The Tropical Fruit Forum

I'm a fan of the Jamaica Cherry (Muntingia calabura). It heavily bears a tiny but tasty fruit. It is not very similar to true cherry. It a padanus or vanilla taste element that I find appealing.  I don't have any experience growing it - just enjoyed standing under the neighborhood tree and eating ripe berries off it

These are pictures of my Winterset Persimmon tree from treehouse nursery.  The tree has already fruited a couple of times and this has allowed me to confirm the identity.   

The origin of this variety is Treehouse Nursery In Bokeelia.  At their location I have seen the different varieties of persimmons mature and planted out near each other. Winterset is probably the most vigorous of all of the varieties. Fuyu is a close second. Hana fuyu and triumph are noticeably smaller trees. 

As a side note I believe the Wynterset is really the Ormond variety.  People in Southeast Florida hey not feel that the Winterset has the figure that the Ormond is described as having. The Orman variety is described as being a vigorous larger tree. And here in Southwest Florida that holds true. It is as large if not larger then fuyu tree.  Persimmon trees are ultimately smaller mature trees as you get farther south in Florida.

Those "Winterset" were obtained from Treehouse.

I need to kill a tree.

Yes I said it.

Any one know what I need to kill the roots

For those in Florida and the Caribbean...hurricane season is upon us.  The current prediction is a light hurricane season.     http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/hurricane-season-outlook-atlantic-2014-el-nino-20140324

A severe hurricane would likely destroy most of my tropical fruit tree collection because the trees are relatively young; two years in ground.  All of my trees are under 15 feet tall.  The largest trunk is only about 4 inches thick. 

So I began thinking...what if???   What if a hurricane leveled your tropical fruit tree collection and you had to start all over again?  What would you do differently?

I want to cut down a 9' Sweetheart lychee tree and put in a Makok sapodilla in its place. I'm in zone 9b. I had serious mango limb die-back 3 years ago in that nasty, nasty Florida winter (coldest on record), but my mango trees did not die. The lowest temp that week was 26 degrees one morning.

Are sapodillas (specifically the Makok variety), more, less, or equal in cold hardiness to mangoes?

And in case you're wondering why I am cutting down my lychee I am DONE waiting for my worthless Sweetheart to produce.       It has ONE fruit on it.

Plus I have another 8 lychee trees in my yard. My other choice to plant there is a medium sized Emperor lychee I have in a pot and maybe keep my Makok in a very large pot.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Maybe there is a shelter or food bank nearby that would be appreciative?

Here I am in Houston Texas without a mango tree.  I am about to take out an "early amber" peach because it is too big to net and the squirrels get all the fruit anyway.  I want to replace it with one of the condo mangoes.  Which ones are the most cold hardy?  Here in zone 9a we dip below freezing a couple time a winter (maybe as cold as 27 degrees, although it got to the low teens back in '89).

I love grapefruit.

I have one prime planting spot in my yard.

As a kid growing up in South Florida I remember seeing orange and grapefruit trees everywhere. Groves, gardens, yards, etc. Now I don't notice too many trees out and about.

I read about HLB / greening ruining Florida citrus.

I do not want a high-maintenance tree, a tree that requires heavy chemicals to protect,  or a tree that is likely to be killed several years down the road.