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Messages - John B

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26
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Parfianka Pomegranate Blooming...like now
« on: September 26, 2023, 04:32:45 PM »
Thanks John, does those late bloom ever overwinter and mature next year? Or is it just a waste and I should just remove the blooms?

They will not overwinter. The ones that made it pretty close (just a few leaves on the tree while it's going dormant)  ended up getting scratched off by rats since most of their food was gone in winter. I'm in 10a San Diego (on a hill though) and I had fruit hang until December.

If the season stays warm, they may ripen for you.

27
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Parfianka Pomegranate Blooming...like now
« on: September 26, 2023, 03:41:22 PM »
Your location is a bit different then mine. My parfiancas are still all green, but did send out additional flowers. I usually get a late push when the weather changes. Most never make it to full maturity before it goes dormant.

28
I have the other plants mentioned except for feijoa. They are a great fruit and plant is very ornamental. I'm sure there are better tasting varieties now, so I may need to research more.

I may bag one to two of the potted figs, but the inground ones are going away. Too much time for me to care for multiple bagged trees at this point in my life. I'm going to reassess citrus after winters harvest.

This was the only fig that has not had maggots in it. Coll de Dama Rimada. It was delicious and one I'll probably keep. Got it from a forum member last year and grows like a weed here.





29
Well,

This year has been a bust on my fig trees because of the black fig fly. All but one of my figs so far have been infected - 2 in ground and 3 potted trees.

Went and looked at my multi-grafted orange/citrus tree and noticed more Asian citrus psyllids hanging out after getting rid of them couple years ago. Peeked over my neighbors fence and noticed their neglected citrus trees are severely infested. Seems like a matter of time for HLB infection.

So....for all you in Cali, are you still putting up the good fight? I'm at the point where I think I may want to pull them rather then dealing with disease/invasive flies. I would hate to lose years worth or growth on other trees that do not have these current issues.

What are your thoughts?






30
S8 has primarily single thorns but new and sporadic growth will have 2-3 thorns. Young vines and also have primarily multiple thorns, so something to consider. Too hard to tell but does look like it.

31
Not sure how heavy-duty the top is, but that is a consideration in case it fails in the future. You could just drill rebar into the top of it. How deep will this be buried? I used a full 50lb bag of concrete in a post form that was a good 2 feet deep. Don't want it falling over.

32
It won't matter. The plants won't be impacted. Looks like your making the trellis heavy-duty which is the main consideration. Do you have a pic?

33
Timbogrow, thats cool you got fruits the first time! I assume you cross pollinated yours to get them to bear?



Sc4001992 , i started them from the bases of grafted moon cactuses. I bought 2 moon cactus plants, cut out the graft on top and left the rootstock to grow. Back then i didnt had the chance to buy named varieties, so thats the route i chose. Now some 4 to 5 years later they are blooming.
I dont think they will be palora or another megalanthus tipe, i have megalanthus seedling plants( grown up), and the branches are very distinct. They are both something else.


I have another question, are most dragon fruit varieties white flowered? Or are there just a few of them that have the white flowers? Since they are unidentified, this may help the id if there are just a few types with such flowers.

Kaz is probably correct. Those Moon cacti are grafted with predominantly white varieties since they are commercial available. The most telling sign that Kaz saw are likely the vines/branches.

To your other question, yes most are white but that certainly is changing! So, it would be extremely difficult to tell the variety by bloom in your case.

Not sure how the taste will be for these, but you may want to consider grafting a superior variety. Good luck!

34
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« on: August 01, 2023, 03:21:07 PM »
Yep, already have ripe fruit from S8, and they are on their 3rd bloom flush. Most other varieties are just starting to ripen with a second flush. Grafting them all over in the fall. Maybe I'll call a couple of them "Neon".

35
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« on: July 20, 2023, 04:12:13 PM »
My season is just getting started here, and it's off with a bang. Never seen any of my DF perform like that Asunta is with a bud on every node, a shame the fruit is not that great... But it'll be pretty with the purple flowers.

Cosmic charlie, Purple Haze, and Dark Star are also all firing up.

This year is my first year with bees on the property and I don't really know how I will manage to pollinate with them "robbing" the pollen. My concern is that they'll be fully loaded off one flower and not cross-pollinate the self sterile varieties.









Looking great. In regards to the cross pollination, you could lightly tie the tip of a few flowers with a rubber band so the bees can't get to the pollen. I used to use my daughter's hair bands to do this. At night, I would take it off and save some pollen...usually from the S8. Now I let nature take its course. Black star and purple Haze have taken a hit with fruit set. I'll likely just graft everything over to S8 since fruit set is so consistent and I'm lazy.

36
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Best time to pull foil off of grafts
« on: July 20, 2023, 01:26:53 PM »
Once the leaves start to form, I open them up. I still leave the foil on and make sure that it's protected from the sun. I do that for about a week, then will completely take it off in small increments. Maybe about an hour the first day completely off, then work from there. But it also depends on if you're growing in a greenhouse and light intensity.

We have very intense light and the grafts and leaves can go into shock if it's just pulled off. In this picture I'm leaving the foil open around the loquat scion but it's protecting it from direct sunlight.



37
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / All Gone
« on: July 20, 2023, 01:09:31 PM »
All Gone!

38
Thank you for this, but for security reasons I no longer install programs that need to be downloaded. Too much risk for data breaches.

39
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: 🥭Mangos for sale 🥭
« on: July 13, 2023, 07:59:30 PM »
You Florida folks have a great hookup.

40
Interesting to kill the very things that will metamorphose into a beneficial pollinator. I no longer mess with symbiotic relationships in my yard. If there's a big problem, I just relocate caterpillars to my decorative plants.

41
Interesting that these are California grown. I'll pass at $100/lb.

42
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Seedling Mango tree thread
« on: July 03, 2023, 12:55:06 AM »
Can anyone confirm that Bombay is polyembryonic?  I thought is was monoembryobic but this neglected seedling is showing otherwise. This seed was already in a bit of soil when I received it so I never checked it out. 



Bombay is Monoembryonic from the fruit I sampled.

Fliptop, thanks for the report. Maybe the fruit will be better next year and especially if allowed to ripen a bit more.

Simon

The Bombay I had a few years ago was monoembryonic.

Thank you both. I may keep this one and approach graft it to an in ground tree since it seemed handle this last winter just fine.

43
Nice! Those mangos look much riper than the ones I ordered. I think mine were pretty early in the season and did not reach their correct flavor. Luckily the seeds have all been germinating at least

I got the same batch as you. Some Sweet Tart and Guava mangos down to 6 ounces, many others picked way too early. Early bird doesn't always get the worm. B grade for sure, but I'm still happy. Better than the mangos out here right now. He certainly is reliable. Just need to order when he goes to a reliable nursery.

44
It seems like people favor Maha, Sugarloaf, and Sweet Tart. I cannot find a nursery selling those in San Diego. I am afraid to buy them from nursery in Florida because my avocado tree I bought from nurseries in Florida died, not just one but 4.  :o
Some of nursery owners were very nice and sent me  replacements but  one of two replacement also died. No more from Florida for now. Avocado trees I bought from local nursery are doing well.
If anyone knows any nursery selling those  listed above mango trees in SoCal, please let me know.

This a VERY informative post that is specific to Socal. You'll realize there is more you don't know. Then you can start selecting cultivars.

Out of the ones I have tasted and do well in my location, sweet tart.


https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=23124.0


45



I put one of the sweet tart scions you sent on the Manila that is kicking ass,

John, I hope I can get the Sweet Tart scions from you as well next year spring, if that is possible.

Sure, just make sure you have a large enough tree since mine already blooms and fruits. If you have one already, I'll probably do another round later this summer since I'll need to shape the tree at some point!

46
I am looking for fast growing mango as well.
Are you trying to make some rootstocks for grafting?
That's the reason I am looking for

I am growing lots of different mango seedlings right now in SoCal. None of them have outperformed the manilla seedling. granted the one i have is not from home depot, but it is growing like crazy and likely to hit 12' this year. hopefully next year it flowers so I can begin growing those as root stock

Luke, were the manila seedlings planted in-ground or a pot? I have a fast growing lemon zest that I might be able to graft this year to a manila rootstock since they are both just a year old.

The Manila I’m talking about was put into the ground from a 15 gallon, and has taken off. For some odd reason I’ve had better success with trees going I tot he ground after growing in pots to a larger size. I have ppk, CAC, and orange sherbet which I received as 1 gallons last year. The CAC and orange sherbet I put into the ground and they really stalled out, and have grown with very very close internode spacing and small leaves. The leaves are finally coming out normal size and I’m hoping the internode spacing starts getting larger and I get some good growth.

The PPK went for. 1 to 3 gallon last year and just got potted up to 5 gallon and is pushing new growth and easily double the size of the in ground trees.

I put one of the sweet tart scions you sent on the Manila that is kicking ass, but I’ve left the rest of the tree ungrafted. Want give the fruit a go before I decide on working it over as it is such a star performer

Ah, ok! I thought a seedling had reached that height in a year. That would be impressive in Socal.

47
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Seedling Mango tree thread
« on: June 28, 2023, 01:00:39 PM »
Can anyone confirm that Bombay is polyembryonic?  I thought is was monoembryobic but this neglected seedling is showing otherwise. This seed was already in a bit of soil when I received it so I never checked it out. 



48
I am looking for fast growing mango as well.
Are you trying to make some rootstocks for grafting?
That's the reason I am looking for

I am growing lots of different mango seedlings right now in SoCal. None of them have outperformed the manilla seedling. granted the one i have is not from home depot, but it is growing like crazy and likely to hit 12' this year. hopefully next year it flowers so I can begin growing those as root stock

Luke, were the manila seedlings planted in-ground or a pot? I have a fast growing lemon zest that I might be able to graft this year to a manila rootstock since they are both just a year old.

49
Just received my scion. Thanks again!

50
S8 = Sugar Dragon = Voodoo Child

It doesn't produce big fruit but the taste is the best, and productivity is also good.

So I have Voodoo Child as well as S8 (Sugar Dragon), is it fairly settled that S8 is the same as Voodoo Child?

No, S8 is not the same as Voodoo Child. They are extremely similar but genetically different. They were different seedlings. Unfortunately, a lot of information from the old Yahoo Pitaya group are long gone which contained historical information by reliable growers. I'm sure someone can dig up the genetic testing information that was done. I grew VC back in 2012, I want to say. Flowers were slightly different and fruit was a bit darker. It was just another variety that went into the compost bin while the S8 lived on.

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