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Messages - TonyinCC

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226
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Room For Three More Mangos
« on: March 25, 2020, 11:34:09 AM »
I vote for Cac for an early mango,my Dad has a tree planted 5 years ago that has never been fertilized with nitrogen after the first year that is at about 10 feet. I have done maybe 5 minutes in total pruning since planting and it is a nice tree that holds good crops mid May-mid June in North Fort Myers. Nice yellow mango medium sized firm flesh, mild but very pleasant with a hint of citrus flavor.Can have an extended bloom period.
  For Midseason I vote for Edgar. June-July ripening. It is a medium sized,yellow-light orange, firm ,peachy, pleasant mango. Edgar can have an extended bloom period.
For the late season according to your taste preference, I think you would be happy if you plant Honey Kiss since it can hold until September.
All three are very good pleasant mangos that would appeal to most tastes.
Maha is also good but very slow growing and slow to bear for me. That said, one of my 2 trees in Cape Coral did have a handful of April fruit once from a mid-November bloom.
If you like a pineapple coconut mango that makes a beautiful tree it is hard to beat Pickering as an semi-early to mid season mango.
If you tasted a properly ripened Little Gem you might change your mind about "stronger" flavored mangos, it is a well balanced flavor and a healthy, pretty,productive tree. Ideally you shouldn't start to pick them until August and they will hold into September. Pickering and Little Gem need to ripen a few days after coming off the tree to be at their best.

227
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Banana Crunch Jackfruit ?
« on: March 02, 2020, 06:06:26 AM »
Does anyone have info about this variety? I have seen a few trees for sale near me. My yard is nearly out of spaces for new trees, BUT if the taste lives up to that name I might want to try planting one...

228
Thank you, she is a bit of a hypochondriac and was unsuccessfully trying to vomit ....

229
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: How big does Jackfruit need to be...?
« on: November 25, 2019, 10:46:57 AM »
I had one bear two fruit this year at about 5 feet in height, it had a canopy with about as many leaves as the one Brian posted a pic of, but with about a 4 inch trunk at the base. I topped it from about 9 feet to 6 feet about two years ago,and it just sat and didn't grow until after I harvested the fruit this August. It actually died back about a foot after pruning and took forever to start regrowth. I was worried it would die after maturing the fruit.
 It finally put on a flush of growth about 2 months post harvest  when the weather cooled and the rains came. It replaced almost all of its leaves, is looking healthy and about 6 ft tall now. It is blooming again now and has double the leaves it had when it matured two fruit. It is a grafted Sweet Fairchild, but when I took a closer look the fruit were actually below the graft union and just above the ground.
 A tree that size in a pot could be moved indoors through a regular sized doorway.

230
My 19 Yr old accidentally swallowed one about 5 minutes ago.
 I know some tropical seeds can be very toxic and there is nothing I can find online about toxicity for this species.

231
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Where to get cheap gypsum
« on: October 07, 2019, 10:00:03 PM »
I haven't been able to find a source of 50 lb bags in SW Florida.
Home Depot and Lowes  don't carry it locally and won't ship to store for pickup.
 Last year I ordered some pelletized gypsum online from either Ace or True value hardware and had it shipped to local store for pickup but it was over a dollar a pound in 25 lb bags. Still a better deal than what the original poster was paying for small bags.
If anyone knows of a cheaper source near me please post...

232
My tree is bearing its first crop of two fruit.
The fruit have been going from green to an even yellowish brown but there is NO aroma at all.
I bought this variety because it was supposed to have a mild, sweet aroma and relatively cold hardy.
Can anyone that has fruited this variety advise me on when to harvest?

233
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: grafted jackfruit
« on: August 02, 2019, 01:40:53 PM »
Not sure, but Top Tropicals might. I stopped there looking for grafted jackfruit about a year ago and only a few out of a dozen trees being sold as grafted had visible graft unions...

234
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Just had a perfect Little Gem mango
« on: September 03, 2018, 01:07:20 PM »
Just an update, wind blew the last fruit off the tree today and it was delicious. I am very excited they made it into the first week of September.

235
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: bannana tree prop.
« on: August 27, 2018, 07:09:14 PM »
Pineislander, excellent write-up on your original thread, I vote it should be stickied if the mods agree....

236
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: bannana tree prop.
« on: August 27, 2018, 02:49:29 PM »
I think what you are looking for is usually called the PIF technique. It is a clever type of macropropagation that produces a surprising number of plants. There are many videos on youtube but only a few are in English.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pA3qHoAOwgg
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PWlKSZSG29k

237
I love mango varieties that have pineapple coconut flavor.
 In general I would say that among those varieties,  the earlier a mango is picked, the more pineapple and less coconut I taste. Some varieties only develop a slight coconut flavor if close to tree ripe when picked and ripened a few more days on a counter.

238
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Just had a perfect Little Gem mango
« on: August 07, 2018, 01:15:49 PM »
I planted the tree last year as a 3 gal and it held 11 fruit this year.
I have very poor soil at my place in Cape Coral. Tree is very healthy and looks like it will stay small.
 I have about 50% mortality of young mango trees at my place,anything that survives has decent fungal tolerance.
 I planted it in a spot that a 2 year old lemon meringue had slowly declined and succumbed previously from some sort of some fungal dieback.
  I  tried picking a few almost a month ago that ripened decently after about 10 days, but they were definitely picked too early.
At that stage they tasted like a firmer Carrie. Carrie is my least favorite mango. I would never buy one, and only eat them when there is no other local mango available at the time. My dad has a tree and won't let me topwork it....
 I picked a Little Gem fruit 4 days ago and tried it today, it was amazing. Complex with strong coconut pineapple and fresh orange juice flavors, maybe a hint of apricot, a great sugar acid balance and medium soft texture. Juicy too. It has a bit of resin flavor too closest to the peel, not a lot but it is detectable.
 Blew Edgar away, at least in my yard. Edgar was pretty good though and came in about a month ago, I had 5 fruit this year on a 3 gal I planted last year.
 Some fiber clung to the seed of Little Gem.
 When I slice a mango the way I do, it minimizes the appearance of any fiber.
It looks like a Julie, is it a Julie seedling? Maybe it would be a good alternative to Julie, the fruit I had today was similar to a Julie I ate a couple years ago.
 It had  Little Gem 29-26 on the label when I bought the tree last year.
 I was expecting an average flavor from what little information is out there , but my son thought it was the best mango of the year and I think I agree with him. It has been very rainy lately and it was not washed out. Fruit was not big but the seed is the smallest and thinnest I have seen.
 I have 3 fruit left on the tree, I will see how long they hold. hoping they make it at least a few more weeks.  I am very glad I bought the tree,so far it really is a Little Gem....










239
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 5+ must have for SW Florida??
« on: February 20, 2018, 06:40:07 AM »
I would save a space for a Bell carambola (starfruit), probably the heaviest fruiting tree at an early age. Heavier crop in Winter and a lighter crop in Summer. Not the best fruit in the world but this variety is decent.

240
Not sure if any palm species have been tissue cultured, but if there was ever a plant that needed to be tissue cultured due to its life cycle , this is it.....

241
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: NS-1 vs J-31 characteristics
« on: December 06, 2017, 08:01:48 AM »
I don't have either tree planted but have bought and eaten both types grown in SW Florida.  NS1 fruit is a little smaller, its aroma and flavor are milder. I have bought several fruit sold as NS1 from different sources, all were similar.
I expect it would have a broader appeal to most American tastes than J-31.  Most NS1 plants sold here are seedlings,apparently they must be fairly true to type.
 J-31 had a much stronger funkier aroma and an additional flavor element that put me off, it had a very noticeable celery taste in the background.
 If it is present in unripe fruit, that might be actually be desirable assuming you want to eat it as a vegetable, but it kept me from enjoying the ripe fruit.
I have a tip for you on reducing latex, chill fruit before cutting. I would chill the fruit in a cooler or a spare fridge since the aroma will pervade your fridge. If the fruit is very aromatic,double bag it before refrigerating or freezing the cut fruit.
 Most Jackfruit freezes well in my experience. The thicker the fruit pieces, the longer they seem to stay good frozen. Thin pieces maybe 2 months,thicker pieces 6 months or longer.

242
You could try using only fairly slow growing compact varieties like skhan suggested,grafting them as low as possible, and then  trying to temporarily bury them in mulch past the graft unions during a severe freeze. Then cover them wtih blankets or row cover cloth or trying something like pitching a bottomless tent over them to give a few extra degrees of frost protection.
A small kerosense lamp inside a temporary structure on a really cold night will help,they generate a good amount of heat.
You could build a temporary structure and drape blankets over the trees if you don't use a lamp. I wouldn't try Rosigold unless you do lots of fungicide sprays. The other approach is to try using extremely vigorous varieties for faster regrowth after a freeze,while still protecting them as much as possible. You will get faster regrowth from a very vigorous variety like Valencia pride. I think there are a few even more vigrous than that.. You can also wrap branches in foam pipe insulation too.

243
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: feijoa
« on: October 20, 2017, 05:42:13 AM »
It is an attractive bush and I have never seen it attacked by disease or insects. Hardy to 10 degrees Fahrenheit or below.
Doesn't seem to be picky about soil type.
The problem is that unless you have access to improved cultivars , the fruit is mediocre and gritty. Has a nice aroma, I suppose it could be blended into fruit drinks and smoothies or maybe processed into jelly, but not really a fruit you want to eat out of hand unless there is nothing better available. I think strawberry guava is better, and that is considered a less than desirable fruit by many people.
Feijoa flowers taste better than the fruit and are a great addition to salads. The flowers and ornamental value alone make it worth growing,even if the fruit disappoint.

244
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Pawpaw fruits
« on: October 01, 2017, 09:53:46 PM »
Santee state park not too far from Charleston has a lot of pawpaws growing near the lakefront visible from the hiking trails.
 It is a good long hike to the spots where they are though.
They seem to be the dominant understory tree in some spots, probably several acres in total of thriving mature trees.
Worth a look next Summer, maybe you can beat the raccoons to some fruit or at least pocket a few seeds....
I haven't seen pawpaws anywhere else in the South Carolina lowcountry. That far South you will probably need to grow them in heavy shade similar to the areas they grow in at the State park.
 I was shocked to see a forest of pawpaws beneath the taller trees, it was like being in Kentucky or Tennessee ....

245
If I had to move back North and could bring one mango in a pot it would be Pickering. Nice healthy,symmetrical tree,crops heavily at an early age,very nice fruit.
It will make a really nice tree while some others might get overly tall and leggy in a pot. I think Maha would be the best choice out of those you listed. I think the best fruit out of your choices is Mallika,but you will need to bonsai it more than Pickering or Maha to keep it bushy.

246
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Banana haul at Canal Point
« on: September 18, 2017, 09:47:38 PM »
I got a bunch of Njalli Poovan fruit and some pups recently from Nick and they were small fruit with thin skin but NOT white fleshed when grown in South Florida in the muck soil at Canal Point.
 Maybe climate differences from those in California?
 They were dark yellow/orange fleshed with a hint of pink near the core, pretty sweet and mildly aromatic with sort of a strawberry banana flavor. Very nice tasting banana,but bunch size wasn't very large.
I wonder if it will taste different grown on my high pH sand soil in Cape Coral? I am looking forward to eating more,have 3 pups in the ground...

247
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: fruit/tree royalities question?
« on: September 04, 2017, 06:29:21 AM »
Curious how the law would apply in the case of a plant like a banana that propagates itself naturally with no interference from the grower.
 It would seem preposterous to have to kill off a banana patch after the main stem bears and dies.....

248
I did look at the obviously untouched mature trees in the ground and that is what made me think drastic pruning early on this particular tree would be a good idea. Tikal seems to be one of the lankier cultivars if left unpruned. There is no place in my yard for a 20 foot tree holding a dozen fruit.
I will be patient but will likely be making a lot of heading cuts on new lanky growth to thicken branches and encourage them to branch more.. The tree will have to behave itself or die trying...... I also planted 3 gal Tikal and Hasya trees at the same time, it will be very interesting to see how trees shaped from an early age compare a few years from now to a lanky older tree that has gone through rehab.
For now I think l willl just pinch the growing tips by hand to try to encourage branching.

249
Thanks to all for their help. I guess I will be conservative and just mostly leave the tree alone for now.  Just need one more question clarified. When tip pruning sapodillas on hardened older branches, is it just the tiny growing tip, or the whole terminal leaf cluster that gets pruned?
 This is one of those Fruitscapes trees....  They did have one older Sapodilla tree that got broken off at about 4 feet and had put out nice growth near the broken top afterwards, but it was not a Tikal.
That was the tree that gave me the drastic amputation idea, it looks like it will be a really nice tree in a few years.  I guess managing my Tikal tree like that can still be a plan B if we get hit by a really bad storm that even staking won't protect.....

250
So when you guys are talking about tip pruning you mean JUST the actual growing tip? The tree will still be leggy and mostly empty even if there is branching from where the tips are now, at least for a while. The branches have a very willowy growth habit. Ideally I would like to prune all the main branches back to about a foot of length if feasible, just unsure if I will get growth out of them after pruning. Maybe one at a time over a period of time to leave enough foliage on the tree.
 Almost all the branches would be bare if I pruned them back just a couple inches, since almost all the leaves are very near the tips.
When I first pruned the top couple feet of the tree, I cut all those branches back a few inches to a foot leaving bare tips, and nothing grew back from them even though it was at the peak of the rainy season. I gave it almost a month and then took 3 feet off the top of the tree.
Also, the trunk damage at about 3 feet was about one third to one half of the diameter deep,  I worry about the tree getting too top heavy and very vulnerable to wind breakage in a storm, that is why I was considering a drastic amputation. It is healing over well, in 2 more years it should not be an issue but it will snap at that point if I get a bad storm before then.
If I didn't have the lower trunk damage and risk of losing the whole top, I would probably let the tree umbrella out with frequent detail pruning from 5-6 feet high. If I do the drastic amputation, as long as I get regrowth, in 2 years I will at least have the chance to select branches to get a more bushy but very strong tree. Usually I am pretty confident pruning trees and have good instincts in that regard but I admit this tree still has me baffled as to the best course of action.

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