The Tropical Fruit Forum

My Bell I got from Xain is now about the size of your tree.

What was your impression of the flavor?

You will get the best bang for your buck in St. Lucie County, probably in the Fort Pierce area. There are still lots of residential lots close to the Intracoastal (aka Indian River) of good size. Other options would be Jupiter Farms, Loxahatchee, The Acreage and then random lots in Palm Beach County that are bigger than average with no HOA. Those are going to be a lot more expensive.

Your best bet for something super cheap is to buy a dumpy old house from the 1920's in Fort Pierce on a half acre lot with an empty lot next door in a foreclosure auction or bank sale. There is no frost here, the ocean currents keep the temps nearly identical to West Palm Beach, and I think we are less prone to hurricanes due to the geography of the St. Lucie River and the way the Florida peninsula bends back in to the west north of Lake Okeechobee.

I've had some start producing in about a year, depending on timing. Make sure they get water but drain well.

I planted two varieties right on top of each other just in case. It's only been a few months but the trees did flower without any fruit set.

Where do you guys buy the seeds of this escalibur and so varieties? What place would you trust? Or someone willing to sell some seeds of cold hardy strains? I would love to get some inside the sintropic food forest

Your best bet is to just buy the fruit and then you get the seeds. I'm not sure you could get seeds to Spain from Florida in time for them to still be viable. You might have better luck getting a smaller unripe jackfruit shipped to you? Excalibur fruit trees usually has jackfruit for sale in season.

I've had this happen to a few mango trees. When the leaf edges start getting wavy/crispy and the branches stop thriving and start dying back, it's trouble. The tree may not recover, or it may survive but grow at a much lower vigor. In my case I think the cause was root rot from overwatering and overtreating the tree. Once that happened, then ants/aphids/thrips started to attack.

It's variable. I don't think the sever drought stress is helping either.

The police should have checked out the Sleepy Lizard site to price those avocados per pound. 2 bucks per pound is well below retail, although maybe that's all you can get on the black market for stolen fruit?

I wonder who the big gangster is that you contact when you need to move a lot of avocados quickly.

Some good stuff not yet listed:

Tier 1: Coconut, Pineapple, Mulberry
Tier 2: Canistel, Black Sapote, Rose Apple, Mammea Americana
Tier 3: June Plum, Hog Plum, Wax Jambu

The pot looks a bit small for the height of the tree. Pouteria crave full sun (even as juveniles) so I would acclimate it back to full sun and get it out in the open. Those steps should help with the vigor. Put it in the ground if you can.

When I blow up your photos, I see tiny white insects on the bottom of the leaves, and a couple leaves that have little cocoons of insect activity. Spray the leaves with some Spinosad and dish soap, top and bottom. Gently scrub off the insects. That should help with the leaf damage. Make sure you don't have ants taking over the pot.

I wouldn't begrudge anyone their preference, and Choquette is a solid choice with flavor superior to the pure West Indies avocados that arrive earlier in the season. It's a heavy producer and the tree gets big with a nice overhead canopy, so be prepared for that.

After tasting many of the other varieties available around the same time, I prefer Ronnie, Nishikawa, Kampong and even Monroe. I have eaten Choquette all my life but these options are all more flavorful and creamier. Eventually I will replace my Choquette tree with production from Ronnie and Nishikawa.

I don’t understand a lot of the hate Choquette receive. I also grew up eating them. My parents have a 36 year old choquette avocado tree that produces some big, delicious avocados.

The earliest off the tree could be a bit washed out (still good), but at peak production it makes some awesome fruit. They get several hundred pounds of fruit off their tree, every other year.

I've got flowers on my Denzler and Younghan's. Campbell hasn't flowered and Fruit Hunter's hasn't even grown since I bought it a year ago.