The Tropical Fruit Forum

I have a few guava trees that now live in pots, I have never tried to grow trees much less fruit bearing varieties in containers so I have some questions about pot / container growing.

1. Should a dish for over flow water be used?
1a. If the answer to #1 is yes, if water does seep out from the bottom of the pot will the dryer potting soil wick up the water?

2. I have three pot types, clay / terracotta, ceramic over clay / terracotta (in various colors),  and heavy gauge plastic. All are at least 18-20" wide by the same depth and are on a sunny patio and trees generally have a 1/2" to 1" caliper.

I "think" I know about the finger in the medium test for water needs and the clay pots need watering the soonest (they're all doing well) while the white plastic pot needs water less frequently. Any advice on preference for one type of pot over the other?





 

I am officially stumped.

Of my 8 guava trees (2 in ground) all are in ~10 gal. clay pots, in the same potting medium, get the same fertilizer and watering schedule are in close proximity to each other on my sunny patio so they get the same amount of sun.

That said, while all are thriving with new growth, the only one pushing more than one flower (10 as of today) I bought as an unnamed nearly dead stick a few months ago.

Afaik all were (according to their nursery labels) air layered and are of similar size and trunk caliper.

My fertilizer is Excalibur's 8-3-9 and and a finely grained "bloom booster" for fruit trees  at 3-9-4.

Maybe my fertilizers are wrong? But if so then why is one out performing the others by so much?

Any Ideas?

This fellow (or gal) was on a Guava tree leaf. It's almost 1" across and it looks like a Papaya fruit fly but the legs seem too long and it's "stinger tail" too short? Some kind of mosquito?

Never mind, after a search I found out it's a harmless Crane Fly.

My sweetheart lychee, Fairchild #2 canistel, and Rollinia are all poised for a banner year of production. Anyone else having similar luck?

I have a Julie seedling I call Juicy Lucy that is in ground for over 10 years. She's completely disease free and very productive, and the fruit inherited the Julie "nose" profile but it's a bit more colorful.

Over the years I've had many dozens of volunteer seedlings sprout near and beneath the tree and this year is no exception but of the current crop one is variegated. If it were all alone I'd say it was experiencing chlorosis but there are others fully green within a few inches of this one.

Opinions? Verdict?

Every year my Rollinia has produced just a few more fruits and this year is shaping up really nicely.

Is anyone's Rollinia looking good>

Yesterday I was in Lowes and they had an unusually nicely shaped guava (upward growth habit like a tree and not a bush) in a 5 gallon container at ~5' tall that had experienced and had fully recovered from a water deficiency but it had no cultivar or price stickers attached  to it.

Most of the other samples in stock were marked with price but not cultivar but were small in 1 gallon containers and $29. Since this one was the only fairly large one a manager priced it at $11 so I took it home. Sure it could be a dud like some of those I bought there marked "Mexican Cream" which were hard and bland but I figured I'd take a chance.

The question is, would any of you take a chance and buy a good sized and healthy fruit tree that is priced reasonably and not marked with the cultivar?







   

Of the few I have done I've had about 50% success rate air layering guava and I'd like to increase that rate. A few of the videos I've seen use rooting hormone on the branch before wrapping and I wonder if using hormone will help? Also, I'm currently using coco coir and if there is a better media to use I'm eager to learn.

PS, is there a "good, better, best" type or is gibberellic acid the go to?
 

 

Last year my Rollinia set a lot of fruit, so much so almost every flower got pollinated. This year it bloomed like fireworks and not one fruit set. 

Last summer in south Florida (north Broward county) it was much drier and I had to water it regularly with well water and this year we've been drenched by rain and I have not watered it at all.

Could all of the rain washing away pollen and lack of nutrients from the well water be the reason for zero fruit?

Since the rains started the mosquitos in my yard have been unbearable. A few days ago several were floating all around me like planes in the battle of Britain.

I do not spray pesticides but I had a spray bottle of ag horticultural oil nearby, set it to fine mist and doused the fleet of mosquitos as they hovered around me.

Today not one has attacked me sitting in the shade of my trees.

Something to try?

After getting a dozen or so Rollinia to sprout, I potted those that sprouted and threw a handful of seeds in a pot and forgot about them. A few weeks later that pot looks like a chia pet! It seems as if all of them sprouted. Has anyone had better than expected results growing Rollinia from seed?

PS. I now have dozens of seedling available free in southeast Florida PM for details.

I generally use up much of my compost batches, what I do not use straightaway I give to friends.

My last compost batch I put between a stone wall and my house for storage. It was beautiful and the worms happily infested it :-)

Now a few months later the "compost" if I can call it that is made up of hard nodules and clumps of fine veiny roots. I'm guessing the worms and their tea had something to do with this but is this compost usable? If not how to recover all of my effort to make it usable again?