re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

That looks like some kind of scale. Hit it with some diluted rubbing alcohol first then some pesticide after it dries. If that doesn't clear it up it may be powdery mildew. Will need a fungicide for that like daconil or badge. I use sulfur to prevent PM but you usually don't see it on the trunk like that. That's why I think it's scale.

No problem baw.

I royally screwed up my in ground mango this morning before work. I accidentally dropped my shovel and the handle fell perfectly right into the center crotch of my cecilove and split the tree in half. I got the damn thing through the entire winter only to undo all my progress with a shovel. Honestly though, I hated the way it was growing with that wide angle Y shape in the very center. It makes for weak structure (as I so aptly demonstrated this morning). It'll grow back. Maybe I can train it into a better form. And if it gets infected and dies I'll just start over with a 7gal. Gotta remember that you can't grow this many things and not have unfortunate mistakes like that. Still sucks though.



Harvested my last ruby supreme guava today. It was even better than the last. 9/10 flavor with great sweetness and acidity. What is interesting is that these were immature tiny fruits that hung on the tree all winter not growing during the cold. I figured they would drop or be low quality due to stagnating on the tree for 3 months. Turns out they pick up right where they left off when the weather warms up and mature just like a normal fruit in the regular growing season. Now that I know this, I'll apply a dose of 0-0-22 next fall to try to force more flowering right before winter. This guava season ended up being exactly 6 months long but I really want to see if I can increase the overwinter yield.

That sucks! I broke some branches on some mangos when I was moving them this winter but not that bad!

Any idea on how to get this avocado to grow vertically? It is 3 years old. It had a main trunk going horizontal last summer so I capped it hoping it would send out a new vertical stalk. Didn’t happen. Is it a lost cause?



Here is the same avocado I got last summer that is going up up up

I think you just have to select one of the new limbs as the leader and stake it upright
My Reed has 2 central leaders in a U shape
I’m rolling with it bc they branch low
Should help control
The height.

I ended up
Ordering 2 from Everglades a new super Hass and an Oro Negro which is actually a type B. Supposed to be a great tasting fruit. Mexican hybrid. Not sure which I will put in the hole to replace the old SH and which I’m gonna put in a pot.


Laff, what is your thoughts on uppotting?

Do you step up gradually or can I drop a 3gal straight into a 15 or 20?? I’m thinking of going with a larger pot from the start

quote:

---

those are african iris (dietes iridioides)...move them to a spot in full sun and you'll get a massive flower bloom

---

Yea, I still have about 8 of them and the do flower but they grow so inconsistent and they really suck cutting them. I threw the 10 away. I am just not a fan. Our builder went crazy with those things. They do so good in the drought, they just put them every where

That looks straight up incredible. Good job!

Got my ruby supreme up potted from 20g to 25g. Pretty insignificant, but the next step up is 45g and I don't know if I ever plan on going there with this tree. Guava does well in containers so I may keep it at 25g forever and just root prune every 5 years. Insanely productive year harvesting guavas over 6 months and the quality gets better each year. Had some really, really good ones this year. Did this repot by myself and I'm definitely going to feel it tomorrow lol.



Harvesting 2-3 carambola every day now. If anyone is reading this thread and just wants the easiest and most productive thing possible, it's starfruit. These Karis are very sweet. This tree was a small 3g twig less than one year ago and is now in a 20g. Can be kept short with pruning and just dumps fruit.

You're gonna love your guava tree man. If I could give my past self one piece of advice for my first year of guava growing, it would be to thin the fruit. Ruby supreme grows in these bunches of 2-4 large fruit and crowd each other out. They also dilute the sugar in each fruit. I would limit them to only 1 fruit per branch in the first year. Otherwise you're likely to harvest a bunch of bland fruit until we get to October/November. Also stay on top of the mealy bugs. They will find your guava and they will thrive if you don't take swift action.

When guava is good it is my favorite fruit in the world, even over mango, because of the aroma/taste combination. It just smells like the definition of tropical fruit. Even the discarded skin in the trash can 2 days later smells good. Flowers smell like perfume. And unlike Florida, we do not have the carribean fruit fly here. In Florida every guava is filled with worms unless you bag the fruit very early. I cannot wait to harvest Jalisco Roja guava for the first time this year. If it is as good as the aficionados say I will start cloning it and selling air layers. Brix of 22-24 which is unheard of for guava. That would be sweeter than a lot of mangos.

Jalisco Red

If you have kids it will be easy to convince your wife to get more lol. They love picking fruit off the trees even more than I do. If you're in LA south of I-10 / I-12 you can probably do a cattley in the ground in a protected location. I've got 6 juvenile plants about 10in tall now that I grew from seed sitting in Dixie cups in my garage. If you're anywhere near the Northshore you're welcome to one.

Yes. Have to use a systemic. Spinosad too. It has a translaminar ability to penetrate the leaf and remain in the tissue.

I took down one of my greenhouses today. Leaving the other up just in case of a March/April surprise. Need to be able to protect the flowering mango and lychee trees from temps below 40F.



One of my favorite days of the year. Get to see the fruits of your labor after 4 months of being crammed into a greenhouse like sardines.

Garden Phos. You need a regularly applied systemic fungicide (which also controls the bacteria that causes fireblight). Will knock it out.

Got a burner email? Happy to give you a lemon guava seedling. They are very true to seed, more so than regular guava. No trade, I already have way too much!