The Tropical Fruit Forum

Stake it up loosly, it will lignify after a while and not need the stake.  Fuerte is especially vigorous and erect so it wont need staking for long. 

You will know if it has enough sun after a year or so.  It just wont grow much if its not enough light.  It will grow very slowly and tend to stretch upwards in search of light if its not getting enough.

You wont like this but fuerte is kind of hit and miss as far as production goes.  Apparently a lot of fuerte trees dont produce well.  I have a huge one that produces poorly.  It has had 1 good year and lots of years will almost zero fruitset.  It flowers fine but fails to set fruit.  Im about to chop it down and graft something else on it.  I know other people with the same issue.  Hass is much more reliable.  I would top work your tree now.  You've been warned.

Okay thanks. I'll heed your advice on the fuerte and just wait out the other one out. I don't have space for a tree that doesn't produce regularly. Are you still able to provide Hass scions? Maybe I'll try to do some grafting some time this year when I get a chance.

I've got two questionable avocado growing situations.

The first tree is a Fuerte that I purchased last fall, one gallon I think, and I planted it on a hillside. It was tied tightly to a small stake. I removed  the stake and tried to put a couple of stakes to the side. It grew and when I removed the stake ties it got floppy. It just slowly flopped over eventually. It didn't break, it's growing fine, just flopped over. I hesitant to stake it because I generally think staking produces weak point for eventual breakage, but what would you do?

The second tree is planted in a spot where it gets full sun right now (May, in San Diego mixed coastal and inland climate) from 8 am until about 2 pm, then it is in shade for the remainder of the day. Does such a tree have a chance of producing good fruit, or will everything be mediocre without 8+ hours of full sun?

Thanks

I think once a tree is established, not caring for it is just fine. It takes some care to either get it to size quickly, or to reverse course from it going backwards.

I would think fertilizing those citrus would do wonders for production, health of the tree, resistance to disease etc. My gf's family has a pretty good amount of fruit trees which they never fertilized and last year after applying 20lb of slow release the changes were shocking, far higher quality fruit and taste, more of it, and the trees cleared out all the leaf curl without fungicides or copper or anything.

Alright I'm convinced. Maybe I haven't been using the best fertilizer.  Can you recommend a good slow release fertilizer? A link would be best if possible.

Alright thx, I'll give it a shot. The grapefruit has delicious fruit but doesn't seem to be bursting with flowers, like I'd expect.

The fuerte is too young to really say how it will do.  Really needs 5+ years to decide.  But fuerte is known to be unreliable in producing.  Mine produces some years then others it goes for  2 years at a time 0 fruit.  Its big and healthy and if it strikes out this year Im going to top work it. 

Personally I think hass is a better avocado tree to plant.  Instead of ripping it out maybe just top work the tree.  Not sure if thats what you planned since you were asking about hass scions recently.

I planted some seeds last year and they are chunky so I wanted to graft hass onto those.

I chose the Fuerte for two reasons: time of year it produces and flavor. I'm willing to gamble with production since hopefully I'll have small producing more reliable trees in other areas. And as you mentioned, if it does strengthen I can always graft onto it later (which I'm better at than with citrus, for whatever reason).

So let me preface this with saying that I have limited yard space.

I have two trees that I am thinking about pulling due to lack of growth or production.

The first is a Fuerte Avocado tree. I planted it last summer from 2 gallons and while there has been some growth and new leaves, the trunk is still kind of spindly and the leaves just look uninspired (I didn't plant it in compost).

The second is a grapefruit tree. This one is tougher. I planted it 3 years ago from 15 gallons. It had a few fruit that year that I let grow (I know, probably a mistake), the second year it produced 8 delicious fruit, and last year it skunked, not even a single flower, although a lot of leaf growth. I'm thinking about pulling it if it doesn't flower this year. Still kind of pissed about last year.

So, would you pull these two?

In Summer of 2020 I successfully grafted onto a half inch wide avocado rootstock. The problem is that I grafted about two feet off the ground and stripped all the lower leaves.

Fast forward to now and the scion is putting on a lot of new growth and there are no branches below the graft union, so its tall and about 3/4" wide all the way up, about 2.5 feet high. 

I'm wondering if I should top the new growth to stimulate lower buds to prevent snapping. It's not in a windy area but it just looks wrong.  Should I just wait it out?

Sincerely,

Too tall

Quote from: nanewnanew on May 18, 2021, 11:35:04 AM

Quote from: Johnny Eat Fruit on May 18, 2021, 09:37:51 AM

I am not surprised by the poor growth of that macadamia seedling tree. I had the same issue with my Beaumont tree over 10 years ago. I suspect the native soil is heavier clay type. At my location, I replaced over 1.5 yards of my heavy clay with sandy soil and after I did this my tree took off.  It is not a good idea to plant seedling macadamia trees because even in ideal conditions it will take 8-10 to start to produce nuts and since the tree is Not true to type you never know what you're going to get. It's a big risk and a long wait with seedling trees. Both of my trees are grafted. The Beaumont is 10 years old and the Alba is seven years, about the same age as your seedling. Both grafted trees started to produce at four years of age. Also, macadamia trees like water and grow best with heavy applications of water. I also make several light applications of sulfer twice a year to lower the ph of the soil. They do poorly if the PH is too high.

Enclosed are a few recent pictures of my two trees. The nuts I got last year were excellent.

Johnny



 

Alba Macadamia Tree (7 years old)


Beaumont Mac Tree

Thanks Johnny, beautiful trees.

How do you add sulfur (can you link to a product)?

A few more specific questions:

Do both trees produce continuously throughout the year?
Which tree has the better tasting nut? If you could only choose one, which would it be?
Will you prune it to keep it smaller?

Apart from the question of maintaining a lowered pH, my understanding is that Phosphorous is not a native component of Australian soil, so I tend to tread lightly there - Alaska Fish Emulsion 5-1-1 seems to fit the bill pretty well. It's kind of my go - to anyway for a lot of new/tender stuff -since it's not going to burn anything. When I think to collect it, I also toss a couple handfuls of seaweed into the mix - for Iodine and trace elements. Seems to be getting a little scarce on my local beaches these days, though.

When you say both trees started to produce at 4 years of age, does that mean 4 years after planting a tree that was already 2-3 years old (and grafted, in a container), or one to two years after planting that same tree?
Also, can you prune these trees to stay at, say 15 feet tall and still be good producers?

I am not surprised by the poor growth of that macadamia seedling tree. I had the same issue with my Beaumont tree over 10 years ago. I suspect the native soil is heavier clay type. At my location, I replaced over 1.5 yards of my heavy clay with sandy soil and after I did this my tree took off.  It is not a good idea to plant seedling macadamia trees because even in ideal conditions it will take 8-10 to start to produce nuts and since the tree is Not true to type you never know what you're going to get. It's a big risk and a long wait with seedling trees. Both of my trees are grafted. The Beaumont is 10 years old and the Alba is seven years, about the same age as your seedling. Both grafted trees started to produce at four years of age. Also, macadamia trees like water and grow best with heavy applications of water. I also make several light applications of sulfer twice a year to lower the ph of the soil. They do poorly if the PH is too high.

Enclosed are a few recent pictures of my two trees. The nuts I got last year were excellent.

Johnny



 

Alba Macadamia Tree (7 years old)


Beaumont Mac Tree

Thanks Johnny, beautiful trees.

How do you add sulfur (can you link to a product)?

A few more specific questions:

Do both trees produce continuously throughout the year?
Which tree has the better tasting nut? If you could only choose one, which would it be?
Will you prune it to keep it smaller?

Quote from: Josh-Los-Angeles on June 14, 2014, 09:12:22 AM

Hey Warren, did you end up buying the Linda mac tree? If so, did you get it from HD or Clausen and how'd it look?

Josh,
Yes, I did buy the Linda macadamia nut tree.  I got it for a little under $25 at Cypress HD, but the tree was grown by Clausen's.
Its pretty tall for a 5 gallon and is very healthy and branching.  Orange County-Cypress HD still had some when I stopped by last week.  I have not planted the Linda tree in the ground yet, even though my other Cate tree did bite the dust during the May heat wave.

It's been some time, did the Linda end up producing well?

Thanks for the rec and sorry for the late reply. I'll check out the Alba.
I'm also wondering about two other things.
Does anyone know where I can pick up a Vista variety in San Diego?
Second, is it possible to keep these trees pruned to 15 feet and still have good production?

Plant three Manila mangos from HD and start grafting.

Just a warning, mangos are in the same family as poison oak. So, imagine you are grafting a poison oak bush. Trust me, I tried a few years back and didn't know this. Skin rashes for YEARS  s it got all over tools and I must have spread it on garbage cans, etc., and continually picked it up.

I highly advise against grafting mango trees if you, or anyone in your family, are sensitive to poison oak.

What kind of universe would put mangos and poison oak together? So cruel.

What's the salt content of the water you're using?

I have very mineral rich water. I see it precipitating on the inside of my house, like a stalactite.