re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

I normally buy my trees locally but I had some gift cards to lowes and ebay so I picked up an orient pear, early grande peach and golden dorsett apple from the websites. I will need something to cross pollinate the pear, not sure what to pick up yet.

OK time to post about something I have alluded to in this thread before, but now I have some empirical results with photos.

One of the biggest problems with growing tropicals is that you almost always have them in containers. Containers are a conundrum. Roots are dumb and do not know how to deal with containers. When they grow and hit the walls of the container, they start circling the pot wall. They will keep doing this as long as they can, leaving you with a big thick mat of roots along the pot walls and empty soil in the center. This is what we call a "root bound" plant. It is not healthy and any root bound plant will eventually decline and die. But it will look like shite and be unproductive for a long, long time before it dies. And eventually you can't up pot anymore. 25gal is my limit for most things and 45gal for my most precious trees.

There are ways to mitigate this. First, you can root prune large pots every 2-4 years. You take the tree out of the pot and cut the root mass back by about a third, giving it more space to grow in the container.

Second, you can use air pruning pots. These are pots with holes in the side and a wall structure that discourages circling. The problem with these pots is that water leaks out of the side holes and they dry out very fast.

Then there's what I do. Paint every pot with a copper-based product called microkote. If you have looked at any of my photos, you will see a copper colored paint on the interior of my pots. That's microkote.

Microkote kills the root tip when it contacts the pot wall. Only the tip dies. The tip then sends a hormonal message back up the root telling it to grow somewhere else. The roots respond by branching throughout the entire soil volume of the container instead of along the walls.

Not only does this completely solve the "root bound" problem, it also uses the whole pot space available and results in much more root mass.

It also prevents roots from being located on the exterior pot walls where temperature extremes occur. A black pot will get to 120-140F in direct summer sun. That is a huge stressor on roots. Same goes for cold weather. You want your roots on the interior of the pot, not the walls.

Here are some photos of my lemon cattley guava that I repotted today. It went from a 15g with microkote to a 20g with microkote. The entire soil volume is filled with roots, but when you zoom in you will see the tips of every root are brown and dead. Obviously there is zero root circling.









Microkote doesn't mean you will never have to up pot or root prune. At the very least, root pruning will be required forever every few years. But this product can make things a lot easier on you and get the most use out of your container space while keeping the roots comfortable and healthy.

Also, look at my soil mix. It's 65% inorganic material (pumice, perlite, sand). I'm basically growing in gravel. You can also see the 1-2 inch organic compost layer I put on top. The results speak for themselves IMHO.

I have no relationship with microkote but endorse them 100%. I think it's a one man operation and I believe it's one of the most innovative container growing advancements out there.

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lime in a pot, I never had success overwintering them outside in Baton Rouge, I am not sure the north shore would be any better.

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Limes are significantly more cold sensitive than all other citrus. Consider them true subtropical trees like atemoyas or guavas. Prolonged exposure to anything below 40F in a pot and they will start to decline. Key limes are even more sensitive than Persian limes.

Wiltz lives in zone 10. I would guess that he's not doing cold protection except on rare occasions.

I put a cecilove mango in the ground in Mandeville 9a 2 months ago. Will document how it does this winter. I will be wrapping the tree in C9 Christmas lights, placing a sheet over the tree/lights, placing a tent over the the covered tree, and putting a 250W incandescent bulb in the tent. The idea is to create 2 separate insulated layers with a heat source in each.

My dragonfruit has started putting out some crazy growth over the past month or so.



Papayas are getting pretty big. I'm ready for these frickers to ripen up.



I had 9 guavas set.

Bro you are killing it!

You got this. Just remember to be 10% more cautious than you think is necessary. I've got years invested in some of these producing trees. If the forecast calls for an overnight low of 37F, that sucker is going inside. I'm not gonna be the guy who gets the freak cold pocket of 29F and either kills a young tree or stunts it for at least a year. If it's drifting into overkill territory on the cold protection then you are in exactly the right place. Do that and cut your watering way down over winter and you'll be golden.

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How hot is too hot to have them in the pop up greenhouse? I'll have a thermostat control on the heater. I'm wondering about those 35 degree nights then the 70+ degree days afterwards.

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Great question and one of the easiest mistakes to make.

If the daytime high is above the 50's and sunny, you need to completely open every door and window/vent. 75F will turn into 110F very fast in the sun and all your trees will look like steamed veggies.

Better to open them and expose them to brief temps above freezing than to cook them all day. You can also only open one or two vents and dial it in better.