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Messages - nexxogen

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126
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruits of Canary Islands
« on: February 06, 2019, 05:54:32 AM »
Are coconuts considered ultra tropical? I didn't see them mentioned in relation to Canary Islands anywhere. If no, can you get fresh coconut there somewhere?

127
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruits of Canary Islands
« on: February 05, 2019, 01:53:14 AM »
Thank you guys, this is some great information.

Felipe, I would also be interested in visiting your farm if that's possible.

128
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Fruits of Canary Islands
« on: February 04, 2019, 09:01:16 AM »
Hello guys.

I'm planning a family trip to Canary Islands in the second half of September. For now, Tenerife seems like the most likely destination. I've read that fruits like cherimoyas, pineapples, papayas, mangoes and bananas are grown there in abundance, but I couldn't find much about jackfruit, sapodilla, mamey, white sapote, dragon fruit, eggfruit, rollinia, lychee, longan, mangosteen etc. I've seen some YouTube videos from markets, but I saw prices like 6.5 EUR per KG of dragon fruit, which made me think it was imported rather than grown locally.

So my question is, does anyone know if these fruits are grown in the Canary Islands, and if yes, where can they be found and which time of year? In general, what is the best place to go and taste exotic fruits in the Canaries, and is there a fruit farm where you can go and taste fruits off of trees.

And one final question: what time of year does cherimoya season start? Is the end of September / beginning of October too early?

129
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Buying Mexicola avocado seeds
« on: January 21, 2019, 05:13:33 PM »
@spaugh
Bacon seeds can do as well. Do you happen to have any?

@Brian
Are those varieties cold hardy? If yes, I'm very interested in buying some seeds from you.

@buddy
Unfortunately, the regulations in my country prevent me from importing scions.

130
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Buying Mexican avocado seeds
« on: January 19, 2019, 01:50:52 AM »
Hello. I'd like to bump this one in hopes someone might have the seeds now. Fingers crossed. :)

131
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Buying Mexicola avocado seeds
« on: October 15, 2018, 10:37:34 AM »
Let's try one more time. Does anyone have seeds of Mexican avocado varieties for sale?

132
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Buying Mexicola avocado seeds
« on: October 10, 2018, 10:53:58 AM »
I would like to buy a couple of Mexicola seeds or of any other Mexican variety of similar hardiness. I am located in Southeastern Europe.

133
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Blue Java banana experiences
« on: May 13, 2018, 01:18:45 AM »
I planted 2 "Blue Javas" last year. One in morning shade in March and one in full sun at the end of April. The one up against a west wall only grew to 4 feet. Not sure if it was because of the lack of sun, soil, roots tampered with by gophers or what. The one I planted in April unbelievably grew from 18 inches to 12 feet in 4 months. I cut it back down to 6 feet and covered it for the winter. It's back up to 12-13 feet with a trunk the size of a telephone pole. It also has 5 pups, the biggest at 7 feet now. Unfortunately no signs of fruiting. I'm inexperienced in the way of bananas so I don't know what to expect. I planted a goldfinger this April and it appears to like our full sun MUCH less than the Blue Javas. It was growing but there was a lot if leaf burn. I finally put a shade over the GF.

Hope it's not too late for this answer. The reason why your banana had no signs of fruiting is because you cut it down for the winter. A banana will never produce fruit if cut back because that way you also cut out the flower which is inside the stem. So the only way to get fruit is to not cut it back and just let it be, provided that your winters are mild enough to only burn the leaves and not the stem too. Only then will you have any chance of fruiting it.

134
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Frost topic
« on: December 14, 2017, 03:32:10 AM »
I couldn't find a better spot to post this on the forum, so here it goes. After hours spent on googling, I couldn't find definitive answers to these questions, so I hope someone will be able to answer them here.

1. I know that a low dew point can be an indicator of frost if the air temperature is near freezing. As far as I understood, the harmful ice crystals form before the dew appears in such conditions. I also know that there's frozen dew, which happens when the dew forms first and then freezes. My question is - is frozen dew harmful to frost sensitive plants?

2. Can frost ever form in rainy conditions, where the climate is such that the daily low falls a bit bellow freezing for a few hours only two or three times per year on average?

3. Where I intend to grow my subtropical plants, something looking like a white powder occasionally appears on the grass in winter mornings, but it's always only at ground level. Assuming that this is frost, can it harm fruit trees and if yes, will mulching around the base of the tree be sufficient to protect them?


135
Unfortunately, I don't live in the USA. :)
Could you buy on eBay? Internet has everything lol.

Yep, but hoses are kinda large, so I would expect a pretty big shipment price, and also, everything more expensive than 50 euros is subject to customs here, so that's some extra cost and in the end it's not worth it unfortunately.

136
Thank you for the advice Lorenzo. I will see what I can do. :)

137
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Thermal mass
« on: June 26, 2017, 06:44:11 AM »
Nice video. I guess water barrels would be more effective than walls, since water is a more effective thermal mass than stone, but the question is, how many would be enough...

138
So I measured the pH and it's 6.78. Can this value cause problems with nutrient absorption? It's not perfect but it doesn't seem to be that bad.

139
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Thermal mass
« on: June 26, 2017, 05:58:27 AM »
Hello. I'm thinking about using black-painted barrels filled with water as thermal mass to warm up my orchard during the winter, where I plan to plant some subtropicals like Lychee, Cherimoya, Carambola, Avocado etc. Where I live, the temperature goes slightly below freezing 2 or 3 times a year, but it does tend to get close in the coldest months. Everything I found on the internet about using such barrels for increasing the temperature was related to green houses, so my question is, has anyone had any experience with using something like this out in the open? I would really only need to increase the air temperature around the trees just a tad bit, but I'm not sure if these barrels would get the job done.

140
Yeah, there was that cold spur that brought snow to Athens, Greece this year. It's not normal. Where I live, temperatures go below zero maybe 2 or 3 times per year on average, although some years they never go below zero. And I wouldn't really say we have prolonged winters. Frosts that we get sometimes are light and low to the ground - I don't remember ever seeing it on tree leaves. I would say we're kinda at a borderline between 9b and 10a. I know of a guy that has a fruiting avocado tree (don't know the variety) that's like 7 or 8 meters tall, though a couple of times a bit of a cold weather killed the flowers on it.

Thanks for the info on how long it takes for fruit to mature. I will look more into this. I've read that Fuerte bears inconsistently, but I've also read that having a type A avocado (like Hass) near it can improve that a lot.

141
@Christian

I've found an interesting video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/e1e7cxoXeJo

This guy lives in a climate that's very similar to where I live, though maybe a tad bit colder. The followup video to that one is what I found to be important:
https://youtu.be/-FSOb4hdF8Q

At the start of the second video, you can see him standing in front of a healthy Hass avocado tree that has good looking fruit on it. I asked him about it in the comments and he said that he never had any problems with it and that it's more cold tolerant than people think. This kinda gave me hope that I could also grow it.

I was thinking about one Hass and one Fuerte so that they could cross-polinate, and Fuerte being more cold tolerant could give me better chances that at least that one survives.

Where in Italy do you live?

142
@Mark

Yes, it's precisely because of the cold hardiness factor. Any cold hardy avocado would do really, the problem is the availability. Though, I think a lot of varieties that aren't Mexican could grow here, but I was thinking about cold hardy ones just to be sure. I already have a lot of seedlings that I grew myself that will be planted in the ground some time in the future, but I would be much happier with a proven variety, and if it's cold hardy, all the better.

@Christian

Thank you for the link. I might just decide to go for Hass or some of the other varieties offered there. Aren't those rootstocks from trees that were grown from seed? If that's the case, than maybe it would be cheaper for me to just buy a seed and grow it myself? Though I might end up with something that's not of good quality...

143
Hello. I would like to buy a tree, maybe two, of some of the Mexican varieties like Mexicola or Mexicola Grande. I live in southern Europe, in the Mediterranean, and I know that Mexican varieties thrive in this climate, but no one sells avocado trees anywhere near (I guess people have no idea that they can grow them), and even the tropical tree nurseries in other parts of Europe that sell avocado trees, don't have these Mexican varieties. I'm not sure if it's possible to easily and safely transport a tree from the US to here, and if it is, how much would the shipping cost... But I'd like to try and see if it's possible, so if someone has what I'm looking for, please leave me a comment here. Thank you.

144
Unfortunately, I don't live in the USA. :)

145
Could be, but we keep that water in open bottles for 24 hours before using it to water plants. But in case that is the issue, how do I fix it?

146
This looks an awful lot like a chemical burn, possibly from Chlorine.

Unless there's chlorine in the chicken manure, there's no way it's that, because we haven't added any chemicals at all.

147
Thanks guys. Yes, I did wet the soil. Not only that, but I've tried dipping it in water only and no matter what, the pH always stays the same. I'm pretty sure it doesn't work. I'll be buying a digital pH meter for sure.

148
Ok thanks for the back story, very helpful.  Based on the timeline it looks like the problem started right after you added the chicken manure.  Willing to bet the pH of the resulting mixture was too low (chicken manure is very acidic).  Chicken manure is a great fertilizer but it lacks some key micronutrients.  My best guess is that you should mix 1-2 tablespoons dolomite lime into your top 1-2 inches of soil then water - this will raise pH slightly while adding calcium and magnesium.  However, before doing so I highly suggest you verify the pH of your soil.  If in fact your pH is too low (under 6.2), then dose with dolomite and re check pH every 2 waterings.  If you need any further help just private message me.

Cheers,
Jon

Thanks Jon. I've sent you a private message. :)

149
The plants were planted from seed last summer. They definitely were small for pots that big when they were transplanted (which happened last September if I remember correctly), about 8 inches tall, or so. They weren't showing any signs of problems, but then came winter. We had a very cold spur where the temperatures went down to 20F at certain parts of the town, which didn't happen in a long time. Normally, the temperatures here rarely go below freezing. Luckily, we have a huge balcony and the vines were positioned next to a south facing wall and were covered in protective fabric for the duration of the spur, and ended up with minor leaf damage, which was amazing imo. They started growing again when the warmer weather came, and they've developed this problem only recently, maybe 20 days ago or so.

Here's a photo from May 23rd. Now, they are about 26 inches tall.


150
We added about 150 grams of manure, stirred into water to each pot. And yes, it was composted.

I'm not sure about the exact dimensions of the pots, but I estimate them to be between 40 and 50 gallons.

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