The Tropical Fruit Forum

Shipment was delayed due to rain the last 2 days.  Scions will be cut and wrapped Friday and shipped out this weekend.

Thanks

I also have a seedling that you can get budwood from...Do you have rootstock?

So I am seeing salt deposit and possibly chlorine effects on the leaves of my potted tropicals and want to switch over to a rain barrel system.  I have read several posts on letting city water sit for at least 24 hrs which will dissipate the chlorine. In lieu of nice steady rains to keep it full, can I use city water to refill the barrel as needed if the water sits for the time period described?  Any other concerns to think about?

If your goal is to remove the additives from the city water, then adding that same city water to the rain barrel seems unwise.  Sure, some chlorine will evaporate, but you will be mixing pure rain water with city water that already caused issues with your plants.  Just be patient, when the rains come (in a few weeks), you will have plenty of water in the barrel.  Another option would be to get a good filter for your hose...that way you could have natural rain water and supplement whenever you need to with filtered water.

bump

Quote from: Jani on May 03, 2016, 11:30:24 AM

The irony of this is, are we really concerned with theft of property (fruit) when typing comfortably from one's home which probably is built of land that was generations ago likely stolen from the indigenous people? Even more ironic as aboriginals were earlier mentioned...... Meh...

Thank you. This is hilarious. We in the US live on stolen land. We use infrastructure every day that was built by people whose lives and personal space and labor was stolen from them. We then would rather shoot a person in the face and kill them, than share our bounty with our neighbors. Just who is the one who has a ME, ME, ME culture?

I specifically said in my original post that it is wrong. But obviously many posters here received poor marks on their reading comprehension tests in school, so what can you do?

I want to make clear that this is not purely US culture, to shoot people or rant for hours about the sharing of trees. I grew up in Upstate NY, and am Euro-descended but born in the US. Where I lived, yards did not have fences, and many neighborhoods were comprised of back yards all connected together in a park-like atmosphere. Fences were seen as very unfriendly and unneighborly, and were frowned upon. The soil there was excellent, and the rain always plentiful. Apples, grapes, raspberries, blueberries, squash, beans, and many other fruits and vegetables grew there wild without anyone really tending to them at all. People routinely walked through neighbors' yards when they were out for an evening stroll, or taking a shortcut home. The area was heavily influenced by Native American culture and we had many people of Iroquois Confederacy tribes living among us, so perhaps that is part of the reason for the way people viewed the land - but anything that grew out of the land was seen as belonging to all people, in small amounts. It was also common to the histories of many families there who originally hailed from Ireland and Italy, who had owned farms before and were used to sharing a bit with their neighbors who walked by. These were not hippies by any means, these were very conservative people. But, as long as others were respectful, it was not seen as a big deal for people to walk quietly through your yard to enjoy a stream that ran through it, or to watch the sunset which you might have a better view of, or to make a short cut on the way home from school and to grab a few apples or berries that were growing nearby. One would not walk way up unto a property near someone's door and invade their privacy, or anything they clearly put a lot of work into. That was considered private. But if you had a big plum tree or apple tree or raspberry bush that was loaded with fruit, and it was near a road or the edge of where your backyard met with another unfenced backyard, people often might take a fruit or two for a snack, and no one freaked out about it at all.

Many couples would go for an evening stroll around the neighborhood around sunset, and if a flower was in bloom near the road, it was common to pick it and take it home and put it in a vase. Roses and all manner of other flowers grew there well, so no one thought anything of it. If you passed by a tree on that walk that had a ton of apples, you might pick one and have a munch of the local bounty. A neighbor would see you and wave, and you would wave back. No big deal.

That is a very different thing from shoving yourself through a razorwire fence under the cover of night, filling up a huge bag with fruit, and taking it to a market to sell!

I do not ever just grab people's fruit, even though I grew up in an area where it was common. But I have traveled to some 35 countries all around the world, and I know the generosity of spirit, and the belief that God provides the land and the plants and we never really own them, that makes people in cultures all over the world open to sharing. It is very common in the Caribbean, and also in countries I have visited like Ethiopia, and Ghana. Taking one fruit because you are hungry or would like to try it is very different from grabbing a bunch to profit off of, or to be greedy. Similarly, I have known many people who think it is not stealing to pick small fruits or items from bulk bins from the grocery store and eat them without paying - like grapes, or a nut, etc. That shocks me, I would never do such a thing because they are clearly for sale - but I know many people who genuinely think this is expected and not wrong. That is how they were raised.

Here in the Keys, there is a similar laid-back attitude of sharing that reflects the life I lived as a child. People are very loose about such things, and it's common to give coconuts and avocados and other things away, because so many grow here. When you have an abundance of certain fruit, people think they grow by themselves and do not take any work or money, so they tend to think they can just take one (or a handful of berries) when walking by. In Upstate NY, no one would dream of taking a banana or mango growing from someone's yard, because it would be obvious that is a very special tree that someone was growing on purpose, paid for, and worked hard for. But apples, or tomatoes? A dime a dozen, no big deal. Here in SFL, it is that same with bananas, mangoes, and coconuts. They are everywhere, and produce a lot at a time. My neighbor was just telling me that here he grew up in Clearwater, FL, all the boys would gorge themselves on mulberries from the neighborhood during lunchtime at school. They would walk around and find bushes, and he laughed because he said they stained so much that it was obvious where everybody was during lunch - it was written all over their hands and faces!

I have several neighbors who grew up in Northern or Central FL, and they frequently will say - "oh, you haven't tried this kind of fruit yet? I will see if I can find one for you if the tree a few streets over has ripened yet, the next time we're on our walk..." They think nothing of picking small ripe fruit - just as much as fits in a hand - at a time, as long as it's something that grows easily here, like seagrapes, or coconuts... And these are the most generous people alive, who do absolutely anything and everything for the people around them. And they pay a pretty penny for their houses and work very hard. They just have a different concept of what ownership means, especially to plants that grow near a public right of way. They would not dream of walking onto a person's property and "borrowing" their tools or whatever. But many people believe that plants come from God, and where they are capable of growing native with no care, they are considered community plants if harvested in small personal quantities.

I don't care at all how many people get angry over my recounting these stories. They are about real people, who have given much to me in my life. These are the kindest people I have ever known. They are not the type to sit on their porch with a shotgun and bitch about children stealing mulberries. Those are the kind of people that everybody in the neighborhood would talk about as the "mean, crotchety old man" who was stingy and not friendly with others in the community. To a point, I think this is an unfair characterization, as I personally know how damn hard and expensive it is to grow these plants, and how much a person's personal space is valued, especially when you worked and saved your whole life to buy it! But again, I simply have a ton of life experience with people (yes, including white people born in the USA) who don't think of sampling a few fruits off a local tree as stealing, and genuinely mean no harm. So many of them genuinely are ignorant of what it takes to grow food, and do not know a Maha Chanok mango from a Tommy Atkins, and think they are all the same, and cost nothing to the property owner to grow. They genuinely have no clue. And if you walked up onto my neighbor's property and sampled a few of his mulberries, he would just laugh. He actually had a kid who was visiting from France and staying at a neighbor's property, standing half the day in the road trying to knock down one of his coconuts to eat. After getting a good laugh out of it for a few hours, wondering if she was going to manage to find a way to get it down, he came by to help her get it. I told him I would go out there and shoo the kid away, because she was throwing rocks and all kinds of things and damaging the tree. I know some French, and I said I'd explain for him that that is his property and she has no right to his fruit. But he laughed and said "Don't bother - she needs some help, and she's never tasted a fresh coconut before!"

Fruit trees are a great way for people to come together, from all over the world sometimes, and share a smile and a little of life's sweetness. I am stingy with my special fruits, so I plant them well away from my property borders, and surround them with thorns. But that's because I'm a jerk. People like my neighbor from Clearwater are more generous, and don't mind somebody coming to sample. Another neighbor has a great oceanfront property, with stunning sunset views. They let total strangers walk up through their yard and sit on their dock quietly all the time to watch the sun go down, as long as they are respectful. They even let me go up there with my big dog, and they didn't know me at all! They told me I can come by any day they are not at the house (because they are seasonal) and use the property, as long as I'm quiet and don't mess anything up. I am awed by their generosity with their million+ $ home.

So if you have never heard of this attitude in this country, much less anywhere else in the world, I feel sorry for you. It is a really happy, safe, wonderful feeling, to not be afraid of your neighbors, and to know that inside, they have only good intentions, even if they sometimes step on your toes and do rude things unintentionally. I don't like people getting too close to my property line, and I get fearful and territorial, but my neighbors remind me to loosen up and find the good in people. And I am grateful for that reminder, because it is a lot like how things are in the area in which I grew up.

Agreed.  For the record, what happened to Gary's tree was wrong...plain and simple...but I am surprised at how easy it is for some to have fascinations with seeing any wrongdoers suffer.  The person who is the most affected (in a negative way) by the stingy old man who yells at others about his lawn, mulberries, etc. is the man himself.  When we find ourselves holed up in our homes like some sort of prison tower, we are not truly free IMHO.  Of course, I would have no problem inflicting pain to those who seek to harm my family.  But I definitely wouldn't revel in it...and my "family" doesn't extend to the fruit I grow or the property I own...not hunting down some drug addict with a thirst for blood over a hacksaw or a bushel of Lemon Guavas.  Maybe it's a karma thing, where I have faith that, in time, I will get back more than I lost. 

One thing I do know is that no matter how frustrating stuff like this can be, I didn't get into this fruit thing of ours to be stressed out all the time worried about what could happen.  One of the great joys of growing food at home is being able to share it with others (though not the kind who show up after dark with a flatbed  ). 

There are ways to prevent people from stealing fruit (many have been discussed already--and IMO a camera is more harm than good regarding fruit theft--now you know who is stealing your loquats, but that doesn't change the fact they were stolen).  It is sad that some are so opportunistic/greedy that they try to exploit others (especially employing their kids to do the dirty work), but the reality is, the beatings will continue until morale improves.  If nothing new is done, then the results will be similar year-in and year-out.

Cookie Monster posted the following in a recent thread:  You can get a soil test from Spectrum Analytics for $14 (the S3 ag test). They use the same extraction method as UF, which is adequate for calcareous soils. Results are delivered elctronicall within 24 hours of receipt, and you can get fertilizer recommendations for a specific crop (eg, mango).

Jeff, can you walk us through exactly what type of tests/reports you thought were helpful.  Does one have to order the soil "bag" that holds the sample or just send in a ziploc bag?  Thanks!

My loquat stays plenty dwarf with pruning once or twice per year, no fancy rootstock required.

How old is your tree?  I think it can be managed if trained small from the start and pruning schedule maintained, but if left unchecked, it will grow to a medium sized tree, like 18 to 25 ft and wide...hard to harvest like that.

I've got no shortage of wildlife willing to share my fruit with me, or take all of it if they can get away with it. The night shift is dominated by Flying Foxes. They are careless eaters and drop a lot of partly eaten fruit to the ground. Often see the Possums (Northern Brushtails) in the trees but haven't actually caught any in the act of eating fruit. But I doubt they climb high into the trees just to enjoy the view. Dayshift starts with 'armies' of Magpie Geese flying in. They start on what's been dropped to the ground overnight and then fly up and knock some more down. Parrots also come in for their 'fix', the Sulphur-crested White Cockatoos, Northern Rosellas, Collared Lorikeets and Red-winged Parrots. On the ground the Plumed Whistle Ducks pick up 'crumbs' left by the Magpie Geese, they can't handle the bigger lumpy bits. And the Wallabies come in for their share as well.

The Geese get quite aggressive, fight amongst themselves and sometimes have a go at the Wallabies as well.



Caught 'red-handed'



Mum out with bubba in her built-in pram. Guess though you couldn't really call it a perambulator, it's more of a perhopulator.

Wow!!  As an American, this pic of the wallaby shocked me to see...do you have monkeys there in Australia, too?

I ordered from Jeff once and i highly recommend him. Superb packaging.

Thanks Evilfruit.  I may have some muscadine cuttings for you at the end of the summer after the fruit is all picked.

A few of my seed just stared sprouting. I have a bit more then i know what to do with. Contact me back at the end of summer when they have some growth on them.
Jeff (Gunnar429) should have a few popping out soon and he is a bit closer to you. So you might want to contact him.

putting me on blast, eh, Sayyid?! 

Jaime, I have some from 2 sources...Joshua in Oz and Kona.  Some are just starting to sprout so I would say it'd be best to check back with me in June/July.  Barring any unforseen issues, though, I should be able to help. 

(Note to others reading this, please wait until at least July 2016 to PM me about G. dulcis.  Until they grow up a little, it'll just be a waste of time....after that, it's game on  )

My Bradenton loquat tree has fruited late this season due to wet weather during it's initial bloom.  They are mostly sweet with a little tart...I love'em.

Anyway, I have seeds available for $1 each, or 12 seeds for $10.

How is the guanabana cultivar Miami? Is the fruit rather sweet or tart?

"Miami" soursop is a tree that fruits well here in FL so it is propagated by Lara's Farm.  Mine has not fruited yet.  Sorry I can't report anything more at this time. 

Rob??....

George is gonna be mad... 

You are not supposed to be selling any Citrus scions, inside or outside the State of Florida.

Thanks, Rob.  Citrus has been deleted.

I am in no position to compete with the Don and his all-encompassing list of mangoes...just trying to make a little extra $ selling a few scions that I will be cutting off anyway.