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Messages - GrowInFlorida

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: When to pick Noni?
« on: December 18, 2022, 09:20:39 PM »
Thanks for the info, GrowInFlorida! Does the jar have to be sealed (as in canning), or does it just need a tight-fitting lid? Thanks!
No need to seal the jar. You can open it multiple times, antifungal and antibacterial properties of noni are so potent that the juice doesn't get destroyed even if you drink from the jar in the middle of fermentation. I use a tall hermetic jar like this one: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ball-Latch-Jar-Glass-Storage-Jar-Half-Gallon/167621734
I just keep the jar on the ground in the garden, in full sun, until it's ready to be stored. I read that you can keep it without refrigeration for 2 years, but it becomes more acidic with long storage, a bit vinegary.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: When to pick Noni?
« on: December 18, 2022, 08:06:55 PM »
I really love noni, it's one of my favorite trees in the garden as it also looks ornamental, attracts millions of bees, and I eat the raw fruit on an avocado toast and make fermented juice (the easiest fermentation ever). Before going vegan, I really loved the most stinky cheeses, especially French ones, and I guess the love of certain type of flavors made me prepared for this weird fruit. As they say, it's an acquired taste, so I acquired this taste way before trying noni, I generally love bold tastes and fermented foods. Whether you're ready for it or not it's worth trying either way in my opinion  :D
but if after trying you think raw fruit is too strong, try the fermented juice as the stank goes away completely, it starts smelling fruity and somewhat sweet after fermenting in full sun for several weeks. All you need is a glass jar with a tightly fitting lid, no need for any starter or microbe "food" like you would with kombucha or pickles (sugar and salt respectively), just stuff the jar with ripe fruit and keep in the sun. Eventually the fruit will "cry" and shrivel, and the juice will brown and sweeten.
Also, I noticed that raw noni seeds don't sprout easily, but the ones that underwent fermentation sprout very well.
I heard from Asian friends that noni leaves are good in curries, never tried them because they're a little tough, but I guess you can choose very young leaves.
As for the photo in the thread, it's a little underdeveloped, probably a young tree, and will ripen unevenly. The tree produces those at the very beginning of fruiting season, too. When the tree becomes more established, the fruit will be longer, larger and will ripen evenly. Don't pick the fruit if it still has green in it, it won't ripen evenly. When it turns completely white it's ready and will ripen in a day or two on the counter.
Yum.

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the best shot for a small beginner nursery is to sell what local nurseries do NOT sell. They will definitely outcompete you with prices and customer volumes, to be recognized you have to have something different, so the best shot is to concentrate on niche plants, more rare varieties, variegated/weird ornamental plants that are just coming to be in fashion, or rare fruit/palms/whatever that cost more than regular varieties but are also harder to find, so people are hunting them down. For those you surely need to know the variety, as same species can have a $5 and a $500 plant standing next to each other...

Rare plants also require more expertise for growing so make sure you know what you're growing and each plant's water and nutritional requirements. Some plants don't take regular soils for example, you have to make special mixes; some plants need full shade and wet air, so you have to have a special shadecloth/misting setup in your nursery which will also require an extra expense.. Join facebook groups like plant hunters, time to splurge and purge, Jumanji Jon plants, Ralph Plants, etc. and see what's trending. Known rare plant sellers sell their plants out like hot cakes, sometimes within minutes, if the plant is popular - even a single bud on a stick (a chonk) sells for a lot of money! This happened with lots of variegated plants recently (during covid), people just went crazy over them and paid up to several thousand dollars for one plant...

If you don't want to have a large initial investment, start with semi-rare plants that propagate fast (normally expensive plants are slow growing lol), or even create your own niche market, like you would sell 250 varieties of sanseveria, or only funny looking succulents like the boob cactus or the penis cactus... and go to those specific groups where people are looking for those specific plants (there are groups for succulents, palms, sanseverias - basically any type of plant if you're willing to ship). I think with selling plants it's more about your personal passion, plants that you really love that you will be able to sell the best and care for. Good luck.

4
you can go to literally any park or an abandoned lot in Florida and harvest your own pink peppercorns during the season (mind it, both BPT and the molle type are mildly toxic) from a vast number of overgrown invasiveness. They are everywhere, the state paid LOTS of money to tree cutters to get rid of them, but they are still around.
Probably the best thing for a recent transplant from other states would be to take a Master Gardener course, every county has them, here in Miami-Dade it's free, I heard that in Broward it's $400. they teach you lots of state specific (and even county-specific) research-based information, and it helps a lot to start working with nature instead of trying to recreate Illinois here in FL, to prevent common transplant mistakes trying to grow things against all odds that are not meant to be grown here and waste your time and money...  I know i've been there. Learned a LOT in the MG program,  and learned to control my persistent urge to try things from out of state...  Good luck.

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Tropical Vegetables and Other Edibles / Re: covid 19 and herbs ect
« on: July 14, 2021, 01:10:57 PM »
Thank you roblack. Of course, like with every powerful medicine, there could be counter-indications. Ayurveda is a very sophisticated science, and research should always be done before using potent herbs.

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Tropical Vegetables and Other Edibles / Re: covid 19 and herbs ect
« on: July 13, 2021, 09:55:20 PM »
We got sick in India/Nepal and recovered fast, before the name covid was coined. We were visiting an ashram, everyone got sick there and thought it was a local virus that everyone gets when one comes to Kathmandu city (crazy pollution and crowds, you get sick almost every time you go there). Everyone at the ashram was taking giloy tea daily for another disease that was rampant at that time, and everyone was recovering within a week, no oxygen tanks, no casualties. It was bad but not deadly. Don't know if the plant helped, but ayurveda regards it as one of its jewels. Now we're growing some giloy plants, just in case :-/

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oh cool you found some genetic variation!! heres my website and some info on cosmos caudatus. ive got some seed if yours dont end up germinating. but they are pretty weedy, im sure youll be fine! please post some photos of the flowers once they start showing up

https://tropicalselfsufficiency.com/cosmos-cosmos-caudatus/

funny, I always thought string beans are called string because they grow up as a vine, on a string I guess? 😝
learned something new from your blog!
Do you know if any hybridized varieties of cosmos are also edible? I got lots of seeds in a yearly swap from one of my favorite groups, and there are some cosmos seeds there.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Kitchen sink foliar feed ok?
« on: November 12, 2020, 12:43:39 PM »


I've resorted to soil drenches and everything is fine (that is after I got the spider mite attack under control).  In fact, all my citrus is loaded, excellent flushes of leaves..... and the key lime margaritas come soon mon.  ;)

Mark

Mark, how did you get your spider mite problem under control?

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Panama Red passion fruit question here.
« on: November 11, 2020, 10:27:28 PM »
My most productive self fertile passionfruit, 1 plant gives maybe 200 fruit per season.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Name labels for trees and plants
« on: November 08, 2020, 04:57:24 PM »
Love my hand engraving tool.
Had to mark the top of the letters with a sticker. Virtually indestructible.









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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Searching for Abiu
« on: October 30, 2020, 10:37:22 AM »
Frankie’s here in Oahu has a selected variety called “shave ice”. I like it A LOT
What does it taste like?

Saying it is sweet is not fair.  There’s a nice honey twang to it.

Would love to see a tasting video! Sounds exciting! Not many abiu tasting videos online...

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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Searching for Abiu
« on: October 30, 2020, 10:35:49 AM »
LL when size collides with quality and a handsome appearance the result is the wow factor. I think I am going through a yellow phase as lots of fruit I have been trying lately are yellow. I think Picasso had a blue period.

The Blue period and the Rose period  ;D

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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Searching for Abiu
« on: October 29, 2020, 12:02:43 PM »
Frankie’s here in Oahu has a selected variety called “shave ice”. I like it A LOT
What does it taste like?

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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Searching for Abiu
« on: October 28, 2020, 07:41:24 PM »
I think in Florida they don't have the same names or variety types are not used as much. Here the better ones include gray,Z4,Z2,T35,E4 and there are a few hard to find ones like Inca Gold that don't seem to be around anywhere any more.
They tend to be more spherical.

Thank you for the info. Seems that there is no varietal abundance here, the only commercially available one is Zill's. let's hope that Zill's abiu is one of the good varieties.
P.S. wow does it really taste like creme caramel?  :D

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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Searching for Abiu
« on: October 28, 2020, 11:02:31 AM »
The abiu in the link are probably not the finest examples of what this species has to offer. The most reliable selections are also the ones selected for size, no staining of flesh, having only one or two seeds at most and low latex. They do fruit fast from seeds.

Mike T, which varieties have you tried that taste good and that you can recommend with all the above mentioned characteristics?

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Growing Kiwis in South Florida
« on: April 07, 2017, 09:31:18 PM »
LivingParadise, i know it's not good to buy plants in big box stores... my neighbor has a beehive and I have a beesnest in a big tree in my backyard - i love my bees and myself... but, let's admit, it's SUPER HARD to find organically grown plants of any kind here in FL... and local nurseries? god knows what kind of pesticides and fertilizers they put into their plants... just this weekend I was in a nice nursery with the best selection and a worker guy was walking around with a sprayer tank on his back spraying weeds in pavement cracks...in a nursery full of customers! Weird place, weird people...

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Lakeland Florida project
« on: April 07, 2017, 07:53:01 PM »
Corey, where are you buying all the different perennial spinaches/tree collard etc? I cannot find them here in Florida...

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Lakeland Florida project
« on: April 07, 2017, 07:51:05 PM »
i planted jaboticaba in my zen garden so until it starts producing it's just a pretty companion to my pagoda :)

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: ICE CREAM BEANS
« on: April 07, 2017, 07:47:44 PM »
I am new here and cannot find your trade page... sorry! Would love to get some of these pods, what are you looking for, trade-wise?

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Introduce Yourself
« on: April 06, 2017, 01:43:16 AM »
Hello, was really happy to find this forum and planning to stay here for a loooong time 😜
My husband and I just got an urban half-acre lot that we're planning to transform into a beautiful garden some time soon. My husband is more into trees as he grew up in the subtropics very similar to South Florida, enjoyed climbing trees and eating fruit off the branch so that's what he wants to do again lol and I am more into groundcovers, weird vegetables and flowers, medicinals and Asian plants, succulents and ferns, some palms and all kinds of creepers (sorry vines!). So we make a perfect gardening couple 🤓
We both like carefree perennial edible gardening and it's been our objective for this lot. We're researching about tropical gardening almost every day and have already quite a collection of the tropicals we like to eat, plus a mamey sapote (neither of us has tried it before lol but our neighbor gifted us a mature tree, how could we say no to a tropical fruit tree??)
My grandfather was a true Master Gardener (though untitled) and grew grapes in Siberia - this is the ultimate of gardening in my book... plus he created several of his own fruit varieties and did extensive grafting and bee keeping. I didn't learn as much from him as I should have...
I started exchanging seeds and plants on Dave's Garden and made some really good friends there. I'm also part of several FB seed and plant trading groups. The problem of both DG and those groups is that most of the participants aren't anywhere close to the subtropics... I always have something to trade and would love to trade with compatible climates because i don't grow annuals. I just hate to see plants die (even though it's the circle of life, blah blah - i know, i still don't like annuals!)
If I grow from seed I always have extra seedlings, and trade them for other plants or gift to friends. I also support a local free gardening class - if you're in Miami area and interested you can find it on Meetup as Miami Gardening Class.
We are also starting a rainwater collection Lotus Pond that has been our wet dream (no pun intended) for several years now. Have put a lot of effort, sweat and blood into it (mmm maybe not so much blood, just a couple cuts 🙄...) and are waiting for the rains to finally fill it up. Wish us luck!

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Growing Kiwis in South Florida
« on: April 06, 2017, 01:10:43 AM »
I am surprised that - considering all the above comments - kiwi plants are sold in all Walmart and Home Depot nurseries here in South Florida! I've had one regular kiwi (don't know the variety because I bought it in a big box store, where they sometimes label plants as "houseplant" so no chance to know what it is... so let's call it a "regular kiwi") for a while. The label said "full sun" and I was just learning about tropical fruit then (I'm a northern transplant) and didn't question the "full sun" advice. Bad decision. My kiwi almost died, thankfully I didn't transplant it into soil at that time. I moved it into shade and it grew many new leaves very quickly. I kinda neglected it for a full year after that and it wilted and got really bad during dry winter. I decided it would be too sad to see it die and gave it some love: covered with compost, gave it plenty bunny poop (my secret garden weapon) and covered with a thick layer of mulch. Within a week it dropped all its old wilted leaves and came up with brilliant new leaves, twice the size of the old ones. Great. At this point I just keep watering it regularly and mulch helps to keep it constantly moist. Even during this crazy dry winter/spring.
The second kiwi I bought already semi-consciously, and it was the hardy variety (also unknown breed). Also bought it in a big box store, in one of those trimmed down tubes with a rooted stick inside. I haven't transplanted it yet, but it already grew one strong branch. I read here that there might be higher success chance with the hardy kiwi in subtropical climate where I am so I will plant it by the side of the other one in the shade, give it some bunny love, mulch and see.

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