The Tropical Fruit Forum

I uncover my mango trees today and they still look amazing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0Z1G9x5L_8&t=304s

Hopefully I got it all figure out so I can plant more this year. I'm very happy with the result.

Great job!

I can tell you have a good sense of humor. Somehow I see myself as the guy on the other end buying the hybrid seeds on e-bay--from Guava King...Ok bad joke! 

One important point in the story that you mentioned is that the boss gave his employees money "according to their ability." They were employed to invest money for him and he knew what ability each of them had in that regard. To compare the two stories in modern terms, you would likely be disappointed (but not angry) with your kids if you found that they blew the $100 you gave them on video games (or whatever kids blow money on these days). On the other hand, if you found that your financial advisor was burying the money you gave him for your 401k behind his office in a coffee can...let's just say he would not be your advisor much longer. You pay him to earn you money on your investment. If you wanted it buried, you could have done that yourself without paying him a dime.

Believing something and doing something always go together. If you hybridize F. opposita and F. carica it is because you believe that something desirable will result.

Last night we were eating starfruit and my oldest daughter asked me why we don't have a tree in our yard. So, I planted some of the seeds with the hope and dream that they would grow and I could graft a tree for her from the Sri Kembangan at my Dad's. Because I believed something I did something. The two are inseparable.

The key in all this is to believe things that are true and real. Many years ago I sincerely believed that Mulberry and Fig would be graft compatible. I even acted on that belief and tried grafting one on the other. As I am sure you know, that belief was unfounded because it wasn't based in reality.

One thing that we need here in Central Florida is a high quality everbearing mulberry that is resistant to nematodes. The last part can be obtained by grafting; the first part by breeding. If you planted a male M. Macroura and one of the dwarf everbearing types at your grove, any seed would likely be a hybrid between the two. If you plant enough seedlings, one should have both characteristics. Then you could have high quality mulberries any time you wanted. Mulberries are pretty popular in the rare plant community and it seems like getting a high quality mulberry hybrid would not be that hard. It makes me wonder why no one is breeding mulberries. I guess its because they don't believe.

For what it is worth, frost and ice have made an appearence here in central Florida. Looks like my mango bloom will survive, though.

That is really neat Epiphyte! Welcome to central Florida! Due to our monsoon type climate, most of our native plants have some level of drought tollerence. Shockingly, even some of the ones native to swampy areas can have decent drought tollerence. My motto is, "use natives as rootstock whenever possible even if you must go out of you way to find them."

Interestingly enough, there is part of Jesus' "Parable of the Prodigal Son" that does pertain to TFF and your desire to have drought resistant plants on your property. You may remember that the "prodigal" squandered his entire inheritance in a foreign country just before a drought/famine. As a result, he ends up eating carob pods (one of the "drought proof" foods of the middle east) with the pigs, before returning to the father who never stoped loving him.

Carob has been tried on occasion here in Florida. My understanding is that most pods rot before ripening properly. However, there was an old picture of a semi-selffertile Carob tree in south Florida that did bear pods. Maybe you might find one that works here if you bring enough variety from California. A cultivar that ripened pods from Dec. through April would stand the best chance, if such a thing exists. Central Florida is a bit dryer than South Florida, which might give us a slight edge.

If you want to talk about some other aspect of the parable, send me a PM.

There are several people growing it now who sell cuttings. Looks like Jan Doolin has it in her collection. She will probably start selling cuttings once it gets larger.

You can look her up on YouTube.

I think part of it depends on how long you want to grow them before you begin pruning. When Central Florida was entirely a farm community and land was cheap because they hadn't invented air conditioning, lychee and citrus were planted 40' x 40'. Given time, the trees would fill that entire space (particularly lychee). They would also grow about that tall and the tops of the trees would consequently be almost impossible to harvest.

After the 1980s they planted on 25' x 15' spacing. Lychee planted 18' x 18' will have full canopy cover in 15-20 years here. 40' x 40' would take about 40 years from what I have seen. Its about 1' a year once they get going (some varieties like Emperor are slower growers).

I agree with what K-Rimes said about needing space to move around. I think its better to squeeze trees in the row rather than squeezing the rows. For example 20' x 15' gives you more space to move down the rows and more trees per acre than 18' x 18'.

Never air layered Loquat, but I have air layered thousands of lychee. I have done everything from 1/4" to 1 & 1/2" branches no problem. I like 3/4" that are in full sun best (its also nice to have them fairly upright). Friends have layered up to 3" branches. The size is not really that important. Whatever you layer has to be cut back to match the roots when it is cut off anyway. Larger branches will typically throw roots faster than small ones but will need to be cut back more when they are removed. If you are doing a large branch use lots of spaghnum moss.

Does anyone know if this is one of the Cordia species sold in the wood trade as Bocote? It is such a beautiful wood.

The G 890 does look interesting (50%-70% of standard size with high fire blight resistance).

Here is a link to an apple nursery in Uganda. I love how they put a ☺ next to the disease resistant varieties. Its interesting that the three with the lowest chill requirement (by bloom time) Anna, Dorset Gold, and Shell of Alabama all are listed as disease susceptible. King David and Revrend Morgan looked interesting and disease resistant. King David is also a very hard apple until ripe which suposedly helps with insect pressure.

https://www.kuffelcreekapplenursery.com/apple_varieties.htm

Regarding Malus doumeri var. formosana, there is probably significant difference in tree size based on soil type. The original Vietnamese specimen that was used to describe the species (when it was still thought to be part of Docynia) was massive. I think the description said 4' trunk and over 60' tall, but don't quote me.

I didn't know lights could burn the tree. I'll have to be careful not to go crazy with it


I don't know how real the next week prediction is but it look really scary 😭 so I got a bunch more lights to prepare for the worst. Got more blankets too hoping it would be enough to keep them warm.

It won't be an issue while it is cold. Mine only did it because the light didn't get turned off after it got hot.

That is exactly how I cooked my first mango tree. The tree was covered with plastic and had a 100watt work light for heat. The light did not get unplugged. Later that day when the temps got up close to 70 the tree boiled sap out the tips of the branches. Fortunately, the rootstock was a Nam Doc Mai seedling and I ended up with a decent tree inspite of all that.

You all can graft fingerlime or Australian Desert Lime to your citrus tree so the graft nurses the tree. Just keep a short branch growing .

I’ve grafted fingerlime to my trees.
I’m waiting on them to push.
ADL is better but I can’t get ADL shipped here.

That sounds just crazy enough to work...I need to read up on that.

Re: Rootstock, suckering and long-term graft compatibility were mentioned as potential issues with grafting yangmei to M. cerifera rootstock in early FL USDA trials (https://journals.flvc.org/fshs/article/download/99102/95087/0).

It'd be interesting to know what happened to the yangmei plants imported by USDA to Gainesville and Groveland, FL (and TX and GA).

The University of Georgia reported 33-78% success rooting semi-hardwood cuttings in their 2019-2022 yangmei trials (https://ipps.org/uploads/docs/5b_sr_hutzell_2023.pdf) but very low success with hardwood cuttings.

Very interesting article, RS. Its nice to know that there were low chill yangmei from Okinawa that would likely fruit in Central Florida (since they were too low chill for Gainesville).

It is amazing how frequently this part of the state has been over looked when introductions are made. A tree does not like the cold in Gainesville or the limerock soil in South Florida. Surely it wouldn't grow halfway between the two...