The Tropical Fruit Forum

Is it spondias mombin for the hog plum? If so, I'm interested.

Awesome! Thanks for the heads up! I'll be buying some tomorrow.

Any recommendation on what you consider top tier varieties for chewing and juicing?

Another method folks can try that works well for me is moist long fibered sphagnum moss in a ziploc bag on a warming mat without direct light. Near 100% rooting success rate in my experience.

Key thing is to make sure the moss has been fully wrung out after it's been moistened, and to open the bag for a few minutes every few days to let in some fresh air.

Once rooted, I put it in a pot with some seed starting mix, then once fully rooted out, either put it in the ground in it's permanent spot (if that's an option), or in a pot with good quality potting soil that drains reasonably well.

Quote from: edzone9 on September 08, 2023, 05:40:15 PM

It’s amazing how some folks have the COJONES to walk onto private property and start picking fruit !

exactly, I have seen no better reason for the second amendment until now. Set up deer cams

You seriously wouldn't consider shooting people who pick fruit from your trees, would you? Especially a child? Is that what we've come to?

Anyways, kids are kids. They don't understand the work and effort involved, nor the concept of private property for a tree that's out in the open for someone's front yard. They're teachable moments for when you catch them.

Parents taking their kids to pick the fruit though on someone's property? That's just wrong. They should know better, and I'd threaten them with trespassing personally (while directing my ire at the adult, and not the child because they don't deserve that).

At first I thought this was the edible latok algae also called "seagrapes".

I was like...wait...people here grow this too? Lol.

This is just a theory from a desert rat far away from you, but I believe Florida's sandy, lower pH soils allow salts to wash away quickly and allow a higher tolerance to a high concentration for a short time.

I say that as salt retention (in our case mineral salts from our high pH soil, fertilization, and tap water) is a big problem with tropical and citrus plants here due to aforementioned tap water constantly putting it at risk of accumulation without soil washes and thorough draining watering, and poor draining clay soil that retains almost everything for extended periods of time.

I have heavy clay soil here. In places it looks exactly like pottery clay from art class. I planted 13 avocado trees this year  and they seem to be doing pretty well so far. The trick is matching the irrigation to their needs. I have one spot I have tried three avocado trees. If they are not looking perky after 3 or 4 months then something is wrong. For me it’s usually not having steady moisture. The third tree in that spot started to look limp and I gave it a soak yesterday and it’s back. Avocados don’t have big roots until they are very mature. Most of their roots are on the surface. If you mulch a foot or two above the ground they have feeler roots that start to grow into the mulch. They can thrive with most of their roots being in the mulch and only going down a foot into the ground. So I don’t know from your specific numbers but I don’t think there’s a specific bad soil for avocados that they can’t adapt to with mulch and careful irrigation and gypsum. They also take top working very well so I would just toss seeds all over the place and graft onto the survivors.

It’s not fatty but white sapote seems to grow well - a little faster and tougher than an avocado tree.

Same here, with the added bonus of what's there being extremely compacted, and filled with rocks and caliche.

Drainage is the biggest X-factor, aside from overly high pH. As long as drainage is fine, and pH gets balanced somewhat with elemental sulfur and mulch, they seem do to ok and don't get root rot.

Based off of what is viable and relatively easy to grow out here:

1. Figs.
2. Fruiting mulberries.
3. Citrus, specifically mandarins, oranges, and kumquats.
4. Stone Fruit (low chill hour requirement varities).
5. Olives (if you're lucky enough to either have an older tree that's still technically legal, or a backyard no one monitors to grow them).

Well, some bad news. My bush died.

Apparently, pruning them when they're under stress is a really, really bad idea. It had been stressed out from our hotter than normal summer with a lot of the leaves crisping up, but nothing it hasn't survived and bounced back from before. My wife pruned it somewhat as it was creeping into the walkway. Within four days the whole thing was black and dead.

Lesson learned, but a huge bummer.

21.

I'd love to see how this does in Vegas. We're able to go grapes fairly reliably here and I have a few vines in my yard.

If I don't win the auction, please keep me in mind for the fall when you have more for sale.

Of course, the obvious question, is how to get some plants/cuttings of this beast for us to grow?

We have some that size here in Vegas that were planted back in the 40s-70s. Mulberries, olives, and sometimes figs were yard decoration staples because of how easy they were to grow in our desert climate. There's a steakhouse here called Bob Taylor's Ranch House that is still open after 70 years and there's several of them in the parking lot that were planted back in the mid 50s. They're massive.

Unfortunately, since then, mulberry plantings became rare due to how much males put out pollen and wreak havoc on everyone's seasonal allergies, and were eventually banned in 1991 along with fruiting olives. Existing trees were all grandfathered in as legal, but many folks opted to cut them down anyways due to the leaf litter in winter and pollen output. All the huge ones I've seen are male or sterile. I've read that mulberries can change gender from female to male once they reach a certain age, but I don't know how true that is.

While fruiting trees were/are still legal, the ban also halted all sales of mulberries, male or female, from any local stores. Only now with the advent of the internet and a huge spike in gardening interest as a hobby have fruiting mulberries started to make a comeback.

Looks like there's a newer SuperSour improved version of Sour Orange that may be a good candidate.

Also, was looking at US-802 and US-942 as possible candidates. Supposedly they're rock stars in general as rootstock, but I haven't been able to get much info on their clay/salinty/higher PH tolerance.

EDIT - Found this nifty table and US-942 looks like the way to go.

https://crec.ifas.ufl.edu/extension/citrus_rootstock/tables.html

And luckily, Madison Citrus sells it!

https://madisoncitrusnursery.com/products/942-citrus-rootstock-for-sale