The Tropical Fruit Forum

Has anyone grown alpine strawberries from seed in Florida instead of getting transplants from up North. 

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/propagate-alpine-strawberries-21957.html

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/HS1326

From The Extension: Strawberries for central Florida
Juanita PopenoeFor the Daily Commercial
Strawberries are grown as an annual crop in Florida over the winter.
Have you ever wanted to grow your own strawberries so you can pick those luscious berries at peak ripeness off your own plants instead of the practically tasteless hard ones you get at the store? You can grow your own, but it is not easy and it is very different from how they are grown in the north.


Strawberries are grown as an annual plant in Florida
Strawberry transplants from the north (usually Canada) that have been cold stored and exposed to short day lengths are planted in September-October in Florida so they will start flowering quickly. They will continue to produce flowers and fruit in cycles through April if cool temperatures continue.

Has anyone had experience or an opinion on this variety🙂

Putting disease resistance and taste out of the discussion which of these two trees seems to bloom easier during these warm winters

Seems abnormally hot 10-day forecast doesn't show much relief. Wonder how this will affect fruit retention. I'm glad I decided to follow TAF planting and watering guidelines for mango trees. Have increased the duration of watering more so because I forget to check my stopwatch and turn the spigot off but that's probably a good thing. Anyone else feel the heat


ORLANDO, Fla. – There have certainly been rounds of cold in Florida from time to time this winter, but more often than not, it has been warm.

The warmth rose to new heights Friday when every spot in Central Florida tied or set new temperature records.

This is partially because the La Nina pattern has been on full display lately

Someone put this on my radar. Other than TAF website doesn't seem to be much information. How does it compare to other early varieties such as Rosigold. From what I read on squam's website I think that I might want to graft it on two my Beverly that I got from Truly tropical Chris. Wanting is easy getting budwood may be a problem.

Last mango season I got a paper from a tree purchase that recommended twice a week irrigation during bloom and fruit set. I was conducting an experiment with different micro jet sprinklers I have. The recommended minimum Riser height for a mini wobbler is 1.5 ft . First to test was Skyhawk rotor rain with deflector. It cast a radius of 6 ft. Next was Skyhawk Roto rain standard. It's radius was 12 ft. Final test mini warbler cast a radius of 20 ft. All three of these micro jet sprinklers will be good for different size tree canopies. Which leads me to my question. Reading about Citrus irrigation there is a lot of variables such as soil sand particle size because of leaching and migration of water away from root Zone. My first instinct was quick fast in a hurry which may not be the smart move because of my inpatients. So what would you all recommend as far as gallons per minute or hour on Mango irrigation. Approximate duration and total gallons.

Courtesy courtesy of TAF.
Yes I know Magoo photography

In this paper, we found that mango (Mangifera indica L.) fruit treated with 10 μM brassinolide (BL) showed a higher tolerance to cold temperature of 5 °C.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00726-012-1327-6

This may be  antidotical evidence but this is why I have my doubts. This time last year when we had a radiant freeze a lot of people in the Gulf Coast the FB people sprayed this with Blind Faith and no other protection and most of their trees died or were severely damaged. I have heard claims and statements that it increases the fluidity of the of the membrane of the cell and has a antifreeze effect also that it strengthens the cell wall structure and keeps ice crystals from rupturing. Also that it acclimatizes plant. I understand that they use it in certain grain crops and that the Citrus industry has played around with it. Call me skeptical but I think it's claims as far as freeze protection are overstated. Please disagree with me I want to be wrong. Is it a silver bullet LOL
Last early spring I gave one of my friends 50 rootstock to do a control experiment with brassinole and gibberellic acid
A portion did not receive any spray another portion received recommended spray the last batch got a Frankenstein dose. We didn't observe any noticeable benefit to doing this making it worth the time and effort. I wanted to find out if I sprayed some of my young in the ground trees if I could get an extra vegetative flush per growth season. Next winter I will have him do the same with brassinole and if we have a Foster Freeze we will see what happens.

Seems like whenever I turn on the Weather Channel something horrific is happening in California. So I am curious if you could ask Mother Nature for a 5-year reprieve. Which act of nature would be at the top of the list. I guess  it would depend on your location and experience but from reading this forum in the past. My first thought was Gophers breeding. What is your top concern?

Christmas Eve and especially Christmas Day freeze was a wealth of Education. I have the full gamut of mango tree sizes. I used the full array of frost freeze protection that I know of. I was able to observe those techniques Within microclimates within my microclimate. I had what I call bird bath weather stations in the four corners north south east and west with a half inch of water. Very interestingly I always thought the North West corner would be the problem Zone. Because of the radiant Wind Block of houses and large oak trees along with a little higher elevation it is not as I thought. I was shocked that the trees did so well and the bird bath never froze even though the bulb thermometer at that location read 32° for about 5 hours. The South Side never froze either. The majority of the damage was done on the North east side. Which is a large open area with a slight lower elevation. The bird bath weather station on the east side froze over. All my trees had undertree irrigation that ran in the late afternoon before Sunset both nights. They say wind chill doesn't affect plants but I think the wind does in dehydration. If we have another event like this what I will do differently. On the northeast corner which is unprotected I will put a propane heater 15,000 BTU under my PPK which received the most damage. I'm also going to purchase two patio heaters that put out 40,000 BTUs and place them strategically so The North Wind carries the Heat across the trees on the southeast side. It's amazing how a 15 mile an hour wind at 30° clears the mind and helps you focus on the problem. It's clearly a different Beast than a radiant event. The duration and the fact that the low level clouds would not let the sun shine exasperated the problem. All the techniques worked majority of my trees are nice and green with a few Jack Frost kisses and starting to bloom. In regards to the the micro jet jet irrigation that was used on the second night because the wind was at or below 10 mph. The tree that was somewhat sheltered from the wind did much better than the fully exposed tree. But because of the duration and the low-level clouds not letting the Sun raise the temperatures more rapidly. I lost two limbs one on each of the two trees with micro jet irrigation 3/4 of the way up the tree. Now I understand why the updated techniques of the Citrus industry is under tree micro jet irrigation. For one in the summertime irrigating under the shade of the canopy of the tree reduces evaporation. Number two during a event such as this the ice buildup is in the lower scaffolding of the tree. So if the limbs bend from the weight chances are they will touch the ground and not break. For Frost on the bloom protection overhead irrigation is definitely the way to go in my opinion. With a downward throwing micro jet you can cover the whole canopy of the tree protecting the bloom. During a freeze event of long duration is where it gets more problematic

They advise in rotating fungicides and crops so my question is how long does a fungicide resistance last in a fungicide population. Is it just during that fungus life cycle or is it past generationally through the spores.
 Can the genetic cycle be broken?

Would it be possible to graft Ross sapote to Trumpo canistel

If you were to make a cocktail tree with the classic mangoes which varieties would you graft. I like Osteen that was given to me from Merritt Island