The Tropical Fruit Forum

That is very sad news. Not that long ago a very dear friend was passing from cancer and I got to sit on the porch with him and talk. Most of his hair had fallen out and his body was getting weaker every day. To my perspective there was not much to be thankful for. In fact, even my being there was due to him doing a favor for someone else (and I was the go between). But, that was how he lived his life--all the way to the end...

What he said blew me away, "I can't complain. God has been so good to me." I hope that when my time comes, I will have the faith to say the same. In the mean time, I want to make sure that I tell the people I care about that I love them and how precious they are to me. Thank you for letting us know.

Generally a single bevel is useful for veneer and bud grafting because it allows you to slide the knife between the cambium and woody mtl. without gouging into the wood. You can accomplish the same with a double bevel or razor you just have to be really careful. I messed around with many knives I have a single bevel for bud and veneer but use a breakable blade razor knife for cleft grafts ,always super sharp and works perfectly.

I've been thinking of trying a break blade. It would give me a slightly longer working surface than the box cutter blade. I bet you could do over 100 grafts with one. The added cost of about $.01 per graft is well worth the time saved sharpening the knife in my opinion.

Straight pinebark fines will make an acceptable potting mix for pineapples. We had about 100 in 7 gallon pots at one point. We fertilized with miracle grow and had about 70 grocery store size fruits--until the rats and squirels found them...

Sam, I have seen the results of J-root seedlings, they grow fine, but not as fast or healthy as straight roots as Millet and others have mentioned. I just don't get rid of my J-root seedling, still can be useful to graft.

Good to know. Apparently, there is some truth in the old saying. It probably made more of a difference I, the old unirrigated groves.

Hi I'm Phil
I'm in the process of creating a food forest in Parrish Fl
Currently have 64 fruit trees panted, always looking for more

Welcome Phil! Good luck with your food forest. I always love stopping at Gulleys when I go through Parish.

Well, I'm back again with the carrots. This year I grew a few new ones. From the left: New Kuroda, Uzbeck Golden, Purple Dragon, Kyoto Red, and Uberlandia. Seed came from Baker Creek except for Uberlandia which came from Third Insight Design. The first 4 were all way better than grocery store carrots in flavor. Kyoto Red probably had the most similar shape to a store carrot if that is important to you.

Uberlandia is still under selection, so there was more variation. Most were equal to a store carrot in flavor while a few were excellent and were every bit as good as the New Kuroda and other specialty carrots. Uberlandia is one of the few carrots that will set seed in one season and is also reported to be nematode resistant. I can confirm that Uberlandia is about to bloom (planted in November). I also did not have any significant nematode damage to Uberlandia in my soil type. I'll be saving seed and growing a bunch of these next year with the hopes of selecting for that "New Kuroda" quality. To my knowledge this is the first review of this carrot for almost 30 years--someone obviously spent a lot of time getting it where it is. I feel like it is almost at the finish line for being an excellent quality nematode resistant option for Florida seed savers.



Here is a pic of a bunch of Uberlandia carrots just after being yanked out of the ground.

Guess it doesn't total matter but these were whip and tongue grafts. Usually do cleft but recently feel like whip and tongue can be better sometimes.

Anyone willing to sell some rolls of the real grafting tape?

I agree about the whip and tongue it is my new favorite graft even if no one else on the forum seems to be giving it much love. It is fast with high cambium contact and good success rates for me. I also like a side/veneer graft with a tongue when the scion is smaller than the stock. I pre-wrap my scions with the cheap old budding tape and then wrap the union with flagging tape. I have not covered with foil, yet.

I also took the time to make a whip graft jig which has really sped me up. It keeps the angle exactly the same and helps make smooth cuts as I build confidence. Over 2 dozen annona grafts using the jig and all seem to be pushing so far.

The big old Mauritius tree next door was hit by LEM a year ago, but it seems to have fully recovered at this point, and because of the extra cold days this winter it has lots of blossoms.  How unusual is that?  I guess it doesn't mean that it won't be hit again in the future.  What do you think, Galatians?  (No one used any sulfur on it.)

The pest has not been in Florida long enough to actually know what the end results might be in all the various situations. So, take this with a grain of salt since it is mostly conjecture. My guess is that the mite is not gone but simply going through its natural cycle. They mainly attack new flushes. Its quite probable that it will pop back up again when conditions are favorable and continue to weaken the tree. It will take a long time to kill an old established tree (maybe more than a decade as a guess). But, fruit production and quality will decline in the process as fewer nutrients are available in the leaves to produce sugars etc. On a world wide scale, this pest seems to have wiped out the Brazilian lychee industry. However, Australia and Hawaii seem to be able to deal with it to a certain, extent. Some say this is because natural predators were also introduced to Australia and Hawaii but not in Brazil. I guess time will tell how much it affects us here in Florida.

I just listened to a talk where a guy was saying that Brachiaria grass is being planted in row middles of citrus groves in Brazil and slung under the trees with mechanical mowers. Very few weeds grow under the deep shade of a healthy tree. The Bracharia acts as a renewable green mulch for the trees. There is probably something there for budding soil scientists.

Thanks, Galatians.  What you've said makes sense.    Would you plant a Sweetheart lychee tree in Port St. Lucie?

Only if you are willing to spray sulfur for LEM. Its very sad for me to say since my Dad has been growing lychee since before I was born, but it seems to be the reality of where we are at this point. If you are willing to commit to the spraying and maintenance it now requires, Sweet Heart is a good variety.

In my experience, they are very similar but not identical. For example, Hak Ip develops an off flavor when over ripe that Sweet Heart does not get. They are probably strains of the same variety (Royal Concubine's Laugh) from China and many people began selling them as the same due to the trade mark on the Sweet Heart name. Speaking of names, the Hak Ip name is a mislabel here in Florida. The real Hak Ip (Black Leaf) in China has very different charicteristics. For example the real Hak Ip has very few shrunken seeds, crisp flesh that does not leak juice, and medium sized fruit (none of these are true of the lychee going by Hak Ip in Florida).

That is a hard question to answer. If it is what you have available, I would use it. However, since Keitt is monoembryonic, it will produce offspring that are highly variable. Some of the variability (tree size and "thriftiness" for example) can cary over into your grafted trees. In a commercial setting it might not be the best option. But, for a collector it is likely just fine. Turpentine and Manilla (typical rootstock of choice in Florida and California) are both polyembryonic. So, they make very consistent trees for rootstock.

I don't think mango is native to Cameroon. It is probably just a seedling mango that escaped from cultivation.