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re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates
Posted on 8/9/26 at 6:18 am to audioguy
Posted on 8/9/26 at 6:18 am to audioguy
Yes they do and as you can see they need quite a bit of room. Each one of those is easily 4x4 and a couple are 6x6. Much bigger than I was expecting and we are still in August. They won’t bloom until October at soonest
I will obviously be collecting a lot of seed so I’ll definitely have a bunch to distribute
I will obviously be collecting a lot of seed so I’ll definitely have a bunch to distribute
Posted on 8/9/26 at 7:09 am to audioguy
quote:
Heads up to those in BR area, Cleggs on Siegen has 4cu. ft. bags of vermiculite now. $49.99
They also have the same size perlite for 29.99.
New guy here Audioguy. I am seeing the vermiculite advertised a lot lately. What exactly are you using it for?
TIA
Posted on 8/9/26 at 8:10 am to LanierSpots
quote:
What exactly are you using it for?
It's a silica based soil ammendment used in the same way as perlite. Sterile and doesn't decay. Too light weight for my preferences.
Posted on 8/9/26 at 8:43 am to Tigerlaff
Got my 20g Qinmi #9 passionfruit vine big enough to train onto the new trellis. When the weather gets cold I'll just cut it off at the pot and overwinter indoors on the pot's trellis. The cool thing about this setup is that fruiting maturity is determined by the age of the roots, not the vines. In fact they only bloom and fruit on new growth so you need to cut them back to get fruit each year. So you grow your tropical vine in a big pot letting those roots get strong and mature until the freezes get here, then you bring it inside for the winter giving it very little water and no fertilizer. In the spring you turn it loose on your trellis and let it do its thing. Rinse and repeat. Plan is to grow Qinmi #9 in one direction and Hoey's Taiwanese Purple in the other direction, both in permanent containers. I have seen people getting huge harvests from 5 gallon buckets used as conainers, so I think 20g should be fine.
Posted on 8/9/26 at 6:18 pm to Tigerlaff
Is that variegated Shell Ginger to the right on that last picture. I have a bumch of that in my yard and its really taking off. Im using it to fill holes below my palms around my pool fence for privacy.
Man we really need a video walk through of your place. Inside and out.
Man we really need a video walk through of your place. Inside and out.
Posted on 8/9/26 at 8:55 pm to LanierSpots
quote:
Is that variegated Shell Ginger to the right on that last picture. I have a bumch of that in my yard and its really taking off. Im using it to fill holes below my palms around my pool fence for privacy.
No, just regular shell ginger. I do have the variegated ones too but they stay in shadier spots. My variegated ones don't like full sun.
quote:
Man we really need a video walk through of your place. Inside and out.
always happy to give you the tour if you're in the area. I may do an end of season photo dump just to document everything in October or November. Just trying to enjoy these last 3 months before it's greenhouses and frost cloth again. Posted on 8/9/26 at 10:16 pm to Tigerlaff
40g of Gary's soil mixed up today. I'm about to repot my 25g Pickering to a 45g. I think heat stress on the rootball was what ruined my mango crop this year. Larger soil volume should help a lot.
Posted on 8/10/26 at 4:43 pm to Tigerlaff
Guavas are starting to change color. Picked one small one that is kind of soft to the touch. Have never had them before so no idea how it is supposed to taste. Pretty excited to try it once my wife gets home.
Is this pretty much as big as they get or did I not cull enough?
Eta: it was not ripe.
Is this pretty much as big as they get or did I not cull enough?
Eta: it was not ripe.
This post was edited on 8/10/26 at 6:08 pm
Posted on 8/10/26 at 7:36 pm to Loup
quote:
Guavas are starting to change color. Picked one small one that is kind of soft to the touch. Have never had them before so no idea how it is supposed to taste.
That one in the photo has a way to go before being ripe. Different varieties ripen different colors but usually they will be yellow or cream colored. You want to leave them on the tree as long as possible, but usually they will come off when yellow/green. Then let them ripen on the counter until they are yellow and soft. Tree ripened is better than counter ripened if possible.
A perfectly ripe ruby supreme:
That is the prettiest one I've ever picked so don't expect that. But it is perfect.
quote:
Is this pretty much as big as they get or did I not cull enough?
Again, depends on the variety. Do you know the variety of this tree? Guavas also have variable fruit size. I get ruby supremes that are bigger than softballs and others that are the size in your photo. I would say the size depicted is perfectly fine as long as it's not supposed to be a huge variety.
Pro tip: go ahead and bag the ones that are starting to turn color in organza bags and drape the drawstrings around nearby leaves and branches. When the soft fruit falls off the tree the bag catches it, prevents bruising, and keeps pests away. If you don't bag you will definitely have some get splattered on the ground.
This post was edited on 8/10/26 at 7:41 pm
Posted on 8/10/26 at 10:00 pm to Loup
quote:
Is this pretty much as big as they get or did I not cull enough
My neighbor planted a 7 gallon Home Depot presumably Pink Guava in late 23’ or early 24’. It’s totally feral with no maintenance. They moved out in January.
We’ll be drowning in them soon. Picked two yesterday. There’s 50-75 fruits on this tree. So heavy that many of the limbs are on the ground.
This post was edited on 8/10/26 at 10:05 pm
Posted on 8/11/26 at 5:03 am to wiltznucs
Better check for worms. 10a and above has Caribbean fruit fly. One of the very few advantages us zone pushers have.
Posted on 8/11/26 at 5:55 am to audioguy
quote:
food forest
Mind sharing what zone you’re in and what you have growing? I’ve been planning and prepping several big rows to be planted food forest style - swales, intermixed species, etc. I’ll finally be planting this fall. Any tips?
Posted on 8/11/26 at 5:55 am to Tigerlaff
quote:
No, just regular shell ginger. I do have the variegated ones too but they stay in shadier spots. My variegated ones don't like full sun.
Yea, mine dont like it either. I have them in places where they either only get early day sun or they are protected by some pretty thick palms. They do struggle at times but I think they are doing OK. the leaves roll up at times but they come back out once the sun gets off them. I really like the look and those things grow like a MFer.
I put them under some of my palms for fillers and they are doing just that. I will take a few pics later.
The problem I have hear is they cut every single tree when they built our subdivision. I dont really have any shade to speak of. Everything is going to get sun outside except in the back of my house (facing north) where it only gets partial sun. Its a battle I have here.
Posted on 8/11/26 at 7:30 am to Tigerlaff
quote:
Do you know the variety of this tree?
Pretty sure it's a ruby supreme. Google is telling me HD gets either strawberry cattley or ruby supreme and this isn't a cattley.
quote:
Pro tip: go ahead and bag the ones that are starting to turn color in organza bags and drape the drawstrings around nearby leaves and branches. When the soft fruit falls off the tree the bag catches it, prevents bruising, and keeps pests away. If you don't bag you will definitely have some get splattered on the ground.
I'll do that this evening. I've also noticed my lab is starting to get interested in them so I have to prevent that type of pest as well
Do you eat the seeds or scrape that portion out?
Thanks!
Posted on 8/11/26 at 11:09 am to Loup
quote:
Do you eat the seeds or scrape that portion out?
Yes, eat the seeds. Just don't chew them.
Hopefully it's ruby supreme/barbie pink/tikal. No way to tell. Excited to see how they turn out!
Posted on 8/11/26 at 11:17 am to Tigerlaff
So 1 of my 9 mango grafts took. I removed the bag and the leaves/growth shriveled up 
Posted on 8/11/26 at 11:23 am to Tigerlaff
I know this is a long shot, but figured I’d ask. I came across a lady selling these guava plants for under $20 a pop. She had no idea what type of guava these are. Any thoughts on tropical vs cattley just going off of foliage? I don’t see a graft union, so assuming it’s a seedling. Don’t have super high hopes of anything elite, but figured why not for $20.
Posted on 8/11/26 at 11:41 am to Tigerlaff
Pickering to 45g! That’s a big boy step! Is that what you think caused the majority of the fruit issues, heat stress?
Also in regards to winter planning, all this El Niño talk has me not looking forward to the potential crappy cold season.
Also in regards to winter planning, all this El Niño talk has me not looking forward to the potential crappy cold season.
Posted on 8/11/26 at 11:51 am to AyyyBaw
That is a regular tropical guava and almost assuredly seed grown. Guavas really have a lot of genetic variability. Could be good/bad, productive/not, etc. Can't use it as rootstock either unless you are a very advanced grafter. Fun experiment though! Maybe you've got a great new variety.
Posted on 8/11/26 at 11:57 am to DickTater
quote:
Pickering to 45g! That’s a big boy step! Is that what you think caused the majority of the fruit issues, heat stress?
It's the only thing that makes sense to me. It's definitely not a calcium issue. Mango fruit can take heat damage above 86F. In black pots down here the roots are getting up into the 110-120F range. What's so strange about this is that the small crop from the year before was fine. 45g will create a more stable environment for next year.
quote:
Also in regards to winter planning, all this El Niño talk has me not looking forward to the potential crappy cold season.
The biggest threat from El Nino will be extended periods of wet and cold weather. Just make sure you are very careful about watering over winter and we should be fine. The benefit is that the jet stream will have the effect of mitigating arctic outbursts from the pole. I'm actually really bullish about this winter and thinking we may finally see the return of more normal lows. If we could get whole winter lows of 25F or so we would be rocking come spring.
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