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Messages - K-Rimes

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26
A few years ago, calycina and involucrata were merged into being the same species, so, I guess it's both. I do have both calycina and CORG, and several cultivars of each from other collectors.

A calycina leaning specimen will have basically tubular fruit that does not get fatter at the bottom, and the leaves will be narrower, drier, and veiny.

Because your fruit is fatter at the bottom, I would suggest it leans to the CORG (involucrata) side.

This all said, calycina and CORG can assuredly cross pollinate each other, most collectors have them side by side, and as such, I would guess most if not all seeds you get are going to be hybrids of some sort. Kind of makes sense why they merged them.


27




Looking beat up from the rainy winter, but my parking lot green sapote survived and is growing some new leaves.

28
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruit trees for 25 gal pots long term
« on: March 11, 2024, 02:43:07 PM »
Any root pruning? I think that's Theme's sauce.
And doing it the right way (wash the roots, remove whole large roots rather than only removing the fine roots, etc.).


You would cringe to know that on the root pruning I have done on the few I've done was with a rusty wood saw, cutting off half the root mass straight across haha

Worked great, but they were feijoa, so bulletproof anyways.

29
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruit trees for 25 gal pots long term
« on: March 10, 2024, 09:44:16 PM »
I think an important caveat is the use of slow release pelleted fertilizer Theme must use .

Alot of my potted plant experience is Myrtacea and I've found that once anything get's root bound in a 15, 25 , 45 or 65 It stops producing fruits as much and is hard to keep the root mass wet and saturated.
For example I had a Grimal in a 45 Gallon that did not fruit last year after years of fruiting because it requires deep saturation to actually water it.
Now it is going backwards because lack of irrigation or up potting. I feel sure if it was up potted to a 65 it would have kept cruising and fruiting. but it's hard to up pot big tree's , and the jabo hoop house is full.

Same way I had 2 Pitangatuba's in 25's that pumped fruit until they got root bound, required bi weekly deep irrigation and could basically never stay wet enough to fruit again.

But I have rarely used slow release pellet ferts, always organic teas , sprays and amendments.

Any root pruning? I think that's Theme's sauce.

30
Some species take a long time. Annona have rock hard seeds that require a lot of pressure to be cracked open. The seed can be germinating, but doesn't have quite enough oomph behind it to crack the shell. I've had them take months.

Patience

31
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruit trees for 25 gal pots long term
« on: March 10, 2024, 12:23:15 PM »
Babaco
Is babaco really worth growing over other things in a limited space?

For me, no, but papayas in general have those fluffy white roots that don't seem all that bothered about space.

I will respectfully disagree that a 25 gallon pot isn't big enough for all but "true" trees with hard wood trunks, and even then, a 15g is probably adequate with enough root pruning. Eugenias and jabos do just fine long term in pots, even with minimal root pruning. You're going to need to root prune periodically and honestly, even a 25g pot can become unwieldy. Not sure how to handle those big wood boxes unless you're peeling off a side of it to prune, then putting it back on?

Here is a photo from a grower named Theme Linh, who is somewhat famous on the FB message boards for growing insanely big plants in comically small pots. She has to put all her stuff in greenhouses as she's in Texas.




32
Nah, that's Brian Laufer. He's a good guy and well known in the community. He can sometimes be traveling around the world sourcing stuff, so I would just be patient. He will get them out to you / respond.

33
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruit trees for 25 gal pots long term
« on: March 08, 2024, 03:33:01 PM »
Almost all eugenia can be potted and live very well in 25g. Even the bigger ones like cherry of the rio grande go well. I've had several in pots for 5 years now. I am putting my CORG from a 45g into a 65g this year, though. It's going to be impossible to move.

34
I was originally a hater of perforated, but I kind of like it now that I had it shipped wrong to me twice. It has its place and time. I wouldn't pay 50% more for it, that's for damn sure though.

35
Looking good, I have a few nutans coming up over here from Helton as well

36
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Grafting Tape
« on: March 07, 2024, 12:04:32 PM »
I see moisture trapped in my BuddyTape wrapped grafts / scions all the time, but it doesn't seem to be a deal breaker for me. If you're trying to graft right now and rain is getting into your grafts, of course you're going to have issues. Sometimes you don't really have a choice like with stonefruits and other temperate fruit trees that need grafts before bud break, but you can't just chuck a graft on a plant cause you have the time and the scion and have success in every case.

Great example, citrus, it grows well when it's hot out. I graft them May to July no problems cause they start growing right away. If I threw on a citrus graft right now, it would get all soggy and would be unlikely to take.

The only issue with Parafilm in comparison to BuddyTape is that it's thick, but it is stretchy! So get it a bit thinner by pulling on it, and also, wrap from the top down of your scion, not bottom up, cause it will more effectively shed the rain if we get that. This winter has been wet so naturally grafts are going to be a bit more challenging compared to a bone dry year.

37
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Just a mini Rant about Youtube
« on: March 07, 2024, 11:56:42 AM »
Quote
What part of Santa Barbara has ancient beach sand?

I am at the very peak of the 154. You can see the sedimentary layers of the mountains, and it is very clearly compacted sand up here. I am still waiting to find a shark's tooth or shell but no luck so far! The soil in most of Santa Barbara is indeed clay, which has its benefits sometimes. I have a small plantation of trees at my office in Goleta, near Storke Rd, and the soil there is excellent, but it is close to an old riverbed so probably has a nice mix of particulate. It's a damn shame it's an office park and not a farm, but I digress.

Quote
Where did you come across the deeper analysis of their farm's economics?

John Chester inherited a significant sum of money, and they admit they had investors in the movie, but it's a single line and not expounded on afterwards. Their AMA on Reddit is honestly kind of hilarious. They didn't answer any of the financial questions. If you have the time, there is quite a bit of PI work in the thread.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Permaculture/comments/u7csbn/we_are_john_and_molly_chester_of_the_biggest/

Quote
It really is depressing to think that if you wanted good production you'd have to keep adding inputs forever.
I think this is kind of reasonable, though, don't you think?  Say you take 1000lb of fruit from an orchard per year... Those pounds have to come from somewhere? Trees and the microbes that support them take from the soil in most cases. If you have an entire ecosystem like a jungle, bugs living and dying, birds and mammals shitting, all in a fine balance you could probably get away with few inputs, but that's just not how orchards with non-native species are going to work.

38
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Grafting Tape
« on: March 07, 2024, 11:38:13 AM »
BuddyTape is superior, but Parafilm works just fine in the vast majority of situations. It has been used for decades for grafting.

39
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Puerto Rico - Travel ideas
« on: March 05, 2024, 11:08:26 AM »
I am not sure how the area fared during the hurrricane but I visited a coffee farm in the Lares area that was kinda cool. It was the best (and only) good cappuccino I had while I was there over many years. It would be awesome to connect with more of the PR growers, I am very fond of the island and have been there many times. I wasn't into fruit growing when I was there.

40
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Plants are budding up...
« on: March 04, 2024, 12:05:41 PM »
Kevin, one of the Garnet's I got from you last year has a flower.  Took me by surprise!  Was not expecting it at just a foot tall.




The garnet and nelitas that Kevin sells are very precocious. I had several fruit off of a 2 foot tall plant I have at my office. My CORGs at home flowered for a few years with no fruit in comparison.

41
For stuff like stone fruits on a small property, I really recommend doing some cocktailing to get more variety on one tree, and that extends your season nicely as well, without overwhelming you with lots of the same fruit. You should definitely have one of those for Berkeley.

With many sub-tropicals, they seem to produce pretty well with some shade, but you'll often get really long internode spacing and lanky trees that search for light. Starfruits, guavas, jaboticabas, and some eugenias do pretty well with some shade, maybe even better in some cases.

True tropicals like the heat they get from being in the full sun, and I try to give them as much sun as I can offer. When you see tropical growers with dense fruit forests, you have to consider that they don't need to worry about cool temps in the winter where we do. If you get too dense in zone pushing environment, you will suffer with mould, fungal issues, and generally see decline if it's too thick.

I know it's hard, but try to pick the ones you really want to give the best zones to and prioritize their success.

42
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / WTB Dr White cherimoya scions
« on: March 03, 2024, 01:45:06 PM »
Looking for Dr White scions and any other of the top tier cherimoya scions. Would like two of a few cultivars, have a few seedling trees to work here but don't need many, about 8 scions total.

43
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Plants are budding up...
« on: March 03, 2024, 12:08:42 PM »
Looking good Kevin! I am jealous. It's been rainy and cool here and so none of my Brazilian stuff is budding up quite yet. It looks as though the chance of frost is now over though, and I can start working on fertilizing my sub-tropicals.

44
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruit trees I gave up on
« on: March 02, 2024, 11:52:56 PM »
My loquat tree is slated to go to make room for my jujube. I bought the loquat tree because I heard it was one of “preppers” fruit trees. when the tree fruited last year, the fruits tasted so sour it was disappointing.

Highly recommend topworking it, or trying them when they are only dark orange. Loquat is an absolute keeper and there are some excellent varieties. Cannot fathom replacing it with jujube personally...

Loquat is a keeper because it is the only tree that ripe in early spring.  A good cultivar tastes great.

I would not recommend planting jujube because of suckers and invasive roots.  It is worse than bamboo.

Update: I decided to keep the loquat tree after reading comments from K-Rimes and seng. Today, my wife picked about a dozen of fruits off the tree and they tasted so sweet and flavorful. The tree is a keeper now.
Thanks folks.

That's awesome it worked out for you! Great job persevering and keeping the tree!

45
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: February 29, 2024, 01:48:23 PM »
Quote
personally i spend a lot of time watering here in socal, a ridiculous amount of time, so i really really love the idea of having mango trees produce more fruit than i can possibly eat without me having to worry about watering them

FL gets regular rain, even in their summers. Ok, maybe a few dry weeks at a time, but you simply cannot compare CA climate to FL. August is FL's rainiest month, that is CA's driest and hottest. You can stop watering your mangoes during the winter in CA, in fact it's recommended, but supplemental irrigation for mangoes in CA is a requirement in my opinion.

46
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: The Fig Hunter
« on: February 29, 2024, 01:21:42 PM »
I mean, killer business idea. Drive around cutting up wild fig trees ($0) and then selling them for $10 a stick.

47
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Just a mini Rant about Youtube
« on: February 29, 2024, 01:12:49 PM »
the two tropical fruit guys i watch religiously are flying fox fruit and florida natural farming.  fnf, on the other hand, doesn't have quite the same charm, but i love that he's always reading relevant scholarly papers.  and his garden is the closest to my dream garden.

I used to follow fnf but haven't visited in a long time. I don't think he gets around much because he hasn't compared his mango trees to those of others. Mango is about the easiest fruit to grow in Florida but his trees look highly stressed with very small twisted leaves showing deficiencies. Many of the leaves are growing in strange horizontal angles. He is getting some flowers but admits to poor fruit set.  Anyone growing mango will quickly see something is wrong, but he seems blinded to it. Ive tried before to make productive comments but he is recalcitrant and shuns people just like he left this forum.

To see what I mean have a look at his latest video and compare to your own mango trees. I wish he would be open to discussion but that never happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w49z5du3f4

I appreciate people who experiment like FnF and share their findings, but it seems many don't actually want to discuss and accept their methods aren't as effective. To be able to stand behind your ideas and principles is great, to a point. I have had many theories about fruit tree growing which have been thoroughly disproven and I accept I was wrong to the best of my ability.

YouTube is much like any other social media. The more likes, follows, shares and comments you get, the further your video goes. It will also take you further and further down the rabbit hole of whatever content you interact with. YouTubers are often motivated by this rather than any core principle or scientific knowledge. If their goofy video about soil health gets 1mn views, guess what, you're going to see another... And another... And another.

Maybe you've seen the "Biggest Little Farm" movie which was received with much fanfare. They spin a story about how their little farm has been totally profitable and how they're living well off all these permaculture based techniques... But some folks peeled back the layers and it was much the same as, "With a small loan of $1mn dollars, I was able to build an empire." They are consistently infused with substantial money from outside sources (family, movie, etc) and the farm does not pay the bills.

We have one of the largest corn farming industries in the world in the US, but it is largely made possible through heavy government subsidy. Profitably farming is crazy impressive, and rare. Kudos to anyone who can pull it off.

I should probably be making some videos about my garden and shit soil, which is ancient beach sand. I've gone from zero loam to about 3" over the last few years, who knows, maybe I'll make it big on YouTube!

48
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Sabra Jaboticaba Not growing well.
« on: February 29, 2024, 11:32:39 AM »
You are going in the right direction with what you are doing. The root system looked terrible in the old soil and photos, but looked better than I thought rinsed off.

You can water with RO or AC water, but AC water is distilled and will pull all the minerals and fertilizer out of your soil, so use it sparingly unless you are amending the water with fert and mineral supplements.

A lot of us use Hollytone or Osmocote (I actually prefer this these days), and it works great. You need to use very mild doses till your tree is growing well again and is full of leaves. If that is not available to you, I would recommend a very mild slow release fertiizer locally with a small dose of sulphur pellets. Again, if not available, aged chicken manure, and aged compost on top of the soil.


49
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Issues With Eugenias Post-Sprouting
« on: February 28, 2024, 08:25:02 PM »
I sprouted a ton of eugenias this winter in my grow tent under a fairly intense 240w grow light. I don't think light is the issue, I think it's humidity. I used domes this year and they look fabulous. I suffered the same issue as you did, and I still mostly do, when trying to sprout in my greenhouse.




50
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: What is wrong with my Red Jaboticaba?
« on: February 26, 2024, 02:58:50 PM »
Looks like you are growing them in Zone 10... Cold should not be an issue?

Kevin

Waterlogged + cold is what does this IMO. We get down into the high 30s at times in, even in 10a CA, and if it's soaked and that cold out, that seems to be what does it. In my case, I left the majority of my jabos outdoors not in the greenhouse and of course can't protect them from the rain, of which we've had a lot in CA this year, and then get down into the mid or even low 30s and even my grimals are crying like this.

I do think a very small pot can help, especially if the tree is fully rooted into it, because it can drink up the water faster.

The suggestions to down pot here are sound, as is free draining medium, as is cold damage. It's all of the above in varying amounts.

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