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Messages - Daintree

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 43
1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: The Best Cinnamon Species
« on: September 17, 2023, 02:42:03 PM »
I have a cinnamon zeylanicum. I don't use the bark but i like to chew on the twigs when I prune, I make tea out of the leaves, and I love to eat the berries.

Carolyn

2
Well, you can tell from the responses that it is a hearty "Yes" to your question!
I do everything I can to boost germination - soaking, H2O2, heat, humidity. I find this especially important because if I have been fruit hunting at fruit stands, and only aquired a couple fruits, I may have limited seed supply.

Happy germinating!

3
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruit trees reliable in containers / pots?
« on: September 11, 2023, 11:53:54 AM »
I'm so sorry to hear about your service animal. That can feel like losing part of your own body.
A couple of thoughts -
1. I would go with something pretty, bushy, and easy to manage, such as gin berry (glycosmis pentaphylla). Unusual, beautiful, takes well to pruning, does great in a pot and grows well from seed. I have them coming up all over my greenhouse just from eating the berries and spitting the seeds out on the floor.
2. Remember, even if a plant fails, her ashes are still in the potting soil, ready to give nutrtion to whatever else you plant in there.

If you want some gin berry seeds to start, I have tons! Just let me know and I can mail you some when I get home on the 26th.

Cheers,
Carolyn

4
You can do bottomless rootmakers like Mark and I.
Works really well as it's no dig either. Now maybe the maple roots will grow up though like mentioned. Could you take out the maple trees?
I have some decent sized trees about 20' from the greenhouse and I plant to cut them out this winter cause of shade issues.
Yeah, the maple tree is 70 years old, shades the greenhouse in our hot cloudless summers, and houses all sorts of wildlife.  We did cut down 3 fir trees to put in the greenhouse, so I just don't have the heart to kill "Mabel". When the arborist says she's on the way out then we'll do it.
And yes, I guess the roots would grow up into any raised beds, and probably rootmaker pots, although the pots are a good option.  There is about 6 inches of bark on the floor that has been decomposing over the years, and I noticed Mabel's roots have come up through that.
Heavy sigh.

Carolyn

5
If you can find a reasonably priced 8-10mm polycarbonate panel they are quite sturdy and won't rot.   

I am curious why you want to switch from containers to raised beds.  I find containers really convenient to be able to inspect plant roots and change soil.

I just thought it would look prettier, plus as I get older, it is harder to repot the bigger trees when they need it.

6
I am on vacation and just went to Kew Gardens. Loved the palm house, and am toying with getting rid of the pots in my greenhouse,
Because of massive maple tree roots under the greenhouse, I can't even dig down a few inches. But I'm thinking of very large raised beds, maybe 15" high, and letting the trees in the greenhouse dig down into native soil and wiggle trhough the maple roots.
Any ideas for thin, sturdy raised bed walls? 4" wide cinderblocks and anchor them? Wood that won't rot or poison my plants? Thin poured concrete walls?
Hmmm...

Carolyn

7
I have grown these for years in my greenhouse, and even sold some seeds here on the forum a few years ago.  I forget where I got the original seeds - I should keep better records!
I love them, and you are right, they fruit quite young.  I have several seedlings goong right now in addition to my mother plant.

Cheers, Carolyn

8
Yes, all my citrus are in pots. For a 25 gallon pot I use 2ml of the concentrate in a few cups of water. I water normally first, wait a few days then dose with the drench. Now, we don't have ACPs here, but do have other psyllids, plus various other pests. I have also had good luck with a spray of LUCID in addition to the LADA. Both are made my Rotam. The LUCID has the advantage of being a good miticide too, and I have problems with spider mites sometimes.

Carolyn

9
A double whammy of cyfluthrin spray and systemic imidicloprid is the most effective treatment. I have not had good luck with the Bayer imidicloprid product, so I use LADA drench. Super concentrated. For the cyfluthrin, I use Bayer Tempo.
Good luck!

Carolyn

10
Sort of... I grow mine in a greenhouse all year. 

Before I had the greenhouse I kept my trees in a sunroom, and the papaya only did well with a LOT of light - four 4ft shop lights about a foot above the leaves.

Otherwise the leaves got smaller and smaller until they were just little nubs.  They did recover when I put them outside, but it was a long recovery.

Carolyn

11
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: tree labeling
« on: August 25, 2023, 11:09:22 PM »
I just use white plastic "T stake" plant markers and write on them with a paint pen. On one side I print the common name, on the other I put the botanical name. 

Each plant also has an aluminum tag with a code that includes year, plant #, material type (seed, plant, cutting etc), source (collected in the wild, fruit stand, nursery etc), and its assigned acession number. Abbreviations, of course, and those soft tags you engrave with a ballpoint pen.

I have about 150 trees.

Carolyn

12
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Cone-tainers question
« on: August 25, 2023, 10:43:37 PM »
I have used similar things when I got a bunch of  "tree tubes".
They help make nice deep roots, but then I still have to pot them up into bigger containers, and they spend so little time in the tubes, that I wouldn't say they saved me any space.

If you are starting hundreds of things at once, then they would save you space and "tippage" compared to the 3" wide by 7" deep pots that I use now. But I am never starting more than a dozen or two seeds at once, so the rack took up just as much space as 30 tall pots.

Carolyn

13
His website looks like it is down right now. I'd try again tomorrow.
Because my trees are in pots, I use strictly synthetic, to feed the trees directly. I do have a fairly high organic content to my potting soil, but if a tree needs some nutrients, I don't want to wait months or years after adding organic fertilizers, since they must be broken down first by soil microbes.

Carolyn

14
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Aframomum (grains of paradise) doesn't bloom
« on: August 19, 2023, 09:53:18 AM »
I have several healthy aframomum plants that have never bloomed. Any idea how to make them bloom?
They are in pots in the shade, in my greenhouse.

Carolyn

15
As a side question, ive red that sintetic fertilizers do not promote biodiversity in soil,  do they only not promote or also inhibit soil biome?
There is a great website by Robert Pavlis called Garden Myths where he studies and clarifies/debunks a lot of gardening lore. In one, he addresses synthetic fertilizers, and it turns out that the soil microbes are just as non-picky as plants - they will eat anything, organic or synthetic. Soil with lots of organic matter had the highest microbial and fungal diversity, followed by soil receiving synthetic fertilizer, followed last by soil with no amendments.

Carolyn

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Iguanas
« on: August 17, 2023, 09:01:52 AM »
Ah yes, "chicken of the trees".
When we were in the Caribbean, we had some mighty tasty iguana soup. The tail meat is tough. I recommend using a pressure cooker.

The best iguana repellant I have seen was a trifoliate citrus hedge.
Metal trunk protectors that are a couple feet high work well, putting cages around your smaller trees, having a dog that loves to chase things, and planting a lot of milkweed also helps.

Glue traps work fairly well but are horribly inhumane, and you are left with having to kill the iguana up close and personal. Plus, if you have tenderhearted neighbors, glue traps can start nighborhood wars...

Carolyn

17
Thats tough.

Your greenhouse is fairly small, so upgrading the poly would not be super expensive. However, the thicker stuff is not as flexible as the thinner, and I would worry tht 10 mm would not be able to make the bend from side to side. It will put a lot of pressure at the top. So I would research the minimum bend radius and make sure you can do it.
If you can, I would do it. The difference in light transmission would not make a noticeable impact.

Another thing that would help retention are fans, up high, gently blowing the warm down onto the plants. I have four ceiling fans down the top of my greenhouse, about every ten feet. Even one fan would help a lot.

Or, if the winter covering works,,but is just a pain to install, maybe you could put it on some sort of roller.

Good luck!
Carolyn


18
Mine tend to bloom and fruit all year long. I doubt the flowering is doing it any harm.

I also have miracle fruit plants in the same pots and locations, and one likes to push new growth, another just flowers away.

I just let them do their thing.

Carolyn

19
What a great adventure!
I never travel for such a long period of time - have a big greenhouse to take care of.
But what I have found is that a great place to find interesting fruits are street vendors. I have tasted some awesome fruits! Many of them are only known to vendors by local names, so I like to get them to write down the names so I can look them up later. Then I take photos of the fruits and take notes on the flavor, texture etc.
Also check out specialized "fruit tours".

Carolyn

20
Cut it.
Mine never bloomed and was a tangled gangly mess. Got mad at it and whacked it off, and now it blooms. That'll teach it!

Carolyn

21
Mine too, if we ever make it back to the area. Wish I had known about it when we were at Cape Trib 20-some years ago.

22
That is so awesome, thanks!
One of the reasons we named our tropical greenhouse "Daintree"!

Carolyn

23
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Soil drench quantity per tree
« on: July 29, 2023, 09:08:18 AM »
First of all, nifty and resourceful contraption!
As far as quantities, I would hope that whatever product you are using, be it fertilizer, insect control, etc gives you some sort of guidelines.

Carolyn

24
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Ultimate potted plant food forest?
« on: July 28, 2023, 09:24:47 AM »
annonas can "survive" in pots for a few years then decline fast. they seem to do much better in ground. or you would need to prune roots every year. Eugenias same thing but they die more if the bot is very small/root bound when new but later they die less if it makes any sense. but at least they produce more in containers and some are so small that do fine in a container for life.
I have had pretty good luck with annonas and relatives. My biriba, soursop and custard apple are all in 25 gallon pots and are about 10 years old. I have to keep them pruned because they are in the greenhouse. They produce, although not a lot. I only prune the roots when I repot, every few years. The big thing is that soursop leaves are a delicacy in some African cultures, and I make a good bit of money selling the leaves for tea. Works well, since it generates lots of prunings. Got rid of the cherimoya since it had an upright growth habit too powerful to train. My sugar apples are younger but also doing well.

25
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Micronutrients spray
« on: July 27, 2023, 10:02:13 AM »
What is the alkalinity of your water?
That is more important then pH. High pH water with relatively low alkalinity can be adjusted (vinegar, pH Down etc). But high alkalinity can't easily be pH lowered. I t "fights back".
High pH by itself won't lower the potting soil pH. It is the alkalinity that does it.

Carolyn

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