The Tropical Fruit Forum

If your water high in bicarbonates and your soil is high in Magnesium relative to Calcium, this would be the cause of higher PH.

You can do the following in addition to adding a small amount of sulfur which may help in the long run:

1) Add a small amount of gypsum per year ( less than 500 1bs/acre) In the long run this will help to rebalance the soil and offset some of the water problem.

2) You can acidify the city water with an acid. This may not be practical for you.

3) Increase organic matter and make sure the tree gets an adequate amount of water. ( These steps help the tree to better handle a higher PH.)

4) A foliar spray with Manganese and Iron may help.

It's normal to get some cracking. The possible causes are: Inconsistent watering, Low Calcium levels, low Boron Levels, Low copper levels. Or a surplus of Nitrogen and or potassium.

I used to have the Natal plum. It got sick and died. Just one caution, make sure the fruit is ripe. It should not be eaten under ripe. The fruit tastes OK. It's not a 10, but it's not bad.

The tree is common in some old commercial Socal landscaping.

Yes, they do fine in coastal Santa Barbara.

I have used bonide Sulfur, and nutritional sprays for powdery mildew of the mango. Generally, I use the nutritional foliar sprays trough the season and well before the panicle emerges. I feel that they help to reduce the problem. Then as soon as the panicles emerge but before flowers, you can apply sulfur. As soon as peas size fruit appears, then you can continue using fungicides. If no powdery mildew is present, then apply sulfur again. If its present consider switching to Potassium Bicarbonate. Sulfur is a preventative but Potassium Bicarbonate is an eradicant. Sometimes if I see powdery mildew before the fruit is formed I use Potassium Bicarbonate. But I only do this if I have to.

Does Carmen Hass have a seasonal and production advantage. If so it might be good to take that into account.

I use all of the different kinds of traps. Sometimes different traps work better in different situations. However, the best trap overall is the gopherhawk. The gopherhawk is not expensive for me because the biggest cost of trapping gophers is the labor. If I include my time or the cost of hiring someone, I save money by using gopherlawk. Right now I have 25 of them in my orchard along with some macabee and box traps.

The Drought in Socal has made things even worse this year, because the only place the gophers can find roots is around my trees! The field had no weeds up until the most recent rains. So they constantly attacked my trees. In one case there was a leak in my drip line that created a small green patch of weeds in my orchard. So far I have caught four gophers in that spot and there are more there. So they were attacked to the greens and watered soil in that area. I have not figured this out yet, but there could be a way to have an area away from the trees were you water an area with plants in it that they like to lure them away from the trees. Then there could be a way to either trap them in that spot or set up some way corral them under ground. Just a thought.

Looks like it could be Manganese & Iron. You could add a small amount of organically chelated micronutrients to your foliar spray. That should stop problems like that.

I remove leaves from my yard so minerals get depleted.
Does your soil report indicate how long the silica last if you do the same


I have never retested so I would not be sure if the silica levels changed. I doubt they change much. In any case I never get rid of leaves. In fact, I import them. Like with so many of these minerals, they are usually present in the soil, but can the plant uptake them in the quantity needed?? That is the key question.

Silica would be helpful. Adding it would be helpful if your soil is low in it. Other minerals that would be part of this are Calcium and Boron.

Oxalate is a compound found in very high concentration in star fruit., Excess consumption has been linked to gout and kidney stones. I have heard that some varieties of Star fruit are lower in oxalate than others. So it might be good to find one that is lower.

Brad, what is the best way to purchase some of Zills seeds or seedlings? Which ones are the fastest to grow and  or produce fruit?