The Tropical Fruit Forum

I have been in the heat spell last 3 days. I was a bit surprised that my Edward young fruits got burned and shrank in 94F and low humidity last Sunday. Maha, Peach cobbler, and other variety are ok. They are a little smaller than a chicken egg. Young Edward fruits are a little wrinkly or not smooth skin, and growing faster than other fruits.

I ended up taping a 3x4" paper to shade each fruit.

I bought a 7 gal tree last year -- newly cut air-layer --  and it's time to plant it on ground.
As all air-layer the young tree has roots developed way under the top soil level in the container pot, and so should I clear off the top soil until the root exposed and plant it with the top roots level with the top soil?

I understand that most people instructed to plant the new tree at the same level with the soil, but this seems wrong as the soil cover the bark and not where the top roots, and this can lead to rot.

Edited: I believe it is 3 gal and not 7 gal as I thought.

I had noticed that every year my PC was the last one to flower in March to April in SoCal. This is the perfect time in the season with warmer days and the fruitlets developed properly. Those that flower in January and Feb would have more PM and more undeveloped fruits. So I will synchronize all other trees to my PC flower timing by cutting off their early flowers off.

I bought some scions from Alex and grafted them about 2 yrs ago. All already have 24 to 36" shoots except this one: it never has sent out anything. This is Cat-Hoa-Loc and Alex told me the scions were too green and I said just send me regardless. Maybe it was too green and needed more time to send out new shoot but then it was too late because by then other grafts had grown vigorously and the rootstock no longer sending out the growth hormone for this scion. Have anyone had similar issue?

For me a perfect ripe cherimoya is everything about good timing, like controlling a nuclear fusion. It’s hours and not days. A little late and all the acid converted to sugar and it’s not good taste. This is one of the fruit that I can remember requires precise timing. How is your experience?

I don't see any discussions about this variety here. How do you like it?

Description from Toptrop:
"Originated in the Andhra Pradesh region of South India and is considered as one of the finest dessert mangos in the country. The fruit are large, averaging 14 to 16 oz. They are oblique-oblong. The skin color is green, even when ripe, and is overlaid with characteristic corky dots covering the fruit surface. As with most other fine dessert mangos of India, 'Alampur Baneshan' is best harvested hard-green and ripened at room temperature. In this manner one can expect an exceptional, multi-leveled flavor, from the deep and resinous to the intensely sweet. This is a mango for the true connoisseur, not the beginner, as its flavor could prove to be overpowering to the unaccustomed palate. The fruit are uncommon outside of India and due to its green skin color, yield limitations and propensity for pre-harvest splitting, it is improbable that they will enter into international export markets."

I had this grafted tree in ground for 10 years or more and it's only 36" tall with most wippy branches huggin the ground. Leaves are very small: 2" wide x 6" long. A very slow grow plant. I had grafted a few brands on other rootstocks (from seedlings) and the grafts are slow grower compared other variety.

I had eaten a few good fruits and here is my feedback: it's one of the top on my list, over LZ.  When ripe the flesh is pale yellow unattractive, no aroma outside. But it's a shock when it's inside my mouth: creamy like avocado with absolute no hint of fibers; very sweet but balanced taste, and the aroma (sensed by mouth/tongue and not nose) of the taste is so powerful -- almost like durian fruit and creamy. The fruits are bigger than Kent, and the flowers looking so strange compared to other mangoes. I called it durian mango in my family.

Cat Chu is a  high tier Vietnamese mango, small seed thick flesh with strong fragrant and sweet as honey described in this article. https://xuatkhautraicay.com/shop/xoai-cat-chu-xanh-cao-lanh/

Farmers started bag up individual fruit at 45 days old. Depending on the color of the bags used, black and yellow bag gives pale yellow Cat Chu, and white bag give Green Cat Chu, even when ripe,  but the fresh with deep orange color and taste are the same for both yellow and green varieties. To develop the best taste, farmers wrapped each fruit in newspaper and stored in cool place for 3 days before sale. Majority production is located at farm land near the river where the land is covered with rich silt from annual flooding.

I got some Cat Chu budwoods from Alex and grafted them last weekend. I hope my fruits will be just as good as those fruits from Vietnam that had been grown hundreds of year ago.

Yellow cat chu:



Green cat chu:

http://betterhomegardening.com/10-best-kinds-of-mangoes-you-would-like-to-eat/

He doesn't seem knowing  a lot about mango yet

Bill gave me two cuttings as scions for graft on July 29 2018 and I used Walter Zill veneer method grafted them the next day. It took two long months but finally I see the new bud coming out. I'm very happy finally I have a real Edward for myself. The cuttings were quite green -- very young still with tender leaves -- and this explains why it took 2 months. Remember Walter Zill said he liked to one season cuttings or those just had the flower stalks felled off. The very young cuttings took 2 months to mature. I divided 2 cuttings into 4 scions. one didn't make it but 3 do. It's interesting that the scion with terminal bud is slower than the ones with side nodes.

I experience says the best scions are the ones that have the flower stalks fell off.

New Edward bud:


Terminal bud Edward:



This is the Maha non-terminal scion grafted at the same time but it is already 14" tall with gigantic leaves:



You also can see another Maha branch grafted from last year that just have some small fruit right now. It beared this year fruits but they got burned during SoCal 115F hot July and now sending out new fruits in October.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp_QOOLRTcI
Most people would agree that in this video it is not easy or clear of how to cut the bark down to the precise “juicy band above the wood” as Mr. Zill said, or the cambium layer we know. Not deep enough or a little too deep then you don’t meet the cambium and ended up with a failed graft. I had used this method for more than 12 grafts and had higher than 80% success, but it need good eyes and light condition to see the cut. I developed a modified version that a blind famer can do with no fear.

Instead of sliding down with the knife – multiple strokes if needed – and trying to get exactly at the cambium layer (how thick is the layer – couple cells?), I use the knife to cut a rectangular box and pop the rectangular bark out (sort of like digging a shallow grave for a scion coffin). The task is similar to cut and strip the bark ring in air-layering, but instead of the whole ring we only dig out a long rectangular section the size of the scion to be grafted. This is much easy to have a perfect cambium than sliding with a knife. A top and a horizontal cut down to the wood and then two long vertical cuts the length of the scion, then I pry out the bark, then lower down the coffin, make sure the coffin end touching the bark (this helps the bark to grow new cells and joint the scion end skin)  and wrap up with grafting tape. (Don't worry about if the knife cut too long b/c the bark will heal if not dug out.)
Prepare the scion coffin: pencil size green branch that has bud about to push or ones that had flower some months ago. Make a sharp straight cut 1/8 to ¼  deep of the diameter of the scion. This should expose the cambium cells.  100% yield on this modified graft so far.

For thick bark root stock and small diameter scion, the coffin might not be higher than the bark enough for a tight wrap with the tape, then you can trim off the bark for a more shallow grave and a more exposed coffin before taping it up.

Happy grafting.

Since the common apples have a deep large dimple at the stem, I would think it  is a place that mosquitoes can breed. No?

Sorry it is not tropical fruit but people here are good at most fruits.

My 36" grafted Cac Hoa Loc from Toptrop had some fruits the first time. They all fiberous and not good taste. However its two scions were grafted on a 10ft Kent seedling gave excellent fruits, just 20ft from the mother tree. So it's worthwhile to wait for a grown up tree with more roots and more leaves to get more elements for a more better fruits. I hope this applies to other kind of mangoes too.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085OFNVE/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza

Why this parafilm tape can't be shipped to CA?