The Tropical Fruit Forum

Every year my Rollinia has produced just a few more fruits and this year is shaping up really nicely.

Is anyone's Rollinia looking good>

Yesterday I was in Lowes and they had an unusually nicely shaped guava (upward growth habit like a tree and not a bush) in a 5 gallon container at ~5' tall that had experienced and had fully recovered from a water deficiency but it had no cultivar or price stickers attached  to it.

Most of the other samples in stock were marked with price but not cultivar but were small in 1 gallon containers and $29. Since this one was the only fairly large one a manager priced it at $11 so I took it home. Sure it could be a dud like some of those I bought there marked "Mexican Cream" which were hard and bland but I figured I'd take a chance.

The question is, would any of you take a chance and buy a good sized and healthy fruit tree that is priced reasonably and not marked with the cultivar?







   

Of the few I have done I've had about 50% success rate air layering guava and I'd like to increase that rate. A few of the videos I've seen use rooting hormone on the branch before wrapping and I wonder if using hormone will help? Also, I'm currently using coco coir and if there is a better media to use I'm eager to learn.

PS, is there a "good, better, best" type or is gibberellic acid the go to?
 

 

Last year my Rollinia set a lot of fruit, so much so almost every flower got pollinated. This year it bloomed like fireworks and not one fruit set. 

Last summer in south Florida (north Broward county) it was much drier and I had to water it regularly with well water and this year we've been drenched by rain and I have not watered it at all.

Could all of the rain washing away pollen and lack of nutrients from the well water be the reason for zero fruit?

Since the rains started the mosquitos in my yard have been unbearable. A few days ago several were floating all around me like planes in the battle of Britain.

I do not spray pesticides but I had a spray bottle of ag horticultural oil nearby, set it to fine mist and doused the fleet of mosquitos as they hovered around me.

Today not one has attacked me sitting in the shade of my trees.

Something to try?

After getting a dozen or so Rollinia to sprout, I potted those that sprouted and threw a handful of seeds in a pot and forgot about them. A few weeks later that pot looks like a chia pet! It seems as if all of them sprouted. Has anyone had better than expected results growing Rollinia from seed?

PS. I now have dozens of seedling available free in southeast Florida PM for details.

I generally use up much of my compost batches, what I do not use straightaway I give to friends.

My last compost batch I put between a stone wall and my house for storage. It was beautiful and the worms happily infested it :-)

Now a few months later the "compost" if I can call it that is made up of hard nodules and clumps of fine veiny roots. I'm guessing the worms and their tea had something to do with this but is this compost usable? If not how to recover all of my effort to make it usable again?

 

Once again I have some seedlings to give away.

1. I have a limited number of Rollinia seedlings for first COME face to face pickup in north Broward Florida.

About the parent tree...

I bought this unnamed cultivar as a 4'-6' stick in 2/2020 and now is approximately 14' high and is in relatively constant bloom. It seems to be self fertile as I am not aware of anything pollinating it. This summer I've taken about 12 nicely sized ripe fruits and the fruit and tree seem to be pest resistant.

2. Two Makok saplings in ground.

About the parent tree...

It's in constant bloom and despite her being shaded by a mango tree it has a regular supply of saps mostly year round. It's about 12' tall (never topped) and has been in ground since 3/2011

3. I have a few "Supreme" loquat seedlings.
 
About the parent tree...

Has been in ground since 2/2015 is a shy bearer but the fruit is juicy and sweet. It's heavily shaded, he NEEDS light but the condo in back of me has some 50+ foot garbage trees shading it. I got it from a commercial mango producer and loquat collector that was diddling with parentage, he gave it the Supreme name. The samples he had when he gave me the tree were outstanding.

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The catch(es)...

NO shipping of any sort, NO delivery, ONE seedling per person, BYOP (bring your own pot with soil) anyone who has a fruiting ornamental seeded banana to trade can have two Rollinia seedlings :-)

PM me for details.

After many years waiting for them my sweetheart finally came through with a bumper crop here in So. Flo.

Anyone else?
 

I went to the Rare Fruit and Veg sale today in south west Broward (thx for the heads up Alex) and I stumbled on a Guava cultivar called "Scarlet" I asked a worker there what it was and she said they didn't know more than it's a new variety.

I could find very little online about it other than a video I located from Cali or Viet Nam? The fruit in the vid coincidentally has the same ID label as the one I bought which now has 2 large and 2 small fruits on it.

The fruit in the video is fairly large!  Anyone in here have one or know anything about it? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki2F1UJkqsk

As a side note, many of the trees there were sad looking, full of rust, not trimmed, growing mish mash entwined together and it was much too crowded for my likes. Maybe I'll try going later in the day tomorrow or on Sunday the next time I go there.


 

I have several "dwarf" banana plants and all throw out a flag leaf at around 4'-5' and their leaves are all rather long at ~4'-5'.

One plant sends out a flag leaf with the plant still under 3' in height but the last few leaves before the flag are stunted almost as small as the flag leaf itself. Weird.


Is this one be some cultivar other than what I "think" I have, those being dwarf mysore and dwarf cavendish. Is there another named cultivar that fits this one's growth habit?

I just got a batch of parafilm to replace some that dried out in my shed.

Question, how do I store it so it doesn't dry out and crack? Seal in plastic in the dark?

How long should Parafilm be usable given it's stored properly?

Anyone had success with it?