The Tropical Fruit Forum

I have one last excellent spot for a fruit tree in my yard. I live in Orlando Fl (9b).  The problem is I can't decide what to put there.

I already have a ton of mangos (always a great choice), three lychee trees, four avocado trees, two saps, pitomba, jaboticaba, Barbados cherry, atemoya, guava, persimmon, Pakistan mulberry, sweet belle orange, limes, longan, white sapote and carambola -- all in the ground.  I was thinking a black sapote tree but it gets too cold here. Kwai Muk maybe? 

What would you put in that spot if you were in my place?

Hi,

I'm very short on space and was wondering if it's worth it to have a black sapote tree?  I know it's a matter of opinion, but I would like to eat the fruit and not just 'collect.'   Do people with this fruit actually use it enough to warrant having a tree?   

Thanks,

Caribbean fruit fly is the bane of my existence in Central Florida. I was hoping to get your comments for your area regarding Caribbean or other fruit fly infestations. If possible, I'm just hoping to grow fruit that are resistant to these pests -- I don't have the time to net or bag. I've been experimenting and just ripping out the fruit trees that get maggots.  Here are my results so far:

INFESTED:

Peach (heavily -- the worst)
Plum
Lemon Drop Mangosteen
Black surinam cherry (heavily -- the worst)
Surinam cherry (heavily -- the worst)
Grumichama
Fig (infested when ripe)
Cherry of the Rio Grande
Guava
Papaya (infested with papaya fruit fly)


NOT INFESTED:

Blueberries
Mangos
Lychee
Loquat
Star Fruit / Carambola
Barbados Cherry
Persimmons
Jamaica Cherry (Muntingia)
Peanut Butter Fruit
Mulberry
Atemotoya
Sugar Apple
Avocado
Pineapple
Sapodilla
Ice Cream Bean
Pitangatuba
Lemon
Lime
Orange
Blackberry


NOT DETERMINED YET:

White Sapote (had some ripe fruit infested but trying to pick earlier this year)
Jaboticaba (haven't had any yet)
Cabelluda (haven't had any yet)
Achacha (Achairu) (haven't had any yet)
Dragon Fruit (haven't had any yet)
Pitanga (haven't had fruit yet)

 lychee erinose mite?

I thought the state of Florida put a quarantine in and wiped that out?  It's still around? 

I've tried growing cherimoya in Orlando.  Tree does ok but won't hold fruit. I gave up eventually and just used it to graft a gefner atemoya onto it and the tree is now a superstar with the cherimoya rootstock; takes much more cold than the original Gefner that was grafted onto sugar apple.

Orange sherbert, ice cream and honey kiss still hanging on. All the others are done.  Carrie just finished along with coconut cream and Fruit punch.

I have a four year old pacay in a 45g container. The container seems to be dwarfing it a bit (at least I hope so.). Anyway, I got my first flowers last year and this year I've got a TON of flowers on my containered Pacay.  Sadly, I don't believe it's self fertile at all though.  I got plenty of flowers last year but not a single pod.  This year, plenty of flowers, but nothing appears to be setting into pods either.  I saw a YouTube video of a guy in New Zealand who has nice large pacay pods from containerized trees, but he has several trees next to each other.   My solution was to buy another small pacay and sadly, wait another 3 years till I get flowers from it too.  I'm hoping with two trees I will have pods.  In short, you can grow pacay in a large container with no problem.  You will get plenty of flowers.  However, you will need another tree next to it for cross pollination to set fruit.

Hi,

I have to be honest. I'm growing tired of growing a fruit tree to maturity only to find that the fruit is infested with Caribbean fruit fly maggots; or whatever maggots. I've purchased some exclusion netting and will use it, but I've removed many a peach tree because I just can't deal with that darn fruit fly. The peaches grown here in Florida are just too hard to bag.

Besides mango, jackfruit and lychee, are there any other fruits that are resistant to fruit fly attacks?  I just want to grow the fruit and not have to bag every darn thing. 

Things that I no longer grow in quantity:  peaches (miss them), plums, papaya, surinam cherry, Cherry of the Rio Grande, wax jambu, and Grumichama. 

Anyone else having problems with these things?

Thanks,

Chrobrego

Part of my winter freeze protection is to fill a 5 gallon black colored bucket with water, cover it with a top and leave it at the base of the fruit tress for nighttime warmth. Well, I just noticed I left a bucket still out under my hak-ip tree. The water was pretty hot since our spring Florida heat is here, but I didn't think about it and dumped the water close to the base of the tree. Two days later I noticed that the leaves were all dried out. It isn't lacking irrigation, so I'm at a loss.  Do you think that bucket of water killed the tree?  Man, I hope it flushes back out. What a stupid mistake on my part.

I have a sweetheart, a Mauritius, a Hak Ip, a Brewster and an Emperor.  From what people tell me, my Emperor should be the hardest to get to flower and fruit. For whatever reason here in Orlando, it's my most reliable producer by far. The darn thing blooms and fruits every year. I've got a ton of flowers so far this year.  For the other varieties, nada. What am I doing wrong?  Isn't the Brewster supposed to be one of the most reliable producers?

My Kary and Fwang Tung trees produced very small and 'hard' fruit this year. The Kary fruit looks fibrous and not juicy. The appearance of the skin is very dark opaque too (not anthracnose though) -- not the clear golden orange that I'm used to. What could be wrong?  Is there a trick to producing big beautiful looking fruit?

I have about 40 different mango trees on my property in Orlando (Altamonte Springs/Maitland.). Most are in 45g containers but I have a Fruit Punch, Pyu Pyu Kalay, Rosigold, at least 7 Pickering, Honey Kiss, Mallika, NDM and a Glen all in the ground and growing great. I did lose a three year old Carrie and a 2 year old Peach Cobbler to frosts last year though -- no protection on the young trees.  Anyway, I grow about 200 tropical fruit trees here and most take it like a champ.  I've had a particularly hard time with young Sapodillas though, a young tamarind and a Trompo canister. The trees did not entirely die, but there was so much damage from a 6 hour long 25 degree freeze last year, that I just removed them.

I had one but it was just too slow growing and the branches were very long. The freakish coldsnap we had here in Orlando killed it too while other varieties seemed to fair just fine in the exact same location; perhaps this means that it is less cold tolerant?