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Message
re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates
Posted on 9/12/26 at 7:10 pm to Tigerlaff
Posted on 9/12/26 at 7:10 pm to Tigerlaff
Planted two more pawpaws in the pawpaw patch. Tropical Treat and Prima 1216. Tropical Treat is maybe the most heat loving pawpaw cultivar known and Prima is extremely reliable, prolific, and compact. Total list of cultivars on the property now includes:
Shenandoah
Susquehanna
Mango
Sunflower
Tropical Treat
Prima 1216
KSU Atwood
KSU Benson
Seedling of Collins Select
Avery Island wild seedling
New Ruby Supreme 10-30 guava from Lara Farms.
New (like brand new) cultivar of white sapote from California called Chang. I helped the discoverer name it after the landowner who owns the seedling mother tree. They planted 400 seedlings and this was the only one with significant improvement. It is said to taste like a mango milkshake and it has small, deformed seeds that are flat. This makes the flesh to seed ratio about 9:1 and I'm not aware of any other white sapote that can come close to that.
Lisa atemoya from Miami Fruit was fantastic. Best atemoya I've had. Bright and sweet like vanilla/pinapple/banana with very few seeds.
These jalisco roja guavas just keep being outstanding. I should have measured the brix on these. They are like guava candy. I also can't get over the fact that the skin is totally palatable. No bitterness or off taste at all.
Shenandoah
Susquehanna
Mango
Sunflower
Tropical Treat
Prima 1216
KSU Atwood
KSU Benson
Seedling of Collins Select
Avery Island wild seedling
New Ruby Supreme 10-30 guava from Lara Farms.
New (like brand new) cultivar of white sapote from California called Chang. I helped the discoverer name it after the landowner who owns the seedling mother tree. They planted 400 seedlings and this was the only one with significant improvement. It is said to taste like a mango milkshake and it has small, deformed seeds that are flat. This makes the flesh to seed ratio about 9:1 and I'm not aware of any other white sapote that can come close to that.
Lisa atemoya from Miami Fruit was fantastic. Best atemoya I've had. Bright and sweet like vanilla/pinapple/banana with very few seeds.
These jalisco roja guavas just keep being outstanding. I should have measured the brix on these. They are like guava candy. I also can't get over the fact that the skin is totally palatable. No bitterness or off taste at all.
This post was edited on 9/13/26 at 5:33 pm
Posted on 9/13/26 at 9:07 am to LanierSpots
quote:
Is it any good? Never tried Star fruit.
Ive never had it. I'll post what I think of it when i get to eat one.
Posted on 9/13/26 at 2:34 pm to Tigerlaff
Bought this fiddle leaf fig a few months back from Lowes. I honestly dont care anything about it but my wife wanted one and I wanted to see if I could keep one alive. I have heard they are bitches to deal with.
I have not liked the soil since Ive gotten it. It had some kind of very hard bark on top of the soil and you just could not see or feel the soil. It was like trying to feel through concrete to get to the dirt to see if it was wet or not.
So today I decided to just repot it and see what the hell was going on inside that thing.
Well it was all messed up. Not sure what kind of bark that is but it was almost impossible to get it out of there. Then the soil was wet below it and it had bugs all inside there. Some kind of caterpillar. Lots of them. I dont know if this thing is going to live after what all I had to go through to get it repotted. I ended up basically washing off all the roots to get all that shite soil and bark out of there. I have heard they dont like being torn apart. I used the hose and spent damn near a hour stripping all that and the root rot out of there. Sprayed it with peroxide then repotted it.
I used the gary soil mix and added a little orchid bark in with it. Back in the same pot as it was not bound. I washed off all the leaves an wipped them down but did not water it yet. Im going to let it dry out a few days then water it and add some osmocote. The roots got soaked when I washed them off.
This thing is probably going to die but it was certainly going to die with all those bugs on it and the roots rotting off.. I think they use shite soil like that on purpose
I have not liked the soil since Ive gotten it. It had some kind of very hard bark on top of the soil and you just could not see or feel the soil. It was like trying to feel through concrete to get to the dirt to see if it was wet or not.
So today I decided to just repot it and see what the hell was going on inside that thing.
Well it was all messed up. Not sure what kind of bark that is but it was almost impossible to get it out of there. Then the soil was wet below it and it had bugs all inside there. Some kind of caterpillar. Lots of them. I dont know if this thing is going to live after what all I had to go through to get it repotted. I ended up basically washing off all the roots to get all that shite soil and bark out of there. I have heard they dont like being torn apart. I used the hose and spent damn near a hour stripping all that and the root rot out of there. Sprayed it with peroxide then repotted it.
I used the gary soil mix and added a little orchid bark in with it. Back in the same pot as it was not bound. I washed off all the leaves an wipped them down but did not water it yet. Im going to let it dry out a few days then water it and add some osmocote. The roots got soaked when I washed them off.
This thing is probably going to die but it was certainly going to die with all those bugs on it and the roots rotting off.. I think they use shite soil like that on purpose
This post was edited on 9/13/26 at 2:39 pm
Posted on 9/13/26 at 4:37 pm to LanierSpots
you can take out an insurance policy and clip off a healthy branch and root it separately. That plant like all figs is a ficus which are all incredibly resilient and root readily from cuttings.
I have hardy fig trees growing in my yard where I literally just stuck a branch into the ground.
I have hardy fig trees growing in my yard where I literally just stuck a branch into the ground.
Posted on 9/13/26 at 5:36 pm to LanierSpots
Good work. We must ban the bark. You may end up surprised, sometimes things perk up FAST after putting them in real soil. Roots can finally breathe.
Posted on 9/13/26 at 6:57 pm to cgrand
quote:
you can take out an insurance policy and clip off a healthy branch and root it separately. That plant like all figs is a ficus which are all incredibly resilient and root readily from cuttings.
That is interesting. That plant has 3 main trunks and a new one that is growing on its own. i was wondering if I could remove one and how I could get it to propagate.
Posted on 9/13/26 at 6:58 pm to Tigerlaff
quote:
Good work. We must ban the bark. You may end up surprised, sometimes things perk up FAST after putting them in real soil. Roots can finally breathe.
I hope you are right. That thing had a bunch of rotted roots. Plus, It was impossible to get every ounce of soil off those roots without destroying them
I have to be honest, I am not super confident it will live.
Posted on 9/13/26 at 7:22 pm to LanierSpots
quote:
I have to be honest, I am not super confident it will live.
If he dies, he dies.
Posted on 9/13/26 at 7:30 pm to cgrand
quote:
cgrand
Man I've been digging into cherry of the Rio Grande winter anecdotes from north Florida and I'm seeing accounts that are much better than what we were thinking. I saw at least three growers saying that they were totally untouched at 20F and one grower who had his in a 3g pot that had no damage at 19F. This would make COTRG more hardy than all citrus except arctic/orange frost satsumas and kumquats. And it's possibly even better than that. An East Texas container grower got branch die back after 12F but it recovered and fruited the next spring. I went into this expecting hardiness to the mid 20s. Could really be onto something here and I kind of want to not protect mine this winter just to see what happens.
Posted on 9/13/26 at 7:37 pm to Tigerlaff
quote:I won’t need any arm twisting to do that LOL. I already have all those other young trees to deal with.
I kind of want to not protect mine this winter just to see what happens.
I am hoping we don’t go below 28-30 anyway. These past two winters have been highly unusual with the teens.
Posted on 9/13/26 at 8:58 pm to cgrand
Super El Nino should mitigate the ridiculous arctic blasts somewhat.
Posted on 9/14/26 at 7:04 am to Tigerlaff
So far none of the 6 dragon fruit blooms I've tried to pollinate have set fruit. I didn't really put that much effort into it. I've had 3 more open this weekend and I got way more aggressive with it. I bagged the blooms before they opened then in the morning gave them a good shake to dump pollen into the bag. I then was able to pretty much dump pollen onto the stigma. I have 5 more blooms that should be opening in the next few days so hopefully at least one of these will set a fruit. If they don't I guess I have a self sterile variety. If that's the case I will probably replace it with a self-fertile one.
Anybody else have trouble with squirrels eating their pots? They are tearing mine up. Even the clay pots that I have are getting gnawed on.
Anybody else have trouble with squirrels eating their pots? They are tearing mine up. Even the clay pots that I have are getting gnawed on.
Posted on 9/14/26 at 10:18 am to Loup
garden spot in Slidell has 8 qt bags of charcoal, perlite and vermiculite for 17 bucks
Not much in the way of natives or fruit trees but plenty of tropical ornamentals
Not much in the way of natives or fruit trees but plenty of tropical ornamentals
Posted on 9/14/26 at 11:11 am to cgrand
After a couple years, my Bird of paradise is finally starting to flower. I've gotten a couple random ones, but I count 10 stalks on my plant that is going to be flowers very soon. This one opened last night. I'm finally able to see what stalks are going to be flowers and which are going to be new leaves.
Posted on 9/14/26 at 2:14 pm to Tigerlaff
are you feeding your pawpaws? I hit mine with some 7-3-3 today just because I felt like I should after that brutal weather stretch.
mine don’t look as good as yours. The one that broke is resprouting at least
but I do have one that looks great, and it’s not shaded at all. KSU benson
I may order another one of these. The leaves are much thicker and less tender than the other ones
mine don’t look as good as yours. The one that broke is resprouting at least
but I do have one that looks great, and it’s not shaded at all. KSU benson
I may order another one of these. The leaves are much thicker and less tender than the other ones
Posted on 9/14/26 at 2:15 pm to cgrand
also I’m going to 15-5-30 on the banana food and see if I can push them a little faster
Posted on 9/14/26 at 3:36 pm to cgrand
quote:
are you feeding your pawpaws? I hit mine with some 7-3-3 today just because I felt like I should after that brutal weather stretch.
mine don’t look as good as yours. The one that broke is resprouting at least
but I do have one that looks great, and it’s not shaded at all. KSU benson
I threw a few handfuls of 8-2-12 granular on them this weekend. But no I don't have a specific program. First year is all taproot growth anyway.
Weird that Benson is your best looking. It's my worst looking by far. Atwood looking much better.
Banana fert you mentioned is perfect. High nitrogen high potassium. They will chew through that as long as the weather is hot and they have water.
Posted on 9/14/26 at 4:12 pm to Tigerlaff
the Atwood I have is the one I almost incinerated before I shaded them. I am keeping notes based on this first season I think I’m going to build a shade frame like I did over the banana patch and shade them after June next year. Before the heat wave they really were looking good
They don’t seem to need a ton of water and the dirt I have them in is among the best on my property
They don’t seem to need a ton of water and the dirt I have them in is among the best on my property
Posted on 9/14/26 at 5:30 pm to cgrand
Welp, the little storm that blew through Mandeville today decided to place my red mandevilla at the bottom of my pool. I guess now we just see how long it takes to die.
Luckily I have a backup for just such a moment.
Luckily I have a backup for just such a moment.
This post was edited on 9/14/26 at 5:31 pm
Posted on 9/14/26 at 7:05 pm to Tigerlaff
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