The Tropical Fruit Forum

Skip the sure jell, climb to the top  of kilamenjaro with you svea stove and cook away.

The pic of that svea stove takes me back.  I still have mine from when I bought it to backpack in Big Bend 1973.  Still works. Sounds like a jet engine when its going strong.

Is the sweetness for Sumo a result of cumulative heat units like for grapefruit?

Yep.  Wasps are effective caterpillar hunters on my citrus.  I wish there was something that targeted CLM in such an efficient manner.

Giant Swallowtail eggs. While the larvae in great quantity 'might' be a problem, a couple will eat some leaves but not really hurt the tree unless the tree is small.  How big is this poncirus?

Good deal. Thanks

If you can lure them to the ground in your backyard, a break-barrel pellet gun is a fairly covert way to deal with them. It takes a lot of time, and while it vents your frustration, doesn't really do much to the overall population.

I  feel your pain.

Bovine, I have not seen that particular wrap, so I can't comment on how well it would work. What I have seen most frequently for freeze protection is the Tree T-pee that I mentioned in the other thread. It has to be used in combination with a microjet or it does not provide much protection. They leave them on year round for the first 3-4 years. Here is a link to the Frostproof Growers Supply that sells in bulk to local groves.

https://frostproof.com/tree-t-pees-1/

Below is a link to an article that should be a fairly accurate review of the t-pee since it is from the University of Florida not the inventor.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://crec.ifas.ufl.edu/media/crecifasufledu/extension/extension-publications/2016/2016_September_tpee.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj88N2NkL3tAhUwvFkKHRMiBNcQFjAFegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw315r8QYWfMvk4Mi4qxXBfe

This looks like a good product but because they sell to commercial groves, you must buy at least 10 ($7.95 per t-pee) and the shipping was minimum $73 for the 10.   Anyway for 10 my bill would have come to over $150.  If you order 30 the shipping goes up to $120.  I am hoping they respond to my contact and get a more reasonable shipping rate. 

Usually buying ladybugs is sort of a worthless exercise because they fly off the first chance they get.  Being contained in your greenhouse sounds like a solution.  Keep us posted on how it works out.

I had forgotten about all that.  I recently heard a book review for Finding the Mother Tree about how trees communicate with each other and even support the growth of neighboring trees.  I also recall hearing of studies that show when a particular tree is attacked by insects, other trees nearby ramp up production of chemicals to ward off a similar infestation. The production f these chemicals is metabolically expensive so trees don't produce them until necessary. 

It's an amazing world we inhabit. Humans exhibit a lot of hubris in our treatment of the natural world.

I lost all my citrus during the cold spell in mid February here in Houston. There were several days where the temps did not get above 22 Fahrenheit.  It seemed my 25 yr old meiwa kumquat (20 years in the ground) would make it. Started making shoots from the branches within a month but now the new shoots are withering and dying. Is this plant toast?

Clearly repotting tress as large as those is beyond a homeowners capability.  Must take a pretty big scaffold and winch type system to manage trees such as those.  I certainly wish I could prune in such a refined manner as to maintain tree size yet obscure the actual pruned section. Beautiful trees.

Experiments with red and white particle kaolin clay sprays on leaves to prevent psyllids attacking the trees, the researchers noticed that it also provided benefits of shading both some of the sunlight and the warm humid environment that over loaded the leaves. With new recently planted citrus groves, the researchers found that the shading reduced disease pressure, lessened the water deficient, while enhancing the growth and yield, by larger denser canopies..

Thanks Millet.  I have a large sack of Surround, a white/greyish koalin product.  While it is not red, I would think that would help for a sun screen as well as a psyllid deterrent.  I used it on peaches and seemed to deter squirrels (except the clay doesn't come off the peach fuzz as it does for citrus). 

The Rio Red grapefruit had been diagnosed with HLB so the freeze was a mercy killing (i was going to take it down anyway).  This is a pic of the meiwa shoots coming off of a 1/2 inch scaffold branch 5 weeks after the freeze.  All the branches pencil sized or smaller died so the tree looks pretty skeletal.   The satsuma (owari) that died had been in the ground 12 years and it succumbed. Even my fukushu kumquat (5 years in ground) succumbed.