The Tropical Fruit Forum

The problem I have with organza bags is that 1) they're in a box in my storage shed that I can't find and 2) even if I find them, how do you wrap these papayas without knocking them off?

I've thought about just draping screen (like what's used to re-screen a screen porch) over the whole tower of papayas, but haven't gotten around to doing that yet.

I've had some luck (maybe on account of the cold?) with some fruit being larvae-free, but I've lost quite a bit to the bugs. Ace, my rooster, at least likes to eat them. He doesn't seem to be a fan of papayas, though. He goes bananas over bananas.

I tasted these at the Fairchild Mango Festival in 2019. I liked them very much.

I have three Soursop seedlings in I think 15 gal pots. I did my level best to protect them from the cold this winter by dragging them inside every time it went below 50°. Two have fully leafed out, but this one only leafed out about halfway up the tree. My Sugar Apples in the yard look a little naked still, so I was thinking this Soursop could still leaf out, but then I was thinking maybe it's got some dieback issue and I should cut it off at the pass.

All this to ask: should I trim off above the new leafage, or should I let it be?

Thanks!

Any pics, Future? What made you choose that seed to plant--taste/growth habit/etc.?

It is a corn snake, aka red rat. Sorry about it being off topic, but clearly it's not as off topic as some of the more recent TFF posts😂And I am interested in sphagnum moss as a possible medium to root cuttings. I've only had about 50% success rooting most cuttings, using just potting soil and cuttings dipped in rooting hormone. I'll use the snake-bedding sphagnum to try rooting when I change it out.

Here was my M-4 the night before the 36° frost visited.

While some trees did get light frost on them, I'm guessing this one didn't. Here's the tree twelve days afterwards:

And now it's got pea-sized fruit. Alas, the tree is only two years in the ground, so these will be coming off this weekend.

My Pickerings all bloomed after the frost. Neelam is just breaking buds.

Got my first flower on one of my seedling Lolitas. Had to take a bad pic of it. Hopefully it fruits and I get to it before the birds do . . .

Here's a bad pic of one of my seedling Lolita Suriname Cherry trees.

The white part of lizard waste is actually uric acid crystals (basically, their urine) as opposed to faeces. And yes, the pic contains the name if you click on it.

Rooting for you, Mark in Texas!

Wow, that sucks, Rob. We got down to 36° here, as well. Why do you think you got much more damage?

Speaking of Tropical Fruit, I did a walkabout today to see how things were faring post-frost.

Some mango leaves got some damage (PPK seedling here)

My Baptiste seedling had put out new growth immediately preceding the frost. Here it is two days post-frost

And here's the new growth today. It appears to have some damage, but wasn't killed

And, finally, the M-4 blossoms that were on the tree during the frost have opened up, much to the pleasure of wasps and flies and me

Hopefully everyone else fared as well.

While cold air does settle, evaporative cooling must also be taken into consideration. This is where the dew point (the point where moisture in the air will start to condense into water droplets) becomes important. Any surface that the dew settles on will experience evaporative cooling and may experience frost. Frequently, frost may be observed on roofs and vehicles that are way above ground level even when the ground is free of frost. For example, if the temperature is 34 but the dew point is 35 frost can occur. Conversely, if the temperature is 34 but the dew point is 33 frost should not occur because the water in the air will not condense and cause evaporative cooling to chill an area to 32 where ice can form.

Thanks, Galatians522, for the clear explanation!

This will be super encouraging information if you could tell me that any potential frost on papayas and mango leaves and flowers and jackfruit seedlings when it's 36° is not as harmful as if it were 32°!