FAA micro grove

[LumpyLumpAlot]

I know I don't post much here and reason being I'm not half as intelligible about fruit trees as most all of you are but maybe I can contribute in another way

Motivation
About 1 1/2 years ago I started a process to petition and gain permission to grow fruit trees at work. I am an air traffic controller and there is so much open land at the facility so I thought its worth a try and after soil samples, clearing it with all the correct people I finally was granted permission to plant 12 fruit trees!
I gained funding from my local union NACTA for 1200.00, 'no tax dollars' and I started right away.
2 rows of 6 trees 19' x 23' spacing





There are a couple of palms kinda close but I used the space as best as I could










My plan was for some variety that all employees could enjoy
Row 1 nort to south

1 Brogdon avocado
2 pineapple pleasure mango
3 lemon zest ( not planted yet)
4 Hamlin orange
5 dancy tangerine
6 Mauritius lychee

Row 2 north to south

7 fl hass avocado
8 valcarie mango
9 coconut cream (not planted yet
10 Honeybell minneola tangelo
11 ray ruby grapefruit
12 Mauritius lychee










I still have to get my 15 gal lemon zest and coco cream
My goal besides having delicious fruit to share and enjoy is to get people who may have never tried anything but a crappy publix mango to realize we live in a special place that can grow amazing stuff
Get out there n grow!
A special thanks to Excalibur for the 25 gal pineapple pleasure that was difficult to find for some reason
The FAA, NACTA, the coworkers who helped me dig holes, and all of you in this forum for the great wealth of knowledge, what a great community!!

[FlyingFoxFruits]

nice work!!!

I'm proud of you!

[nullzero]

Great project to get people eating healthier and more interested in fruit at work.

[Cookie Monster]

Good job.

I see you're in homestead. Are you growing in marl there?

[LumpyLumpAlot]

Thanks guys
The grove is off 826 and 58 st if your heading north look to the right before the exit. It's a federal facility with armed guards so sorry no entry

Cookie are you asking if I'm growing m lychee in homestead? Didn't understand the question
If any one is looking for 25 gal m lychee  85.00 in homestead pm me and I'll give you the grove name

[Ethan]

Great use of space, awesome that the powers in charge allowed such a project.  Usually the more something makes sense, the less they are likely to allow it.  Please keep us updated!

BTW, armed guards, you win for the most secure fruits.

[murahilin]

Cookie are you asking if I'm growing m lychee in homestead? Didn't understand the question
If any one is looking for 25 gal m lychee  85.00 in homestead pm me and I'll give you the grove name

Marl is a type of soil. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/tr004

Why did you decided to plant so many citrus trees? They tend to be very high maintenance in S FL.

[LumpyLumpAlot]

I planted the citrus because I miss my old Valencia orange, ruby red and tangerine that I used to have over in ft Myers before moved over here. Over in ft Myers the soil was pure sand and I just fertilized regularly with nothing else. Over here I will have to learn a lot from the citrus forum and millet on how to take care of citrus on this side, any ways I am at work 5 days a week and have plenty of time to mess around with the trees. Another factor is trying to please the many at work and to get a variety of fruits that people will enjoy. I still have another spot to plant and I want to plant sugar apple, just not sure what variety or where to buy good established sugar apples. I have about 10 small ones growing out in separate pots but are nothing like the monsters that I've see  posted here.

[edself65]

Great job! You have inspired me to attempt a similar project at my work place!

Ed

[zands]

Great project and money well spent. I am glad this grove is fenced off otherwise the fruits would be raided before they are even ripe. I hope your co-workers behave themselves and don't take too much so that others get nothing....Or pick fruits prematurely.

This would be a tragedy of the commons

[Future]

Is this the most protected set of gourmet tropical fruit trees in the country?  Well done!

[Cookie Monster]

I was just curious as to what type of soil you planted the trees on there at the airport.

If it's typical miami / homestead soil, some of those babies are going to require some care. Citrus and lychee will probably be the 2 that require the most care on that soil. Avocado and mango tend to do swell though.

Thanks guys
The grove is off 826 and 58 st if your heading north look to the right before the exit. It's a federal facility with armed guards so sorry no entry

Cookie are you asking if I'm growing m lychee in homestead? Didn't understand the question
If any one is looking for 25 gal m lychee  85.00 in homestead pm me and I'll give you the grove name

[MangoFang]

Lumpy - what a GREAT idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOOD FOR YOU, doing what you're doing.....I'm excited for you.
Now we have an airport close by...hmmmm.....I wonder if.......

 

PLEEZ keep us updated as time goes on....how are you going to
keep away Fruit thieves, just curious?


Gary

[cmichael258]

Great idea! Congrats.

[LumpyLumpAlot]

I was just curious as to what type of soil you planted the trees on there at the airport.

If it's typical miami / homestead soil, some of those babies are going to require some care. Citrus and lychee will probably be the 2 that require the most care on that soil. Avocado and mango tend to do swell though.

Thanks guys
The grove is off 826 and 58 st if your heading north look to the right before the exit. It's a federal facility with armed guards so sorry no entry

Cookie are you asking if I'm growing m lychee in homestead? Didn't understand the question
If any one is looking for 25 gal m lychee  85.00 in homestead pm me and I'll give you the grove name

It's a couple of miles from the airport the en route facility and they must have spend some money on fill cause the soil was rocky and black but not coral crappy like in homestead where I live anyways I threw in so some black cow with every tree and I will be looking for future advice on how to take care of the lychee and citrus

Here is a pict of the soil on the right side that's what it looks like, I planted the avacados on the higher side so they won't stay wet hopefully. There is built in drainage in the middle of the run with grate covers so It does have good drainage I'll try to take more Picts when I get the last 2 mango trees planted

[Tropicaliste]

Wonderful, good on you for tackling the project. It's nice to hear a story that involves the funding being approved, lol ... in no time it'll be a favorite area.

[cwojo]

Glad to see another worker making use of unused land around his work... Best of luck to ya!

[Cookie Monster]

The soil looks fairly decent. As long as there's organic matter, the lychee will probably be happy. The citrus will be the difficult one :-). The only citrus that I've seen do ok in alkaline / calcium soil is tangerine (or mandarin? I can never tell them apart). If the citrus start getting chlorotic, you'll want to look into chelated micronutrients (eg, keyplex 350).

[Cookie Monster]

PS for digging through the lime rock, you should consider looking into one of those caprock shovels with the solid fiberglass handle. They weigh like 10 pounds and can dig through anything. I broke 5 shovels (3 wood, one hollow fibreglass, one metal) until I settled on the caprock with solid fibreglass about 5 years ago. They are impossible to break. Not sure if you can find them online, but they retail for about 70 bux at the nursery supply shops. Best shovel I ever bought.

[PltdWorld]

Congratulations on seeing your vision through!

It's a worthy project that will continue to give back for a long time.

Well done!

[nch]

Very inspiring. Congrats and good luck, Lumpy.