re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

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Nice!! That is looking so good. What variety is this one?

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Not 100% sure but I think they're American Beauty. Self pollinating so they should be good without manual pollination but I wanted to be sure.

I cut down the oak next to the pawpaw patch that I wanted gone, timing probably isn’t ideal with this air fryer weather but it was when I could do it (tree man was here)



I’ll have to keep a closer eye on them now. I’ve been watering every day since we got home.

Best performer so far by a long shot is KSU Benson. It looks 100% better than any of the others



It may be smart to add another one. I’ve got plenty of variety already and can relocate any of the seedlings

Need advice on Satsuma on supporting or trimming after this season. The tree is probably 7 years old now. I did clear out some internal branches this past winter.

St. George area. We didn’t have any fruit last season after the snow and freeze. This year lots of growth and with fruit the limbs are starting to sag to the ground.

Should I support to keep the fruit off the ground, or trim after the season to remove those branches and encourage higher growth? Or something else?

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Need advice on Satsuma on supporting or trimming after this season. The tree is probably 7 years old now. I did clear out some internal branches this past winter.

St. George area. We didn’t have any fruit last season after the snow and freeze. This year lots of growth and with fruit the limbs are starting to sag to the ground.

Should I support to keep the fruit off the ground, or trim after the season to remove those branches and encourage higher growth? Or something else?

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Nice tree. I have had this exact same problem on my in ground Meyer lemon. With a few exceptions, citrus naturally wants to grow into a semi-spherical bush that will droop its lower limbs to the ground. There are good reasons for this (namely trunk insulation) and they will always revert to that shape without active pruning. Worse still, they prefer to set fruit on the lower limbs and will prioritize putting them there instead of evenly distributed throughout the tree.

Mine was dragging fruit on the ground every year, all 100+ of which would pickup ugly fungal scarring from the soil. I didn't have a pristine yellow lemon for 5 years. I don't even like Meyer lemon so last year I did an absolutely brutal prune to take the lower limbs off the tree and raise the canopy to about chest height. I'm talking an 80+% prune, which is definitely not kosher. The tree looked terrible for 6 months after that prune until this spring arrived. Now the tree is gorgeous. It only has 2 lemons on it (because I cut all the fruiting wood off in the prune), but they are at chest height and spotless.

For my money, I'd rather restructure the tree and sacrifice a year of fruit than deal with the propping that some people do. It worked for me. One word of warning: Meyer lemon is a very vigorous citrus and will naturally bounce back easier than an orange or satsuma. I would not cut more than 50% off of the tree for your first round of cutting. I would also wait until early spring to do it.

Let us know how it goes!

OK cgrand here's my pawpaw update:

Shade cloth was the right move for the trees in full sun. They are looking much better and pushing growth. They were planted on 2/6/26 so I think this first year warrants the additional shade.

Mango


Susquehanna


Sunflower hanging on. It gets one more year to improve then it's terminated.


KSU Benson


KSU Atwood


Shenandoah I grafted this spring. Rootstock finally gave up on pushing its own foliage.




Collins seedling with Shenandoah branch graft I did this spring. Check out the different leaves.






Avery Island seedling recovering from my failed Sunflower graft.

New project obtained today.


Am I gonna be able to keep this thing alive baw? LOL.


Looked very healthy. I hope the care is the same as my other alocasia that I’m doing very well with.


My friend did not have good luck with this species. He basically told me that they want to die. :(.


We will see.

wow those all look healthy. I think I’m going to break down and shade too, there’s no downside and I don’t want to stunt my trees. I think the data is it’s ok to expose to sun until July and then they’ll need protection thru the rest of the blast oven.

the depot has a roll I may do a bamboo frame and throw it over all them

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Am I gonna be able to keep this thing alive baw? LOL.

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That's a nice and huge Alocasia. Best advice is shade, water, and a fast draining mix. Also don't let any kids or pets chew on it or eat it. They have these calcium oxalate crystals that will tear up your mouth and gut.

This one work? Ceci to the left, and Peach Cobbler to the right.

Time for yet another imposter plant discovery. Turns out my flamethrower palm isn't a flamethrower palm. Purchased from Dharma Darling on Etsy over a year ago. Shop has since closed down.

Had a bunch of palm experts look at it and it's pretty clear this is Chrysalidocarpus pembana. It's a rare palm from a tiny island between Madagascar and Africa. A palm enthusiast would be stoked to discover this. I'm just pissed that I spent a year waiting on red fronds. Already ordered another, but it is a tiny seedling of the blonde/hookeri version of the flamethrower. Will be years before it looks like anything good. Oh well. Probably going to sell the Dypsis. Cool palm but I've got enough plants.