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Topics - growinginphoenix

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / What Jackfruit varietys mature fruit quickly?

« on: November 15, 2024, 06:49:53 PM »

One of my zone pushing projects is to try and fruit jackfruit here in Phoenix. I have direct sowed lots of grocery store seeds this summer and last, and I would like to graft something next spring.

I read somewhere on the forum that jackfruit in climates with a cold winter will not usually ripen the fruit in the same year that they flower, but that there may be varieties that will ripen the fruit faster. Maybe even fast enough to harvest in the same year that the tree flowered. Does anyone know of varieties that mature fruit quickly?

Assuming that small fruit would mature faster than large fruit I did some searching and came up with this list in no particular order.

Nangka Mini^1,2
- grafts relativly easily¹
Cochin¹
Honey Gold¹
FAIR 1¹
Rang Dashni¹
Chirappuram Cluster Jack¹
Gold Nugget¹
Small/Mi Papi¹
Golden Pillow¹
- fruit as small as 3 lbs to 10lbs

The problem is that terms like "small" are relative and I don't know how small most of these are. I also don't know that small fruit will ripen any faster. Any ideas where I can find out how big these actually are, or if any of them ripen faster than others?

Temperate Fruit Discussion / Jujube seedling cold tolerance

« on: October 14, 2024, 11:05:09 PM »

Jujube are supposed to be hardy to zone 6 I think. I have a jujube (Chinese) seedling that is maybe 4 inches tall. I'm in zone 9b. It can potentially get down to 20F over night in my yard. Will this little seedling take that kind of cold if I plant it out in my yard now? Or should I keep it in a pot and protect it this winter and plant it in the spring?

Tropical Fruit Discussion / Has anyone tried the style of green house?

« on: September 13, 2024, 04:08:17 PM »

https://youtu.be/FOgyK6Jieq0

I guess this is more common in parts of China. The notable features are that the roof has an insulated blanket that is rolled down around sunset to keep the heat in and the north wall is very thick and made of something dense like masonry, clay, or maybe water barrels.

I haven't had an excuse to experiment with this yet but it seems interesting. The guy in the video is in Canada and only rarely provides supplemental heat. He doesn't drop below freezing and harvests tomatoes in the winter.

Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / looking for Golden Star carambola seeds

« on: July 22, 2024, 06:26:05 PM »

I have read that Golden Star seedlings handle high pH better than other starfruit varieties, but I haven't found anywhere that sells these. Does anyone know of a source?

Tropical Fruit Discussion / Why do branches keep dying on my mango?

« on: July 12, 2024, 11:58:10 AM »

This tree has been flushing new growth regularly all summer, but some of the branches keep suddenly dying. This time when I was inspecting a branch that suddenly died, it came off the trunk when I touched it. I noticed a little grub was in there and the wood seemed to have been bored into a lot. I also noticed a couple of the fruit have black spots next to the stem but I'm not sure that is related. Any ideas what is going on here and how to prevent it?

Tropical Fruit Discussion / Starbucks started giving away single plant humidity domes

« on: July 09, 2024, 10:03:31 PM »

Starbucks redesigned their cold drink cups recently. Apparently to reduce the amount of plastic.

It turns out that the Trenta size fits on the Venti size with a water tight seal.

Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Looking for 13-1 mango rootstock seeds

« on: July 04, 2024, 05:47:52 PM »

The only place I have found so far that has 13-1 is Tropical Acres Farm, but they only seem to have 13-1 grafted on some other rootstock as an option available on their website. I emailed asking about seeds or ungrafted seedlings last week but haven't heard back from them...

Does anyone have 13-1 seeds or seedlings or know where I might find them?

Temperate Fruit Discussion / Intermittent Mist Propagation - What are the pitfalls?

« on: April 18, 2024, 03:49:44 PM »

I haven't been able to find much information on the details of intermittent mist propagation searching google so I thought I'd ask here. It seems like there are several variables available to tune:

Time between misting
I would guess that this needs to be short enough that the water on the leaves doesn't dry out. Is it possible to have the time between misting be too short? How do I know if it is too short?

Misting duration
Seems like this needs to be long enough that the leaves are coated in the tiny water droplets. How do I know if I have this set too short?

Mist droplet size
I think I have understood that finer is better. Maybe a fogger is optimal? How large of a droplet size can one get away with? How would you know if the droplets are too big?

Shade cloth
It seems like all the setups I have seen have some type of partial shade. How much shade do I need? How do I know if I have too much or not enough?

Media to stick cuttings in
I have found examples of people using 100% vermiculite, 100% perlite, 100% horticultural sand. I imagine if I find that my cuttings are rotting at the bottom I should use a coarser medium. Are there any other considerations?

Of course there is also the type of cutting (hard wood/soft wood), leaves or no leaves, the species' callous temperature, and rooting hormone to take into account.

Are there any other tricks or knobs I'm over looking?

I recently cobbled together my own intermittent mist system and am starting to experiment with it. I used drip irrigation mist emitters 3/4 gal per hour because I had them and the drip irrigation tubing is so easy to work with. I'm not sure what percentage any of the shade cloth is that I used.