The Tropical Fruit Forum

In Central FL I went from 9b to 10a. Guess I will toss all my heat lamps and tree blankets since I dont need to protect my mangos anymore and will start collecting ultra-tropicals to put in the ground. Woo-hoo! Will Durian grow in 10a? Maybe my Royal Poinciana wont freeze back to the roots every year now.

There are no true "dwarf" mangoes. There's vigorous growers and non-vigorous growers. All will grow large if not pruned and controlled. Pickering is a slow grower and is easy to maintain in a small form, thus "dwarf." I doubt a pruning back in 2022 is having an effect now. Mangoes are weird trees when it comes to weather. Maybe it thinks that brief cold spell we had a few weeks ago was winter and this new warm weather is spring? Combined with not having fruited since 2022 and wanting to get it out.

Not sure why you used lychee as an example. It actually requires chill hours that would kill a cocoa plant, its why they grow fairly well here in Southern Central Florida 9B where we get freezes every year. Cocoa is incredibly fragile and I think even in zone 10 it would require a greenhouse or to be brought indoors on the regular.

Pecans might be interesting to try. Arent there some avocados that survive that low in temp? Paw Paws. There are lots of apples, peaches and plums that will work for you. In my opinion you are in a much more ideal temp zone than I am in 9b Florida where we have the worst of all conditions, too cold for tropicals, too hot for sub tropicals, and all the disease and bugs of both.

I started two from seeds back in 2013 or so. One is about 4 foot and the other is 7 feet tall, they are about four feet from each other. In my experience, it doesnt care about cold in Florida 9b. But it neither of mine have flowered either. I would have pulled them long ago but they are in a corner of my yard I dont really care about so I let them do their slow thing.

Nicks Edibles over in St Cloud has some at very good prices.

What can be used to control CLM? In FL Neem and other oils are a No-Go since we tend to hit 85 in early spring and doesnt cool down until late November.

My favorite cactus is my Peruvian apple cactus that I took a 1 foot cutting out of someones garbage in the tampa area while I was visiting. In one years time, it is over 6 feet and with many offshoots. Im hoping for some fruits this year

I have one in a pot that is about 2' tall. I have had it since last fall and it hasnt grown at all. It does have a single what I think will be a bloom on it. I am clearing a bit of a glade in my new property and am planning on putting it there in ground over the winter when I can get some heavy work done in more than 15 minute efforts due to the heat.

Just some background, I have recently picked up an adjacent plot of land which has a large section covered in oaks with some fairly decent open areas under them hidden behind an outer layer of palmetto and I didnt even have to clear it. About six months ago I planted a Ponderosa lemon in the greyish sand there. Grey sand seems to be formed in areas of current or former heavy palmetto growth and is also the reason we cant grow figs thanks to a nasty nematode infestation. On the outskirts still under the canopy, about 2 years ago, I planted a blood orange and a tangerine of some kind and mulched them with oak leaves from the neighbor. I fertilize them sporadically. So far, so good. I havent noticed even any leaf miners like I have on my other citrus elsewhere in my yard who are in full sun for the most part. Leaves on the three are much greener and the growth and bushiness is much thicker. After I move some logs and drive my mower through to knock down some of the stickers and wild grape I am going to plant a red naval orange, a Persian lime and a Centennial kumquat that is hurting in a pot I have it in now. Given the success so far, I will likely start fertilizing more often using the fertilizer listed higher in this thread and doing some fish emulsion leaf spraying which is always highly recommended for citrus.

Mostly this is to continue my experiment on the whole oak protection thing. Not sure if I will expand the citrus aspect of my grove past that point as I have other trees and such I am working on. Maybe a key lime if it looks like there is space to test the micro-climate aspect of the under-canopy.

Aside from a freak shower here and there its almost a standard dry season for us in Central Florida. Mangos are developing correctly and should be ripe soon. Typical light winter and spring. Still in the 80s, hopefully that continues.

Meanwhile, I'm in east Orange county and we have barely gotten a drop, most of which evaporates as soon as it hits the hot ground.

You guys are odd. I am 9b, in east Orlando, we get at least one freeze and several frosts a year and it is disastrous every time.  The last one we had in March nuked almost all fruit production on all of my trees for the year and my mangos never recovered fully. This one strikes early where most trees that do it havent even went dormant yet while my mangos are pushing new growth. My Friday is going to suck.