The Internet's Finest Tropical Fruit Discussion Forum!
"All discussion content within the forum reflects the views of the individual participants and does not necessarily represent the views held by the Tropical Fruit Forum as an organization."
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.
so sorry for your plant losses.
Sulfur kills mites, but its probably warm enough now that it might also burn your plants. You might try spraying at dusk so it dries before the heat comes. That is what they used to do in the groves.the biggest problem with mites is that they transfer virus. They don't do much damage to plants usually unless it's a huge infestation but the danger of mosaic and such is what makes you want to control mites. I tried predatory mites once for whiteflies, and they took care of mites in the shadehouse and on my brugmansias, too. The type that works in hot climates (they mention it specifially bc most predatory mites don't like heat) is called swirskii, i bought them from Arbico Organics.
What do you consider successful. I'd love to see these shade grown tomato plants. Personally, Ive never even seen tomatoes for sale in the grocery from Florida.s/he said Everglades tomatoes. Please tone down, especially if you are unaware of local specifics but still want to participate in the discussion, maybe you will learn something new today... Everglades is a native tomato to FL. The size is small but they produce abundantly without care during FL winters.
I have farmed both coastal and inland foothills here in San Diego. There's a reason no commercial tomato grows are along the foggy marine layered coast. If you're saying shade is no problem for tomato production, then show me the evidence.
Also, yes there are a lot of successful greenhouse tomato grows in pots. But, what's the growing medium and how large is the pot?
The most concerning part of this whole post is no one mentioned the variety of tomato being grown. So yes, case closed. Bugs killed a plant put in the wrong location.I have seen tomatoes grown very successfully in pots here in Florida (where nematodes can be a limiting factor for in-ground plants). I have also grown cherry, grape, and Campari tomatoes in shade (in the ground). I don't see any signs of a leaf disease like septoria, or early/late blight. I would be looking at a soil borne disease like fusarium or verticulum. If the plant dies, cut into the stem and look for brown dead streaks in the stem. I would also think that one of those is more likely if you have been growing the plant in the same medium as a diseased plant from before. Fresh plants in fresh soil would likely help for next year (we've passed the time to plant here in Florida now).
In PZ it is common to get super dry and in April, before the rains start the grass will all have died if not watered. It looks more like California or Spain than what you would expect in CR. But that’s their pattern. For mangoes that works fine but for something like durian you best be watering.You are right Peter, California trees thrive here, we were so happy we can now grow our favorite annonas, avocados and citrus unlike in Florida where most annonas suffered in our garden and most citrus and avos have disease and pests.
The whole northern and Caribbean of Costa Rica has a very different climate that resembles Malaysia.
The locals weren’t worried because that’s an established pattern there.
Peter
Cacao pulp is in my top five of fruit probably. I find t. Bicolor a bit nauseating actually. The seeds are also hard to work with and there’s little market. People mess around with it in Brazil but there’s been little interest so far. Cupuaçu however is well established and seems easier going than cacao. That said prices are low and we often don’t even harvest it for that reason. In our region cacao grows incredibly easy, it has to be pruned for disease but that’s true of all wild cacao species too. Personally I’m excited about many of the other wild cacao species. They’re all lowland Amazonian types thoughcould you please describe the exact growing conditions for cacao in your area? amount of water, soil type, shade type that you use? If possible a photo of your soil. I also want to grow cacao very easily
here in Costa Rica ingas are used for shade, but cacao plants don't look incredibly vigorous. Probably not liking our dry season.
There were significant differences in our sites. Eric started with a 50 year old mowed horse pasture and scattered mature trees. I started with a complete suite of the local invasive trees, Brazil Pepper, Melaleuca, Ear Acacia, wild grape and Smilax. So clearing that was called for, you aren't going to grow trees inside there. I have a video of it, and if you check the channel you can see how the clearing progressed. All the biomass possible was recycled back on site except stumps were burned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I25BPpPIpZo
Eric was against mulch, until he started using it. He said that mulch didn't let other plants grow but that's only if you don't plant in the mulch and just leave splace as a "mulch desert". I see that he's now using imported hay animal bedding from his midget cows as mulch piles around his trees. It humorous to watch.
As for irrigation, Eric got screwed when he bought a place with a great artesian well that free flows. The problem with that turned out to be such poor quality water it poisons the soil with salts. At first he claimed he could let the well flow and flood the property for frost protection. But he found that irrigation wasnt possible with the poor quality artesian water. After that anybody who irrigates to grow trees became a sinner.
Yes, I use every rational form of fertility management. I've used commercial slow release, made massive compost and biochar, made my own drums of fish emulsion from fish house scraps, spread about 6,000 cubic yards of mulch, planted legumes from all the continents, chop and drop. My latest has been vermiculture I built a system to generate 5 cubic yard batches of worm castings twice a year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlaqdLUHvvU
Im generally eclectic in my approaches, seldom dogmatic, and always open to experimentation. Most years I've broken even on profitability despite a fairly high capital startup cost during establishment.
Wow! Sounds like business as usual in latin america. Just out of curiosity, do you know what soil classifications are common in your area?Never checked. I know that our soil is porous red clay or clay sand, it's very unusual and i've never seen soil like this anywhere else. It has all the properties of sand when dry, it breaks into small tiny particles and flows like sand, but when it's wet it becomes totally like clay to a degree you can make dishes out of it. Very porous and light, plants love it. No need to amend as it's very rich in minerals, we just add compost but I don't think even that is needed since the pasture has been amending it with rotting matter, it's also full of worms so no need for vermicompost.
Please take this advice, don’t drink beer after eating a MF.same here, bitter and sour citrus work the best for me. Other foods - especially those that are not meant to be sweet - taste horrible after MF, don't try to have dinner after eating miracle fruit. Fresh squeezed lemon and water and you got some sweet lemonade has always been one of my favorites.
it will destroy the taste of the meal.Sorry Cacao fans this one isn't for you. Cacao seeds are horrible. That's why most people ferment them and add sugar. The labor requirement is immense to actually properly process the seeds. The pulp is very minimal and, I will admit, has a decent flavor, a little sour but OK. However, the amount of pulp is too minimal to be worthwhile. Plus Cacao has next to no tolerance of aluminum saturation, so it's just not a good choice for many tropical soils. Pure cacao doesn't even have a nice stimulating effect. I much prefer coffee or coca leaf if I want something that's a stimulant. Also Cacao is high in oxalates.someone commented on my bicolor video that the pulp tastes like a rotten melon 😹
We planted Theobroma bicolor. One of them fruited at two years, most fruited at three years. They seem pretty forgiving of poor soil. The pulp is delicious (a creamier flavor vs. the tart flavor of the cacao) and there is a decent amount unlike Cacao. The best part: the seeds. They are like gigantic, fat pumpkin seeds that taste exquisite when toasted.
There’s a reason tomatoes and strawberries are a winter crop in Florida, especially south Florida.the reason tomatoes are grown in winter in Florida is because most of them stop flowering when night temps get above 82F.
I thought Costa Rica was a lot more progressive than Peru. Don't they pay farmers there to preserve forest? Things are pretty out of hand here. As much money as the government takes from the citizens, you'd think they'd actually do their jobs. If someone is clearcutting (and burning) a tract of land zoned as forest, you'd think it would be as simple as calling the police and the people being arrested within the hour. Instead, the Peruvian government opts for a much more bureaucratic process that inadvertently gives the offenders up to another month and a half to keep destroying more forest before the gov't forestry agency is obligated to visit the site.
pineisander...why are you not mentioning that you use synthetic fertilizers? As far as I remember, Eric didn't like the fact that you were doing 100% clearing of the land before planting "permaculture" in its place, not that you used mulch. I understand you had lots of "bad" trees like melaleuca but 100% bulldozing of land and then creating a "permaculture" forest in its place is something I would consider quite questionable if you want to be teaching permaculture to others and be the example of it. Would be nice if everyone named things by their names, not tried to make things look like they're something they're not. then no one would argue.but just the fact that I use irrigation and mulch made me part of the horrible ones....
What's wrong with mulch? I never heard anyone in the organic/regenerative space criticize the use of mulch. In my Environmental Horticulture AS program, the instructors drove the point home about all the benefits of mulch.
I'm talking about it iand showing it in my recent farm video (what's growing during dry season). This would be the first terrace to be planted with mostly mango and avocado trees this year, hope for the best and that they won't be blown away by these crazy winds 🤞🏽
[Quick aside] Satya, I saw a couple of your more recent videos--your property in Costa Rica looks like paradise!
Thank you for the details. This is for our farm in Costa Rica, we're at 1000 m elevation and the conditions are very similar to CA, cold nights and very dry 6 months with barely any rains at all. Last 2 months we had 1 small rain.Epiphyte, do you have a video of how you planted orchids on that huge tree, the seeds that sprouted? My wife is very much into aroids and we have lots of large trees here but the winds seem to have removed all her previous attempts at planting orchid seeds and anthurium seeds, so she wanted to go deeper into the forest. Would appreciate a lot the technical details, how far from existing epiphytes, which location on the tree etc.sorry, no video. coincidentally a couple days ago i noticed that our recent severe winds, for socal, had completely dislodged a huge and very old clump of plants including an anthurium from 3 stories up on my tree. somehow the clump was hanging entirely from its quarter inch drip tube. basically my big mistake when i attached the bundle was that i failed to attach right next to it an orchid with really long and strong roots... such as a cattleya or vanda. if i had done this then the orchid roots would have secured the bundle to the tree. for this purpose something like a typical oncidium with short wimpy roots would have been useless.
when i attach a cattleya or similarly sturdy orchid to a tree i don't use any moss. it goes directly on the plain bark via fishing line. i use a slip knot technique with the fishing line to attach the orchid as tightly as possible. if there's any wiggle room the fragile orchid root tips will break off and the orchid won't get its roots on the bark and it will languish. for less sturdy orchids like typical oncidiums i'll put some moss inbetween it and the bark. string can work just fine but it isn't as aesthetic. in some cases after the orchid has established you'll need to cut the fishing line or string to prevent girdling.
for the rest of the epiphytes i use a decent amount of sphagnum moss. on a table or something i'll 1st use fishing line to create a moss bundle with a wide variety of epiphytes. i go around and around the bundle with the fishing line until everything is super snug and i can lift the bundle up without any moss or epiphytes falling off. then i'll use fishing line to attach the bundle to the tree right next to a cattleya or vanda or similar orchid with roots that will grow into the bundle and make sure it stays on the tree.
for the orchid seeds, basically i harvested seeds of various epiphytic orchids until i had like a small handful. i put the seeds in a large plastic bottle, filled it with water, and shook vigorously. then i slowly dripped it all over the tree. all the seeds that germinated did so within a half inch of the roots of orchids on the tree. in my dry conditions that's as far as the fungus managed to extend from their home in the thick and succulent orchid roots. i'm sure it's a different story in wet and humid florida.
as far as location on the tree... bundles typically are closer to the shady side of the tree, while sturdy orchids are next to them closer to the sunny side of the tree. in terms of horizontal branches i prefer to put epiphytes on the bottom of the branches. it makes them slightly less susceptible to being trampled on by the usual suspects.
staghorn ferns create excellent "pots" for all sorts of plants. at a local nursery some critters planted some lemon guava seeds on a staghorn attached to a palm...
if you look closely at the top, the seedlings are starting to fruit!
the old layers of shield fronds combined with the fine roots of the stags create a medium that drains perfectly but also retains moisture. i'm sure the ph is really good as well. i've seen everything from roses to aroids happily growing in stags. a guy in queensland that i follow on ig has a queen anthurium happily growing in a platycerium superbum.
that's cool that your wife is into aroids. so you can both watch fnf videos together since he's got a really nice collection of aroids growing among his rare fruit trees. i've always loved aroids and it's been a trip seeing all the new varieties flood the market thanks to the huge spike in demand that has resulted from their popularity in social media.
let me know if you'd like any more details. getting plants onto trees isn't always the easiest thing, but it's totally worth all the extra diversity and the associated benefits.
How much Physan PSPTA20 and water do you use for the mix to be sprayed onto the seeds and newly-sprouted seeds? It says 1.5 tsp/gal on the description. May it harm the newly-sprouted seeds? Is it toxic to humans?
Best
****************************
Looks like you can't be added to waitlist for some items. I would check his site in March or Sept when he posts inventory for sale.
Janet
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to share my favorite source for root crops from a breeder in Washington. He just made items available for pre-order for next season.
Cultivariable.com
He specializes in Andean potatoes, yacon, oca, mashua, and ulluco.
I’ve also ordered perennial sea kale and dwarf Jerusalem artichokes.
I love his potatoes.
Janet
Satya,
I hope you will reconsider and start posting in the discussion forum again. I would really be interested in hearing about how you are developing your new property in Costa Rica. Your experience, insights, and results contribute to inspiring others to grow food and cultivate beauty.
I'm working on organizing my photos and thoughts for a post on my farm. This thread is making me question how it will be received, but I guess I'll just have to write it and see. In the end, I don't really need anyone's approval or validation, but I am open to learning from the experience of other growers.
Janet
