The Tropical Fruit Forum

It is hard to find Sunrise trees. Sunrise is a fairly small fruit but very good.  Hard to find Phoenix too. I was searching for an Orange Sherbert about 2 weeks ago and there was a a fairly large Phoenix at Fruitscapes on Pine Island.
I think it was a 15 or 25 gal size.

Fruitscapes has about a hundred young trees grafted on pond apple in stock now. Looked good out in full sun. Some are already blooming at less than 2 feet tall. Bought 3 for myself.
 Someone asked me if I had tasted it before. I said no, I never saw any fruit for sale at John Painter's. I was told his Mom eats them all since it is her favorite fruit at that time of year. I ratted her out in front of her daughter today and she giggled and gave a sly smile. Can't blame her. Great lady, always enjoy seeing her. Gave her a mango today she hadn't tried before.(Edgar)

I think the problem is the bad angles of the lower branches. Only one of the three remaining lower branches looks like it could support a lot of fruit.

No specific tips, but I have a tree nearby with plenty of material if you need to figure it out by trial and error. I have seen the other species propagated by chip budding.

I know Muscadines grow here.  I have a few recently planted. Last Summer I saw a nice productive vine of a black variety in Cape Coral on a chain link fence, so I know they can do well even this far South IF you make the right variety selection.  Not all muscadines will be productive here, if the varieties I picked don't thrive I might ask the owner of that vine for cuttings.

Less wind last night but there was frost on roofs, cars, and grass this morning in my neighborhood. I wasn't expecting that since it was supposed to be a few degrees warmer. It didn't feel any colder.

If you are able to buy and transport large round hay bales,  burying the trees above the graft line in hay can help.

When I gave them a trial, ALL of them folded over in moderate winds. ( below tropical storm force) It wasn't a root issue, the stems were just too weak. The plants just never thrived anyway in my poor Cape Coral canal subsoil fill. They are delicious but have slender pseudostems and need a spot protected from wind on as many sides as possible at least until you get a good mat established. You could use other bananas as a windbreak. Top 3 varieties for me out of about 20 I tried growing are

1.  Sweetheart (FHIA-03) Stocky, wind, disease and drought resistant. Bears early and large bunches excellent all around. Our family favorite. Very few suckers.

2   Praying hands   Excellent quality with a hint of vanilla. When cavendish gets dark it is nasty but these are still good at that stage. Tall and sturdy and produces well. Just cut the stalk to harvest once they start turning yellow. Disease and drought resistant.

3   Tall Orinoco (Burro)  Disease and drought resistant,slender pseudostems like Mysore but much sturdier. Smaller bunches of very nice fruit, the one I have has a hint of strawberry taste at the right ripening stage.

I have no irrigation and all have fruited reliably for me when mulched. They all are planted where they receive additional rain from roof runoff and/or AC drip line. I hit each mat with a couple pounds of cheap fertilizer to help them push some growth and again once they flower.

Dwarf Hawaiian and Maha Chanok are almost in bloom for me in Cape Coral.
Looks like Edgar is just starting to push some buds that I think will be bloom.
Last time it started pushing this time of year, it just kept blooming off and on. I was eating Edgar from late April until early August.
 Anyone else have bloom yet? This will be the fourth time in 7 years that Maha has produced off season fruit. I have has Dec/Jan fruit and twice March/April in addition to the normal July main season.It likes to bloom when weather changes. We had a cool spell of a few nights in low 50s followed by a rain and that seemed to be enough. Oddly enough,when my Maha trees were young their first fruit were from off season bloom. Maybe this is why it keeps happening,does the tree remember it fruited successfully at that time of year? I remember a lot of hype about Chok Anon producing off season fruit, but Maha Chanok is doing it pretty regularly for me. Tastes better too....

Found a ripe bunch of Tall Orinoco AKA Burro bananas ripening if anyone nearby wants to try them. This clone seems better than a half dozen others I have tasted, sometimes has a faint strawberry aftertaste if eaten at right stage.

I Finally found one, it was sold labeled as Red Lady. Since Papayas are grown from seed there can be variations even if they generally are true to type. Got lucky with this one.
I planted it at my Uncle's place in Cape Coral and it is loading up with fruit that are larger than the descriptions I have seen for that variety. Relatively low seed number, but it is an isolated plant. Very pleasant and sweet with less musk than a cantaloupe.  Some are a pound and a half and are seedless, others over 5 lbs with seeds. They must be very low in Papain. I am going to plant some seeds. Red Lady is supposed to be virus tolerant.
Any other varieties that are low in Papain? Does Tainung have funky flavor?

When I lived in the Charleston, SC area, Winter minimums were generally in the teens at least once or twice a year. One year, I tried extending the season for my tomatoes and peppers by covering with tarps when frost was expected. I had about 4-6 inches of mulch in the area a few feet from a brick wall.  We had only one hard freeze that Winter, the minimum at my yard was 26 in an area with good microclimate.  After that I thought they were all dead. I just left the tarps in place after that. When I pulled my tarps in Spring, one yellow Pear tomato plant and a couple Cubanelle peppers were still alive. I trimmed them back, propped the peppers upright,and they pushed new growth.  The yellow pear tomatoes were cut back and just allowed to sprawl as they were the previous year. It was very unusual to have a Winter minimum that warm. Tomatoes and Peppers MIGHT survive a single freeze to about 26 with some protection. They appeared dead after that, leaves and smaller branches were for sure but the main stems still had life in them staying covered the rest of Winter.