Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - kapps

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 7
1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Achacha issue: pale new growth
« on: March 18, 2024, 10:17:26 PM »
Yep, that looks fine.

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida Natural Farming?
« on: March 18, 2024, 08:49:19 AM »
IMO, it’s more to do with speed of the transformation. If you start with dry bare soil, then mulch is going to be a huge help. If you already have a thick ground cover, then that is keeping the soil cool and damp while also adding living roots. Agroforestry has us performing “interventions” to accelerate the natural “damage” that occurs and bring recently living plant matter to the ground. Animal inputs are also a big part of this cycle as fnf has discovered. You can let it happen naturally, bring animals in and tie them under trees (or bring their droppings), or chop n drop. It should all get you to a similar end goal. Its the relentless fertilizer and “beautifying” regiment of our culture that is preventing nature from doing its job.

3
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Super Jabo Rootstock
« on: February 07, 2024, 07:03:43 PM »
They are probably the same plant but that doesn’t mean you can’t separate them. I haven’t done this with a Sabara but I had a couple root shoots come out of a Grimal seedling that I separated off the main plant while up-potting.  They came with their own roots and are growing fine 2 years later.

4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interest in Jackfruit on TFF
« on: February 04, 2024, 07:42:35 PM »
Good summary. Just remember that Dr. Campbell seems to be training the tree as a specimen in the yard while Meadowcraft is training it purely for production.

5
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interest in Jackfruit on TFF
« on: February 03, 2024, 02:30:17 PM »
I picked up an orange crush at Gardenfest in Vero Beach this morning. Wish me luck. Maybe I’ll have a fruit in a few years

6
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Can this Lil Gem hold fruit?
« on: January 28, 2024, 03:00:59 PM »
Nope. Get it in the ground (unless you plan on keeping it permanently in a pot) and wait for it to get sturdy enough to not move around in the ground when you push on it. I’m accustomed to planting out 1-3 gal trees that have trunk diameters anywhere from a pencil to a magic marker. They’re usually sturdy enough when the trunk is 1.5-2” thick. Your tree is older and in a bigger pot so it has a lot of catching up to do in terms of its root system. Small trees in the ground have 4x the root system of a potted tree, plus they have the mycorrhizal connection to the soil biology. Put it in the ground as soon as you aren’t worried about frost and it might be ready to hold a few fruit next year but definitely by year two.

If you do plan on keeping it in a pot, then give it another year and another pot size. Then, you’ll need to control how many fruit you let it hold.

7
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interest in Jackfruit on TFF
« on: January 19, 2024, 07:01:29 PM »
I’m interested. I got lucky at Publix and picked up a very good jackfruit a couple years ago. That spurred me to plant some. My first was a Mai 1 which was killed during the cold/wind event over Christmas last year when I wasn’t home to protect it. I now have a small red morning and planted several seeds of a ‘honey’ that I got from a forum member.  I also have a chempejack that’s made it 3 winters but is growing very slowly. My neighbor has a large jackfruit that grew to 30’ tall in 5 years even though we are borderline at the old 9b/10a zone. Now we are squarely in 10a. 

I’d like to re-add a Mai 1 and an orange crush (grafted or seed grown) to the collection and essentially figure out which varieties grow best in my yard. Then I’d need to cull the herd down to 2-3 trees since I really don’t have room for more than that.

8
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Problem with 'Sabará' . . . .
« on: January 19, 2024, 01:51:12 PM »
It’s the Sphagnum peat moss that you can buy in 3 cubic foot bags at HD or Lowe’s. It’s dried and put into bags so you need to rehydrate some in a bucket before using it in a pot. Dry peat moss is very hydrophobic but once it’s wet, it holds onto water well. Take a bucket, add peat and water until it’s damp but not soaking wet. Then add any perlite you want and a very small amount of hollytone or other fertilizer. Mix it all up and there’s your potting medium.

9
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Problem with 'Sabará' . . . .
« on: January 18, 2024, 08:28:01 PM »
My jabo mix is anywhere from 75-100% peat and the remainder of perlite. A very small amount of hollytone mixed in is fine. It’s basically Adam’s standard mix and it’s worked well for my potted jabo’s.

10
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Problem with 'Sabará' . . . .
« on: January 12, 2024, 06:06:41 PM »
I agree. Get it in some new soil.  Water it when it starts getting dry but don’t let it sit in water. The shade is good.

Also, when you pull it out and take look at the roots, is it pot bound?  A 1” trunk means it must be 4’ tall or so.  That’s way too big a plant for a 5gal pot. I wouldn’t do anything drastic since the plant is in shock but a slightly bigger pot might be in order and definitely after it leafs out.

11
There is a lot of variation. I have Sabaras from the same group of seeds that are 6” while others are 18”. I had 3 Strigipes that also took off at wildly different rates. Eventually, the runt started growing. If the pot is obviously too big, then it might be worth stepping it down but otherwise, just let it go and see if it picks up.

12
I have a few and the best one is in a pot of peat moss and gets fed with holly tone (just like jabo’s). It’s maybe 3 years old and started fruiting this year at 18” height and width. The two I put in the ground are at least a year behind in terms of size and haven’t flowered yet. They seem to like a mostly shady area but I have one that gets several hours of afternoon sun and is growing fine. My biggest gets an hour or two of direct sunlight in the middle of the day but shade otherwise.

13
It will be fine outside when it’s in the 40’s or higher. It wouldn’t hurt to get it out in the sun if you aren’t going to see the 30’s for a while.

14
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: A question about Dwarf Hawaiian mango
« on: January 07, 2024, 08:09:24 PM »
Yes, you want a small tree to spend its energy growing larger and not producing fruit. I don’t think flowers take that much energy but trying to ripen a fruit with all that sugar takes a lot from a tree. It should have a stout trunk and complex full canopy before it carries fruit. That usually means 2-3 years for a 3 gallon size. Dwarf Hawaiian is a smaller mango so it might be able to hold a few fruit next year if it grows well. My unscientific way of looking at it is to ask myself does the tree have a decent size (3x3’ or 4x4’) canopy and when I push on the trunk, does it move around or is it well planted in the ground?

There are some good YouTube videos of Richard Campbell talking about fruiting mangoes.

As an example, I grafted my Angie (semi-dwarf variety) in 2020 and allowed it to fruit in 2021 (bad idea).  This is what it looked like.  It held maybe 5 fruit to maturity and 3 were eaten by raccoons. The fruits didn’t taste very good which left me thinking if I chose a bad variety.


2022 was a bad year for everyone and I had no fruits that made it to maturity which meant the tree switched the vegetative growth in late spring. The tree flushed several times and doubled in height and width that year.

In 2023, the trunk was 4-5” diameter and canopy was easily 6’x6’. I had around 30 fruits that tasted amazing:




15
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: A question about Dwarf Hawaiian mango
« on: January 07, 2024, 07:32:46 PM »
You’ll see flowers around now for early varieties. My Angie and Lemon Merengue have swollen buds and a couple panticles beginning to pop out.

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: A question about Dwarf Hawaiian mango
« on: January 07, 2024, 07:11:07 PM »
There are a couple ways to do it. I’ve followed Chris at Truly Tropical’s advice and just cut the majority of the panticles off. This prevents the tree from thinking it completely lost the panticle and send out more but also limits how many fruit the tree can set. Then once the fruits are peas size and the cool weather has passed, cut off the remainder of the panticle. Dwarf Hawaiian may be tricky since it flowers so easily but I doubt that it would be flowering in July or August unless it’s from drought stress. You could try taking the whole panticle off and see what it does. If it continues sending out flowers, then just take the fruit off when they’re small.

17
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Seedling Starfruit First Flowers
« on: January 07, 2024, 01:27:50 PM »
In late 2020 or 2021, I bought some Fwang Tung starfruits from the local fruit stand. They were delicious and I potted up a few of the seeds. They stayed in pots for a year before I found a place to stick them in the ground. I just noticed that the largest one has flowers for the first time. It has 1 1/4-1 1/2” caliper at the base of the trunk and is maybe 7’ tall. This one wants to grow straight up so after 4 feet or so, I’ve been tipping it and  trying to force it to branch. Looking forward to seeing how close the fruits are to the parent.  Its sister is about half the size and branched out on its own at a low height. Between the two seedlings and the grafted Sri Kembangan and Fwang Tung that I have, I figure I’ll decide on the best ones and graft them all onto one of two plans for better space utilization.




18
My first mango tree started as a seed in 2018 from a store bought fruit. After planting it and letting it grow for a year, I bought some scions from Truly Tropical and tried grafting for the first time. One of them took off and it was another 2 years to start fruiting. Now, it’s been 6 years and I had 30+ mangos on the tree last summer. For a nursery bought 3 gallon grafted tree, you’re probably looking at 3 years before it’s established and large enough to let fruit. It should flower before then but you really want a decent tree with beefy trunk before letting it carry fruits to maturity. If you really want low-cost and have the time, find someone with a turpentine tree or go to one of your local mango sellers in June/July and ask if they have any turpentines that you can have. I was able to get a dozen or so of these from Merritt Island sellers this past summer and now have a bunch of perfect rootstocks for grafting.

If you want more mulberries, most varieties root from cuttings so you can now propagate them yourself.  Starfruits do sprout easily from fresh seeds but mine haven’t fruited yet so I can’t comment on how close they are to the parent.

One other thing to think about is what you’re going to do with all the fruit. In 10 years, each of your mango and avocado trees could have 200lbs of fruit. Are you going to set up a fruit stand?  You may not need more than a few varieties of each fruit that span the season.

19
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: WTB Banana varieties in central fl
« on: January 01, 2024, 01:27:46 PM »
Can confirm… Namwah is top-tier and grows well with just mulch and compost.

20
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Last pineapple of the year
« on: January 01, 2024, 01:25:49 PM »
I keep hearing pineapples are heavy feeders but I’ve had no problem getting good sized fruits on plants that get no fertilizer. I grow them in a variety of conditions from full south-facing sun to deep overstory. They seem to like the shade better.

21
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Florida weather South Southwest and Central
« on: December 31, 2023, 06:30:54 PM »
41 degrees here this morning. The forecast was for 46

As a side note, have you all noticed more growth flushes on your tropicals while the weather is cool?  Maybe it’s the rain but my jackfruit, chempejack, and various jaboticabas are pushing new growth with this cool weather.  My Angie and PPK just started pushing blooms  :D

22
I haven’t tasted either but Oro Negro usually gets the nod from everyone on the forums. My parents have a small Day and Oro Negro in Jacksonville and both have made it through lows in the mid-upper 20s in the winter.

23
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Attention Florida Gardeners!
« on: December 27, 2023, 10:39:20 AM »
It’ll be in the mid 40s in Sebastian this weekend. If that’s the coldest we get this year, I’ll be happy. Wake me up when it’s in the low 30s.

24
It certainly looks like a graft on the original stalk. I have seen avocados sprout out multiple shoots from the seed but yours sprouting out years later is a new one. I’ve definitely seen them send out shoots below the graft that surpass the graft.

If you plan on grafting onto it, pick the most vigorous stalk and (at least) tip the others back while the graft takes. Then take the others out so it concentrates energy on your graft. Height really depends on where you want it to start branching out.

25
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Container fruit for zone 9B?
« on: December 18, 2023, 09:32:00 PM »
Jaboticaba and starfruit.

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 7