Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Lumi-Ukko

Pages: 1 2 [3] 4
51
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Root Pruning Container Trees (Zone 12A)
« on: May 17, 2024, 01:26:03 AM »
Quote from: Jaboticaba45 on May 16, 2024, 11:05:53 PM
Some sensitive stuff like cacao and miracle fruit root pruning should be a last resort.
Any pictures?
I'd just make sure to repot the trees into quality mix. If the original mix is bad, I'd remove it from the current roots as best as possible.
Are the trees rootbound or not?

Thank you for the reply. I am toying with the idea to ground plant the cacao, so perhaps not so much an issue with that one. However, the caimito and mango are definitely rootbound. I haven't pulled them out of the pots but it is evident from the soil surface that the roots have filled the pot to the detriment of the soil. No pictures but I can certainly show the caimito tomorrow.

With some of the others, at the time, I didn't have any sand to make loamy soil (sand for substrate is a rarity here in Yucatan where we have no overground rivers) so had to go hard on the perlite and compost mixed with our crappy local basic soil. Even though I have lots of drainage in the pots, I suspect there is a build up of sludge and salts in the pots.

I have since found a good source of silica sand for my new soil mixes so intended to pull many of the trees and repot them with improved mix. Some will go in bigger pots (root pruned if needed), and some will be returned to same size containers, again root pruning if needed.

Just when you thinking you're getting a handle on this hobby, you find yourself digging a new hole, pun intended.


52
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Root Pruning Container Trees (Zone 12A)
« on: May 16, 2024, 06:50:28 PM »
I have a few trees either losing vigour, or will be up-potted into larger containers.  Amongst these are Ataulfo Mango, Caimito, Starfruit, Miracle Berry/Fruit, Breadfruit, guava, cacao, and Lychee.

Information seems hard to find on several questions I have. Namely:

1) Are all these trees receptive to root pruning.
2) How much is OK or what is too much?
3) When is the best time to do it in a climate like mine (currently hellish hot/dry, June onwards is wet and hot). Can I get away with doing this in the coming wet season when there'll be plenty of good moisture, but conversely more chance of fungal infections?
4) Are there any requirements for inoculating the roots, or treating the roots after pruning?

If any of you kind souls out there have any experience or suggestions in any of the above, particularly with my trees, I am all ears and it would be much appreciated.

53
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interest in Jackfruit on TFF
« on: May 11, 2024, 08:38:18 PM »
A quick view of my jackfruit from two weeks ago. Only three growing and at current the biggest is about the size of a rugby ball. Also appears to be more flower buds forming. Any keen eyes can tell me the variety I have?



54
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Introduce Yourself
« on: May 09, 2024, 12:08:51 PM »
Quote from: FeveredMind on May 08, 2024, 01:44:10 PM
Hello! My name is Greg and I am from Riverside CA. Looking to grow my first mango tree and found this forum through google searches. Looking for guidance on how to approach that goal in my city.

Greetings Greg!

I have a friend whose sister lives in Glendora and they have a very productive mango in their yard. Reasonably similar climate to Riverside city I would say. I'm not sure what variety they have but importantly they keep it sheltered in a southwest aspect of their yard so it gets the most sun possible. It is also close to the house which protects it from the usual Santa Ana wind directions (NE), the few winter frosts, and gets supplemental heat from the building exterior.

55
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mangosteen scam
« on: May 08, 2024, 03:30:44 PM »
Quote from: roblack on May 08, 2024, 12:26:18 PM
Quote from: Lumi-Ukko on May 08, 2024, 12:20:03 PM
Per my previous post, here's some examples of the leaves on my so-called mangosteens. As you can see, they're not arranged in pairs. Pictures from my two smaller trees.







Not in the garcinia family. Don't know what you got there, but definitely not mangosteen.

Yep, they definitely don't resemble mangosteen from anything I can find. I have a mature black Sapote, which they do look similar to.

56
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mangosteen scam
« on: May 08, 2024, 12:20:03 PM »
Per my previous post, here's some examples of the leaves on my so-called mangosteens. As you can see, they're not arranged in pairs. Pictures from my two smaller trees.







57
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mangosteen scam
« on: May 05, 2024, 11:13:53 PM »
Quote from: elouicious on May 05, 2024, 07:16:43 PM
Quote from: Lumi-Ukko on May 05, 2024, 05:36:01 PM
In my case, none of the trees have leafs set in mirrored pairs along the branches, instead they alternate. Otherwise they look like mangosteen leaves. I guess my question is, are there any varieties of Mangosteen that have alternate leaves?

not to my knowledge- sorry

Thank you Elouicious. As I feared. It seems I now have 4 black Sapote trees!

58
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Ice Cream Bean help
« on: May 05, 2024, 11:11:17 PM »
Quote from: brian on May 05, 2024, 08:00:41 PM
My container ingas have always been trouble free.  When any unusual problems appear woth container trees I suggest gently removing it from the container and inspecting the rootball for dry spots, rot, or anything unusual that could be corrected

Thank you for your reply. Guess I'll bite the bullet and pull it from the pot and see what's what, before doing what my previous post said. The other Inga I have drains worse than this one so I don't think it's a waterlogging issue. But maybe best to take a look at the roots after all.

59
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Ice Cream Bean help
« on: May 05, 2024, 11:07:59 PM »
Quote from: elouicious on May 05, 2024, 07:14:04 PM
my first thought is your sick tree doesn't look that bad-

Inga can be tough in containers, they are nitrogen fixers but generally hungry plants so I recommend a 0 Nitrogen fertilizer- but I don't have a single product I would recommend, supplemental calmag never hurt either

Thank you! I'll add some more phosphorous and potassium additives, and perhaps increase the sulfur content a little plus more micronutrients. I have very basic soil and neutral or high pH plus days approaching 110f (43c or near enough) so I'm sure it is stressed, just surprises me the other Inga is doing so well. I'm not familiar with a product called CalMag unless it means additional Calcium and magnesium.

60
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Ice Cream Bean help
« on: May 05, 2024, 05:38:04 PM »
Just bumping this as a hopeful chance someone sees it and has any suggestions. Thank you!

61
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Mangosteen scam
« on: May 05, 2024, 05:36:01 PM »
Bringing this thread back from the depths. Over the last two years, I have bought 3 "mangosteen" trees in two transactions from reputable sellers on Mercado Libre here in Mexico. All three trees are succeeding well. However, on further investigation into the anatomy of mangosteen, it appears I may have been scammed.

In my case, none of the trees have leafs set in mirrored pairs along the branches, instead they alternate. Otherwise they look like mangosteen leaves. I guess my question is, are there any varieties of Mangosteen that have alternate leaves?

I fear not but figured I would ask before I go and plant them out on my friend's two hectare plot in the boondocks. As it happens, I have an old mature black Sapote and the alternating leaves and dark trunk are reminiscent of my purchased trees, only difference being my young trees have a somewhat more pinnate leaf.

62
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Container Plants?
« on: May 05, 2024, 01:34:07 AM »
Quote from: Tropicaltoba on May 04, 2024, 09:14:10 AM
Lumi has your Caimito fruited in the pot? Mine is ready to be potted up (15 gallon) but I usually reserve by big pots for proven trees.

@tropicaltoba, unfortunately not yet. The tree has nice old wood for the trunk and is close to 3 metres tall having put on a good metre in the year I've owned it. The current pot is very small at about 12 gallons or so and I think it is root bound. I have an approx 30 gallon concrete container to pick up for it next week, but I already missed this season's flowering period so I'll need to wait until next time round and see how it does. When I bought the tree a year or so ago, it was in a 5 gallon bag and the nursery guy told me it had recently fruited. The thing about here is even the ground planted mature trees often skip a year of fruiting. I frequently see some caimito trees with fruit and others without a single one. Very hit and miss.

63
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Container Plants?
« on: May 03, 2024, 10:27:19 PM »
Interesting topic for me, as though I have a decent sized plot of land, much of it is either for ornamental use (grass and shrubs - the wife's decision) or is already taken up by nature fruit trees like various citrus, Mamey, Black Sapote, Soursop, and Custard Apple. Not to mention the giant ceiba we have.

I do still have room, but until we build our growing house and I can see what space is available, I'm limited to ground planting only understory species like coffee and cacao, or smaller fruiting shrubs like certain guava, or Blackberry Jam fruit for example.

This I have a whole myriad of containerized trees. Some are doing very well (but yet to fruit), and then there's others that have way outgrown their pots, like caimito.  I've found that my remaining various anona are doing good in pots, as is my pepino Kat, mulberry,, pink guava, Curry leaf tree, Salak, and miracle fruit.

I'll follow this thread closely

64
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interest in Jackfruit on TFF
« on: April 29, 2024, 02:43:23 AM »
Quote from: fruitnoob on April 28, 2024, 07:49:18 PM
Quote from: Lumi-Ukko on April 28, 2024, 04:57:35 PM
I planted a 6 foot Jackfruit two years ago, an unknown variety I got from a local nursery here in Merida. It's now 20 feet tall almost and that's after I looped 6 foot last year. This Spring it flowered for the first time and set three fruit, one of which is already huge. I'm not sure what pests are going to get attracted to it, particularly at night where we have possums, iguanas, and fruit bats, so I might need to put some fruit bags over the fruit to protect them.
I am not sure what animals are attracted to jackfruits; I guess a lot of them.
I saw a video where people are putting bags over their jackfruits, so we are doing just that after seeing the squirrels climbing up my tree.

Squirrels were my fruit growing nemesis when I lived in SoCal, but they seem to be few and far between here. Plus during the day, the dogs are milling around that part of the yard which will help. I have some bags that easily fit maradol papayas in them so I'm going to give them a whirl as a proactive measure.

65
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interest in Jackfruit on TFF
« on: April 28, 2024, 04:57:35 PM »
I planted a 6 foot Jackfruit two years ago, an unknown variety I got from a local nursery here in Merida. It's now 20 feet tall almost and that's after I lopped 6 foot last year. This Spring it flowered for the first time and set three fruit, one of which is already huge. I'm not sure what pests are going to get attracted to it, particularly at night where we have possums, iguanas, and fruit bats, so I might need to put some fruit bags over the fruit to protect them.

66
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Lilikoi - Which Ones Do You Grow
« on: April 22, 2024, 10:29:00 AM »
Is anyone growing Banana Passion Fruit (I think Passiflora tarminiana)? I have four seeds (only), but no germination after six weeks in Pro Mix tented with cling wrap. I dug them out on Friday, washed them, and have put in a moist paper towel in a Ziploc as a hail Mary. I suspect my soil was getting too hot here with the incessant blue skies and 100deg+ temperatures. Just hoping I didn't boil them to death. Same issue with Jamaican Lillikoi and my Blackberry Jam fruit.

67
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Questions about Lilly pilly (syzygium oleosum)
« on: April 19, 2024, 12:01:56 PM »
Thank you Mike! Do you think Paniculatum will survive in a USDA 12A zone (it's the closest I can associate us to)? So far they are doing great in our hot dry season, though still small.

I'm quite excited by them as the berries tasted great and am hoping they will be the same when one day they fruit.

I need to look up some of those varieties you mention since we have a small jungle cabin outside of Cancun where water is less scarce and they may do well. Also will give the spider monkeys something extra to eat as they're losing a lot of trees to development.

68
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Questions about Lilly pilly (syzygium oleosum)
« on: April 18, 2024, 04:01:46 PM »
Quote from: elouicious on April 18, 2024, 12:34:56 AM
Its probably Syzygium paniculatum if they were magenta and tasty,

https://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Syzygium+paniculatum

the trees get large, but take a while to do so, I guess it is endangered now so you should absolutely plant it out, cant speak as to the polyembrony but they are supposed to be bushy when young so I would wait

P.S. my oleosum survived 18f

Yes, identical looking fruit so must be Paniculatum. The fruit struck me as having a similar taste and texture to its cousin, the Malay Apple, only more 'lavender' flavoured.

I have the opposite issue with temperatures where March to June are in the 100-110f range and in the main bone dry with clear skies. If I can nurse them through this stage as seedlings, I'm sure the mature trees will do well here as the UV cannot be any higher than tropical Australia.

As you suggest, I'll let the seedlings grow some more, before making a decision on what to do with all the stems. The largest is about 4 to 5 inches tall currently.

69
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Questions about Lilly pilly (syzygium oleosum)
« on: April 17, 2024, 09:59:22 PM »
Resurrecting this thread to see if anyone can definitively answer a question I have regarding growing Lilly Pilly from seed. I have circa 20 plus seeds I collected from a random tree I saw. The fruit were a magenta colour so I'm not sure exactly the type of Lilly Pilly. Tasted pretty good so figured I'd try to grow them. Anyhow, the germination rate was incredible with almost all seeds germinating within two weeks.

Even more surprising was the number of stems that came up per seed. Polyembryonic on another level. Some seeds sent up 8 stems!

Here is where I am a bit at a loss. There's very little information I can find on what to do with these stems. Should I/can I divide them into separate pots? Or should I cut away all but one stem? If latterly so, is there a hard fast rule or do I take the strongest looking stem? My last concern is if taking one stem, am I taking a tree of one sex or are all trees self fertile?

To reiterate, I never really expected such a successful germination rate, considering my forays into other fruit seed growing.

70
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Starfruit / carambola problems, advice needed!
« on: April 16, 2024, 09:02:23 PM »
Quote from: LostBoy_Dani on April 22, 2023, 05:50:07 PM
Thanks everyone! Today I ended up doing a rescue mission since it really didn't look well. Did this both with my carambola, and also a Soursop I have that was practically dead. I was a bit aggressive, since it looked like it was going to die anyways so why not do a last ditch effort of something more intense

Took the tree out, removed soil and cleaned pot. There was def rotting roots. You could smell it and there were brown patches of soft roots. I cleaned the root ball with the hose, being quite aggressive and removing all the dead / rotting roots I could, just using my hands and water so I could really feel where the roots were soft and also be more gentle (I have a neuromuscular condition that affects my coordination so often when using tools I have even more trouble knowing how much force to exert and can't control it as precisely as I want, so I use my hands for most things). I removed as much of the soil from the roots as I could. I spent quite a lot of time just cleaning it up so there was as little rotting root and soil as I could remove. New soil, lots of draining, no compost, soil is just sand, coco coir, and a bit of azomite and rock phosphate. I dipped the roots in copper fungicide, a bit worried that will be too aggressive but I was confident that if I didn't, residual disease would still remain and just keep spreading. Potted them up, and watered them in with the liquid version of rock phosphate. I'm hoping they will pull through, I know I was very aggressive but so far I've found that many plants I do this with have fared better than ones I've tried to rescue with more gentle means. We will see! Fingers crossed!

How did your rescue effort go? My carambolas (one in the ground and one potted) have many leaves just like those in your second photo. I'm currently considering a rescue attempt of my own should they not perk up in 8-10 weeks time after we get through the hottest driest time of year for my area.

71
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Suitable container size for long-term growing of starfruit and jackfruit
« on: April 16, 2024, 08:57:37 PM »
I would agree on not planting jackfruit to a container. I planted a 2 metre high tree 2 years ago straight to the ground and it is easily 6 metres tall now, even after pruning back 2 metres last summer. It is fruiting for the first time this spring (3 decent sized fruit currently).  I think it would have failed in a pot.

For starfruit, I am at a loss.  I have one in an approx 12 gallon pot at 2 metres tall and it it really doesn't seem happy.  On and off chlorosis (always trying to find a balance), and frequent leaf loss.  I formerly had two trees Starfruit in pots but three months ago put one in the ground and it is doing no better than the potted one.

72
Tropical Vegetables and Other Edibles / Re: Sweet Potato
« on: April 16, 2024, 08:42:51 PM »
Quote from: growinginphoenix on April 16, 2024, 04:55:14 PM
Quote from: Lumi-Ukko on April 16, 2024, 04:21:54 PM
Quote from: growinginphoenix on April 16, 2024, 02:13:54 PM
Quote from: Lumi-Ukko on April 16, 2024, 01:35:54 PM
Anybody know how much shade sweet potato plants can tolerate in a a high UV tropical location (I'm in the Yucatan)?

I have high UV, although not tropical. All day sun is ideal in my experience.

I don't think I can guarantee a location for my sweet potatoes that get a full day of sun here.  But given we have such strong sunlight I was hoping that a half day of sun or filtered on/off all day would suffice and replicate a full day of sun of regions further North.

I might need to rethink the size of container I can put them in if I'm to give them more sun thatn I was planning.

I have only tried full sun and full shade. In full shade they didn't grow. I imagine they will do OK with partial shade, but not sure.

I'm still propagating slips but I'll feedback how I get on. I'll find a place for a container in full sun, and the rest will go in part shade and see how I get on. All other things being equal.  My biggest problem are the pests down here. Iguanas, birds, opossoms, leaf-cutting ants, snails, mealybugs, aphids, nematodes, scale.  We have it all, often at the same time.

73
Tropical Vegetables and Other Edibles / Re: Sweet Potato
« on: April 16, 2024, 04:21:54 PM »
Quote from: growinginphoenix on April 16, 2024, 02:13:54 PM
Quote from: Lumi-Ukko on April 16, 2024, 01:35:54 PM
Anybody know how much shade sweet potato plants can tolerate in a a high UV tropical location (I'm in the Yucatan)?

I have high UV, although not tropical. All day sun is ideal in my experience.

I don't think I can guarantee a location for my sweet potatoes that get a full day of sun here.  But given we have such strong sunlight I was hoping that a half day of sun or filtered on/off all day would suffice and replicate a full day of sun of regions further North.

I might need to rethink the size of container I can put them in if I'm to give them more sun thatn I was planning.

74
Tropical Vegetables and Other Edibles / Re: Sweet Potato
« on: April 16, 2024, 01:35:54 PM »
Anybody know how much shade sweet potato plants can tolerate in a a high UV tropical location (I'm in the Yucatan)?

75
Tropical Vegetables and Other Edibles / Re: Galangal
« on: April 16, 2024, 01:27:34 PM »
Quote from: khachaturian on April 15, 2024, 01:17:46 PM
Quote from: Lumi-Ukko on April 13, 2024, 01:40:13 AM
Lastly, as you're in MX, I would be very interested to exchange seeds or cuttings for anything unusual that you might have or interested in from I, if that interests you.

Look for FB group "Frutas raras en México". It's a good start if you're looking for a trade in MX (yes, I know, can be hard sometimes).

Thank you again for the recommendations!

Pages: 1 2 [3] 4
SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk