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Messages - simon_grow

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1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Rudy #20 Cherimoya info?
« on: February 04, 2025, 03:30:58 PM »
I don’t recall ever sampling Rudy #2. From my memory, Rudy #20 is very good but im no longer growing it.


2
Yangmei are very beautiful, especially when they are holding fruit. The leaves are also evergreen and plants are used as ornamental trees in some countries.















Simon

3
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 31, 2025, 08:21:09 PM »
AnHai

AnHai was one of my most productive varieties last year and a potted tree gave me about 1000 fruit. That was a big mistake on my part and I believe the fruit quality would have been much higher if I thinned more heavily.

My potted AnHai was grafted onto Californica rootstock and was sold to a friend. This picture is from my in ground AnHai on Rubra rootstock. I will thin all my Yangmei much more heavily this year im hopes of improving fruit quality.

AnHai is a great variety that is productive, makes good size fruit and has good sugar acid balance. It is very easy to grow and fruit this variety.





Rainbow Male

This potted male tree grows like a champ. It is now about 12+ feet and is the only reason I got such a great harvest last year. It blooms before my first female flowers open and it continues producing pollen till after the last female blooms have dried up.

The male blooms are a beautiful rainbow color and the new  foliage is also a beautiful rainbow of colors.

This variety is an aggressive grower and I highly recommend getting a male/hermaphrodite plant or graft if you want a good harvest.





Simon

4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 31, 2025, 08:18:26 PM »
Hermaphrodite

This is supposed to be an early variety and it is a hermaphrodite so it will produce both male and female blooms.

This variety is easy to grow with the added benefit that it will produce pollen to pollinate your female Yangmei. This variety produces very sweet fruit.

You can see in the pictures that the blooms look different compared with the all male and all female buds. The blooms on this hermaphrodite are more stretched out and have large rounded red BB like flowers.










2025 White Honey

Here are some pictures of the White Honey. This variety is an aggressive grower and this tree is about 12 feet tall.

This variety produces fruit that have high Brix and high acidity. When picked in the golden yellow stage, it has a high acidic component but if left on the tree, it will fully ripen to a reddish Orange sunset color with a yellow background and the acidity seems to decrease or perhaps the Brix increases to the point that it is very well balanced in terms of sugar acid balance.

This Yangmei variety is very similar to Sweet Tart Mango in this respect.

I had a large crop on this tree last year and it appears this year will be even better.

The downside to this variety is that it can drop fruit in the yellow stage but it produces so much fruit that many of the fruit can still make it to the fully ripened reddish Orange stage.

Because of the higher acidity levels, this is probably one of the better varieties for making desserts like sorbet, ice cream, jam, marmalade and drinks.







 Wandao

Here’s an update on my Wandao. This variety likes to grow very vertical and it’s best to remove the apical dominance at a young age yo encourage a lower canopy for easier harvesting. I guess the same could be said for all varieties but in my yard, this is one of the most vertical growers I have.

I had a good crop from my Wandao last year and so far, it looks like this year will be even better. This variety is similar to Biqi and is very sweet with less of an acidic component.

This variety often has fruit in tight clusters at varying degrees of ripeness which makes for a beautiful rainbow bouquet grouping of fruit.







Wandao fruit from last year




Simon

5
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 31, 2025, 08:12:19 PM »
Here’s an update on some of my Yangmei plants.

The Jungle





Improved Dongkui

Here’s a few pictures of how the Improved Dongkui is going. I don’t know much about this variety and I need to give it a few years before I make a final judgement and overall assessment.

One of my Improved Dongkui fruited last year and the fruit tasted excellent but it was so similar to Dongkui that I couldn’t really tell the difference other than the shape of the fruit being slightly more rounded and slightly earlier than Dongkui but I forced the young tree to produce one year after grafting so it may not have really ready to produce.

I sold that tree to a friend and this is the first year this particular tree is flowering so hopefully it will hold some fruit. The leaves of this variety is very dark green compared to most my other varieties.
















Big Black Carbon

This year, I confirmed that this variety is mostly female but will occasionally produce some male blooms. The male bloom is at the base of the bud and I could only find two small male flowers on the entire plant but I wasn’t looking very hard.

For anyone that wants more than just a few fruit in the early years, I highly recommend getting a hermaphrodite, a male, or grafting a hermaphrodite/male onto female dominant trees.

There is a possibility that when the tree is much larger, it may eventually produce enough male blooms for a decent harvest without a male/hermaphrodite.

This tree is flowering like crazy this year and is one of my earliest varieties and the first one to set fruit this year.












Simon

6
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 10, 2025, 06:18:19 PM »
I just found a male bloom on my female Big Black Carbon. Last year, I only found female flowers. Here’s a picture.



Simon

8
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 04, 2025, 11:34:31 PM »
so on changyn.shop, it said all their plants are hermaphrodite grafted?  what does this mean?  I thought all the varieties on there are female.

On one of my friends test plots, we planted a row of Dongkui that I grafted with no males around and we got exactly 1 fruit last year. DongKui and perhaps some of the other varieties can produce fruit without a stand alone male/hermaphrodite but your yields may be significantly smaller and/or non existent until the tree gets larger. If you want a good crop, I highly recommend getting a male.

My White Honey which fruited last year and is blooming again this year has no visible male blooms last year. I will keep a close eye on it this year to see if male blooms show up.

Interesting observation!
I had the privilege of visiting Hapa Joe a couple weeks ago, and his biqi yangmei is setting fruits on its own (he has 5 females)
I maybe his other trees are making some male blooms or his biqi is making male blooms too. The fruitlets seem pretty big now, so I'm confident there is a chance they'll hold on.
Wonder if climate can influence the formation of male blooms or something?
Who knows, it's interesting as his are flowering so early in the season...

Biqi and some Biqi seedlings can eventually produce fruit on its own. Shane had a Biqi seedling that eventually produced fruit but the initial crop was light if I remember correctly.

I also recall that Marta used Pennsylvanica as a rootstock. It would be great to gather more information on the various rootstocks.

9
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: January 04, 2025, 04:18:28 PM »
so on changyn.shop, it said all their plants are hermaphrodite grafted?  what does this mean?  I thought all the varieties on there are female.

On one of my friends test plots, we planted a row of Dongkui that I grafted with no males around and we got exactly 1 fruit last year. DongKui and perhaps some of the other varieties can produce fruit without a stand alone male/hermaphrodite but your yields may be significantly smaller and/or non existent until the tree gets larger. If you want a good crop, I highly recommend getting a male.

My White Honey which fruited last year and is blooming again this year has no visible male blooms last year. I will keep a close eye on it this year to see if male blooms show up.


10
Could you use clay products like Turface MVP or hydroton expanded clay for the drainage?
Thanks Simon! you are always helpful... Actually, looking to control root knot nematode (RKN). Was told Pine bark fines helps to control . Also, Crab/shrimp meal but too much smell.

 

You could consider inoculating your soil with the beneficial nematodes and/or Winecap mushroom(stropharia rugosoannulata) spores or liquid cultures. The winecap mushrooms are delicious and their acanthocytes have been shown to kill certain nematodes.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1449000/

11
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: December 28, 2024, 08:19:45 PM »
Simon, thank for the update.  They look so healthy.

I bought a few myrica pensylvanica for rootstock. Almost a year now, and they still pencil size and about a foot tall.  Base on what you have right now, what is your ranking on the rootstocks?

Hey Seng, that’s a loaded question and the preferred rootstock greatly depends on if you’re growing for home orchards or commercial production. I have not tested Pennsylvanica but have a few friends that have used that rootstock. I currently like to use Cerifera for home orchards but Pennsylvanica may be easier to keep to a manageable size.

12
Could you use clay products like Turface MVP or hydroton expanded clay for the drainage?

13
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread
« on: December 28, 2024, 03:12:01 PM »
Your trees are looking great Luisport!

So far this year, my Rainbow male and Big Black Carbon are the earliest to open their blooms.
Rainbow male releasing pollen


Big Black Carbon open female blooms, started upending about three weeks ago




The Yangmei jungle



Most of my Yangmei trees are in pots and many are 10 feet tall after pruning off the dominant branches earlier in the year. If they were in ground, they would definitely be much larger.

After several years of growing Yangmei trees, I have learned a lot but I have a lot more learning to do.

I started off like most everyone on this forum and purchased a bunch of bare root trees from China through the group buys on this forum but most of the trees ended up dying, some survived but were extremely sickly and only a few thrived. Many people were extremely upset because of the high rate of Root Knot Nematodes that infested the roots of many of the imported trees and introducing RKN to your garden is one of the worst things you can do as a gardener.

I do appreciate the overseas nurseries that supplied us with all these great varieties because even though many of the shipments had RKN, I was still able to use the scions without having to worry about contaminating my soil with RKN.

If you do have an imported tree that is potentially carrying RKN, you should definitely quarantine your tree and consider all soil that contacted the roots of those trees as contaminated. You can look up the horrible damage that RKN can do to garden fruit trees and veggies.

Yangmei trees grafted onto the appropriate rootstocks that are not infested with RKN grow like weeds and bloom and fruit very well. They are one of the easiest trees to care for but they do require a lot of pruning to keep them manageable. On the appropriate rootstocks, they do quite well without having to worry too much about the pH of the soil. You just treat them like any other Citrus, Lychee or typical fruit trees and they will thrive.

I hope everyone’s trees are doing well, please post updates here if you get a chance. Happy Holidays everyone!

Simon

14
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Seedling Mango tree thread
« on: December 28, 2024, 02:26:03 PM »
Here’s an update of my Orange Sherbet seedling selection “Carina”. I only got two fruit from the grafted branch and unfortunately I harvested both the fruit prematurely. Animals were starting to eat my mangos so I decided to pick the second fruit as soon as the nose turned slightly yellowish.




I picked a Lemon Zest off the same multigraft tree on the same day I harvested the Carina in hopes of doing a side by side comparison with Lemon Zest. Here is a side by side picture of the LZ and Carina. The LZ measured in at 7 inches and the Carina was slightly over 7 inches. The LZ fruit was wider and the Carina is a bit more slender.

The Carina fruit also has a more prominent beak on the nose. Both the LZ and Carina weighed in at 1 lbs 4 Oz.












I was hoping the LZ and Carina would ripen up at the same time but after a few days, it was evident by the color change that the LZ was picked at the appropriate level of tree ripeness but the Carina was picked too early as it stayed green.



One week after picking the LZ, it turned fully yellow snd was perfectly ripe. It tasted great with excellent sugar acid balance with the typical Lemon Zest flavor and a Brix reading of 24.6.




Over the course of 3 weeks, the Carina only slightly lightened up in color and the nose started getting spots on it. The stem end was also getting super wrinkly so I had to eat it before it went bad.








The flavor was actually decent considering it was harvested under ripe. The Brix came in at 29% and the fruit had a very creamy taste to it but in this over ripened, under harvested state, it was missing some acid balance. I could taste some citrus in the flesh around the skin but this specimen was definitely not at the optimal level of ripeness.

Overall, this mango shows some great potential but it appears to ripen later than Lemon Zest. I will need to continue collecting data on this variety in the coming years.

Simon

15
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: 2024 SoCal Mango Tasting
« on: December 20, 2024, 03:13:08 PM »
You should already start spraying. My trees are pushing blooms already. You can start with Copper or Potassium Bicarbonate. The more active fungus you get rid of now, the less spores they will produce.

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: December fruit harvest pics
« on: December 12, 2024, 01:39:06 PM »
Awesome harvest Brad, I love how a lot of the mangos here ripen in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Keep up the great gardening!

17
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Seedling Mango tree thread
« on: November 28, 2024, 08:18:01 PM »
Here’s what the flesh looks like on the Sweet Tart Seedling #2


Simon

18
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Seedling Mango tree thread
« on: November 28, 2024, 08:12:12 PM »
Here’s a few pictures of my Sweet Tart Seedling #2. The taste and shape of this fruit is just like Sweet Tart except the fruit are very large. It could be a clone of Sweet Tart so im going to wait a few more years to see if it consistently produces jumbo fruit. The fruit came off my multigraft tree and this one panicle produced two giant fruit. One fruit weighed 1 lbs 5 Oz and the other fruit weighed 1 lbs 6 Oz. The Brix was 27.5% for the smaller fruit and 27.7% for the larger fruit. The fruit has excellent sugar acid balance and excellent Indochinese flavor, especially close to the skin.









Here’s a picture of the Jumbo Sweet Tart Seedling #2 fruit alongside regular Sweet Tart fruit


Simon

19
I wouldn't graft until the spring, the weather needs to be a lot warmer at night, best at 60 degrees or higher. Also they need more light to grow.

I've never got my PPK to fruit here in southern San Diego. I would go for the Sweet tart. and Pickering.

I agree with Mark regarding waiting to graft. I also don’t get fruit on my PPK unless I spray.

When multigraft it trees, be careful with your selection of varieties. Putting a vigorous variety like Sweet Tart with a much less vigorous variety like Ice Cream or Julie is not a good idea. You could make it work but the more vigorous varieties can overtake the less vigorous varieties after several years and the shaded varieties can die off.

Sweet tart is an excellent choice.

20
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: When to stump a 15' Manila in SoCal?
« on: November 19, 2024, 08:06:20 PM »
It depends on how your tree is structured but I usually don’t recommend stumping a tree to change over the variety. If your tree has good scaffold branches, I would try to keep them.

Simon

21
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Seedling Mango tree thread
« on: November 14, 2024, 03:27:55 PM »
Hey Brad, we planted so many mono and Polyembryonic seedling varieties at your place so that is likely a zygotic seedling. It could be a zygotic seedling from Valencia Pride.

22
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Seedling Mango tree thread
« on: November 13, 2024, 10:07:59 PM »
CA Hockey,

It’s been a long road but the years have been flying by and we’re Sri ally starting to get good production on a lot of our trees. All this was just a dream 10-15 years ago but now we’re finally reaping the rewards of all our hard work.

Im super excited that so many of us decided to grow out Mango trees from seed.

When I first started planting mango seeds, specifically the Polyembryonic varieties, I was hoping to get clones but now im actually looking for the offtype or Zygotic seedling from my poly seeds.

I can’t wait to see what interesting seedling selections we will discover in the coming years.

23
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Seedling Mango tree thread
« on: November 13, 2024, 09:58:14 PM »
Simon,

That ST#2 looks good.
ST is a great variety already. Now a Jumbo Sweet Tart? Yes, please.
If that seedling produces bigger fruits consistently, Jumbo Sweet Tart may be apt name.

Fruitfool

Agreed that would be a fitting name. I’ll continue tracking the size of the fruit to see if they are consistently large. I do get real Sweet Tart that approach this size but never on one panicle.

gozp, sounds like you’ve got a keeper!

24
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Seedling Mango tree thread
« on: November 12, 2024, 10:54:45 PM »
My breakfast for today. M4 seedling.








Gozp, How big is your tree and can you give a description of the flavor profile? Does it taste similar to the real M4?

25
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Seedling Mango tree thread
« on: November 12, 2024, 10:26:06 PM »
Damn Brad, that’s one heck of a harvest!

FruitFool, I picked the Carina too early and also cut it too soon so unfortunately it was completely under ripe and almost white inside. I still have one fruit hanging on the tree so if animals don’t get to it first, I’ll report back with a description of the taste.

I did properly pick and ripen my Sweet Tart seedling#2 and these fruit are fantastic. This seedling seems to produce very large fruit that is shaped like Sweet Tart and also tastes just like Sweet Tart. I got two fruit from a panicle I grafted onto a multigraft tree and one fruit was 1 lbs 5 Oz and the other fruit was 1 lbs 6 Oz. The Brix was 27.5% and the fruit had orange colored flesh.
Here are some pictures of the Sweet Tart #2 seedling fruit









Simon

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