Last year I bought seeds off ebay from someone in Thailand. 50 seeds for 1.99 including shipping! Why not?
I read an article and the guy suggested germinating them in a southern window. I then read an old post from Oscar that said full sun.
I split the seeds up in a window and full sun. Sure enough the only seeds that sprouted were in full sun ( Thanks Oscar ) I must of ended up with over 100 seeds and my little pots looked like a chia. They didn't look like muntingia and I wondered if they were weeds. Meanwhile the guy in Thailand kept asking me for positive feedback. What the hell 1.99 so I gave him his feedback. All last winter they slowly grew but they sure didn't look like muntingia. I also picked up a 3 gallon tree last fall from fruitscapes that was grown from a cutting. I even ate a few fruit before the winter shut it down. The plant grown from a cutting was less then 2' tall. I planted it in the spring in the ground and today it is over 7 feet tall and probably the same wide. I eat 10-20 fruit every day all summer long since mid May. Meanwhile last spring the plants grown from seed are thinning out and I had about 10 left around 4-6 inches tall in individual pots. One of them sort of took off and I put it in a 3 gallon pot. The trunk still look like a weed and I asked several people and no one was certain what the hell it was. I ended up with 3 plants that made it and I put the one that took off in the ground. The trunk finally hardened up and it looked like a muntingia. Today it is 7 foot tall and 3 feet wide and after flowering the last month it is holding one fruit. One year old! I have one in a 7 gallon that is pushing 5' and I gave one away. The one in the 7 gallon is my insurance if my 2 trees in the ground freeze this winter.  I also had a volunteer at the bottom of the cutting tree and when I pulled it up it had roots. I put it in a 7 gallon and it seems ok.
 When I got the tree from fruitscapes that was grown from a cutting the cutting was as big as my pinky around. It was not rooted from a smaller branch?  I plan to always have a backup tree in a pot before winter. I live in 9b and it can get cold once in awhile.
Mike

I finally figured out my burnt leaves and even death of a few trees was being caused by the 7% chlorine in the synthetic fertilizer I use to use.
Last year I fertilized a small lychee tree and burned all the leaves off. This year I have only applied organic fertilizer mostly horse or rabbit manure and both of my lychees are nice and green with no burnt leaves. I also like fish emulsion which I made myself this year. In my yard I am more worried about high ph which urea found in urine helps lower. I also add allot of mulch and coffee grounds around my trees. I don't think dog urine would hurt your trees unless you over did it. For me lychees, avocados, COR, seem to really be affected by the synthetic fertilizer

Joe
I live in 9b also. The other day I was driving down the road and saw a Barbados cherry tree full of ripe fruit. There are also 3 mango trees growing on the property. I stopped and checked under the tree and the abundant fruit was falling on the ground going bad. I picked a few and the owner came out and she said take as many as you want. She showed me some other trees on the property and one was a soursop and another Annona and a starfruit. Basically these trees are in the open and not protected. The lady told me she didn't plant the trees and moved in 2 years ago. The trees are at least 7-10 years old and not being watered or fertlilzed. This place is only 10 minutes from my house and definitely zone 9b like mine. What an encouraging thing to see for a zone pusher like me!

Mike

Onur
If a male is present the fruit will be very seedy. I was also going to get a plant from Edible Landscaping but they
never got one in stock and I ended up getting my tree from Englands nursery in Kentucky. My sister lives in Kentucky and picked it up
on the way down to Florida. I also got a female grafted tree.
Mike

Not sure why I mentioned greed because it's off topic. The point I was trying to make is there is a tremendous
amount of money being invested in the citrus industry by some very large companies including Coke and PepsiCo,
They obviously don't believe the citrus industry is doomed in Florida. There are allot of negative articles being printed
and I don't know what the motivation behind it is. I bet you a soda that the citrus industry in Florida survives?

Mike

Unfortunately a Wal mart just opened about 3 miles from my house. I stopped by to get some batteries and went through the garden section. There were about 6 Sherbert berries in one gallon pots for under $8.00 each. Some weird price like $7.88. I bought one that was two foot tall and already had 2 branches. Hopefully it will be bushy from the onset because I have seen 5 foot plants for sale in three gallon pots that were basically one long stick. One of the plants had 2 berries on it and it was also in 1 gallon pot and about 18" tall.

This year my King white shatoot has produced the best crop ever. I am getting 2+ bowls every two days.
When I eat them fresh I can't decide if I like them or not. But I read on Just Fruits website about dehydrating them. WOW are they good! Everyone I have given to try, loves them too. I haven't put my dehydrator away in 2 weeks. 
Mike

I live close to LaBelle Fl in 9b. I have the following trees:(2)Ponkan, sugar belle, kishu ,(2) owari, cara cara, ortanique, temple, Xie shan, brown select, rhode red, nules clementine, unidentified clementine.
I wanted a couple tangerines and as usual I over did it. So far I have found that the fruit ripens before they turn orange especially this year. It never cooled down until January. When the fruit turns slightly less green and softens pull it or it dries out.
 I like tangy tangerines and the ponkans are real good. They are alternate bearers so I have two. Last year I pulled the fruit off one tree and had about 50 on the other. The year before they were sweeter and turned orange by mid october. This year they were mostly green and more tangy. I think because I have so many different trees pollinating some of my fruit tends to be more seedy then the books say. Ponkans are considered seedless less then 6 seeds and most of mine had ~10-12 seeds. I gave some ponkans to friends to try and everyone really likes them. My sugarbell had about 50 on it and they ripened around October which is early. They have some grapefruit in them and I really enjoyed the unique tangy flavor. Unfortunately they were a bit seedy too. My kishu tree had a light year and were green when they ripened in September. I have never had a seed in the kishu so far? Last month my Kishu had 500+ flowers. My owari ripens in August and it is ok but not my favorite. I plan to dig up one and give it away. The first year when the fruit turned orange in October and I picked it, it was worthless. It also had a few seeds in half the fruit. The brown select had a couple fruit on it when I got it 2 years ago and it really was way better then the owari in my opinion. Last year I pulled the fruit to let the tree grow. My Xie shan is small and I also pulled the fruit last year. This year it is flowering but still relatively small. I may pull the fruit one more year. I keep hearing people compliment it and can't wait to try it. It is an early ripening tree and will probably get soft in August and be ready to eat. It will probably never have significant cool nights to sweeten? My unidentified clementine from Lowes ripened in August this  year and was very good. I let a couple fruit stay on until they turned orange in october and they were not edible. The nules clementine is suppose to be the best but I pulled the fruit last year also. The cara cara has been a great growing tree but the fruit is very dry. I picked a green fruit the other day that softened and it was not good either. I plan to chop it down. I ate some temples this winter and they knock your socks off with intense flavor. The problem was not every fruit was that good? I plan to get rid of the cara cara and replace with a small temple which is still in the pot. The rhode red is a very juicy juice orange. I prefer tangerines that peel easy. It is a late ripening fruit though.
 I could eventually end up having thousands of fruit mostly in August through november. I probably should have got one ponkan, one sugarbelle, and one temple/ortanique. Then I would have had fruit in the fall and winter. As soon as I produce allot of fruit my kids quit eating it. When it's $9.00 a bag they eat a bag every two days.
 

hey John
Is that a cleft graft?
Thanks
Mike

Quote from: bsbullie on March 03, 2016, 08:55:41 PM

Quote from: johnb51 on March 03, 2016, 08:53:32 PM

LOL!  Not much of deal, huh?  Half price?   Maybe in your universe!

No, not much of a deal cause its crappy mulch to begin with.

I'd like to hear what you prefer as mulch Rob. I usually use the free rough stuff that is hardwood, palm, brush, etc that turns into compost fairly quickly.

Dom
I am not sure if I have the unnamed red variety you say is everbearing. These common names are so confusing. I have a large fruited with large leaves I think people call Tice, and I have a small fruited smaller tree that I have heard called the dwarf everbearing. Do either of these sound like your red one?
The dwarf everbearing the fruit turn black when ripe. I live close to LaBelle and would love to get this red one if it is different? I went by Echo this week and they are selling Pakistan and Himalayan mulberries next to each other. They are dormant and have no leaves to compare. I wasn't sure if they are the same tree? The dwarf everbearing I have is the easiest tree to root I have ever seen. I put 3-4 cuttings in dirt with no dome or bag and at least 3 take.
Mike   

I have 2 owari satsumas in Florida 9b. My tree's fruit ripens in August/September. The fruit softens and slightly turns a different lighter shade of green when they are ripe. The first year I waited until they turned orange in October and they were almost inedible. This year one of my trees had ripe fruit in September more ripe fruit in December and currently it has around a dozen half grown fruit. Basically everbearing and it should be flowering soon. The other tree had fruit ripe in September this year only. Both trees are about 25 feet apart and get the same water/fertilizer/temps? Now that I know when they are ripe they are very good to eat with a little bit of tang. Usually they are seedless but once in a while I get 1-2 seeds. I would prefer to put the tree in the ground but I am not sure how it would do in the Bahamas. Also my 2 trees are growing slowly.
Mike

h3, c2, c3, e5