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Messages - gnappi

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51
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Q's about potted trees
« on: May 06, 2025, 04:10:23 PM »
I have a few guava trees that now live in pots, I have never tried to grow trees much less fruit bearing varieties in containers so I have some questions about pot / container growing.

1. Should a dish for over flow water be used?
1a. If the answer to #1 is yes, if water does seep out from the bottom of the pot will the dryer potting soil wick up the water?

2. I have three pot types, clay / terracotta, ceramic over clay / terracotta (in various colors),  and heavy gauge plastic. All are at least 18-20" wide by the same depth and are on a sunny patio and trees generally have a 1/2" to 1" caliper.

I "think" I know about the finger in the medium test for water needs and the clay pots need watering the soonest (they're all doing well) while the white plastic pot needs water less frequently. Any advice on preference for one type of pot over the other?





 

52
Tropical Vegetables and Other Edibles / Heirloom tomatoes in south Florida
« on: May 01, 2025, 04:27:16 PM »
After enjoying a batch of gnarly but DEElicious tomatoes recently I dug around in them for seeds and thought "what the heck, why not try growing them" and I planted the dozen or so seeds I was able to get from the seed stingy tomatoes I had. Gads, the 10 or so seeds I was able to get sprouted!

Now the questions...

Has anyone grown Heirlooms in south Florida?

If so, my yard is semi to mostly shaded with patches of full sun areas, which is best?

Container or in ground?

Planting / soil medium?

Any help would be appreciated.

 




53
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Tropical Fruit Forum mobile app
« on: April 28, 2025, 04:37:58 PM »
I often use my phone with the Vivaldi browser set toemulate a desktop machine and have not had a single issue getting around here.

TBH mobile "apps" tick me off.


54
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: More vexing Guava issues
« on: April 23, 2025, 04:09:52 PM »
My trees get full sun 7+ hours a day and are growing like gangbusters and are in close proximity to each other, one has 10 blooms the others zero. One in ground in partial shade and as of this morning has three flowers blooming.

It's definitely not sun, nor lack of water / fertilizer or a soil issue as they're all in planting medium from the same bags.  There has to be something I'm missing.

Based on pruning suggestions, what I'm going to try is to clip the mature leaves from near the nodes to see if the deficient plants are self shading themselves?

55
Tropical Fruit Discussion / More vexing Guava issues
« on: April 23, 2025, 10:11:44 AM »
I am officially stumped.

Of my 8 guava trees (2 in ground) all are in ~10 gal. clay pots, in the same potting medium, get the same fertilizer and watering schedule are in close proximity to each other on my sunny patio so they get the same amount of sun.

That said, while all are thriving with new growth, the only one pushing more than one flower (10 as of today) I bought as an unnamed nearly dead stick a few months ago.

Afaik all were (according to their nursery labels) air layered and are of similar size and trunk caliper.

My fertilizer is Excalibur's 8-3-9 and and a finely grained "bloom booster" for fruit trees  at 3-9-4.

Maybe my fertilizers are wrong? But if so then why is one out performing the others by so much?

Any Ideas?



56
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Organic scale control
« on: April 21, 2025, 08:09:35 AM »
Guava are the only trees that I have problems with and Dormant oil and all seasons oil generally keep them down.

57
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Lychee Season 2025
« on: April 19, 2025, 11:02:48 AM »
Quote from: Galatians522 on April 17, 2025, 09:15:54 PM
Quote from: gnappi on April 17, 2025, 02:13:37 PM
My sweetheart bloomed like fireworks and was SWARMED wirh bees but only a few took

That is normal. They seem to have a high percentage of male bloom.

Last year it bloomed in a similar manner and the tree gave me more lychee than I could eat. I had so many I sent 20 pounds to my GF's daughter in Connecticut. 


58
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: If you could only grow one guava variety, which would it be and why?
« on: April 18, 2025, 07:08:13 AM »
Anything not white inside.

59
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Lychee Season 2025
« on: April 17, 2025, 02:13:37 PM »
My sweetheart bloomed like fireworks and was SWARMED wirh bees but only a few took

60
Tropical Fruit Discussion / One sided Rollinia
« on: April 14, 2025, 07:02:42 PM »
Two Rollinia came ready for picking today.

I've been growing them long enough to know they do not ripen if picked green off the tree but today of two I picked one was yellow enough to pick but I found that the other side was STILL green.

I am bummed out thinking one of my long awaited fruits will not be edible. What are the chances this one can be salvaged? If so how to store it?

61
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: When tip pruning guava
« on: April 12, 2025, 11:56:14 AM »
I am just learning of this fertilization issue, previously I thought banana were at the top of the list for hungry feeders but it sounds like I've been misunderstanding the guava.

My neighbor has a huge white fleshed guava tree that until recently given tons of fruit with zero fertilization. But it's in decline with scale and white fly infestation.


62
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: When tip pruning guava
« on: April 11, 2025, 11:06:32 AM »
Smoke flavoring? I've used grape vine, peach wood and apple but Guava? Tell me more!

 

63
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: suggested medium for container growing
« on: April 11, 2025, 11:04:15 AM »
Quote from: Lumi-Ukko on April 10, 2025, 08:26:44 PM
Quote from: gnappi on April 08, 2025, 01:09:31 PM
Lumi-Ukko, was that feijoa in the Redlands Florida?

Redlands, California. Apologies for lack of clarification. It was a few years ago, and not sure if he's still there, but the garden center manager at the Home Depot there would often sell off "weak" or ugly looking trees for huge discounts if you spoke to him directly.

+1 :-), I got a nice un-named guava for something like $11.00 because they let it get too thirsty and it was in serious decline. It's now blooming!

64
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango tree recommendations
« on: April 11, 2025, 11:00:45 AM »
Pickering is an excellent choice, my second would be Glenn.

My Julie seedling (Juicy Lucy) bears heavily, the neighbors love it and she is completely resistant to anthracnose unlike her parent tree.

65
Tropical Fruit Discussion / What is this insect?
« on: April 11, 2025, 10:57:15 AM »
This fellow (or gal) was on a Guava tree leaf. It's almost 1" across and it looks like a Papaya fruit fly but the legs seem too long and it's "stinger tail" too short? Some kind of mosquito?

Never mind, after a search I found out it's a harmless Crane Fly.




66
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: How much do you pay per month for water for your backyard orchard?
« on: April 10, 2025, 01:09:06 PM »
When I moved into my current house the city had a split bill assuming that with their "pretty lawn" ordnance / mandate not 100% of water used went into the sewer and water bills were calculated fairly. When they went to "we meter 2000 gallons, you pay for 2000 gallons of sewage" water bills doubled.

I paid to repair the well pump, sprinklers and added hose bibs and I haven't used city water in over 18 years. Many of my neighbors saw the practicality of repairing their wells and did the same.

So I pay the minimum for connect fees and sewage on whatever I use (less than 1k gallons per month) and my bills are ~$50 a month.

I bless that well and my decision to repair it every time I water my trees, and if I didn't already have a well I'd have one drilled because cities have run amok on fees. By my calculation, I saved over $8,000, well worth the well repair or even a new well.

Well owners STILL need to conserve water because the county mandates it during water restrictions. Remember even the remote possibility of having a sinkhole open up under your house is no picnic.

See: https://www.ncesc.com/geographic-pedia/why-are-there-suddenly-so-many-sinkholes/







67
Tropical Fruit Discussion / When tip pruning guava
« on: April 10, 2025, 11:55:28 AM »
Should you wait until new growth hardens with bark? Or prune green shoots to encourage new branching?

68
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Does taking off spent mango panicles help induce a second bloom?
« on: April 08, 2025, 07:07:39 PM »
Mine are too big to remove them and they give ma a lot of fruit and I have no issues with diseases.

69
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: suggested medium for container growing
« on: April 08, 2025, 01:09:31 PM »
Lumi-Ukko, was that feijoa in the Redlands Florida?

70
Tropical Fruit Discussion / duplicate
« on: April 05, 2025, 02:17:01 PM »
duplicate

71
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Why doesn't my guava bloom or set any fruit?
« on: April 05, 2025, 02:06:21 PM »
Funny, the one little guava tree I have that bloomed was in semi shade but it's now in full sun most of the day on a south facing patio, the other four are on the same patio with new growth from the pruned tips, no blooms.

They all get watered and fed sufficiently and just in case I've ordered some bloom special fertilizer with a low nitrogen ratio. I'm beginning to think these trees were seedlings! So much for reliable sources. Anyway, I've planted out two and I hope some more will erupt in flower buds soon.

Oh, my strawberry and lemon are in semi shade and I get a lot of fruit from them every year.

PS about 90 days ago all of them (except those planted out) have been re-potted from 3 gal. into 7 gallon equivalent ceramic over clay and just clay pots and I monitor the soil closely so I don't get drooping leaves.
 

72
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Why doesn't my guava bloom or set any fruit?
« on: April 05, 2025, 10:56:39 AM »
Quote from: Epicatt2 on January 28, 2024, 01:44:29 AM
Been growing a 'Ruby Supreme x Barbie' for four years now.  it grew to eight feet tall and needed to be cut back. 
It got a haircut in March a year ago, trimmed down to four feet then grew back to six feet by June but never bloomed.

It gets irrigated reasonably frequently and it was fertilized a couple times with 10-10-10 because I know they are heavy feeders.

Maybe my timing is off somehow on the watering, feeding, and pruning.  The plant grows well but why no fruit?

Also have a few Psidium catleyanum but they're not large enough to fruit.  Next year maybe....

Asking for some suggestions.  All welcomed.  I love guavas and would like to get that dumb plant to fruit.

Cheers!

Paul M.
==

OP, I'm wondering how your Guava have fared? Several of my guava are in a similar situation as yours and mine are from reliable sources that say they were air layered.




73
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: I found a "Compost" jackpot inside a fallen Walking Palm trunk
« on: April 02, 2025, 06:58:35 PM »
I'm lucky. My gf is fanatical about having leaves on her property and she bags them up and I take them home to dump in my yard. Typically I get 3-4 large trash bags full every week.


74
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: How to propagate pink guava
« on: March 31, 2025, 09:24:49 AM »
+1 On S-L-O-W rooting air layering.

75
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Only 2 inches
« on: March 26, 2025, 09:01:33 AM »
All I can say is I'm thankful I have a well. My city has gone berserk with water prices.



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