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re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates
Posted on 8/17/25 at 2:21 pm to Tigerlaff
Posted on 8/17/25 at 2:21 pm to Tigerlaff
Nope. 5.5ft is plenty big enough. Let it fruit. The bees love the flowers, which smell like perfume. What variety of guava is it?
Thanks, hopefully itll fruit before it gets cold. Its a ruby supreme.
Thanks, hopefully itll fruit before it gets cold. Its a ruby supreme.
1
Posted on 8/17/25 at 2:32 pm to Loup
They take about 5 months to ripen after flowering. Longer if cold. Mine has huge softball sized fruit and is also flowering again. You can get a winter crop if you shelter it and make sure it gets plenty of light.
Posted on 8/17/25 at 8:12 pm to Tigerlaff
Mango season is winding down. Today I harvested my final Orange Sherbet. All of the OS I got were a bit small and many had black spot. Will let it ripen on the counter for a few days. The tree will get a haircut tomorrow.
Today; I ate a picture perfect Angie that I picked a few days ago. Truly superb aroma and some classic Indian flavor notes. Just a few more fruit left on it and that’s a wrap.
The rains have brought lots of new growth and flushes to the mango grove. All are showing some growth minus Kathy/K3 and Dwarf Hawaiian; but, none are growing nearly as aggressively as CAC. That thing is going wild. Planted last year as a meager 15g tree. It’s now 8+ feet tall and equally wide with no signs of stopping.
P22, Dusari, NDM4 and Pickering are all showing great vigor. Bolt, Cecilove, Kesar and Glenn are small; but, I’m encouraged to see them putting on growth.
Will harvest Carogold sweet potatoes next month. My okra patch got decimated by fungus; presumably fusarium wilt.
I’ve got 3 Namwah banana trees with modest bunches on them. The UF SunLime finger limes are doing okay. The potted tree doing far better than the one in the ground actually.
My Sweetheart Lychee is surviving; not thriving. The Hak Ip is dead as a doornail. Not sure if I’ll plant Lychee again unless I find a larger tree and can commit to managing the mites.
This post was edited on 8/17/25 at 8:32 pm
Posted on 8/17/25 at 8:24 pm to wiltznucs
Yep, my Pickering and cecilove are pushing tons of new growth after tipping 2 weeks ago. Glad you're still getting some late fruit.
20 minutes ago we had a thunderstorm with hurricane force winds. Lost about a third of my Kari star fruit crop and my 7ft tall plumeria took serious damage. Both trees toppled in the wind. Luckily nothing that won't recover, but I've made up my mind about container sizes from here on out. Nothing smaller than 15g going forward. My mix is about as heavy as it gets and yet I'm still having these near miss disasters with typical gulf coast summer weather.
On the lychees, I have actually beaten the mite. Now this was significantly easier for me because I have a single small tree and there probably isn't another lychee within 100 miles. But I'll tell you how I did it: abamectin and microthiol disperss. When the weather is below 85 consistently, use the disperss on the whole plant and then on new growth. As soon as the weather gets above 85, hit only new growth with abamectin. Haven't sprayed in over 2 months now and no sign of mites after multiple flushes.
20 minutes ago we had a thunderstorm with hurricane force winds. Lost about a third of my Kari star fruit crop and my 7ft tall plumeria took serious damage. Both trees toppled in the wind. Luckily nothing that won't recover, but I've made up my mind about container sizes from here on out. Nothing smaller than 15g going forward. My mix is about as heavy as it gets and yet I'm still having these near miss disasters with typical gulf coast summer weather.
On the lychees, I have actually beaten the mite. Now this was significantly easier for me because I have a single small tree and there probably isn't another lychee within 100 miles. But I'll tell you how I did it: abamectin and microthiol disperss. When the weather is below 85 consistently, use the disperss on the whole plant and then on new growth. As soon as the weather gets above 85, hit only new growth with abamectin. Haven't sprayed in over 2 months now and no sign of mites after multiple flushes.
This post was edited on 8/17/25 at 8:25 pm
Posted on 8/18/25 at 6:17 pm to Tigerlaff
Pretty sure CFL Green Thumb Nursery on eBay sent me a 2nd M-4 mango bc I found one on my porch when I got home today and I don’t remember ordering another one!
This post was edited on 8/19/25 at 12:44 pm
Posted on 8/18/25 at 9:10 pm to Neauxla
Yeah, gotta get that sorted. Hopefully it ends up with you getting a second M4 for free!
Posted on 8/19/25 at 7:44 pm to Tigerlaff
I am so bad at pruning trees that are rare or exotic for Louisiana. I know this was the right call but I have deep-seated anxiety about it every time. 
These mangos are heavy and I can't have long thin scaffolding branches.
These mangos are heavy and I can't have long thin scaffolding branches. This post was edited on 8/19/25 at 7:45 pm
Posted on 8/19/25 at 10:17 pm to Tigerlaff
So jealous of your Pickering. Mine are barely alive. They seem to struggle a lot more than my Nam doc Mai and m-4
Posted on 8/20/25 at 9:22 am to Neauxla
If it's been more than 2 weeks since arrival you may have a problem. Post some current pics and will try to help.
Posted on 8/20/25 at 12:11 pm to Tigerlaff
Updated pic on one of my mangos after some pruning a month ago…they look good, any critique?
Bonus guava pic
Avocado!
Bonus guava pic
Avocado!
Posted on 8/20/25 at 1:44 pm to DickTater
Only issue with that mango is pull the weeds out of that pot. Otherwise looks great! I see new growth flushing. Must be happy.
Nice guavas and cados too. My ruby supremes are out of control this year.
Nice guavas and cados too. My ruby supremes are out of control this year.
This post was edited on 8/20/25 at 4:51 pm
Posted on 8/20/25 at 8:42 pm to Tigerlaff
LINK
Great new video last week from Adam at Flying Fox Fruits. This is a great primer for beginners who are interested in container growing tropical fruit trees. If you don't know the difference between the growth habits of a graft/air layer/seedling tree, this video is for you.
Great new video last week from Adam at Flying Fox Fruits. This is a great primer for beginners who are interested in container growing tropical fruit trees. If you don't know the difference between the growth habits of a graft/air layer/seedling tree, this video is for you.
Posted on 8/21/25 at 8:49 am to Tigerlaff
Ha. Yes I needed to pull a few spurge out the pots.
The guavas get thirsty, I find I’m having to water it fairly often in the pot. How big are you let yours get? I think this one is probably 5ft tall!
The guavas get thirsty, I find I’m having to water it fairly often in the pot. How big are you let yours get? I think this one is probably 5ft tall!
Posted on 8/21/25 at 9:49 am to Tigerlaff
Do you find you really need those mesh bags?
Posted on 8/21/25 at 3:58 pm to DickTater
I keep my guava trees no taller than about 7ft. Have to be able to spray and fit into greenhouse. And yes, they do drink a lot of water. Those guava leaves have absolutely no wax in them which means a very high rate of transpiration. They do better with drought when they are mature in the ground but that's not really an option for us. I water my big ones every day. The cattley guavas also seem to drink a lot of water, but not as much as the tropical guava.
This post was edited on 8/21/25 at 5:57 pm
Posted on 8/21/25 at 3:59 pm to Neauxla
quote:
Do you find you really need those mesh bags?
Yes. Squirrels would steal every single fruit if I didn't protect them.
Posted on 8/23/25 at 2:08 pm to Tigerlaff
First ripe ruby supreme guava of the summer crop. Tree is also working on setting the winter crop. One of these is enormous.
Crossvine finally blooming. Not a tropical but it sure brings out the humming birds.
Crossvine finally blooming. Not a tropical but it sure brings out the humming birds.
This post was edited on 8/23/25 at 6:45 pm
Posted on 8/23/25 at 4:09 pm to Tigerlaff
quote:
I keep my guava trees no taller than about 7ft.
Do you just tip the new growth to keep it at the height you want? Was thinking of doing this to mine since it won't fit in the house if it gets much bigger.
Posted on 8/23/25 at 6:49 pm to Loup
quote:
Do you just tip the new growth to keep it at the height you want? Was thinking of doing this to mine since it won't fit in the house if it gets much bigger.
I tip new growth that I want to branch out. I lop off whatever I need to to keep it short, not just tips. Very vigorous growers as I'm sure you've noticed. They respond very well to a hard prune. I even hatracked one a week ago and it's already putting on leaves. Just chop that sucker down to whatever height you need and it'll focus growth elsewhere.
One thing to be mindful of is this: make those topping cuts frequently. If you say to yourself "I'll just wait until it gets cold and then cut it before bringing it inside," you're going to be cutting off a bunch of fruit with those top branches. Cut them before they flower.
Posted on 8/23/25 at 8:33 pm to Tigerlaff
quote:
Tigerlaff
Thanks, I just lopped off a good bit of it. Definitely a vigorous grower like you said. I pruned it about a month and a half ago and it went crazy. Wasn't sure how often I could cut it.
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