Gold Nugget is Excellent

Anybody know how to get in touch with this guy? He is right down the street from me and I’d sure like to stroll thru his tropical fruit tree paradise one day

So I bought a 12ft jackfrut Seedling that was essentially rootbound in a 15 gallon pot and had no expectations whatsoever for it. As a matter of fact it was shaped like a lollipop with the lollipop stick being twice as long as normal....real ugly.  But I planted it early summer 2016 and it didn’t do much of anything. So after Irma, I essentially cut it in half. It still didn’t grow very much, although the trunk is now more proportional to the canopy.  I decided I would give it one more summer to get its act together or else I was going to pull it and replace with an Amber seedling I have in a pot currently. I was convinced this thing was getting chopped down in September. But today I was pleasantly surprised by a beautiful male flower and another that had already shriveled up and dropped onto a leaf below. What a great feeling. I really wanted to give this tree a chance and I’m glad it’s showed some signs of progress well before the eleventh hour. It was a very exciting day

I’d like the fruit. Not really interested in seeds. PM me if you have

Good to know the SES 2 produces well and is compact! I don't have an abundance of space in my backyard so that's helpful. They are still pretty small right now so I'm going to keep up potting them until they are a bit bigger. I'm wanting to get two more varieties to fill out the area, any suggestions on which cultivars I should keep an eye out for?

I'm going with a second Redland tree and a Younghans (or Younghans Gold) variety....I've heard that they are 2 of the best for South Florida.  I also have heard that Smathers and Florida Suebelle are excellent as well.  I've done quite a bit of research in this area because I've been planning on adding some more for a while.  If I knew they grew so darn well down here in my area, I would have planted them years ago.  I was always under the impression that they struggled down here but after seeing several LARGE established trees at Fruit and Spice Park, coupled with how well my current trees are growing, I'm definitely on the White Sapote Train now.

Fruit and Spice Park in Miami has a tree that I eat fruit off of every year; SES 2 that is. It’s more like a big bush, but it produces around 200-300 fruit per year I’d say. It’s a good tasting fruit, but very small. The average size is slightly slightly larger than a golf ball.  I’m still on the fence about picking one up, as I’ve heard other varieties are better tasting and larger.  But you won’t be disappointed.  No clue on USDA

I don't know about Socal or other locations, but here in South Florida, in over a decade of growing mango trees (about 3 dozen of them), I've never pruned fruit on young trees and it's never been an issue.

While pruning fruit is necessary for some species (eg, Jackfruit -- which will go into decline if allowed to carry too much fruit), mangoes will do one of two things: either they will abort the fruit on their own, or the fruit will turn out small. But neither case presents a detriment to the tree.

My sweet tart did the same thing actually. I planted mine out from a 7 gallon, and within a year, it produced 2 dozen fruits -- all of which I allowed to remain until maturity. The fruit were all excellent, albeit a bit small.

X2 .  My Pickering is about 4 ft high and probably has set about 100 fruit.  Most likely it will abort 50-75% of those and be just fine.  Let trees do what trees do

That’s great! I picked up a healthy 4-5 footer a few weeks back. Not sure on the variety...it was grafted at Lara Farms. In a few years, I hope to be doing what you’re doing

I disagree. Oro Negro tastes and looks very similar to your average Haas. In my opinion, they taste better; they are more creamer and richer. I wouldn’t (and haven’t) plant another variety of someone paid me

I didn't know it was even possible to grow green-leafed lychees in the redlands without heavy foliar micronutrient application. Don from Going Bananas showed me the difference between lychees given regular foliar treatment and those without. The latter group looked horrible.

Well it’s true that a few miles east of us closer to the coast in more sandy/silty soil the Lychee trees look much darker on average, but we still have quite a few Lychee groves out in the Redlands, including a neighbor a few doors down that has about 40 trees and all are pretty darn dark green. And even after my neighbor sold his home about a year ago to folks that don’t really know much about fruit trees, those trees still look pretty amazing. Plus the others in my yard are considerably greener. The tree is the photo is a 4 year old specimen, growing nicely with good branching, I just wish it was more aesthetically appealing

These professionals make it look like 4-12 inches. I enjoy their channel and hope they make a little money with 220,000 subscribers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS3SwFQLZ5U

Looks good. I wonder if it’s a function of time or sprout height? Looks like maybe time alone, as long as it’s sprouted. 4 months they say. I’m going to experiment. Today’s was good, but not very sweet.

Nobody from Hawaii should be permitted to post photos in this forum.....