re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

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What kind of sand are you guys buying to put in your mix? I looked around at my local home depot and all I saw was playground sand

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You don't need anything special. I use paver sand. Play sand is fine too. What you are trying to do is create some kind of sandy rocky mix that gardening hippies will fret over because "where's the living soil?!?!" All these tropical plants grow like gangbusters in Hawaii which is literally a soil of straight pumice, sand, and basalt. You just need something to hold a little moisture and ideally drop the pH (peat). Your fertilizer (top layer) will provide all the nutrition they need. If you live somewhere like Arizona where it is extremely hot and dry, then you will need more peat or maybe even some compost to hold enough moisture to keep them alive. But that's not this thread.

I guess there is never a bad time to pimp Gary Matsuoka and his soil philosophy. If anyone is reading this and baffled go watch Gary's Best Gardening on YouTube. He'll explain it all when it comes to soil.

I know there are a lot of ways to skin a cat, but I am right about this. Even very good gardeners will talk about coarse pine bark chunks, compost, etc. in their mixes. All of that stuff works (for a time) until it decays and shrinks. You can just skip all that bullshite and have a mix that is essentially permanent and doesn't shrink down in the pot each year or decay into anoxic sludge.

None of this is directed at you, Lanier. Just been a while since I've regurgitated my spiel about container soil philosophy in this thread. Getting the soil mix right is the #1 factor for tropical container success and it's not close.

New tree escapades starting today. Looking at more cold hardy varieties to add to the grove. Been investigating mulberries recently and there’s lots of varieties to choose from. Settled on a relatively new variety to the US called the Black Austurkey. Known for vigorous growth; abundant fruit set with large tasty berries. So I contacted the person credited with bringing them to the US who happens to live here in the Tampa Bay Area. She assured me that they grow readily from cuttings; so I ordered 5 cuttings her Etsy shop. She sent me almost 20 of them! So I hit them with some rooting hormone and put them in some amended potting mix. They say I should see growth in 2-3 weeks. We’ll see!

Ahh yeah only 900 bucks nice. Gorgeous, though. I'm amazed that they (most palms, really) can look so good in such small pots. When mine gets to 20g that's it. Will have to move it inside too often.

OK, if I had access only to the big box stores, here's what I would buy:

Peat moss
Perlite (biggest chunks available)
Paver sand
Decomposed granite
Manure compost (for top dressing)
Cypress mulch (for top dressing)
Osmocote plus (for top dressing)

I would do the following mix:

33% peat. So just make this 1/3 of your mix. You can eyeball it.

33% decomposed granite. Again, 1/3. Eyeball it.

The remaining third I would split between paver sand and perlite. Again, you can just eyeball it.

Then you top dress with manure compost, then osmocote, then mulch. This mix is going to be HEAVY. If you have access to pumice, I would definitely use it in place of decomposed granite. It's lighter and holds moisture better. It's just hard to find and expensive. On the bright side, these pots are impossible to blow over in the wind.

If you want to really overachieve, throw in a fistful of activated charcoal dust, a big pinch of mycorrhizae fungi powder, and a fistful of azomite into the mix. The charcoal will hold on to water and micronutients. The azomite will supply extra micronutients. The fungus will bind to your roots and make them much more efficient and reduce planting/repotting shock.

As I have always said, this soil is meant to drain fast. You will have to water more (much more in summer) than using trash miracle gro potting soil. It's nearly impossible to overwater. You are mimicking the rocky/limestone soils of the American tropics (without the alkalinity) that get rained on every single day in the growing season.

And seriously, if you haven't watched Gary on YouTube you must do it. He's an old Asian American man with a deep and mellifluous voice.

I've never seen a mulberry smaller than 20x20 and yes, the birds can't eat it all. Can't wait to see your results. I've been curious about mulberries for a long time.

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If left to their own devices she says it’s gonna be 12-15 feet tall in 2-3 years.

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I’ve had a couple get that tall in a single growing season! (started as about 3ft bare roots). They did take really well to a hard prune though. Unfortunately one just up and died this year and the other one still hasn’t fruited. Hopefully this is the year.

Looking good! I’m very excited for spring. Looks like I may have saved a couple of loquat fruits so fingers crossed!

Very welcome muchaho. I spam Gary any chance I get. It's not just one video. He does a soil video every year. I also have that same yellow hibiscus in my front yard.

Those flamethrowers are not looking good in those pots. Likely getting rootbound and starving for nutrients. The 7g was the way to go. When it starts looking bad you know to immediately take care of those roots and up pot or root prune.

Adonidias look great. You're golden. God I wish I could grow them in my yard. I have two 15g pygmy date palms on my porch because they tolerate shade, pots, and cold relatively well. But I may have to bite the bullet and try some Adonidias.

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How long can I leave it in this before planting?

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A few days tops. If the bag is clear/transparent keep it out of direct sunlight as it will act like a greenhouse and potentially cook the roots.

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If the bag is clear/transparent keep it out of direct sunlight as it will act like a greenhouse and potentially cook the roots

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Oh shite, I didnt think of that. Thanks.



Took my dragonfruit out of the greenhouse yesterday. All of the light green growth was put on while it was in it. Out of everything I had in the gh this tolerated the cold the best. I think I gave myself a hernia moving the damn thing.

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ETA: you need to get that thing on wheels brotha

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I took it off of the wheels to get into the greenhouse. It is a little too top heavy for me to get back on to the dolly on my own. You were right about them being a bitch to move around. There's ~100 lbs of sand in the potting mix for it.

Just ordered a nectaplum for my wife. I think her lemon tree is toast so it'll replace that.