The Tropical Fruit Forum

I have zero panicles on my mangos this year. Two went through with christmas lights and a heat lamp and have most of their leaves still, 2 are just barely starting to flush out despite being wrapped in blankets and my potted one, well I am happy it at least has leaves. But no mangos at this point I am hoping the weird weather might cause a late bloom. Not sure what else I can do during cold weather. Im in far east Orlando for reference

I have tried various varieties for years in east Orange county not too far from Palm Bay, I shoot at the range there every blue moon. I have tried Pakastani, Russian, Red Silk and wonderful. My Russian and Wonderfuls are the only ones to even have a couple flowers, but never any fruit. Like my apples, I keep those tow out of stubbornness and I have other spots to fill. One dat I will pull these also. So those are a few not to waste time and space on lol

I have the seeds already in trays. I need to pick up some thick black weed cloth at lunch and I will start filling the bed with dirt. I should be ready long before the cukes have popped up. I have had middling results with seeds in the past so I might end up ordering starters from somewhere.

SO my next project is a raised bed garden. In the back(North) row I have 2 4 foot wide circular plastic pipes that I am cutting from a larger piece I found in the woods. Long story short, previous owner was big into motorcross riding and used these giant plastic and some concrete pipes as the basis for his ramps and then he dumped them in the woods. So depending on the height I can get 8 to ten 24-30inch containers out of it.  I want to try a couple citrus trees. My plan is to put topsoil on the bottom half of the pot and citrus potting mix cut with perlite on the top half. The first two I am going to try are a Shiranu and a Sanguinelli Blood Orange.

Before I start cutting past what I have cut on the pipe to make sure I could, is this a direction any of you would try? What would you do different? Any further advice on the subject? I am very new to  the world of raised beds and container citrus in general.

Well out temps are tropical in the summer and spring and fall so I think it fits here. I am working on a large multi-year raised bed garden and my first over-engineered bed is just about done. Its 30" tall 4'x4'. Full sun. I want to grow pickling cukes. Would putting up a north, east and west sided trellis work in this case? I am thinking all three sides should end up getting enough sun at various times of the day and maybe provide a little shade to each other so it isn't too intense.

I have both macs and avocados, any way to prevent ambrosia beetles from attacking?

I have gotten some off my very young trees here in East Orange county last year. With this heavy chill hour winter we are having I am hoping to have a good deal more and have planted a couple more trees for the future. I think north FL is one of the biggest pecan growing areas outside of GA.

Olives do well, but they take forever to start fruiting. Arbequina require more chill hours than we typically get in central Florida. Tunisian olives apparently like 100-150 so I have planted a few of those last year to test. I have 8 year old Koroneki(sp?) and two 8 year old Arbies and while they absolutely take the cold like champs(as in zero damage in the hard 27 degree frost we just had, unprotected) they have not fruited. We had a much colder year this year for chill hours than we have had in a few years so just maybe I will see some fruit. The cold in Florida is not an issue for Olives except maybe at the most north western parts. I would love to see many of the existing citrus groves turned over to olive and pecan groves instead of developments.

@Gone Tropo- Its out once every 5 or 6 year severe winter. I am near Brevard county and have had more frosts this year than I have had in the other 8 years combined I have lived here including 2 hard frosts. Usually you can get by with incandescent Christmas lights.

I have nothing on my 3 trees. Not even signs of new growth yet.

Well I will tell you after this current polar issue passes how my completely unprotected 6 year old white sapote comes out.  Its about 5 feet tall so far, but has suffered major caterpillar issues its entire life. Last year I made a concerted effort to remove them and scrape eggs off the bottoms of the leaves and I got some really good growth over the warm months. Hopefully this weather wont knock it out completely.

So far so good. I haven't noticed it being as cold as predicted yet. My thermometer this morning said 40 and there was no moisture on the truck like there normally is. Supposedly tomorrow will be 33ish. I have blankets on all of my expensive mangoes and perfume tree with Christmas lights under them. The lights have been there since November and have protected them from the most frosts I have seen since I have lived here combined including a hard one back in December. Weird to get such cold weather so early. And now we enter the coldest month of the year with a bang. Hopefully all of my trees that care are old enough to withstand it at this point.

Lol. my new ones I am planning on will be in individual raised beds so I shouldn't have to worry about that. Wondering how different it will be. Never actually tried raising citrus in pots.