The Tropical Fruit Forum

Cleopatra has small pointed leaves, like most of the small fruited seedy mandarin species.

Good point, the leaf tip does look rounded.

I probably waited too long to try my emperor lychee. I left them on the tree so they were very ripe. That is the way I like my Brewster lychee. But that is probably what caused the emperor lychee to be flat and bland. My emperor didn’t flower this year so I will have to wait until next year to try them again.

Bill

I would definitely give that a try when it fruits again. It took 10 years and an article from Australia for us to figure out that we were waiting too long to harvest the Florida Hak Ip and Sweet Heart.

I gave my parents some cuttings of Purple Haze and Voodoo Child and they made it through upper 20’s in north Florida just fine.

That is interesting, did they protect them at all, or were the vines in a naturally shelters spot like under trees or againstva house?

In our grove, Emperor is best when there is still some yellow on the peel up until the point that it gets to the fully red stage. If it gets purplish, it will typically be flat. Sweetheart and Florida Hak Ip are also best when there is still some green and can even be picked when they are about half red/green. In contrast, Brewster should NEVER be picked until it has fully changed color to red (if you like tangy) or dark red/purple if you like mainly sweet. Maybe someone from California could comment since it is probably different, but that is the rule of thumb here in Central Florida

I went through the free treatment program through the state yet my lychee tree still has the LEM pock marks on the leaves in a few places.  Is there a solution to living with this disease or does my precious tree need to be removed? In places where they have LEM (Australia, Hawaii), people still have lychee trees, so is there a solution to control LEM and keep it down without it being eliminated completely? So sad, this is a 9 year old tree that only produced for the first time last summer.

You can spray sulfur yourself when you have noticeable levels of infestation. I believe that is how it is managed in Australia.

I have been looking into nitrogen fixing legumes. The best I have found so far is Jack bean. It can fix between 167 and 205 lbs of nitrogen per acre in a year's time. That would be enough to meet the nitrogen needs of most plants. It also has a large root system that does a great job scavenging potassium and phosphorus and requires very little water. Unlike many other legumes, it does not seem to be very paletable to deer. After nibbling a few new sprouts they have left them alone.

Maybe it is because we have well drained acid soil here in Central Florida, but Emperor is one of our best lychees. I have read reports from Australia that said it was sour there, though. I have also had lychee experts from south Florida say that the Emperor fruits they get down there are "washed out" compared to our fruits.

We moved an 8' Emperor tree once. I had told my Dad that it was a waste of time and that it wouldn't survive. But, I was wrong. It dropped a lot of leaves at first but it pulled through and is growing strong to this day. Cover the whole tree in shade cloth and leave a hose on a slight trickle 24 hrs a day for the first few days.

Same with mine. Just a couple panicles. What varieties bloomed for you?

Just curious, but have marigolds lost their effectiveness against nematodes?

Shouldn't it still be useful to plant smelly French marigolds around the base of any of the worst affected plants (at least in smaller-sized plots) and later till under the old, bloomed-out marigolds once they've passed their prime, to incorporate some further residual protection into the soil?

Bulk marigold seed should not be all that expensive.

Just pondering marigolds as an alternative option for the smaller fruit grower of whom there are many here on TFF . . .

Paul M.
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I have not researched marigolds much, but I believe they do have an effect. Unfortunately, I think that (like jack bean) they would need to be incorporated into the soil to be effective. This reduces the effectiveness for already established tree crops. I think these types of plants work best as cover crops and prior to planting an orchard.

There are several reasons I have been focusing on jack bean. 1). It has proven highly effective at reducing nematode populations (you will notice that plants in the study varied in effectiveness). 2). It fixes nitrogen in large quantities. Actually, it had the highest reported level of nitrogen fixation of any of the plants that I looked at (3-4 times the level of cowpeas in a year's time). 3). It can be grown without irrigation durring our summer "off season" for vegetable crops. This allows the same space to be used for my garden in the fall. 4). There are some other studies out there showing that jack bean can also reduce other soil pathogens and that it may even be possible to create an organic herbicide form seed extract.

I guess I am just really excited about this particular plant. Lol!

So, I was out in the yard today and noticed that an okrung mango seedling has some bloom just starting. I pruned it back hard around the beginning of April because of cold damage (I didn't have time to freeze protect the tree because of everything else I had going on). I have always thought that somewhere around the middle of April was the latest opportunity for mango bloom here, but I guess I was wrong. 

Some relatives from the north tell me that it makes excellent jam and that some trees have fruit that is paletable enough to eat out of hand. Choke Cherry should be a shrub or very small tree. My understanding was that it is not graft compatible with regular cherries (sour or sweet) because it is in the bird cherry section with Capulin and Black Cherry.

We tried kiwis years ago and did not get enough chill in central Florida. North Florida often gets too cold and they can freeze back.

Many grapes could grow in Florida if chill were the only factor. Disease seems to be a bigger threat especially pierces disease. However, Florida has a huge variety of native grapes (maybe the most in the world). All wild grapes come in male and female vines. Most of the vines are male and will not fruit. The most common one people see is a muscadine species vitis munsonia it produces 1/4" to 1/2" berries in small clusters that tend to be sweet and sour. The cultivated muscadine is vitis rotundifolia it is not native to south Florida. Ison (self fertile) and Supreme (female) have done well here in Central Florida. You might also try Southern Home which is a hybrid between bunch and muscadine grapes with mostly muscadine parentage. You might also check out Tari's Burgundy. I have heard good things about it. There are a couple people who are really knowledgeable about grapes, but they don't post often.