Hi all, my two and a half year old Reed Avocado is dropping its fruit.  The tree is about ten feet tall and three or four feet diameter.  I let it hold three fruit last year and stripped the other fruits off.  Two days ago it dropped one of the fruit and today it dropped another.  The fruit are very big the first weighted over 24 ounces and the second weighted over 26 ounces.  I've read that Reed usually weight 16-20 ounces.  Is this true?  If so are these fruit dropping because they are ready?  Or are they too big for the small tree?  Any advice would be appreciated. 

The first fallen fruit is getting soft and I will try it tonight.

Bill

Hi all, here are some pictures of my Royal Lee and Minnie Royal Cherries planted at the end of 2015.  They have grown like weeds and have been pruned back every winter.  Last year I got about 3 fruit off the Minnie Royal.  This year the Royal Lee is blooming before the Minnie Royal and it has fruit!  Strange thing is, I thought the Royal Lee needed the Minnie Royal to cross pollinate?

Bill

Hi all, these are two very small "micro air layers" of Kwa Luk Lychee.  I have had them for about four months.  At first they seemed to be doing fine but now the leaves are yellowing and some leaves are dropping.  I'm not a Lychee expert of nutritional expert so I thought I would look for some advice here.  I'm scared to fertilize them because I know others here have lost small air layered Lychees after fertilizing.  These air layers are only about 12" tall.  Any advice?

Bill

After reading about how good and big they are supposed to be, I'm wondering why no one grows them?

Bill

Hi all, I'm trying to clear some room in the backyard so I'm selling some mango trees.  For sale I have:






15 gallon grafted Rosigold Mango tree. This tree is very well developed and five feet tall from the top of the pot. This tree is known for being one of the earliest mangos of the season. $150




Cogshall Mango tree grafted in 15 gallon pot. This is a very developed tree that measures 4 feet tall from the top of the pot and about as wide.  $150




This is a very mature 7 gallon grafted Fairchild Mango Tree. It measures over four feet tall from the top of the pot and three feet wide. The trunk measures almost 2.5" wide. It is ready to go into the ground or a 15 gallon pot. $125





This is a 7 gallon Edward mango tree. It is almost 4 feet tall from the top of the pot. $75

Bill

What I'm trying to figure out is if seeds are obtained from a supposed superior strain of Garcinia does that mean that the seedling will have the same superior traits?  Sadhu at GOVARDHAN GARDENS has what he says is a sweet variety of Garcinia Madruno.  Is it worth trying to get seeds from this supposed superior strain?  If Garcinias aren't true to seed than seedlings from this variety could be average or subpar.  Am I correct with this reasoning?  I don't want to go thru the hassle of growing the plants from seeds if the resulting plants aren't going to carry the superior traits.

Bill

After several years of growing my mango trees in pots I am finally planting them in the ground.  On the left are newer varieties Fruit Punch, Lemon Zest, Sweet Tart and Gary (a parent of many new Zill varieties).  On the right are oldy but goodies Edward, Maha Chanok, Southern Blush and an open spot for Dot.  I plan on following Fairchild's fertilizer and pruning advice to keep them small.



Bill

Hi all, in Southern California how small can a regular mango tree be kept?  By regular I mean not a normally compact grower such as Pickering or Ice Cream but a regular variety such as Edward, Southern Blush or Lemon Zest.  Is seven to eight feet realistic?

Bill

Hi All, I have a small Garcinia Achachairu but I am greedy so I'm now looking for a larger specimen.  The larger the better.  Does anyone know where I can find one in Southern California or mail order?

Thanks,
Bill

Hi all, Two years ago I ordered twelve Mango trees from Top Tropicals Nursery.  This year when my Cushman fruited the fruits looked nothing like Cushmans.  Cushman fruit is round and yellow, my fruit was oblong and green that colored up to orange and red.  My Southern Blush that I received from them has Mango Malformation Disease.  Reference this posting for pictures of the flower panicles http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=12129.msg155746#msg155746 .  This disease causes trees to grow very slowly, set little fruit and it is very contagious.  Luckily the first year I noticed the flowers looked strange so I have been very careful not to spread the disease to my other trees.

I contacted Top Tropicals almost three weeks ago and talked to Heather.  She asked me to email here photos of the mislabeled Cushman tree and the diseased Southern Blush.  I did.  After not hearing back from her for several days I called and talked to her.  She agreed that the Cushman tree was mislabeled and said they would ship me a replacement.  She said that they were talking to their plant expert about the Mango Malformation Disease and they would get back to me. She told me that she had never heard of Mango Malformation Disease before.  This was shocking to me as it shows how completely clueless this Nursery is or that she is willing to lie to me to.

After not hearing from Heather for a week I started calling Top Tropicals each day.  For a week I called every day and every day I got a different excuse, "Heather is on the other line. She will call you right back.", "Heather is off today.  I'll leave her a message and have her call you first thing in the morning.", "Heather is working in the field I'll have her call you when she gets back to the office."  Needless to say I never received a return phone call.  I asked the other people that I spoke to on the phone if there was someone else I could talk to about my problem.  Each time I was told that I needed to talk to Heather.  One of the other girls that I spoke to on the phone told me that their plant expert had told them that I must have obtained the disease from one of my other trees.  I told her that this was the only tree I have with this disease and that the entire tree has the disease.  To me, if every flower on a three gallon tree has Mango Malformation Disease then it probably got it from dirty equipment when it was grafted.

After almost three weeks and with unreturned phone calls to Top Tropicals I have contacted my Credit Card and I am disputing the charges.  I also plan on reporting them to the appropriate California agricultural department.  To let them know that Top Tropicals is shipping diseased trees into California and doesn't appear to care.  I know there has been a lot of talk on this forum about different online nursery options for California.  In the past I have defended Top Tropicals and told people about the large trees I received from them.  With Top Tropicals poor communication and complete lack of responsibility for shipping me a diseased tree.  I can no longer recommend them.  For others considering ordering from them, the risk of receiving a diseased tree is simply not worth it.  This is a very contagious disease that can easily be spread.

Another unhappy Top Tropicals customer,
Bill

Hi all,  it's that time of year again in Southern California, Mango season!  I'm always interested in the earliest varieties in SoCal. So if you have fruit that is mature or getting close please speak up.

I know JF has been eating Glenn's and Duncan's for 2-3 weeks. Gary's season in Palm Springs has been in full swing for weeks now. How about other people or other varieties in SoCal? 

Bill

Hi all,  My wife and I are trying to figure out what fruit we should add to our backyard to fill our March thru May void. We currently have Blackberries June thru August, Peaches in July and Mangos August thru November.  Then we get what I think are Satsuma Tangarines December, January or February. Then our Navel Orange ripens about January thru May. But we usually just juice those. So that leaves us with sometimes February and always March thru May with nothing to pick from the yard to eat. We are considering a different type of Mandarine since our boys love them so much and literally can eat ten or more in one day!  But before we decide I wanted to see what you guys would recommend.

I have plenty of space for blackberries against my North wall so maybe you guys know of any early variety that you would recommend. My earliest Blackberry is Kiowa which started fruiting May 30 of last year.

I also have many different varieties of Bananas and Pineapple that fruit whenever they feel like it.

Any help is appreciated.

Bill

I'm getting ready to put some of my mango trees into the ground here in SoCal.  I plan on putting the more disease resistant and faster growers in the less ideal locations.  But I don't want to assume that because a tree is vigorous in Florida means it will also be here.  So please help and list off you most vigorous growers and how long it took them to reach a certain size.

Thanks in advance.

Bill