re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

Now one of my weather apps is saying 32F on Tuesday morning. If this holds this will be a real test for me not to rage quit. My in ground passionfruit vine that I overwintered is already setting fruit. Probably going to have to set up the 2nd greenhouse.

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If I wanted to try a tropical ornamental, would you have any recommendations?

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Yes. Kentia palm. Howea forsteriana. Most tropical ornamentals are going to absolutely hate being in a climate controlled office. Not enough sun, too cold, and most importantly too dry. Kentia palms are absolute tanks and will thrive indoors even in low light. They grow very very slowly and are thus expensive.

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think I’m going to go with a pot. One less thing to cover. I can just wheel it in

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Barbados cherry is pretty cold tolerant but not 9a cold tolerant. You'll definitely have to protect some years.

Baw, you are on one! Nice! That tree, your root cleansing job, and that soil mix all look fantastic. One of the healthiest looking mail order avocados I've seen.

You have to document the grafting for us. I don't have a lot of grafting experience but will be starting soon now that some of my seeds are growing out (sapodilla, pawpaw, loquat, later mango). Really look forward to learning from your trials.

Also, it's a good thing I set up the greenhouse again last night. We hit 40F with a forecast of 44F. Cold enough to abort mango fruit.

Pawpaws arrived
These look like seedlings so maybe before I die they’ll make fruit LOL

thank you that’s good to know that what I’ll probably do. The dirt is really good where I planted them (old flower bed that got shaded out) and I cut in plenty of sand. what I did was started the bare root low and gradually pulled it up as I backfilled so I think I got a quality insertion (TWSS)

Perfect. Yeah if their roots dry out or if that taproot stays curled up they just never really thrive. Of my 6 pawpaws 5 are pushing leaves. I've got 3 in the shade on the bank of the bayou (their natural habitat) and 3 in full sun (where they will eventually fruit the heaviest). I painted the trunks on those full sun trees white this morning. Pawpaws are generally not appreciative of 9a full sun until they get 3-4 feet tall.

Well, some of you may remember a few weeks ago when I accidentally dropped a shovel and split my in ground cecilove mango down the middle. The tree didn't recover. I ended up cutting it above the graft, but it was unable to bud any new growth.

So I spent the $130 and ordered another. The seller had trouble sourcing one because it's an in demand and somewhat uncommon cultivar (dwarf, extremely disease resistant, productive). But they eventually found what they described as a "very healthy young tree" and it arrived today. Here's what I got:







There are several problems here. First, the leaves are yellowing/browning indicating either nutrient deficiency or some other damage. Second, it had dropped about half the leaves in the box. Third, the taproot was very J-rooted due to being in too small a nursery pot for too long. It is is not the worst thing I've ever seen, but this is absolutely a rehab job. Unfortunately this is what often happens when you order tropical trees from Florida. I'm going to describe to you what I do in cases like this and document the (hopeful) recovery.

0) document everything with photos before you even open the box.

1) clip off any damaged leaves or branches.

2) wash off the roots of any sawdust/bark soil.

3) plant into an appropriate container with very fast draining mix. I used Gary's Top Pot, which I consider to be the gold standard.

4) add a pinch of mycorrhizae powder to assist with root recovery.

5) add a tablespoon or two of azomite to infuse soil with any missing minerals.

6) water with dilute fish emulsion. You want this to be a very gentle fertilizer that is nitrogen oriented. Fish emulsion is perfect for this.

7) spray with a foliar nutrient spray to get nutrients into the leaves immediately.

8) spray with brassinolide to reduce stress on the tree and promote cell growth.

9) place into a climate controlled area that will stay above 70F and above 60% humidity.

10) place it under bright indirect full spectrum light. Make sure to give it a night cycle every day.

11) immediately put the seller on notice that you have received a less than satisfactory product. Do not wait until the next day. Read their shipping/returns terms and conditions first and use exact language from their policy to write your complaint. Hopefully you never need to act on this but you have to preserve whatever rights you may have.

Here is what I ended up with:



I am about 90% sure that this will green up and recover, but I won't be putting this in the ground anytime soon. When I spend this amount on a small tree I expect it to look great, not merely passable.

Best thing about this is that it was sourced from Tropical Acres in West Palm Beach. That means the graft work is impeccable and there should not be any latent diseases lurking.

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Maybe that tree is not for you. Someone could be trying to tell you something.

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Essentially my entire collection is a slap in the face to nature. It's driven by a misplaced 19th century anthropocentric reason/science over the untamed elements sensibility. I may kill 5 more of these exact same trees but I can promise you I will harvest cecilove mangos in Louisiana.

So, I am looking at a low of 27 Tuesday. My young satsuma is loaded with flowers. I need to cover, right?

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My young satsuma is loaded with flowers. I need to cover, right?

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How young is the tree? A young satsuma should not be allowed to fruit, in which case I would say let the cold hit it and knock down the flowers for you.

For brand new trees with trunks about pencil width, I usually don't allow them to hold fruit until year 3 and sometimes more for trees that make heavy fruit or huge crops.