The Tropical Fruit Forum

I haven't tasted Wurtz or Maria. Or any of the others. Just going on opinions.  I figure that if my wife doesn't like them, I will.  I'm not too picky. 

I know Maria Black is a dwarfish tree, similar to Wurtz, but I've never tasted it.  Have you tasted Wurtz yet?  I had a tree at my last house.  It's pretty good.  Not Hass good. Not Oro Negro good.  But okay.

How about Maria Black? As a Type B, early season fruit it complements the Wurtz (Type A, late season). Maria Black is also a smaller tree and not as commonly grown. Simmonds is great but it's a Type A.

I see both  Maria Black avocado trees and Maria avocado trees offered.  Are they one in the same, or different varieties?

And thanks for the replies!

My understanding regarding fungus on St. Augustine grass is that it results form overwatering and poor drainage. You can spray to control the fungus, or you could plant something that would thrive in the wet conditions of that spot in the lawn. Usually the fungus just attacks a low or swampy area and not the entire lawn. Maybe some banana and taro (or ornamental colocacea) to drink up that excess water. Coleus might work well too and some people say Canna Lilies will take a lot of moisture and they usually like full sun.

Thank you for the suggestions. Much appreciated.

Sometimes leaf dessication from wind can burn leaves and it can be mistaked for other damage. It shows up as reddish brown and leaf basically dries up from the edge toward the midrib.

I went ahead and treated some of my trees anthracnose tends to show up for me stronger for this time of year maybe from all the wind and moisture

I suppose it couldn't hurt. Probably a good idea, especially when it's easy to treat a handful of trees in the backyard.

We had a near miss from Milton last week, and are close enough to the coast that I'm sure that the hurricane lifted some salt spray into the air and deposited it on plants in my yard. There was no actual salt water on the ground. I sprayed them off with fresh water, but the damage had been done. The hibiscus, incense bush, papayas, sugar belle, and mangos - among others - were  most affected.  I assume that the plants will recover by sprouting new growth, but was wondering if I should spray the mangos with copper to prevent fungus from taking up residence in the dead tissue.  Or will this cause more harm to the already compromised leaves.  Any advice?

Quote from: hewholooks on September 21, 2024, 07:44:54 AM

I'm curious. Do the stakes need to be removed to help the tree develop a stronger trunk and root system as it resists the wind?  Sort of like bones in the body will strengthen with weight bearing exercise?  I've read this somewhere - that the tree may be "wimpy" if it relies on stakes too long.

The tree will reach the point where it's no longer depending on the stake for support, but technically the stake is not hurting the tree.  You want to get it out of the way at that point while it's easy to remove in order to allow the trunk to continue to expand.

Thanks.  I can, on occasion, get some significant wind in my yard coming off a lake.  My trees were put in the ground about 9 months ago from 3 gallon containers.  Both were topped around 36 inches and have flushed nice scaffolding a couple times since. The Honey Kiss trunk seems to be fattening up nicely, but the Duncan is more spindly and leggy.  I guess it's just the difference between the two varieties. I have them staked, but on loose loops that allow them to rock around in the wind, but hopefully keep them from breaking off.

Thanks for the advice. This is only my second citrus and my Meyer lemon didn't grow like this, so I was curious.  I didn't plan on pruning it now, but I wonder how I'll deal with all this growth when it's time to prune and shape.  I'd like to eventually keep the tree to a manageable size.

Let it grow as big and as fast as you can. Don't prune anything unless its a root sucker.

At  the present stage of growth I would leave the tree alone.

Hey, whatever works.  It certainly makes a visual impression.

Quote from: SanDiegoCherimoya on July 09, 2024, 09:05:54 PM

I've encountered multiple fruit thieves. Don't waste your breath talking to talk it out. They'll lie their asses off. Stand your ground, have bear spray and machete. Let them know that it's your food and you'll die defending it

That’s an interesting choice of weapons.

Wow! I never would have seen that coming.

Quote from: Swampsquash on June 24, 2024, 02:25:02 PM

I've been fighting this fight for a while.  Any ideas?  I've sprayed fungicides (copper and sulfer when cooler), pesticide (neem, soap, azadachtrin, Spinosad).  Can't seem to find a solution.  Any ideas?

I had the local state nursery inspector come out and do some samples to send to Gainesville for analysis.

Turns out I'm getting hammered by citrus root wevils.

Thanks for the advice.  I wonder if anyone in South Florida can tell me if the blooming season is past, or can they bloom/fruit any time down here?

you sorta need to give it time to bloom or they will drop the blooms when you force it. find a fertilizer with a lowish N % and a very high Phosphorus and a middle ground Potassium. I feed mine 20-20-20 every other week during April, June and August but they are established plants. you can try to finesse them to bloom with a high Phosphorus as opposed to others. once you have a flower switch to high Potassium. Just saying what I've done and had work for me. It's hard to find a difinative guide online as they are all a little different. I currently have 6-8 blooms/fruit on one of my ABs and look forward to the bountiful late summer bloom.

I bought a 7 gallon Glenn mango early last spring and put it in the ground.  At first it looked healthy and flushed a couple times.  By late summer this happened:




August 13, 2023

It got so bad later on that it defoliated completely.  I figured that I had nothing to lose, so I pugged it:



January 16, 2024

After a few weeks, nothing happened.  No green buds, no anything.  So I extracted it.  I expected to have to chop through some roots, or at least have a decent root ball, but it pulled out of the ground like a weed with a root ball that was about the size of a softball.  I threw it in the yard waste can and put it on the curb.  A couple of days later, I was adding something to the can and noticed a few green wart sized buds on the upper trunk.  Again, I figured I had nothing to lose, so I plunked it into some potting soil in a small pot that might have been as small as a gallon, but no larger than 3 gallons.  I put it in an area with partial shade and watered it every now and then, and this happened:



February 13, 2024

And so I put it back in the ground in a completely different spot, just in case there was some soil factor that had attacked it.  Now, after two flushes, it looks like this:



June 3, 2024

The moral of the story, I suppose, is to have extreme patience.  Or maybe it's just that mangos are tough as nails.

I have a problem - a good problem.  My Vietnam white is super robust and after clipping it's tip when it got 12" above the trellis, it put out 4 healthy monster limbs.  They are now something like 20" long and two of them are putting out a new segment.  When I clipped the tip on these cacti, I assumed that the weight of the resulting arms would cause a medusa-like down growing cascade - not a lateral upward growth like I have.  I am afraid that these heavy arms are gonna break off any minute.  Am I doing something wrong?  What should I do to preserve the upper growth so I can get blooms on it?

In the picture, the arm on the right is the one I'm most concerned about right now, but I can see more issues in the making.