re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

Wow. You got it huge in two years? Nice. I am going to find one myself. I want to plant two in the ground behind my pool cage.

I want to get some giants like yours. I found these two on marketplace right down the street from my house. Lady wants $25 each for them in a 7 gallon pot. Look to be very healthy. I’m gonna ride by and grab one today.





Thanks TL

Best time of the year guys. Sugar apple, atemoya, and guava.



Got both of my lemon cattley guavas trimmed and staked up for winter.

Couple updates:

Pickering mango is finally looking good again. Fruit development takes so much out of them and then the July/August sun burns their leaves leaving them looking pretty rough after harvest. September and October bring new leaves then flowering will start in mid-late November unless there's a heat wave.





Qinmi #9 passionfruit is confirmed self-fertile. Usually yellow passionfruits like this are not. I have 3 other varieties but none are flowering and there are no other vines near me. So far this cultivar is living up to the hype (true self fertility for a flavicarpa).



The fall jalisco roja guavas are coming in and as expected are becoming even sweeter with the cooler weather. I haven't measured the brix yet but will soon. It's just a straight up winner, man.

ETA: I tried to measure the brix and turned half of one of the best guavas in the world into straight guava mush. Tried a garlic press and coffee filter. Too much pulp to get a clean liquid to read and I'm not buying a centrifuge. Now I'm pissed that I wasted that half because the remaining half was fantastic. It's about as sweet as a table grape.



Larger Geffner atemoyas are coming in. Amazing fruit but the seeds are mildly toxic and a bit of a hassle. You have to eat gently and spit them out or sit there with a knife and manually remove them. Flavor is worth it though. If someone could make them seedless it would be unreal.

Amazon

Anything like this with a zipper works. You can get as big or small as you want. I've got some that are 36" and some that are 12'. The big ones are what I use to wrap banana stems. Same ones you saw at my house. Just don't do it like their retarded photos where they lollipop the tree. Cover must go to the ground.

Nice one. That is DEFINITELY not a full sun plant.

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Nice one. That is DEFINITELY not a full sun plant.

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yea, I have it where I had my first big elephant ear plant until it got broke in to the sun. But it does need a good bit of sun to survive with the variegated leaves. Not as much sun there to soak up the rays.


We will see if I can keep it alive. Ive done pretty well with Alocasia and other big leaves so far. I am about to order two small Borneo's. Grow them up and eventually plant them around my cage. I went to a nursery yesterday and the guy had some massive Pothos growing up all the trees in his yard. Im talking leaves as big as elephant ears. I was shocked at how big the leaves and the stalk was. Dude was like, "you want a cutting of that?" He went over there around one of the trees and there was a big runner going across the ground. Grabbed a machete and cut me off about 10 feet. LOL


I did some work with it today. I have a couple cuttings on a moss pole in the corner of my fence and did some cutting in soil and even have a foot or so in water. Just going to play with it and see if I can grow some huge leaves like that.



You can see one of them in the corner behind my banana and elephant ear. I put it in that corner hoping that those two plants would cut some of the sun off it.


ETA: If you know a grower on etsy for the Borneo, let me know. One I can trust.

Yep. Minor sunburn on that. Get it in the ground and it'll do fine.

Starting to see Oliver loquat blooms! Pretty early for me. This is good because the fruit stand up to freezes better than the flowers in my experience.



Getting some really good figs lately. Texas BA-1 and Prosciutto Unknown.





Nice size atemoya harvested today.



Guava season is sadly winding down. Only about 6 left on the Jalisco Roja tree. It is going to be really difficult to wait until August/September to have this amazing fruit again.

The bleached leaf is just something that happens with variegated bananas. They don't produce enough chlorophyll and will die if separated from the main stem. I would cull it.

The other pup can stay or go. Based on the pot size I would remove it so the main stem can do better. You can sell it or keep it as the replacement for after the main stem fruits.

Looks good!

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That guava looks perfect. I buy those at Detwillers farmers market here in Sarasota. They are fantastic. It is an Amish farmers market.

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This particular cultivar is so special. I have grown a lot of guavas and this is by far the sweetest and most consistent. I probably got 50 fruits this first year and every single one was excellent. That is not even close to true on my other cultivars. Once I can propagate more I'm going to spam it all over the south. Long live Jalisco Roja!

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I assume once I pot it, keep it out of the sun for a few weeks.

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Yep.

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will just cut the other one off and throw it out

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Keep your eyes open. Every now and then a variegated banana will produce a completely white pup with zero pigment. Seems like it's most common on the Musa Florida and AeAe, but I'm sure nono could do it too. People will often let those pups stay on the mother for a while for the sheer novelty.