Where's the pic?

Brad

I have a Florida Prince that is three year old.  It has some flowers on it now.  I remember one or two last year at this time as well.  I think if it does set fruit at this time of year, fruit flies will get them. 

The first year, I only had a single tree and it fruited as well as I could expect for such a small tree.  I think it had around eight or ten plum sized peaches.   

I let this vine have it's way with a medium sized pandanus tree so it is pretty large.  Plenty of the flowers are too high for me to hand pollinate.  Based on some pictures of Harry's vines, Hailey's comet may produce less that others.

60, that's a heavy producer!

I have a triumph that I planted 2 years ago from a 3 gal.  It is about 9 feet tall and 7 feet wide.  The first year I got one fruit to maturity.  This year, over 30 fruit set but they all dropped when they got to the size of a nickel.  I am in west broward.

Harry, which varieties have you tasted this year and which was your favorite?  I just ate the only fruit growing on my Davie Bowie 3 gal potted.  It was beautiful from the top but when I turned it over it was split and a quarter was overrun by fire ants.  Parts were ripe and others not.  The ripe parts I would classify as good and semi-ripe OK.  It will be my new four place.

They are pretty good.  My wife and older girl love them too.  I got my younger daughter to eat it for the first time (by saying that Sleepdoc's daughter loves them) and she gobbled down her fair share.  Generally, the only fruits she eats are strawberries and watermelon. It is a nice change up from mangos.

Here is today's haul, mostly smalls.  Looks like the average size this year will be down to a pound.  The first four I picked on Monday were 1+ pounders but the large from the first bloom mostly need a few more days of brewing.

Here are some of the forming fruit.  The one that is coloring up is probably 3-4 weeks old, maybe another week to go.




Here you can see, from the bottom up, one that was pollinated Saturday, one that I must have missed that will not fruit, and the one that is almost ready.




(Sorry about weird lighing with these dusk pictures)

This dragon fruit was planted about four years ago and was purchased as a cutting from Pine Island Nursery, labeled as Hailey's Comet.  98% of it is a single plant.  This particular plant is self sterile, which is not how Hailey's Comet is described.  This was quite frustrating last year, since I only caught a single blooming of about 15 fruits with pollen from a different plant.  I bought a collection of other varieties, that I have kept in pots in the hopes that they would flower earlier.  So far, I have only missed pollinating on a single instance this year.  I probaby have around 20 fruits that will be ready in a week or two. 

If you drive by and see a guy on a ladder with a flashlight in the dark of night, don't shoot, it is just me collecting pollen and making the party happen.

Saturday night around 15 flowers opened.



Last night about 25 flowers opened.

I did this today at sleepdoc's suggestion.  It was great!  My mom couldn't stop eating it. The plate of mango was set aside.

Harry, thanks for a wonderful day.  It was great to meet you, Russel, and Noel.  For a newbie like me, it was a lot of first experiences and new tastes.   

In the end, it will probably be a very costly day.  I have already spent a few hours on house listing websites, trying to find a suitable 2+ acre property. 

I did some googling to see if timing could rule my tree out as a Keitt and I found a post from hmhausman dated 6/19/11 that all his late season mangos, with the exception of Neelam, were maturing and squam256 stating that one of his Keitts produces large mangos and the other produces small mangos.     Either way, the mangos taste great but I selected the tree for late season fruit.  I am making some adjustments to my practicies that will hopefully make my trees happier and put them back on the program.