re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

I would snip those off

TL, I am jealous of that red. I have nothing on mine. Hell I even wonder if I have a lipstick or not sometimes.

Thanks guys. After looking more closely, they appear to be water sprouts that should be removed.

Climate controlled grow room comes through again. This setup is like a plant ICU. Temperature usually stays between 80-85F and humidity at 60-70%. 12 hours of soft full spectrum light. Current readout (my house is at 74F):



The key here is warm (not hot) temperatures and stability. Rescue operations are much harder when outside temperatures are hitting 90+F, random rainfall, humidity swings, wind, etc.

This Mexican cream guava arrived on 7/29/26 and promptly wilted and dropped all leaves. It's a graft, so if this one little weak branch dies I'm cooked. The plan was to leave it in the pot/soil it came in for weeks to recover before messing with the roots. But then I inspected the roots and the soil stunk (because of course it did, it had bark/rot in it). Made the questionable decision to bare root and repot the already shocked leafless tree into Gary's soil with mycorrhizae. Also hit it with brassinolide steroid. Five days after arrival / two days after repotting and it's pushing.

This is how you save stressed plants: stabilized moderate temp/humidity/light and clean mineral based soil. Not rich organic soil, fertilizer, or heavy watering. Extras like mycorrhizae and brassinolide help too, but it's really just about the good soil and environmental stability.

Guavas are tough and it probably would have survived shipping and bad soil anyway, but the remarkable thing here is the speed of the turnaround. That's a ton of stress mitigated FAST.





Y'all test some of these strategies out next time you have something going downhill fast.

Feels good to see results like that. That’s a win

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The citrus is definitely tolerant surprisingly and the Barbados cherry as well.

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Yes my cherry trees have been producing cherries in this heat, and they are actually really good. Not too sour or bitter like they were in the spring.

in addition to the palmettos I have a ton of lemongrass from a big clump I split. Technically tropical



good to stick in a bed, you can cook with it and it’s tough as nails

Interesting. I need to get my hands on a p-22 next year to try. What was the best mango you had this year?

For me it was either orange sherbet, a particularly great fruit punch, or white piri. Also had an exceptional sweet tart. Tried a lot of Indian flavor mangos this year and they really grew on me. Biggest regret is I didn't get a single coconut mango from any source. All my Pickerings had internal breakdown (which I think I have figured out), the Pickerings I ordered were washed out, and the mixed boxes didn't have any.

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What was the best mango you had this year?

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I think this year really reinforced what I sort of knew already. Which is that I prefer mangoes with a subacid component and those with citrusy flavors. So IndoChinese hybrids and citrus group mangoes are my favs along with classic group mangoes with a subacid flavor. I increasingly dislike the green Thai mangoes and the stronger Indian mangoes which are really resiny or high in terpenes. The West Indian mangoes are more my speed. I enjoy the Coconut mangoes; but, I’m not as crazy about them as most.

The best mango I had this year was Peach Cobbler. Impressed enough that I hunted down a tree in SoFL and made a 300+ mile round trip to get it. It’s big and sweet with a tangerine flavor profile; but, it’s got that subacid component which really makes it pack a punch for flavor.

Cecilove was also very good this year. P22, Sweet Tart, Kathy/K3, Super Alphonso also bangers.

Others that stood out were Florigon, Guava, Step, Lemon Meringue and the Juno Wango. I’m increasingly convinced that despite its smaller fruit size; Lemon Meringue is the superior option to Lemon Zest and Orange Sherbet when you consider flavor and aroma.

Some that get a lot of hype which failed to impress were Fruit Punch, Ugly Betty and Coconut Cream. Tried a few of each from different groves and they just didn’t blow my skirt up.

Some I didn’t see this year which I regret are M4 and Sugarloaf. M4 is usually quite late so I suppose it’s possible it’s still on the trees. I suspect things are largely winding down now and most will be done selling in the next week or two. In my experience; once you start seeing Little Gem and Kent the season is just about over and they’ve both been available for the past few weeks.

one of my bananas appears to be retarded.



sold as dwarf namwah, I have the least amount of confidence in that. Should I pull this one?