re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

Pretty clear evidence of thinning effect. Nice. When you cut them tell us about flavor difference, if any.

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On a happier note, this one's for you Lanier. Finally got a couple of legit blonde flamethrower palms. The seller generously gave me an extra in the shipping box. More importantly, I actually got one of them growing. They go so slowly it's hard to tell. But you can obviously see the red in the new leaf here unlike my fraudulent pemba palm.

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Absolutely see some red there. Maybe its because that thing is so small but the shape of those fronds look different than mine. Not sure which variety I have.


Oh and 90 deg at 8pm? Welcome to my world brother.

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Most palms have juvenile phase fronds until they get bigger.

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yea, I get that but it just looks like a different type of plant. Cool though.


Yea, Mine was a 3 gallon when I got it. About 3 feet tall. It is growing very well right now. Just threw a new frond and already has a spike about 10".

That thing is going to get pretty big I believe. My plan is to put it in the ground sometime next year. I am in 10a so I hope it can survive here in the ground. I have a place picked out for it


I got a call from a friend yesterday and her desert roses are getting eaten alive by some kind of caterpillar. She believes they are Oleander caterpillars. She had a bunch of them on her plant that had eaten up her leaves in one day. She checks things everyday on her back porch. She sprayed then down with Captain Jacks and apparently killed them. She lives close to me. I have two outside my cage in the front. I am checking them daily. LOL

Any advice on pruning a star fruit? Seems to be a challenge to get a main trunk to go up as these things just seem to want everything to go sideways. I have a Belle and a Kari. They are both doing much better now that i moved them out of the direct sun all day and now they just get sun in the morning until about noon and then they are shaded.

My mango's and guava's seem to have no problem being in this blazing sunlight all day.

Mamey is doing well too, although getting a little brown on the edges of the bottom leaves. I think this may be from over fertilization. They seem to be a little more finicky about what you feed them, and im not measuring out my superthrive when i pour it into my watering can, so sometimes it may have more than it should.

Basically hat racked my Jamaican Cherry today. Pest problems got too bad. Hasn't produced good quality fruit in 2 months in peak season due to mealybugs and caterpillars. Systemic sprays didn't work. Contact sprays didn't work. And the caterpillar eggs stain my pool plaster. Removed all foliage and drenched the soil in imidacloprid. Vigorous species and should recover. If not, can replace and get a tree to grow to that same size in less than a year.



Honestly kind of an annoying messy tree. But the kids adore it so no choice but to keep growing.

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Doing better than me. Mine are showing leaf scorch with daily water but it's 8-9 hours full blast on a tile patio in black pots. Only sapodilla is unfazed.

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I think it helps tremendously that my pots are white.



Didn't realize that with the super thrive. Thanks. I have used osmocote as well but i only do that twice a year.

I find that you have to just evaluate Etsy sellers by volume of sales and reviews. I have people I like but they are usually very specialized (tropicals, rare palms, etc.). I have never bought succulents so I don't have a rec there. If you want to post a link I'll take a look and give my opinion.

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It absolutely does make a huge difference. Hurts in the winter, but the tradeoff is more than worth it. I'm going to experiment with reflective insulated skirts on certain pots next year. I don't know why because I work my arse off with this stuff, but sanding down, priming, and spray painting the black plastic is just too much for me. That's my line in the sand and I don't even know why.

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have you considered putting the black pots inside a wooden planter box?

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You got 45+ wooden planter boxes sitting around?

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nope but lowes has the lumber

Finally harvested a ripe Jalisco Roja. Fell off the tree yellow 4 days ago and counter ripened in a paper bag until this morning. Here are my thoughts.

Any guava before October is early season for me. The early season fruit is always inferior to the late season fruit with the very best coming in November and December. This is the first fully ripe guava I have harvested this year; all the others fell off the various trees while green and were not ready. I usually do not get any ripe guava in August. In other words, this is the earliest of early season guavas and I would expect it to be inferior.

This guava is nothing short of excellent. Very high sweetness and a bright bubblegum red berry flavor with perfect acidity. Strong guava fragrance, more than ruby supreme. Most interestingly, the skin has no bitterness. I usually do not eat ruby supreme skin because of that bitterness. This is the best early season guava I have ever had by far. Moreover, it is better than about 80% of ruby supremes I have ever harvested in any ripening window.

There are several more getting close on the tree and many that are just getting started. I will wait until late October to render a final judgment, but if this quality persists and improves it will be time to declare victory. I'll propagate it for myself to replace my other guava trees then start selling air layers to get this variety into the market.

It's just one fruit but I think I've hit on something very special, which would corroborate the reports of the few Californians lucky enough to have one of these trees. The seller I got it from, Mia of Zone9Tropicals on Etsy, bought the genuine article directly from Frank Paderia who discovered and named the original seedling. He has since moved abroad and no longer sells Jalisco cuttings or air layers. Highly recommend her shop; she is not pushing fake varieties.

Exciting times!