Mulches can increase availability of certain elements in the soil. Gardeners can make a synthetic chelate with mulch by mixing one cup of iron sulfate (copperas) to each bushel of mulch applied. Iron particles will adhere to the surface of the mulching material and will be released for plant use as decomposition occurs around plants. Iron sulfate treated mulches are also effective when incorporated into the soil.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/drought/mulches.html


******  I have some thick 12" mulches around some trees. So why not sprinkle a cup of iron sulfate on top? By the time the iron gets down to the roots it will be chelated. Or most will. Especially now in the Florida dry season so less rain to wash the iron down quickly. I have some ferrous sulfate from ebay and will be doing this. I also have Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) and will do the same.

......And trees (mostly mango) that I hope to fruit next year for the first time. Bought at Universal Supply in Pompano for about $27. But available at other places

Bag reads 0-0-50 and is potassium in the form of potassium sulfate. If I get near Universal I will buy another and spread it around  in February. Universal also has 8-3-9 they call "fruitilizer"

This is a carambola. Mulch is removed temporarily. I am hammering straight wood branches into the ground. The wood rots slowly. Does not steal nitrogen. Even better it retains moisture and prompts mycorrhizal fungi growth in soil and other good organisms. Its like creating an artificial reef that increases numbers of fish
Last week on a new planting I just buried lots of wood in the hole I dug before planting the tree. Rotting wood is good too

http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/  hugelkultur







Hammer the wood as deep as it will go. You could also dig a trench around a planted tree and bury wood there

I have one seedling mango tree that I fertilize on a schedule same as my grafted trees. I hope to get fruit next year. I think that most people who plant a mango or avocado seedling are not going to fertilize it. They just let nature take over. Their top soil is half way decent so they see growth. No fertilization could be why they  (mangoes, avocados seedlings) can take years to fruit.  Does anyone have anything on whether seedling tree owners fertilize?

I also tip prune this seedling tree. It really shaped it up nicely plus one internet reference says tip pruning will make the mango tree fruit sooner

At least for me______
And I think many of you are in the same boat

• curiosity. Can I grow this? Can I succeed in the natural world?
• its a male ego thing when you see the tree growing well and fruiting
• But then you like it even more from how much other people/family/neighbors like eating the fruits of your labor. And they compliment you with ooos and aahhs as if tending a fruit tree is some mysterious, exotic process
• But we fruit "insiders" know this is not difficult with today's internet that lays this all out. All you need is an inclination to grow plants.
• my conclusion is growing fruit trees is really about giving to others (even if some of them pay you a bit)
• --
• --
• "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."  ---- Samuel Johnson
• This translates into fruit trees. Except that some fruits are given for free (family etc) and some pay you for this
• We (in this forum) underestimate how estranged most Americans are from the natural world. That when many people eat your fruits they are kind of amazed you or anyone can actually grow this mango or fruit tree
  

This is what I saw in my yard
2013 had a core of 5 months long with mangoes from May to September  (actually had Keitt into Oct 15th)
2014 was a core of 3 months with mangoes from June through August    (yes I still have a few mangoes hanging in today, September)

On June 10th 2014 I sent an email predicting a compressed mango season and I was right. But I felt this way for a few weeks before June 10th

So what happened in your yard with mangoes-- 2013 vs 2014?  (not just Florida) (Cali guys please chime in)
Compare other years if you like 

I have two for mangos

• get an old walking cane to pull branches down for tip pruning. Can find at Faith Farm, Salvation Army etc etc.
• take a kitchen stool outside for reaching higher branches. Quicker and safer than a ladder. I have a stable designed one that will take me two feet higher

What are your ideas for faster tip pruning?
How high up do you tip prune?
How many times a season on a fruiting tree and non fruiting tree?
What non-mango trees do you tip prune?

What were the first mangoes and other fruits you planted.  If you had some already planted in the house/property you moved into you can list them too


These were all bought based on what the Pine Island mango viewer said about them. Just about all were bought at 3 gallon size.
 

• 2008 bought a Keitt and two Glenns from Murray Corman of Broward Rare fruit club. Keitt and one Glenn were planted and are doing well today (all were Zill trees)  The Keitt had to be topped off while still in the pot. I had never heard about pugging.
• 2008 at Lowes at Turtle Creek. It was my lucky day I walked in there. Both were fine looking specimens. I bought a Kent and Carrie (Pine Island trees) both doing well today
• 2009 bought a Fairchild at Broward rare fruit club sale because it was the largest mango tree for sale. But it was very root bound in a 3 gallon pot. Planted but did poorly with lots of black soot. Severely pugged in 2010 and doing great today   (Zill tree)
• 2009 Bought a 7 gallon Haden at Spykes Grove (Zill)  (my largest tree today)
• 2010 was an awful year for anthracnose. Awful to zero fruit formation on panicles. So I read all I could on the internet and bought two SE Asian mangoes to diversify. Due to SE Asia mangoes being less susceptible. NDM and a PSM (Pim Seng Mun)   Both were grafted by Jeff-Cookie Monster and are doing well today
• ----
• ----
• ---- others came later but I only planted mangoes in the beginning. A mistake.

They eat this and the cement expands in their stomach and intestines which kills them. The critter's body provides the water or maybe they drink from a puddle. But the dry cement plus water does them in

I am pretty enthused about this deterrent. I am not sure what was attacking/eating from my Kent mango tree but there have been no attacks for three days. The previous bon-bons were devoured. In photos are the new bon-bons. I know this is a short time to really test this but...This deterrent might be a problem for dogs you have...

Mix the cement and peanut butter in a 1:1 ratio then add what you need to make it more solid or more pliable. Not dry. You want to roll it into a bon-bon ball. A candy for them. I sprinkled these with sugar too but not the previous ones. You can top these critter bon-bons with pure peanut butter to better get their sense of smell homing in on it. Maybe put a half eaten mango near the bon-bon dish.

You have to give the bon-bon dish a roof so they don't get rained on. I used an old plastic election sign. Better to paint them white for your neighbors. So they don't ask questions. Make them as inconspicuous as possible.

It seems to me you can extend the peanut butter with a bit of vegetable oil. Add bacon fat? Add some raw or cooked bacon? add salt? Experiment with what you think they (possums, rats) want to eat but the basics are simple-

1)Portland cement
2)Peanut butter
3)no water!

I used from a bag of 100% Portland cement. Not one of those sakrete pre-mixes that have gravel mixed in. But you can take one of those pre-mixes and sift the gravel out so you have 100% cement to work with. So you get the ratios right. You could even use a large kitchen strainer outside to sift out the gravel (aka aggregate)

As long as they are yellow and ripe they are good. Get out your knife and cut around any rot. I vastly prefer yellow NDM. Ripe or a bit over ripe. Has fallen from the tree, even better. Gets a more complex flavor and tastes more like a Florida mango which is kind of vague. It has more than that straight NDM sweetness. 

I ate a few NDM splits today. One was found on the ground
Splits are from an NDM #4 tree

How many chill hours does Jamaica have? Zero?
How come they have get lychee harvests while South Florida lychee tree owners are left high and dry?

*******************
http://m.jamaicaobserver.com/mobile/news/-If-yuh-have-a-Chinese-guinep-tree--yuh-nice-
May 2012

A bearing lychee tree usually means little sleep for its owner Josephina Peart, who spends many a night guarding the expensive fruits which, this year, fetch between $500 and $700 per pound.

The threats? Thieves, birds, children, the rain.

“People steal it and so you have to set up during the night to watch it,” Peart told the Jamaica Observer North East as she paused from doing brisk business at her gate in Content, Castleton, St Mary last week.

“We (also) have to watch out for the birds and throw things at them or sometimes we hang clothes in the trees to scare them off because we can’t afford for them to eat one, especially since it don’t bear nuff this year,” she said, adding that only three residents in the district benefited from a crop this year.

Lychee, called Chinese guinep by many Jamaicans, is native to southern China and south-east Asia. It tends to bear in recurrent flushes, followed by periods of dormancy. As such, by January, Peart said residents begin to get excited when the trees start to blossom as this is usually a clear sign that they will be the beneficiaries of a crop that year.

And by May, when the lychees begin to ripen, Peart said owners become very vigilant in ensuring that not even the neighbourhood children indulge as every last one must go towards fetching the best price.

For wayside peddlers, the lychee market is most lucrative during the years when the succulent fruit does not bear in abundance. At those times, the few persons lucky to have bearing trees can near triple the $200 or $300 per pound for which it is normally sold during the dormant years.

“If yuh have a Chinese guinep tree yuh nice, but you have to watch it,” said Peart, who works as a domestic helper when she is not selling.

When the fruit is in abundance she and her neighbours do not rely only on selling to motorists, but sell at wholesale price to other vendors for resale.

Thirteen years ago when Peart relocated to her present home in Castleton, she immediately discovered she was among the few residents lucky enough to have a tree on their property. Since then, each year, she has done thriving business selling the exotic fruit outside her gate.

“As soon as it start to ripe we have to pick them off and sell them,” she said, adding that the fruit goes very fast as people enjoy eating it.

The part-time vendor explained that sometimes Chinese nationals travel to this rural parish to purchase entire trees of the fruit, paying as much as $30,000 in some cases.

“When the Chinese come to buy and them ask you how much you want for the tree and you say $20,000 or even $30,000 they size up the tree and if them agree dem just get someone fi pick it and pay you money,” she said.

______________EXCERPT________________



Lychee in Jamaica from (link)

Looks like these photos.  It is 4 ft tall and growing strongly
Get rid of it?

One internet reference says that if severely pruned it might turn to female which bears fruit

You can learn about huigelkultur here http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
and
here  http://www.permies.com/forums

Basically it means you bury wood and plant on top of it

I did a mini-hugel variation here by planting above the soil level in a raised bed with wooden walls.....So the bottom of the potted mucsadine ended up at ground level.
I dug a hole. Reserved the topsoil. Removed, got rid of most rocky subsoil. Then the reserved topsoil was mixed with wood cuttings and some home depot top soil to fill the hole
Then the raised bed/box was put on top, above this hole. A mix of wood scraps, tree trimmings and Home Depot top soil filled this box. The muscadine was planted into this.

Variety--Southern Home muscadine

 


wood to be used


the empty box for raised bed


lumber scraps too!


tree trimmings to be used


Dirt thrown on top of wood debris scraps






The finished product.
The trellis-posts have not been put in yet. So the vines are climbing a temporary wooden support