I was pruning the charichuela tree this morning and found this single fruit. It is the first fruit from this tree. Sorry the picture is a lousy, but I don't have good technical skills.

This has been growing in a pot for 8 + years, flowering for at least five, but has never set fruit before. In Naples, I brought the tree inside the house during freezes. Here in zone 9, it spends the winter in a greenhouse with heat on freezing nights.

This has made my day. Incidentally, I have recently been thinking I should get rid of it because it has never fruited!

Erica

Quote from: ericalynne on February 22, 2013, 07:09:51 PM

Organic, from Peru, $2.50 each. Bought two.  Flavor is very good especially since I have not had a fresh mango since last summer.

Erica

I saw them at the Boca Whole Foods...have had them for a few weeks.  Looked very commercial, I passed.  I am not a fan of "boiled" mangoes.

If I worked at Excalibur, I would have no need for grocery store mangoes either. :-) 

These tasted amazingly unboiled.

Erica

You can try Bryan Brunner:

www.montosogardens.com

Erica

I think the English are really into gardens.

And I think I probably missed the window of opportunity for traveling around the world. So I do appreciate hearing about it from you and others on the forum.

Erica

I put shelters up for my most delicate trees, and strung Xmas lights on others. Could do without the wind!

Cool shelter erica! How long does it take you to put it up? Have you put a temp guage inside? Looks like it should work great. I use regular plastic and shop lights in mine. I'm curious if te bubble wrap makes the lower wattage lights more efficient by holding in more heat than regular plastic? Seems like it would.

Good luck all.

Thank you. Each shelter takes about 30 minutes to set up. But once it is up, it is up for the winter (except for the top). The one pictured has been around that Angie since the cold snap in November. By using an insulated covering, I don't have to worry about heat build up when the weather turns warm.  Inside it is about 10 degrees warmer than outside. If a real plunge in temperature is forecast, I put more blankets on over the top and rake up more mulch around the bottom and in general seal it up better. The bubble wrap or the laminate padding provides more insulation. When the winter weather is warmer, I unplug the lights and take off the top covering. Another advantage of this set up I have found is that it protects the trees from the bitter wind, which is damaging even without a frost.

Forecast now is for 35 tonight.

Erica

Puglvr, I stake the frame down with tent pegs. There is someone on Lake June Road in Lake Placid who has a wooden frame built around a small mango tree. As the trees get bigger, I may go to a wooden frame, the wove wire is getting a bit unwieldy.

Oscar, in the four winters I've been in Venus, the temperature predictions are exceedingly accurate the day before the night of a freeze.

Erica

I use intellicast.com. There is a station at Venus, which is only 5 miles from where I live. It is pretty accurate for my area. Pglvr is a bit farther north, but depends if she is near a lake or not. Some of the central lakes moderate the temperatures. I am counting my blessings this is happening on a weekend and I have plenty of time to bring things in or cover them. If this happens on a regular work day, I don't get started until evening.

Current prediction is 36 for tonight and 34 Sunday, but that is too close to count on.

Erica
Venus

Jeff, I can sympathize. I lost two avocado trees last year in the ground. Group consensus on this forum was that the soil did not drain well. They had been doing very well in pots. Now I have two new avocado trees and am starting to rethink this in the ground part for them.
Erica

If you don't want to go to the trouble of freezing individual pieces, you can put your cubed or sliced mango into a freezer container and then cover with a bit of sweetened mango juice. They must be completely covered with juice. When you thaw, the pieces keep their shape and texture.

For avocados, I mash them and freeze them in ice cube trays. Once they are frozen, I pop them out into a ziplock bag and toss them back in the freezer. One cube per taco.

For bananas, cut in half longitudinally, roll in orange juice (or whatever juice you have around) then coat with a mix of granola, wheat germ, coconut, whatever. Stick it on a popcicle stick. Freeze the banana pops separately and after freezing, put in ziplock bags and back into the freezer.

This is starting to sound like the recipe section, so I'll quit.

Erica

Thank you, Oscar!

I thought I remembered that mangoes do well in all kinds of places that don't get much cold. I remember someone (Fairchild?) saying that mangoes need dry and low nutrients to flower well.

Erica

Julie is flowering heavily, so that the panicles weigh down the branches. It is too small to permit it to keep the fruit. I have found in the past that Julie will reflower and reflower and reflower if the panicles are cut off, so I will let them go quite awhile before plucking them off. Pickering has just one panicle, but it is setting fruit nicely. Pickering is also too small to leave the fruit on. Angie and Carrie seedling have not flowered at all yet, but I think they will. Jean Ellen has flowered well and is setting a lot of fruit, except on the branches that I pruned too late in the season.

Erica

Hi David,

I just did some googling on monkey fruit and it looks like it may be able to take some cold...web information says tropical and subtropical. So I am willing to try it. Being in zone 9b, I am somewhat limited in the number and kinds of tropicals I can grow. I would be pleased to have some seeds and can offer something in return. I will try to send PM. If I am not successful, please PM me.

Erica