Here is a picture of the Julie flowering in a 10 gal container.

Nice pictures they look very happy.

I bought the tree from my near by home depot, it is a regular manila mango. Ever since i have planted it in the wrong location it's health has declind. Do you have any other advice on soil etc for future planting of the tree?

Make sure you amend with plenty of organic material. Also get soil buster if you have heavy clay soil. Another problem is the high PH water and soil, to counter this you need to use acid lower things. Mulching with pine bark/pine needles should help somewhat.

Quote from: zands on February 10, 2012, 08:28:50 AM

Loquat- some varieties selected by Larry Shatzer of Our Kids Nursery, near me in Orlando, are the most amazing I've had!  I used to hate loquat, and I always thought loquat was a trash, parking lot fruit...but when I tasted and saw ones with sweet delicious, white flesh (light yellow), about the size of a goose egg, it was amazing!!!  I am procuring bud wood, and grafting all of his varieties this year!! He has kept them to himself so to speak, not selling that many over the years...I can understand, but it's time to share!  Very healthy fruits, in season when others aren't, sometimes producing multiple crops per year!

I am very interested!!!  Picked some parking lot loquat yesterday and I like that too...only problem is you get too many (unripe) sour and shriveled ones and not enough dead ripe and sweet. But I eat them anyway.

In the USA loquat is mostly treated as an ornamental plant. In Japan the fruits are highly valued and very many cultivars have been developed, including giant sized fruits and a seedless loquat.
Oscar

Would love some scion from Japan  . Loquats are great spring time fruit, more attention should be given to the development of new varieties besides the standard Big Jim. I had a 'Vista White' loquat but unfortunately it got a bad case of blight and died.

I have a PDF to share with you, it has detailed germination info and info about the Marula.

NZ- I've never been able to eat prickly pears without getting several really annoying spines in my fingers and a couple also sometimes get into my tongue.

The trick is to lightly roast the fruit over a gas stove (about 15 secs). This will burn off the glochids, then wash after. If you have a small blow torch it would be even faster and easier. Also its said that using a hot knife (heated knife) prolongs the storage life of the Opuntia (prickly pear) fruit when harvesting.

I believe it has a lot to do with preparation most people would agree that your typical lemon is sour and has a lot of acid. yet there seems to be no problem with popularity. and not many would eat a lemon out of hand.

So true especially with a lot of cactus fruit. Optimally prickly pear is prepared as a puree, blended, or made into jams, wines, and desserts. Fresh eating is great as well if seeds do not offend.

Very interesting, I have always heard that Lychee's were very hard to graft. If Lychee's can be grafted to Longan, it would make Lychee's much more California friendly. It seems the Lychee leaves are not as thick and tolerant of the arid climate, compared to Longan leaves.

The Australian Finger lime seeds are sold on ebay fresh. May be a good option to start by seed.

thanks Null- would love to see the pics!

This photo was taken 1/16/12, when the Julie was pushing new growth.



Some photos taken 2/5/12, starting to flower




Tree had anthracnose when I received it, it eventually cleared up after about 8-10 months (cleared up probably earlier but shed all previous damaged leaves). I used a fungicide treatment, the CA weather.

Here was the tree 3 months after receiving it 10/30/10, mangoes did not hold (think it was to small and the anthracnose) tree has no problem bearing young.

I am growing Julie, have not tried the fruit yet. But it has a excellent dwarf form, love the tree hoping the fruit is excellent!

May just try it for germination of hard to sprout seeds, foliar application sounds to complex and has to do a lot with timing of the flowering, vegetative growth, and a number of other things. Seems like foliar use is mainly with commercial grapes.

GA3 sounded very interesting (due to the claims out there about incredible growth rates etc.). But in practicality it may be better off not trying it at all besides germination.

Thanks for the input Oscar, do you use it for germination at all? (looks like you do from reading the other thread on GA3 germination)

Quote from: nullzero on February 07, 2012, 02:50:28 PM

Ordered up the ingredients for the custom foliar spray, plan is to do mostly foliar spray once a week with a soil drench once every 2 weeks.

Here is what I got so far;

1LB, 50/50 mix of Kelp Powder concentrate & Humic Acid 1-.23-6 (makes about 20 gals of foliar spray)

1 GAL, Fish Emulsion 5-1-1 (1-2 oz per gal, around 100 gals of foliar spray usage) Planning on switching to fish hydrolysate, when this runs out.

I was thinking of trying; GA3, IAA, BAP, and Fulvic acid, mixing in small amounts (amounts vary depending on instructions) to the foliar spray. Maybe a one time use, but have not read enough yet to use.

Soil drench will be about 1-2 oz of rock phosphate for per gal of water. Mixed with beneficial microbes (using MycoGrow Soluble) and compost tea.

Will see how the plants like it, I am looking forward to some results.

You might want to reconsider about using gibberelic acid (GA3) as a regular foliar spray. This is usually used to enlarge fruits, especially grapes, and can also have a negative effect if used on wrong plants or in wrong quantities, and since we're dealing with parts per million it's very easy to goof up.
Oscar

Yeah I was going to reconsider it, been reading more on it. If I was going to use it (would be a once a year thing in diluted amounts). I would need to get a new PPM meter and an accurate micro measurement spoon. Might be more hassle then its worth.

Another thing, is the wide variety of plants I have. Some may take to it well (like the grapes, while others may not). I have everything from Taro to Gooseberries growing.

Joe,

Looking good like the support you made.