The Tropical Fruit Forum

Wow, that's really neat looking.  I'm still waiting for my variegated minneola's stripes to turn red.    I didn't realize there were  variegated varieties of so many types.

I fought scale unsuccessfully for years using smothering sprays, but a strong application of systemic pesticide imidacloprid seems to have eradicated it.

That's really neat.  Is that your house?  You've already done this?

Sphagnum peat moss is readily available, I've never seen coco coir for sale in any retail outlet I've visited.

Assuming zoning/building codes allowed something like this, excess heat would be the most immediate problem. 

There's a lot of good solutions for really efficient houses and greenhouses using nonstandard building techniques.   I couldn't even my local government to approve a foundation type specified in the national contruction code that they base their codes on - because they weren't familiar with it - a Frost Protected Shallow Foundation.

Insurer's wouldn't insure something like this either.

My containerized PT/FD grow painfully slowly in small containers.  The ones I've put in rootmakers grow considerably faster.  I haven't planted them outside yet, but I suspect that would be even faster.

Very nice!   

Thanks for the video, Laaz.  Funny to see him pulling up the same Acurite phone app I use.  I have thought about this type of greenhouse, and if it were not for township codes and resale value, I would have considered building a greenhouse like this inside the hill that spans my entire back yard.  It would be much more energy efficient as I could use a lot of water storage in the rear and rely on the insulation of the ground

alternate plan:



Also, I wonder if you just put LED lights in an insulated warehouse?   Might work just fine.

I poked a bunch of small holes anywhere water was pooling, and cut holes around the in-ground tree trunks.  I'm going to leave it this way for some time and see how it goes.

Soil temp was 75F @ 10am, and is now 80F @ 1pm.   I think this is fine.  I'll check again on a very hot day and again in the fall & winter.  According to http://calag.ucanr.edu/archive/?type=pdf&article=ca.v009n11p13 "the optimum temperature for citrus root growth is around 79F". and the soil will only get warmer as summer comes.  The only question is if I'm letting get too cool in winter.  I have my heaters set to 55F but I recall the soil stays warmer beacuse it is insulated and absorbs sun.

I have a bunch of trifoliate seedlings, a mix of FD and non-contorted seedlings from the same batch of FD seeds.  I'm thinking I will start grafting my favorite varieties onto these and at some point replace the trees on c-35 with them

If you need a citrus to frighten off children, I think buddha's hand has been dethroned

It's $1.99 a pound here, and I'm fortunate I can find it at all.   Sometimes they sell slices or chunks instead of having to buy a whole fruit.

Jackfruit is possibly my favorite fruit.  My daughter loves it too.  Nobody else in my family likes it.  You'll just have to try and see.

I recall there was a thread about this a year or so ago.  If I remember correctly the plants did fine for months but started to decline somewhat towards the end.  I don't know the final outcome.

I left all my trees in my dark basement for a month last winter when I was in India.  They did fine.  Temps were around 60F and I had my brother water them once or twice.