The Tropical Fruit Forum

I just can't stand the thought of keeping nets on citrus trees once they become fruit bearing size. My goal is to follow through with what Dr Thomas Dykstra says about insects not attacking healthy plants. See below.

Those nets will come off in a couple of years for better or worse. Getting the brix in the mid teens or higher is what I will try to achieve in order to set these trees free to Mother Nature and hopefully free from HLM psyllids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnNOvA3diDU

Quote from: Altrexy on April 13, 2024, 11:10:38 AM

There’s a reason tomatoes and strawberries are a winter crop in Florida, especially south Florida.

the reason tomatoes are grown in winter in Florida is because most of them stop flowering when night temps get above 82F.

👍Correct. Hot days and cool nights is what they like.

I grew a Dixie and a Triumph decades ago on a 10x12 arbor, each planted on opposite corners. Each season they grew together so thickly I could get up there and walk across them. Tons of fruit. I wouldn't recommend braiding them and I would give them a little more space than one foot as well. After a few years the "trunks" get pretty thick and gnarled. I would use #9 galvanized wire and a couple of 8' 4x4 posts buried 2 feet deep.  Those vines can really stress whatever they're growing on. Good luck!

Just wondering if any of this made it onto the radar of the media in the USA?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JFx_xGhugU

It looks like things are shaping up to be even worse this year. March is typically the rainiest month of the year here, and it turned out to be a huge disappointment. Way below normal. Haven't been too impressed so far with April either. My wife's from a village where the river (the Huallaga) overflows typically in March and April. It hasn't even come close this year. We need to start getting a lot of rain for that to happen, but the problem is May & June is typically the start of the dry season.

I've seen a huge difference here just since we moved here. Something's off about it. The way we used to get rain all day or all night. Now we might get the same sort of clouds, but we're lucky if they drop more than a millimeter. I've heard a lot of people comment this year about how there's hardly any coffee, and It's been a long time since we had a big rain event. I installed a rain gauge last year in July, which is the middle of the dry season. The biggest rain event between then and now was back in October:  3.52 inches.

The way it fails to rain often is a little unnerving. This area will be in big trouble if things don't change.

There will be droughts and there will be floods, and everything in between. Everything will be alright 👍

I keep my two small trees under nets with the bottom weighted down with bricks. It's now a year later and they are doing very well.
I'll soon be upgrading from 6' nets to 9' due to the recent flush of new growth. Once they fill those nets out in another year I plan on removing the nets altogether, as long as the brix is in the mid teens or higher. Still trying to figure out exactly how to arrange that.

I've used green and dried citrus, aged live oak, hickory, post oak, pecan, cherry, apple and a few other store bought smoke woods, but I have never used mulberry or Australian Pine, nor would I consider using it.

Citrus trees need a minimum of 6-8 hours of full direct sunlight daily or they will not produce as well. Look at all the citrus groves in every area of the world.  SUN SUN   Will a citrus tree grow in some shade - yes but not as well and will produce much less fruit.

👍👍

I see some Araucana eggs in there.

Happy Easter!

The effects of pm and normal fruit drop are compounding to where it is clear some trees won't do much at all this season. Very sad, and will begin spraying next year.

Spraying sulfur? What frequency?

There is a Cracker superstition that everything planted durring the Dog Days will die.

Lol - I'll have to remember that!

Last year my Glen produced a fair amount of fruit, but because I was trying to get more growth from the tree I removed all of the fruitlets when they were pea size. This year powdery mildew took care of ruining a nice full bloom that I was going to allow to produce fruit, but sadly no fruit at all this year on that tree.

Last year the Maha produced one mature fruit, well almost - as it was beginning to ripen a squirrel knocked it off and chewed into it. This year in spite of a bloom in December and again in Feb/Mar, powdery mildew is taking its toll. The tree does have about 40 viable fruits hanging on it but every day I see a few on the ground, some with bite marks from squirrels. At this rate I will not see any ripe fruit at all.

As much as I love fresh mangos if I had realized how much trouble it would be to keep the fruit from being ruined by squirrels I probably would not have planted them. Somebody tell me some encouraging words please because if I have another year of this I'll be oiling up the chainsaw. 

I don't know if this was mentioned but does anyone know if adding a wetting agent to the sulfur/water solution would help with distribution?

Can someone tell me what's with the gray blooms on my Maha Chanock? Is it mold or is it the weather?