!

Now I'm having trouble deciding which are better -- moyas or mangoes!!