The Tropical Fruit Forum

Damage continues to show up. I thought this was a Croton until I realized it was my seedling Sri Lankan Mango:



Shirley picked the worst time of year to hatch her first egg:



Some stuff other than Mangos actually looks okay (for now).

Cinnamon Apples look okay as do my Pouteria salicifolia seedlings. Here's one:

I left two super small ones completely uncovered and today they are still green.

I neglected to cover the Imbe seedlings a couple cold cold nights, but so far so good.

Mammee Apple got a double wrap of frost cloth. Fingers crossed on this one, as it's a fan favorite here:


More cold tonight 😞

Super CUTE Chick Flipflop 

All my mango trees and Lychee Blooms are fried and at least at least several feet of the tree branches are burnt...looks like a LOT of Pugging this Spring   
Worst winter here EVER for me!!

I am in Florida also and a few of the branches of my Lychee tree are just starting to show some blooms but many more are not. Of course we had some pretty bad frost this morning so not sure how that will affect the blooms and the blooms that haven’t started.

Lycheesonline has some great info on “tips on how to get lychee trees to bloom”. It sounds like the new flush needs a total of  appx 10 weeks from the beginning of a new flush all the to hardening off…before the tree is ready to bloom in winter. For my area they recommend trimming the tree late July and by September I get one last new flush before winter and IF all goes well mine usually blooms around late December/January/ February depending on our weather. That’s been my experience with my tree

Good luck!

That’s pretty awesome Bovine …Nice job! What type of light bulb did you use for heat?

We were 38 to 33 degrees with zero winds starting at midnight so almost 9 hours of Frost before the temps reached 40 degrees this morning.  My Glenn is loaded with blooms and Cogshall has about 1/3 of the tree with blooms. I’m sure I’m going to lose most if not ALL the Flowers 😭😰😡

Thanks guys for all your help and advise. Since I already cut it I might as well see what happens with this one. I'm sure it won't make it but no harm in trying.

There's always next year 

So its been 11 weeks since I did my second try (first one didn't have any roots at all) on Air layering a lychee branch. This one didn't have a lot of roots but it did have some so I potted it up and watered it well. I have a before and after photos of it before I pugged it. Most of everything I read said to remove a lot of the leaves to put all its energy to the roots...my question is did I remove enough? Should I remove more?? I'm planning on putting this in the shade for probably several weeks. If anyone else has any other suggestions or tips please let me know.

Thanks!

I got another couple months to go before i can taste some fresh lychees. Looks like Sweetheart will be first this year. It's about thumb size now. Fruitsets is very good so far. Maintaining the fruits is the hard part.

 


Sweethearts


Late Seedless



Looking really good Fruit!!

They're still coloring up, but I managed to get a bowlful.  Man, they're great.  Sugar syrup.  The last good crop was in 2021, and the tree survived LEM last year.

I need a picker that cuts the branches, which I don't have.  Locals, let me know if you can help me.  You'll be rewarded with lychees!  The fruit is mostly at 25-30 feet.  I have a regular ladder, not a tall one.

Congrats John!! They look great.

After the squirrels, crows and other birds ate appx 40% of my fruits I decided to resort to using Plastic Clam shells to protect the few they left me. So far they are keeping the critters and birds at bay. Should be ready to pick soon, tried a few and they're already sweet enough to eat, just giving them a few more days to get a little sweeter, rain would help. Had 2 days in a row where rain was all around me and never got a drop. Nothing sweetens them up better than rain.
 

 I absolutely LOVE Rain but I Had over 10 inches of rain in 5 days...yesterday alone I had over 6 inches...I'm not sure that's going to be good for the fruits on the tree. I'm sure I'm going to see some mango and lychee splitting fruits splitting soon 

The Lychees are finally starting to get a little bigger, the 3.5 inches of rain we've had in the last 5 days certainly helped a lot! My Mauritius usually ripens fairly early in the season for me. I've had them ripen end of May...it's looking closer to June before they are ripe this year. Now I just have to fight off all the critters that are waiting to eat them  . The rain should help the mangoes plump up too 

I have a Mauritius Lychee tree so maybe that's why its my favorite Lol...but I also like Brewster whenever I can get it. Tasted Emperor not my fave but not bad especially if that is all that's available. Never tasted the others.

My tree this year produced a ton of flowers but the fruit set is quite low in comparison, lots of empty fruit stalks 

One year was a bad drought year and I didn't realize I had to hand water during bloom/fruit set since the tree was mature. Don't give my mango trees any supplemental water since they are all mature, thought it was the same with Lychee...so ALL fruitlets dropped on the ground when they were pea size. The following year I LOST 90% of them to birds, squirrels and raccoons so who knows if I will get any this year 

Saw this mango tree when walking near my neigborhood, the house seems vacant now so no one to ask. The tree appears to be some type of Dwarf the trunk is quite short.

Took 2 photos...I can take another in a few weeks when the mangoes are larger if that helps.
 

Ohhh thanks for that info Sharq. If I had to give papaya a nick name pawpaw would be a cute one 

The color really threw me though, I've grown papaya before and they have never had that coloration so I'm guessing its a different variety than what I'm used to seeing and eating.

Thanks G...I'll take a photo after I cut it open when I think its ripe, hopefully you guys can confirm the identity for sure.