I posted this in another forum, I hope some of you can use it.

I bought a bunch of those slightly triangular but oblong edge bricks at "HD and Slowes" :-) and put them 3 bricks high all along the area under the eaves of my house.

This area now serves several purposes:

Rain from the roof no longer needs to be sent to a gutter, it splashes onto the stones gently and disperses nicely. I was thinking about getting gutters but these look better and serve varied purposes

I dump all of my extra soil and sand from planting in there and made raised beds which I turned into:

Nursery for small plants which get gently watered by the splashing of the rainwater off the stones.

A Bee habitat of flowering bushes

A sort of "composting area" that I can put leaves, kitchen vegetative waste, and fruit that falls from trees into by burying it.

A good edge to my walk path on the side of the house

Worms LOVE it there, making even better soil!

I'm sure I'll think of other uses for it too...

I found a neat grower (Bob) on Craig's list who is located in Pinecrest. Nice trees at very reasonable prices. Thai guava, sugar apple, jackfruit and many more all about 3'-4' tall and $20. Check him out if you live down there. His ad (and phone #) on CL is:

Thai Guava Trees- 4 ft tall - $20 (Pinecrest)

OK, so my three carambola have been "fruitful" this year. My co-workers love them, I get free donuts in a specialty bakery just for bringing them in, I developed a carambola curry chicken over rice dish, use it on fish, AND make a wonderful juice from them!!!

When I planted three carambola with the aim of picking the best and pulling the rest, I find I like them all, some years some cultivars are better.

I'm always on the lookout for ideas on dishes, anyone else have something to share?

I have a Madame Francis mango tree and somehow a pit found its way into my mulch / kitchen debris pile and it grew TWO stalks, one from each end of the pit. I pulled it out but wanted to know if this is uncommon.

This is the third year my Geffner has fruited, and every year it has increased production to where it is not 15-18 fruits.

Today I inspected the tree and one fruit is turning dark purple but staying firm. What do you guys think this may be? Could it be fungal? fruit fly?  Should I pull it off the tree and throw it away?

I gave up on:

Guava - the scale infestations were intolerable
Papaya - had white fly and papaya fruit fly
Banana - were invasive and some cultivars were not very good
Surinam cherry - Not tasty enough to warrant the space
Ambarella - Horrible scale infestations

On the pull or potential pull list

Jamaican Cherry - has root runners all over my lawn... gotta go!
Pineapple Guava - No fruit, though I really never expected it, got them on clearance for a few bucks
Lychee - No fruit
Barbados cherry - Not attractive, passers by steal all the fruit

 

I want to mail some soursop seeds from Florida to California, can anyone advise me on the best way to keep them viable?

I once read that some top mango growers who grow from seed and name new selections use smelling the crunched leaves of a seedling to determine if it will be a good tasting fruit? Is this urban legend or fact?

I posted this in another forum and thought it would be appreciated here too:

These are all true stories that happened to me!

Twenty odd years ago I had two ruby red grape fruit and on a visit from my in-laws my Father in law woke every morning to eat one, he loved them. It was late in the season and he pulled me aside one morning and said (soto voce) "I wanted to let you know that you have big white worms in some of your grapefruit.  I showed him that the "worms" were actually seeds that had sprouted inside the fruit :-)

A dozen or more years ago on a trip to New York I went into a real nice nursery and they had a good selection of orange and other citrus trees. This is back when Floridians had to declare / register their orange trees with the State of Florida dept of Ag so they could be inspected for Med fly and citrus canker infestation.

I asked the nursery owner about the registration process and when he said there were none I chuckled. He must have thought me daft and asked what was funny about that?

I told him how weird it was that in New York they had to register their guns and NOT their orange trees and in Florida we had to register our orange trees but NOT our guns...

That dude had no sense of humor :-)

Later that summer the Dept of Ag came to inspect my two ruby red grapefruit trees and I told them "you can't do that" to which they said, "sir we are with the dept of ag and WILL see your trees now!"

And I said "I don't care if you were with the CDC you're NOT going to see my trees"

Well the senior of the two guys got red in the face and said... "Sir if I have to get a warrant to see those trees I WILL"

And I said..." Get all the warrants you want, you will NEVER get to see those trees"

Exasperated he asked, "Why won't you let me see those trees?"

I told him that the two trees had their roots hit the salt ground water (I lived on a coastal island) and they died due to this  and were removed last year"!!!

Boy was he ticked off at me :-)

I just finished building another Grape "Habitat" and I want another Muscadine... self fertile and several years along in size.

Does anyone know who has them in South Florida for pickup?

This weekend I pulled out my guava and want to put in peach instead.

I want one locally available, and one that can be kept to a manageable size.. I looked in HD and they have some of the "Tropic Beauty"  (Supposedly 150 chill hours) cultivar in stock in 10 and 30 gallon sizes, BUT... These 10 and 30 gallon in HD have no fruit. Maybe they needed more cold wherever they were grown

I bought my "Tropic Sweet"  (Supposedly 175 chill hours with LARGE fruit)  at HD about 4 years ago in the same time frame (April / May) and the little tree had fruit on it so I at the very least it "might" produce.  Luckily the past 3 winters we had hardly any cold and my tree has had delicious SMALL fruit every year. But... I never saw this selection again.

The UF has some low chill selections (most notably the UF Sun and UF Best)  but I have no idea where to get them. Anyone have a source in Dade, Broward or Palm Beach counties? Also... does anyone have an idea on their size potential? Nothing I've read mentions the size of these (or any) selections.

 Thx,

   Gary

Well, every year brings out more fruit in my yard, this year will be the best yet.

Blooming now

Peach, Jakfruit, Geffner Atemoya, Mango (4), Avocado, Canistel (Fairchild #2) Pineapples, Guava, Sapodilla (Makok), Mulberry, Barbados Cherry, Jamaican Cherry, Papaya, Coffee, Passionfruit, Coffee.

Always produce yearly or still too early as of now. Grapes, Carambola, Banana, Jaboticaba, dwarf pomegranate.

Still waiting on sugar apple, Green and white sapote, mamey, Lychee, grumichama cherry, pineapple guava (little hope on this one)  Persimmon (even less hope) And in pots...Lemon drop mangosteen, persian lime, fig, navel orange.

Last year I planted several more coffee bushes... what GREAT coffee came from the few I had producing! Eventually I can give up on store bought.

It's been a L-O-N-Gggg....wait, but my Gold Nugget Jackfruit is finally blooming. There is currently one small flower out with perhaps 10 more little green sprouts erupting on the lower end of the 5"+ thick trunk!

So what do I do now? Feed it? Water it? Deny both food and water? Should I Pinch off some of the sprouts?