The Tropical Fruit Forum

I have two garcinia seedlings (~10in tall) in my greenhouse, with no shade.  My temp sensors read ~110F whenever it is bright and sunny outside.  They look happy, but I've only had them a month or two.

I'm not sure if northern greenhouse temps are meaningful compared to outside temps in hot climates.

You can grow peaches in Florida??  I figured it would be too warm all year.

Whenever I've seen fruit fail to mature it was always on citrus trees that were stressed.  My in-ground trees such as peach quickly drop any fruits that do not reach maturity.

What's to need for seedlessness with juice oranges?  People don't use juice reamer/filters?

I just tried it on a tree with fresh new growth but the bark band started breaking into pieces as I was removing it so I stopped 1/3 of the way through and put the pieces back.  I feel like the bark on my trees is never slipping enough to graft. 

Wow, just read your PDF.   I'm glad there is such a market for this that it can fund exotic grow methods.   It seems insane to me to pay these prices for fruit, but I feel the same way about expensive wine, Kobe beef, etc.  I'm glad somebody wants it enough to pay for it, and the rest of us can learn from their systems.

That's an awesome article!  Thank you for posting a link.  To me, the important claims here are:

• external limb & fruit support encourages fruiting by way of less wasted structural growth

Seems reasonable.  Neat idea

• regular, severe pruning
• limiting root growth
• limiting vertical growth

None of these things reduce fruit yield per sqft?  I would assume they would


This method also looks very labor intensive.  It makes sense to me for a greenhouse where the cost per sqft is far higher than growing mangoes outdoors.  The article claims growers are getting $3-5USD each for their mangoes.  The USDA retail websites says mangoes retail in US for ~$1.50/each,   This website https://novagrim.com/prices lists wholesale mango prices as ~1euro/kg.  I am skeptical that doing all this work makes economic sense.  I wonder why Japan doesn't import them instead?

In any case, I am very interested because I have a greenhouse where space is at a premium.  If it works for these fruits I can't imagine why it wouldn't work for citrus.

 I'm not sure I want a bunch of wires hanging in my greenhouse everywhere, though, it already drives me crazy with anything in the way there.  Supporting tree limbs and trunks using stiff wire to a post adjacent to the trunk might be tolerable - like staking tomatoes.   I am already doing this for some to keep the branches from touching the floor and getting ripped off when moving the hose around.  I wonder about the root binding also... wouldn't closely-planted, shallow-rooted trees like citrus already have limited root growth because the roots of adjacent trees will be up against each other?  Maybe mangoes and avocadoes have deeper roots.  Finally, are they wasting climate-controlled greenhouse space by limiting vertical growth?  Why not have a lower roof at least?  Unless sunlight is the limiting factor.


BTW my favorite part is the "mangoes out - money in" graphic 

Can you provide more information on the method you describe?  Google doesn't turn up anything when I search for "Japanese dwarfing methods for mango"

Meyer lemons have a strong perfume scent that common lemons do not.  Some people might like that.  Also their rind is thin and not bitter, you could it it like an apple if you really like lemon.  Tried this once, would not do again.

Yup, it’s a good mix. 

I just repotted a bunch of plants into 5-1-5 mulch/peat/turface and I like it a lot.   It’s easy potting up plants because the mix flows well and is dense enough to support plants.  Drains very well.  I think this must be close to your experience

I'd be interested in trying a kumquat grapefruit hybrid, though my experience so far is that kumquat hybrids aren't worthwhile.

Oh I thought you meant the marketing name.  Let me check the back...