re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

right on

Love this thread. People giving/trading stuff. Thanks to all for participating and special thanks to Wiltz and Lanier who actually live somewhere where tropicals are grown and offer such good advice.

Bunch of early season photos coming later today. These are the fun times, baws. If we are going to live with 90F and 75% RH let's at least grow the coolest things.

OK bunch of early season updates. Let's do the palms first. Been on a real palm kick.

Lipstick finally happy.


Flamethrower pushing a new spear. This one wasn't draining for some reason and I cannot figure out why. Keeping a close eye on it. Seems to be ok with a couple hours of direct sun each day.


On the left, Chamaedorea radicalis. One the right, Adonidia merilli, the Christmas palm. The radicalis is hardy to the teens, takes full sun and full shade, and can stay in a pot without growing huge. The Christmas palm requires full sun, high humidity, dies in freezing weather, grows tall, and is exceptionally prone to spider mites when moved indoors. Why is the radicalis not everywhere in the south? Need to get these repotted into good soil.


Another radicalis. Tell me this isn't better than a Christmas palm.


Orange bird of paradise doing its thing.


Tall Namwah bananas on the left and Rajapuri on the right. The larger Rajapuri stalk survived winter with protection and will flower any day now.


Jalisco roja guava loaded with fruit. Very very excited about this one. Near legendary on the Tropical Fruit Forum boards.


Ruby supreme guava getting huge. 40+ guavas on the tree after thinning.


Lemon cattley guava on the back right and Kari starfruit on the back left. Cattley is absolutely loaded and Kari is right behind it.


Geffner atemoya tree has about 10 fruits set. Think big tropical pawpaw.




Sweetheart lychees from Lara Farms and Mexican guava from Costco.




Backyard bananas, loquats, and pawpaws. Just bought a new grafted pawpaw, Tropical Treat. Has one of the longest known ripening windows and requires multiple days above 90F to ripen. This should be a good cultivar for 9a/9b. Will ship in October from Perry's Pawpaws. Still have many in stock.


Just realized there is a slight haze on the camera lens. Probably sunscreen. Oh well, will be more careful next time.

Lol wow, that is a tree right there! Well done. You're about to enter "production mode" where the tree just really starts working overtime for you. Lot of guavas in your very near future.

Here's my advice on pruning. The weather is going to turn cold while you still have fruit on the tree. I would cut it back only as low as needed to fit in the greenhouse. You'll harvest a handful of fruit (usually the best ones) over the winter months. Start planning which branches you will let hold fruit now; you don't want the fruit on the highest branches that are likely to be cut.

Then, yes, guavas will absolutely take the hard prune you described. But do that in late February or early March with a dose of fertilizer when the tree is waking up and ready to grow again. If you hack it back to nothing in cold weather at the start of winter it will be a very slow recovery..

Guava pics:

Made the initial topping cut on my cecilove mango at the growth ring. It already has one nice branch originating there so I decided it was time to build the structure. Kills me to lop off big pieces of expensive rare immature plants. But in a month I'll have a nice little tree going.

A guy who knows his stuff told me that the best time to do this is when the top growth is still soft but has changed from bronze to light green. The tree is in active growth mode and will immediately start working on the new branches.



Wiltz, I simply have not had the vigor problems you did with Cecilove. I have grown 3 of them now and they all grew nice and slowly like other dwarf trees. Never had the permanent stalling.

Uhhh, that's not M4. Do you mean Nam Doc Mai #4?

M-4 is a big round Indian-type shaped mango.



That is clearly an oblong sigmoid Thai/East Asian type like Nam Doc Mai #4.



Where did you buy this? You're going to have to decide if you like this type of mango and whether you want to invest the time and risk in continuing to grow it.

Personally, these Thai type mangos are my least favorite flavor group. They have a simple honey sweetness sometimes with floral components. They are still objectively excellent compared to all store mangos, but I just find them to be too simple.

The biggest risk in my opinion is that this is not NDM #4, which as far as I know is the only dwarf Thai type mango. If it's any other variety it may be a huge vigorous tree that won't fare well in a container.

Hope you get your money back. M-4 is unbelievable and they ripped you off. Otherwise I would top work the tree into a known desired variety.

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Wiltz, I simply have not had the vigor problems you did with Cecilove

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Was definitely problematic for me. Simply refused to grow. My hope is to gather scions from it and a few others and begin grafting them into my existing trees later this Fall or in the Spring. Ceci will definitely be on my short list to find.

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Awesome, I'll wait until then and hack it back. I want it to be shorter and bushier. It keeps growing upwards. Last winter it was touching the roof of the greenhouse. I don't think it could fit in it now without bending the tops over and having them nipped by the cold where they touch.

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Can always prune in the greenhouse too. But yeah the big haircut should be done in early spring before flowering.

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It looks like your fruits are a good ways ahead of mine. The biggest on my trees are about the size of pecans right now.

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Bigger older tree in a 25g. Yours will settle in the next 1-2 years and start producing earlier and more prolifically.