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Messages - simon_grow

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51
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 01, 2024, 09:15:55 AM »
Hey Seng, my grafted Dongkui bloomed last year but did not produce any male flowers, only female flowers. It is blooming again this year so I’ll check for male blooms once the buds open up. I probably will get fruit from some of my varieties but only because I have male blooms on my early hermaphrodite plant.


I believe Shane has a Biqi seedling that produced a few fruit (without a male plant/graft) after approximately 7-10 years, I don’t remember exactly but it’s a huge tree.

Simon

52
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: December 31, 2023, 03:09:59 PM »
Hey Seng, those varieties will eventually produce some male pollen and you will get some fruit eventually but if you want fruit sooner and you want more fruit, it’s best to have a plant that produces pollen wether it’s a male or hermaphrodite plant.

Fang from the CRFG has a Dongkui from the very first group buy and his Dongkui did not produce fruit for many years. If I remember correctly, his tree did not start producing until he grafted a male onto it.

The grafted trees can start producing blooms when they are very small so you can be losing many years of production if you don’t have a dedicated pollen producer.

Simon

53
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: December 29, 2023, 05:42:22 PM »
I also just found this bloom that looks very similar to my male Cerifera blooms. I’m guessing this is a male bloom because it definitely looks different than my female blooms from last year which had pistils.



Simon

54
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: December 29, 2023, 04:46:52 PM »
Here’s an update on my early Hermaphrodite blooms. They are just starting to open up the blooms and the blooms are opening from the bottom to the top. It’s still early but it appears these first buds that opened are “male” because I don’t see any stigma/pistils. My other female varieties are also blooming heavily.

Simon

55
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Harvest this week in San Diego County....
« on: December 26, 2023, 08:35:34 PM »
HoneyHart also tends to have a slight yellowish tinge in the flesh color.

Selma is another variety that looks different because it can have a pinkish red tinge to the flesh color near the skin.

Simon

56
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Harvest this week in San Diego County....
« on: December 25, 2023, 08:30:02 PM »
Nice looking fruit, I’m guessing it’s not Dr White because the protuberances are a little too elongated but Cherimoya phenotypes can be affected by the pollen if I remember correctly. Dr white is also usually much larger by this time of year but the smaller fruit next to the larger one is siphoning off some of the nutrients.

Simon

57
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango tree grown in California from a Florida mango tree’s seed
« on: December 23, 2023, 02:35:50 PM »
I would recommend that you plant your trees and just take care of them the best you can making sure you don’t over water. Parts of LA can have a lot more heat units than at my location and your Florida Turpentine rootstock trees can grow fine. Mango trees prefer good draining soil.

Your seedling trees should grow well until they naturally bloom. All your grafted trees will likely bloom in the first Winter and this can cause your grafted trees to become droopy. To prevent this you can remove the majority of each panicle to take some weight off. I would recommend removing fruit from your trees until they reach a good size. Good size means different things to each gardener but in general terms, you want to remove fruit until your tree is established and has nice strong scaffold branches capable of holding the weight of full sized mangos.

Simon

58
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango Pests, Diseases, and Nutritional Problems
« on: December 22, 2023, 07:31:16 PM »
Quote from: Staradventure on December 22, 2023, 04:15:03 PM
Good afternoon. Hope all is good. Was told I might be able to get a little help with a young mango I have. It’s a grafted plant I put in the ground around April this year. I immediately topped it to promote some scaffolding branches to grow. The pictures are the only growth it has put on since then. The original leaves are still present however they are slowly drying out. The leaves and lack of new growth arent a supper concern as much as the crazy growth pattern on top.  I haven’t had any real success in identifying the problem and was hoping for some help in that and what I can do to help the tree thrive instead of simply survive.




At a quick glance, it may look like Mango malformation disease but I see you are in San Diego and I’ve seen this on multiple occasions and it usually coincides with the colder weather. Your tree was probably preparing for a push of growth and fungus or the cold weather started disrupting the hormone signals in your tree. It could still be MMD but it’s difficult to know for sure without sending in samples into the lab for testing.

Either way, you have a grafted tree and your tree will attempt to bloom every winter from here on out unless you keep it warm in Winter. This is why I recommend people plant seedlings and push vegetative growth as much as possible in the early years and graft only once the tree is large enough to safely hold fruit.

Simon

59
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango Pests, Diseases, and Nutritional Problems
« on: December 22, 2023, 07:15:22 PM »
Quote from: Calusa on December 11, 2023, 08:58:19 AM
I have some scale and sooty mold on my Glen mango. Is neem oil suitable to kill the scale, or is there something more effective?

Neem oil will work but it will take many applications which will need to be re applied if it rains. The neem oil can also burn your plants if it’s hot and sunny. Try to rid your tree of ants. You can use tanglefoot to prevent ants from going up your tree and farming the scale.

Once you get rid of the scale. You can use something like Azera combined with a spreader/extender so that the organic insecticide will last longer in rainy conditions. You can also use horticultural oil to suffocate the scale.

Simon

60
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango Pests, Diseases, and Nutritional Problems
« on: December 22, 2023, 07:08:08 PM »
Quote from: love_Tropic on November 25, 2023, 07:00:52 PM
Any idea what’s going on with Kent seedling, it’s around 1 year old. One of the branches just died, so checking the root and found some thing like a white fungus covered over the roots… help please…
Will hydrogen peroxide work?




I’m not exactly sure what the white stuff is but it could be actinomycetes. Branches on younger mango trees can die back due to infection from open wounds that allow pathogens to enter. In marginal mango areas such as cooler parts of SoCal, branches frequently die back around winter.

The roots look relatively healthy to me. Since you exposed the roots, I would expect some transplant shock so be gentle with you tree by keeping it out of direct sunlight while it recovers.

Simon

61
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mango tree grown in California from a Florida mango tree’s seed
« on: December 21, 2023, 08:00:55 PM »
I’ve grown plenty of trees from seeds from Florida grown mangos and the vigorous seedlings make excellent rootstocks. Also, the turpentine trees can grow fine especially if the vigorous varieties are grafted onto the turpentine rootstock.

The main issue with the Turpentine rootstock trees is that, in the past, some of the nurseries sent pot bound and J rooted trees. The other issue is that for shipping purposes, most nurseries prefer to ship smaller trees. The smaller the tree is, the more difficult it is to grow in colder climates such as California.

The cold induces blooms on our grafted trees and this significantly slows down the vegetative growth of our trees.

If you can find Turpentine seeds or seedlings that are not pot bound or J rooted, they make excellent rootstock.

For anyone growing mangos in colder/marginal climates, I highly recommend planting vigorous seedlings and don’t graft with mature scions until your tree reaches a large size.  Better yet, plant Polyembryonic varieties such as Sweet Tart or CAC and push them to grow as fast as possible in the first 2-3 years or longer before they naturally bloom. Once a seedling tree blooms, it’s Ok to top work it because it will likely bloom every winter from then on.

Aside from the California Super Mango Rootstock technique, I have another technique that has worked well for me.

I just plant a seedling, preferably from a Polyembryonic variety and grow it until it blooms. If it hasn’t reached the size I want, I top work it with scions from a younger seedling that hasn’t bloomed yet. This will conserve more of the trees energy by minimizing blooms. With this technique, I sometimes get blooms from below the graft union. The bloom basically comes out directly from the secondary or tertiary scaffold branches.

Simon

62
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 Tropical Fruit Forum Website Fundraiser
« on: December 15, 2023, 12:56:48 PM »
This is my favorite forum! Thanks for keeping this site running. Big thanks to all the admins and forum members that share their experiences and knowledge on this forum. Happy Holidays everyone!

Simon

63
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mangos in san diego
« on: December 12, 2023, 03:01:58 PM »
Brad, those mangos look great, please let us know which ones are your favorite. In a mango tasting of locally grown mangos this year, Sweet Tart and Venus were at the top of the list. Lemon Zest was not in the tasting however.

Simon

64
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mangos in san diego
« on: December 12, 2023, 02:59:15 PM »
Quote from: palmcity on December 09, 2023, 12:04:30 PM
Quote from: simon_grow on November 03, 2023, 05:32:43 PM

I have horrible Powdery Mildew at my place but my Pineapple Pleasure grows fine and fruits fine for me. Last year, I had a bumper crop so this year, I only got a few fruit. The fruit are large and taste excellent. To me, they taste like a giant PinaColada. The Pineapple Pleasure nubbins are smaller, more round and are sugar bombs.

Hey Brad, I’m glad your mangos are getting established and starting to produce. I remember how difficult it was for you to get them into the ground and to prop them Josh’s they were young. Now that they are established, they should fruit well for you. Our cold weather which is horrible for young trees because it induces early blooms is actually a benefit if your trees are large and established.

Simon
Just curious Simon,
Which month do you prefer your blooms to set & hold fruit till maturity in San Diego area?

Asking out of curiosity as it sounds like your fruit are just now approaching the ripe stage.

Just as an experiment, I have one Keitt left hanging on a tree now in S. Fl and I will let it stay till it falls off or is eaten. At least in S. Fl. for this green mango it ripens very slowly once the temperature drops near 70 and less hours of sunlight occur late in fall. I assume it is the same in California presently. I believe my keitt bloomed and set fruit in March and could be picked Aug.. for primary crop or left to hang if willing to eliminate predators. 

I was surprised that Glen in California was still not ripe for the other poster on this thread as it is not a green skinned mango at maturity. Glen if set fruit in late Feb. to early March are usually ripe in S.Fl. in early June.

Hey Palmcity,

It depends on the weather for any given year. The early blooms which usually begin in November/December, if set, give some of the best fruit because they will ripen earlier and get more heat close to harvest time but these early blooms in Winter are usually infected with Powdery Mildew and do not set fruit.

The early and mid blooms at my location usually don’t set fruit because of the high bioburden, especially PM. I get the best fruit set when the weather is warmer so the late blooms usually give me the most fruit but these late blooms usually ripen in December and the Brix is sometimes lower.

I get blooms as late as June in some years.

Simon

65
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Prune my 12’ tall Manila to manageable size
« on: November 21, 2023, 11:06:49 AM »
If the scaffold branches are low enough, I would keep the scaffolds and top work them. If you need to bring down the height of the tree, I would stump the tree and bark graft in Spring. If the bark grafts fail, then I would let a few selected water sprouts grow out and graft them.

By bark grafting immediately, you could save several months of waiting for the water sprouts to form and grow thick enough to graft over. If you do wait for the water sprouts to grow out, I would recommend bud grafting the sprouts as opposed to Z, cleft or other types of grafts. The bud grafts are easy, give you a better union, you use less scion material and you can orient the bud wherever you want your future branches to grow.

I’ve top worked many large mango trees in SoCal and I’ve learned that it’s best to keep as much of the scaffold branches as possible, as long as the branches are low enough and are in healthy condition.

If you do attempt to bark graft in Spring, make sure you add a wick to drain the excess moisture and make sure you cut back on watering if you head back or hat rack the top of the tree. Drowning of grafts was my biggest challenge when I first started top working larger mango trees.

Simon

66
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Starting a farm in Southern California
« on: November 21, 2023, 10:47:04 AM »
Janet, this is an awesome project your family is working on. Seems like you did a lot of research on how best to collect and recover water so that’s excellent planning on your part. Careful planning, in regard to what type of fruit tree to plant where will also be critical. Please keep posting updates on your awesome farm project!

Simon

67
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: November 18, 2023, 04:27:03 PM »
These buds may be blooms as well.




Instead of individual buds, these buds look more like a cluster or rosette of buds.

Simon

68
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: November 18, 2023, 04:21:24 PM »
Wow, I can’t believe all the new varieties everyone has. It’s going to be awesome when we start fruiting these and comparing Flavor Profiles, Brix, Production, Season, Size, etc…

Many of the varieties I’m growing are starting to bloom. Here’s a couple pictures of my early Hermaphrodite buds.





Simon

69
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mangos in san diego
« on: November 03, 2023, 05:32:43 PM »
Quote from: Johnny Eat Fruit on November 02, 2023, 02:53:49 PM
Based on my experience I would Not recommend growing the Pineapple Pleasure mango tree in SoCal. I planted one in the ground in 2022 from a #15 pot and it grew poorly this year and is highly suspectable to powdery mildew. All of my other mango trees except for Lemon Zest did not have this issue. After doing some additional research I removed the Pineapple Pleasure and planted a Parfianka pomegranate tree Instead.

There are too many other mango trees that are far more vigorous and much more disease resistant than PP.  Seacrest, Peach Cobbler, Guava, Orange Essence, Val-Carrie and Fruit Punch are all doing well at my location and don’t have the problems of PP or LZ.

Johnny

Hey Johnny,

I have horrible Powdery Mildew at my place but my Pineapple Pleasure grows fine and fruits fine for me. Last year, I had a bumper crop so this year, I only got a few fruit. The fruit are large and taste excellent. To me, they taste like a giant PinaColada. The Pineapple Pleasure nubbins are smaller, more round and are sugar bombs.

Hey Brad, I’m glad your mangos are getting established and starting to produce. I remember how difficult it was for you to get them into the ground and to prop them Josh’s they were young. Now that they are established, they should fruit well for you. Our cold weather which is horrible for young trees because it induces early blooms is actually a benefit if your trees are large and established.

Simon

70
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Latest flush on mango has weird leaves
« on: October 18, 2023, 03:50:47 PM »
It could also be powdery mildew.

Simon

71
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: NorCal mango ripening
« on: October 07, 2023, 12:59:38 PM »
Congratulations, that fruit needs more time. I’d wait for the green color to turn more yellowish. I also like to use the technique where you gently Palm the fruit and if it falls off, it should ripen properly on the counter.

Simon

72
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: September 23, 2023, 10:10:49 PM »
Nice Shane,

Your tree is large and hopefully you’ll get a bunch of fruit this coming year.

Here’s a picture of what a typical vegetative bud looks like.




Simon

73
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: September 23, 2023, 04:23:31 PM »
Hey everyone, please post here if/when you notice blooms on your plants. Last year, I had my female blooms open up around the end of January for An Hai and Dongkui. I’m trying to trend this data so that we can match male pollinators with female blooms.

Your location and variety is important information as well. Areas with higher heat units and a higher daily light integral will likely get earlier fruit and the cooler areas with lower DLI’s will probably give us the later harvests but I would like to keep track of these data points.

Since many of our male trees are seedlings, they may have a wide range of bloom times. I would love to track when the buds first start forming, when they open their blooms and how long the bloom period is. Same goes for the female trees.

The regular vegetative buds look more pointed and the flower buds are more oval and have pine cone like bracts that look like mini hops buds. See page 15 of this thread for a pic of female buds from last year.

If everyone tracks their data here, we can trend the data to help everyone grow and fertilize our trees more efficiently and also potentially increase our yields by having the right combination of male and female varieties for best cross pollination and potentially an extended harvest season by planting/grafting early and late season male/female combinations. Thanks in advance!

Simon

74
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: September 19, 2023, 04:10:34 PM »
Quote from: Kankan on September 18, 2023, 12:31:29 AM
Quote from: simon_grow on September 16, 2023, 02:03:03 AM
I get about 90% take’s depending on the season.

Simon

Wow! Any lessons learned? I've come to appreciate the value of fresh scions but other than that not sure what drives uo the success rate...

The freshness of the scion and the health and stage of growth for rootstock are the two major factors but all the other factors that affect any type of grafts are also very important. When I graft, I think in terms of energy. I prefer to graft onto the dominant branches because there is more sap flow going to the apically dominant branches. If I graft onto a non-apically dominant branch, I will often cut off or shorten nearby branches in order to make the branch I just grafted onto the most dominant branch.

About a week or two after grafting is when the callous tissue normally starts growing rapidly in order to form the new union and this coincides with a growth flush that normally occurs at this time due to the removal of nearby apically dominant branches. With this growth flush, lots of new buds will appear and you can significantly decrease the odds of your grafts taking if you don’t remove these buds. This is one of the major mistakes I see grafters make.

Simon

75
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: September 17, 2023, 11:13:01 PM »
Those two seedlings look pretty happy. If you can get them to flush once or twice, you’ll probably be out of the woods.

Simon

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