re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

Dang those look awesome! I like how the Silas is pruned. I was worried it was going to take 5 years for this tree to get fun lol

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Grafted Silas Wood

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I have one of these. It had a fruit on it when I got it but I cut that off.

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Insanely productive tree.

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Idk if I even like sapodilla but this gets me really excited.

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I have one of these. It had a fruit on it when I got it but I cut that off.

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Smart move. It's all an investment.

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Idk if I even like sapodilla

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There are only 2 kinds of people I've ever met who don't like sapodilla. People who think they are too sweet and people who have only had seedling varieties and old cultivars like Brown Sugar that are very gritty.

Alano, Hasya, Moreno, Molix, Tikal, Silas Wood, and Makok are all fire. Never had a butterscotch but people say it's fantastic and a poor producer.

If you have kids you won't be able to keep them off the tree. It's candy.

Costa Farms releases those to Lowe’s once a year I think. They sell out immediately

edit: captain obvious (me) missed that this is from costa farms’ IG account

They are cool little trees. I have one that gets brutal intense full sun and another sort of tucked into a corner near my home that gets some shade. The one with some shade is doing marginally better than the other; but, both are growing faster than any banana tree I’ve encountered. I fully expect them to be 6 or more feet tall by the the end of the year.

I've seen the pink nono do great in pots. I'm holding out for a Musa Florida. Thanks for posting this I know some people who will be interested.

First mangos and white sapote of the year arrived. Mangos are from Mina Iskandar and sapotes are from Serendib Farms. The sapotes are Redland variety. We got the following mango varieties:

Carrie
Chloe
Duncan
Dupuis Saigon
Edward
Fruit Punch
Guava (Sein ta lone)
Phillipine




I've had all these before except Dupuis Saigon and Chloe. I think Chloe may be Iskandar's seedling fruit. Never heard of it before. Will post a report on each as they ripen to compare.

Full credit to her; these look good so she’s at least letting them ripen a bit or harvesting at a very mature green.

Some outfits harvest way too early. Like immature green. I’ve had some take 12-15 or more days to ripen on the counter.

I think Chloe is a seedling, I don’t think I’ve had either Guava and Dupuis.

I only buy from Mina and Tropical Acres. They are the only ones sending 100% prime fruit. Tried about 8 other vendors over the last couple of years and got a lot of way too early fruit and way too late fruit.

Guava is an amazing mango. My two favorite fruits are guava and mango. This is the perfect combination of the two. If it wasn't such a big tree I would grow it. I will probably graft a branch into my Pickering or Cecilove one day.

New trees in the ground. Was hoping to get this little horse trade done earlier in the year; but, the freeze set this back a bit.

A friend of mine in Sarasota went down the rabbit hole of boutique and rare bananas a few years back. He’s got two dozen different varieties at his place. He agreed to separate some out of his patches for me. Handed me two monsters today..



First up is Hua Moa…. It’s from Polynesia. Popular in Hawaii. The large bananas grow to as much as 10 inches long and 4 inches thick weighing as much as a pound each. Creamy and sweet; people treat them more like a plantain than a banana. Good for frying or cooking as well as eating out of hand.




Then the other side of the spectrum.

The other is Pitogo. It’s from the Phillipines and known for its small, round, to tear-drop shape and creamy texture. The fruit is roughly the size of a golf ball with berry notes.