shape looks like a cac.  if it ripens yellowish and has a polyembronic seed  ...maybe?

I am thinking about making a home in my yard for the solitary bees.  I know at Fairchild, they use blocks of wood with holes drilled in.  Are there any other tricks to attract them beside making the structure for them?  Thanks!

i have seen people get bundles of plastic drinking straws and tie them together with rubber bands.  these bundles are placed in out of the way spots - under the eaves, etc.  i think the diameter of the holes is important, but doesn't have to be precise.

i use 55 gallon plastic barrels cut in half.  they're easy to cut with a "skillsaw."  the result is like the white one above.  the material they're made of is industrial strength - tough.  they are quite heavy depending on the potting mixture or soil.  i use a hand - truck to move them around (as little as possible).  they're tough enough for that.  i wouldn't want to try that with some of the black plastic pots i've seen at the garden store.

i picked up a "santa angela" (peru) mango from the produce section of walmart last week.  today, it ripened, and was excellent.  i tried to find it on the web, but there wasn't anything.  i noticed mentions of "angie" mango, and the description matches very closely. 
then, i checked to find if anybody was selling "angie" trees.  no luck, it's apparently a new variety and not yet widely available.  too bad!  there's always next year.

trees have an amazing capacity to heal themselves. 

a few months ago, as i was finishing construction on my greenhouse, i dropped a piece of 2x6 (part of the scaffolding for putting the roof on) on the base of my neelam mango.  it scraped a vertical strip of bark off for about four inches from the trunk.  the wound extended to ground level.

this neelam was holding one (1) mango which turned out to be my entire 2013 mango crop.  today, the wound has formed "callus" around the edges, but the dry surface of the wood is still visible.  it is putting on numerous blossom buds, and several leaf flushes.  apparently, it is surviving.

just in case, when i get some seedlings up to the proper size, i plan on grafting a couple of spare neelams.  neelam has a well deserved reputation for being delicious.  since my grafting skills are rudimentary, maybe i should graft a half dozen or so.   

carlos,

the poncho has open male flowers on it in the mornings.  this means it's a "b" flower type, no?  subject to uncertainties  due to cool/cold weather and its destabilizing effect on flowering patterns i have the following currently in bloom.  three a types, two b types:

mexicola  type - a  began blooming 1-10-14
joey  type - a   began blooming 1-21-14
brazos belle (aka wilma) type - a  began blooming  2-20-14
poncho type - b  began blooming 2-15-14
fantastic (aka pryor) type - b   in bloom when purchased 2-15-14

not yet:

wurtz dwarf - pushing blossom buds
winter mexican - pushing buds.  possibly all vegetative
cairo still too young/small, just coming out of dormancy
gainesville  very young/small dormant.

3-5-14 winter mexican developing one small panicle of blossom buds.  lots of vegetative buds opening, many more buds too small to see if they're blossoms or leaves.  (some of each?)

my joey avocado is behaving strangely.  i bought it last may from top tropicals in ft. myers as a 3 gallon grafted tree, and put it in the ground memorial day weekend.   it has been closely observed, because it is right in front of a bench i like to sit on.
it is presently in bloom, but only modestly.  it is about three and a half  feet tall - considerably shorter than several other plants i put in the ground at about the same time.  it has one main stem and two fairly large branches that originate just above the graft union.  no major branching above that.
in the last few days, i have noticed it putting on a lot of vegetative buds both on the main stem and also on the two main branches - all within about eight or ten inches of ground level.  several of them (the lowest) show strong growth (a quarter inch a day) and look like the start of fair sized branches. 
in the tops (main stem and two branches) there is some vegetative growth, but it seems much less vigorous than that which is happening down at ankle level.

if this keeps up, my joey may become a bush rather than a tree.  that's o.k. with me, it's in a greenhouse, and there's only about 12 feet of headroom in its location.  a 10 foot  bush rather than a tree would mean less pruning work for me.  what's not to like?

does anyone else have experience with joey?  is this a common growth habit with this variety?

mark,
you have mail

edit:  not showing up in my "sent items" file.

pls shoot me an email

treefrog
@
nettally
dotcom

thanks

i have just had a strange idea. 

would it be possible to graft avocado scion wood onto a rootstock of close relatives in the laurel family (cinnamon? sassafras? camphor? bay laurel? etc.)?

this might be a work-around for the problem of laurel wiltif any other of these laurels are resistant.

it might give avocados new, strange flavors.  cinnamon?   camphor?   sassafras? 

it might also give much more frost tolerant rootstock.  camphor and sassafras both grow up into the carolinas.

File:Male and Female Sassafras Flowers.jpg

oops, image didn't load.  here's a link to images of sassafras.  includes several images of flowers:

https://www.google.com/search?q=sassafras&client=firefox-a&hs=lW7&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=AlAOU_WwBaPfsATw_4LYAw&ved=0CDYQsAQ&biw=939&bih=545#imgdii=_

quite a family resemblance, no?

any botany geeks that know more than i do about it (which is not very much)? 

carlos,

the poncho has open male flowers on it in the mornings.  this means it's a "b" flower type, no?  subject to uncertainties  due to cool/cold weather and its destabilizing effect on flowering patterns i have the following currently in bloom.  three a types, two b types:

mexicola  type - a  began blooming 1-10-14
joey  type - a   began blooming 1-21-14
brazos belle (aka wilma) type - a  began blooming  2-20-14
poncho type - b  began blooming 2-15-14
fantastic (aka pryor) type - b   in bloom when purchased 2-15-14

not yet:

wurtz dwarf - pushing blossom buds
winter mexican - pushing buds.  possibly all vegetative
cairo still too young/small, just coming out of dormancy
gainesville  very young/small dormant.

first mango blossom buds forming in the greenhouse.  lancetilla.  more buds pushing, but none  identifiable as blossoms - yet.

5-10-15 is a standard mix at feed stores in areas that raise soybeans. 
lo in nitrogen, hi in potash.  cheep, readily available.