re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

Exactly, just let it settle in. Takes 2 weeks for roots to recover from a repot (especially if you blasted off all the garbage bark soil it likely came in). And mangos really aren't heavy feeders or drinkers despite what you would intuitively think. Compost, time release granules, the occasional fish emulsion, and bi-weekly watering are usually all you need from what I have been told. No need for heavy duty synthetic fertilizers or daily irrigation.

And concerning pot size, you'll eventually need to either root prune or move up in container size. I have no interest in 60 gallon container trees so I'll be root pruning and staying at 25gal max for all trees and 45gal max for the mango only if necessary.

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what a great thread this is. Well done out of everyone

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Yeah it's been awesome. I have 4 new trees because of it .

The banana tree I bought last week has been my favorite so far. It's growing crazy fast. You can look at it then 2 hours later when you look again you can tell it's grown.

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I have 4 new trees because of it

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I've got 14, and I'm still trying to get my ice cream banana tree.

2 Barbados Cherry
Alphonso Mango
Pickering Mango
Key Lime
2 Psidium Guava
Pineapple
Papaya
Brewster Lychee
Hass Avocado
Kikos Crump Hibiscus
Japan Plum in the ground
Kumquat in the ground



This thread really came around at the right time b/c I had already been researching and wanting to get some fruit/citrus trees. It was very helpful to see that it can be done with pots.

Anyone got tips on when and how to prune avocado trees?

My Joey avocado is growing all funky and one of the branches is bigger than the trunk. Or the trunk turned 90 degrees and then a branch went upwards.

It looks like a lopsided scraggly bush as opposed to a tree.

Got home to this!

Awesome. Passiflora is amazing even if not growing for the fruit.

I did watch it when you posted it. Which sent me down the Gary video hole for a week lol.
I’ve definitely killed 2 trees learning.
Planting on a mound has been the biggest key to growing these. Used a shade cloth during peak summer and when they’re young getting established.
Here are some fruit pics from my SH last season.
Fantastic flavor. Being a small tree I only let it carry about 6 fruit but it wanted to hold more!

Doing the avocado and this thread gave me the plan to do more tropical.
Also have a newly planted orchard I planted this past fall.

Got my pot signs in today. When you get to like 20+ trees in containers I find it best to go ahead and find some way to label them so that guests don't have to ask about every single one. If any of you are interested, look up Joe Havian with Signs For Tropicals. You can order through the website, prices are fair, and shipping is FAST.

Now that things are really heating up outside, I'm going to start a daily post highlighting one of things I have growing. This is the first post.

5/7/25 (post #1) - Lemon Cattley Guava (Psidium cattleianum var. lucidum)

The cattley guava comes in two forms, strawberry (red fruit) and lemon (yellow fruit). Personally I think the lemon is light years better than the strawberry, which is a smaller and astringent fruit. The lemon variety is a very sweet fruit with just the right amount of tartness. The "lemon" moniker comes from the fruit color, not the taste. The seeds are soft and edible. This species is from the highlands of Brazil and will tolerate temperatures down to 22F, but this applies only to mature trees in the ground. I would only trust a large potted tree to maybe 27-28F.

I have mine in a 15 gallon pot and it is one of the most aggressive and prolific trees I've ever owned. It grows fast. It fruits fast and heavily. So heavily in fact that I have to thin about a 3rd of the fruit so that the remainder get to a good size and quality. Mine is loaded with probably 150 fruit at the moment and I had to both thin them and prune the top branches which were getting too tall. I almost never recommend pruning anything that is currently fruiting, but this thing was getting unbalanced. This tree also continues to flower and set fruit until cold weather arrives. Like all guavas, it wants to grow multiple trunks and shoot out branches at crazy angles. It has a terrible natural habit for container growing so aggressive pruning, staking, and tying is essential to give you something resembling an upright tree. It responds very well to hard pruning and this also triggers flowering and fruiting as it blooms on new growth. Not picky about soil, water, or fertilizer. Almost fool proof and a great beginner tree.

Tree difficulty: 2/5

Before pruning today.


Fruit set




Flowers


Fruit thinning


Light shape pruning to keep below 8 feet


Fruit




My in ground lemon guava which now has fruit


ETA: a note about growth habit: in early summer this tree will start dropping all leaves on the old wood. The fruits will stop growing and all the interior leaves will drop off and you will be convinced that the tree is dying. However, at the same time, you will see flushing new growth and even flowering and fruit set on new wood. Once all the old wood leaves have dropped, the fruit will resume growing. I'm talking about like 40 leaves per day will turn yellow, develop spots, and fall off the tree. Don't fall for it.

Nice, that passion fruit will be ripe way before it gets cold. Peaches look amazing. None of the central/north LA varieties have ever worked for me down here but I've been looking into Tropic Snow and other low chill cultivars.