The Tropical Fruit Forum

Hi Guys,
Ok, I am counting on all you South Florida folks to help me with this! When we were in the keys, I came across a very small plant, 18" high, that has leaves and flowers like bird of paradise, but the colors!!! Never seen this before! I have been trying to locate some, but none match these colors!
Please someone, what is this called? And where can I get it?
Thanks!
Carolyn

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

These are now ALL  SOLD.
I have some fresh babaco papaya cuttings for sale!
US only
$5 each plus postage
Carefully packaged with bubble wrap, all cuttings are marked as to which direction is "up"
Priority shipping for up to six 8-9 inch cuttings is $10.20
Priority shipping for up to ten 12 inch cuttings is $17.10

PM me if interested

Thanks!
Carolyn

I have some loroco (fernaldia pandurata) seeds that have germinated and am looking at potting them up shortly.
Anybody familiar with these? How big do they get? I can't find much info on the size. I was thinking of putting a few in a single 16" pot with a trellis, and then growing a couple up the greenhouse porch post as annuals.

Thanks, Carolyn

Can someone please answer this for me???

I just got some seeds that I ordered. When putting them in to soak today prior to planting, I noticed that ALL the sugar apple seeds floated. Does this mean they are no good? Or will they sink in a day or so? Or could they still be fertile, even if they float?

Thanks!
Carolyn

Just got some bael tree seeds from a fallen fruit at the fruit and spice park.  We still have a week left of our vacation. Can thes dry out or should I store them wet until I get home to Idaho?

Thanks!
Carolyn

So, I tend to get periodic outbreaks of mealy bugs in my greenhouse, and it seems like they bounce back pretty quick after treatment.  This made me wonder, are these NEW bugs, or are they old bugs that have "recovered"?

So I set up an experiment - 4 mealy bugs in 4 little plastic containers.  Each one got a "dose" of a drop of one of four things applied directly to their squishy little bodies- "all season" horticultural oil, alcohol, pyrethrin+sticker, and just because I had some handy, Physan.
I killed the first few by accidentally squashing them, until I started giving them their "dose" while observing through my USB microscope.

The verdict - NOTHING killed them in the first three days.  By day four, only the horticultural oil recipient was dead.  The alcohol bug is very revved up, doing laps in his little container.  Following closely in energy is the Physan bug.  The py+sticker dude is moving weakly, occasionally falling onto his back and waving his little legs, then righting himself again.

They all appeared to lose their waxy coating at first, but once dry, they all gained it back again.
By the time he died, the "Hort Oil Bug" was only about 50% covered with his wax.

Makes me go Hmmm...



Mr. Alcoholic Mealy Bug

So we had a winter storm last night with lots of heavy, wet snow.  Neighbors lost power overnight, so this morning I decided that now would be a good time to finally buy that backup generator we have been talking about for the greenhouse.  The furnaces are gas, but unless the fans are on, the heat piles up in the ceiling, doing the plants little good.

Literally as I was Googling generators, our power went down (just came back on after 14 hours).

Harbor Freight, here we come! Along with half the city...
Got the very last generator (a lady even tried to buy it off of us in the parking lot as we were putting it our car!!!), and had the greenhouse hooked up lickety split. 

Hubby and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner out there in our little seating area, basking in the warmth of the furnace, with a nice glass of wine, the parrots chatting to us and the quail laughing, beneath the only lights in the neighborhood!  Quite fun for Valentine's weekend! 

Cheers,
Carolyn

So, I have great luck sprouting jackfruit seeds, but poor luck keeping seedlings alive. I wanted to try again (being a glutton for punishment), and went the cheap route by buying a slice of jackfruit at our local grocery store.  It had been packaged a week earlier and was in the refrigerated section.  From a $2 slice, I got four seeds, and they all came up!
I thought that was pretty interesting.
Now, if I can just keep them alive!

Carolyn

I have a few anoles out in my greenhouse to keep the ant population down. I bought them for $3 each at the pet store this summer, and they are a delight to watch as they leap around, licking up pests.

But yesterday, I walked out to my greenhouse and was greeted with one of my high velocity ceiling fans making a whhhrrrrr...TICK......whhhrrrrr...TICK noise.  Looking up, I was horrified to see one of the anoles intermittently flying around inside the fan cage as his poor little body hit the blades.

Screaming, I ran to the breaker and shut everything off, then grabbed a ladder to retrieve the presumably mangled corpse.
But before I could climb up . . . thump. . . the body fell out of the fan grating and onto the ground.

I reached down to pick it up, and boy was I happily surprised when he ran up my arm onto my shoulder!  If a lizard could have a wild look in his eye, this little tyke had one!  His color was a mottled patchwork of green and brown, and he was actually panting, but amazingly, there was not a mark on him!

The only thing I could figure was that he was so lightweight, the fan was just throwing him around instead of chopping him up! I hope he learned his lesson, but I doubt it.

Blessed Thanksgiving!

Carolyn

This was brought to a friend and the gal thought it was goumi, but I don't think so.
I am getting a description of the seeds/pit and will post when available.



Any ideas?
It is outdoors in Idaho (zone 6) but I don't know if it has survived a winter yet.  May be young bush.

Thanks!

Carolyn

Hi All,
I have a friend who is building a greenhouse next to his new pole barn, which will have hot water radiant floor heating.  For the greenhouse, the contractor said he could lay the pex tubing for radiant floor heat without pouring a concrete pad.  He would cover it with foamboard then bark.
Has anyone done this type of heating in their greenhouse??? Either geothermal or otherwise...
Thoughts???
Ideas???

Thanks!

Carolyn

So, just got a letter from the power company that our house uses more electricity than others of our size, and do we want an energy audit.
I know it is the greenhouse, and the biggest energy sucker is the pond heater, so I am hoping someone has an idea for me.
In the winter, the pond water in my greenhouse drops to 50-60 degrees.  Too cold for my tender plants. The pond is 175 gallons, partly underground and partly concrete blocks.
I have tried the following -
1. Running copper piping to my gas furnace, circulating the pond water through it and letting the furnace heat the water.  Made a HUGE mess with condensation and rusted the front of the furnace.
2. Solar heat. Can't heat ENOUGH water to the preferred 70-80 degrees.
3. Tankless water heater. Can't keep the water clean enough and it clogged the lines and burned up the heater.
4. Stock tank heater. Shuts off at too low a temperature.
5. Regular water heater.  Never could find room for it.
6. 300 watt aquarium heater.  Yippee! Works like a charm!  But not very efficient. Just the pond heater costs $20 per month to run.

Is there anything out there that may be more efficient?  Or just call the $20 per month good?

Carolyn