The Tropical Fruit Forum

Perennial peanut and sunshine mimosa seem to be the two big nitrogen fixing covers in Florida. One will likely work in your situation but if you just want something covering the ground, the local “weeds” that pop up on their own do a great job at starting to build soil if you are ok with how they look. I’ve just about given up trying to control the “Florida snow” weed but whenever I pull up it’s thick mat, beneath is a nice damp soil.

There are always hawks around my house in spring when the rabbits are out. I’ve thought about putting in tall posts for them to sit on.  I’ve had good luck protecting plants from rabbits using 2’ high hardware cloth zip tied in a ring

Yep, I bought a dozen seeds from an Etsy seller in India several years ago for under $10.  It’s a beautiful tree and gives a dense shade with large leaves that fall in winter.  It’s a fast grower but cold sensitive and not very tolerant of hurricanes. After the top 6’ got knocked off a couple years ago, I’ve been keeping mine under 10’ by pruning for chop and drop nearly every other week.

This was a mid-size bunch coming from the original pup that I transplanted. I propped the stalk for the last couple weeks since it had a decent lean. The first bananas of the bunch turned yellow last weekend so I harvested them. After seating a few bunches myself, giving some to neighbors, and bringing several into work, I’m down to my last one. There’s no banana like a properly ripened Namwah.

The 2nd generation of this bunch is massive. Probably 15” diameter and 8’ tall and still putting out leaves. I counted 21 leaves during the wet season and it’s down to 16 now. Hopefully we miss the freeze again this year because it’s close to putting out a huge flower. The last one I had this big was blown over by the wind when the bunch was only half size. I’m going to be sure to prop it well this time.

Sugar is sugar, no matter where it comes from. Your body also makes it on its own from other things you eat  . Fruit is better than pure sugar because it has fiber which helps control how quickly it gets digested.  Excess sugar gets stored in your blood or converted into fat for storage.

Feasting on red hybrid today

I’m interested in this as well. Chest freezers are definitely a more efficient design since the door seal is at the location with the lowest temperature differential to ambient. Do chest freezers have auto defrost nowadays?  Needing to pull everything out every 6-12 months would be a pain.

It’s too late to lop it off and graft it unless you do the side veneer like Cookie Monster said. If you want to do a cleft draft, you could lop it now (making sure to leave a good number of leaves In the canopy) and hope that it pushes several branches in its final growth flush this year. Then after the first flush next year hardens off, graft into those shoots.

Alternatively, leave it as-is over the winter and then lop it off as low as you want when it starts warming up in spring. Graft it once the first flush hardens off. This would let you get a lower graft and possibly use less scions of that’s a concern for you. You just need one scion to take off on a short stump and you’ll have a full mango bush/tree in a couple years.

Maybe I got lucky but I’m 1 for 2 on Maha. I’m no expert so that’s around my normal take rate for mangoes.

Bone meal has little nitrogen and high phosphorus. Sulfate of potash gets you the potassium. I mix these and use around my mango’s.  For plants that like some nitrogen, add some blood meal to the mix.

+1 for Mike

I’m another who isn’t crazy about PPK. The fruit/sap smell is amazing but the rubbery and somewhat chalky texture (at least on mine) lowers its ranking. Also, my PPK is not vigorous. It’s not on some special rootstock but my tree has been 3 years in the ground from a well-developed 3 gallon and it’s only about 4’ tall. I get 1-2 growth flushes every year.

That’s usually what happens to fruit trees when they have a year with poor fruit set.