re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

The rule of thumb for most trees we can grow in ground in 9a is that blooms are usually safe until 26F - 28F. This is true for citrus, loquat, etc. So let's say your forecast is 3 degrees off and you hit 31F. Then let's say there is medium humidity, clear sky, and no wind. You could absolutely see frost where the surface of the tree experiences 27F even though the air stays at 31F. Does that kill off your flowers? Maybe. Maybe not. Most likely only some would be damaged. But why roll the dice under those conditions? Easier to just cover.

The best ratio I can give you is to have about 65% of your mix as minerals. That can be pumice, perlite, sand, crushed granite, pebbles, etc. For mangos, I have seen people using mixes of 50% sand with great results. Mangos love sand.

I think Gary's Top Pot is the perfect potting soil for fruit trees and I recommend trying to copy that as closely as possible. Every single thing I have planted in this soil has thrived without a single exception.

35% peat
30% pumice
20% perlite
10% sand
5% biochar

The quick and dirty mix is a third each of peat, sand, and perlite.

I found a new YouTube channel recently that focuses on tropical potted fruit trees. He is a big time Gary disciple, so of course I endorse him 100%. Here's his take on container soil:

Grows Gone Wild

These trees will grow in basically gravel. It sounds nuts but they do and they love it as long as you fertilize and water. I need to post a photo of Gary's soil so y'all can see what it looks like.

Need to know what size you are starting with and what size you are going to. And what is the current mix they are in?

Yeah. In a pot that big i would probably start over if it's staying too wet.

Are you 100% sure it's staying too wet? Like are you seeing signs of overwatering stress or top soil staying damp for over a week? And what your mix is composed of really matters. If it's just peat or coco coir that's staying a little wet that's one thing. If it's bark chunks or sawdust that's another.

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avocado

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there it is! Yeah probably drainage. I would spray off the bad soil (it's going to hate that), repot with more pumice and sand, give it Monterey Garden Phos, and pray. It's probably already got root rot if it's showing yellow leaves and the garden phos will help with that if it's early. Make sure to inspect the roots when you do all this.

I would also seriously consider just spending $70 to get 2cuft of Gary's shipped to you for this single purpose. You've probably spent more than that already on soil.

Avocados man. They are suicidal. But I believe in you.

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My mix is sand, perlite, pumice, miracle gro cactus mix, peat.

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No need for both the miracle gro and peat. Pick one (preferably peat). Both are serving the same purpose of moisture retention.

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Where did you source the pumice ? I haven’t found anything good lo

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amazon It aint cheap

Amazon

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It’s also wild there is no regionally made top pot mix …why is there such a disconnect?? Is it bc we don’t do tropical so don’t use pots long term ?

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This stuff ain't just for tropicals, brotha. It's good for almost everything. There are a few reasons why we don't have this kind of soil available, all of which are infuriating:

1) in the 1980s, various universities began pushing the idea that plants grow better in rich organic matter. This is actually true, at first. For the first 9-12 months in our climate, plants love growing in organic matter. It typically retains a suitable amount of moisture and drains well. So when grad students designed experiments to grow one tomato plant in bark fines and another in clay/sand, the tomato in the bark obviously did better immediately. That's it. That's where this all comes from.

2) the horticultural industry read these studies and immediately saw an opportunity. Organic matter (wood products) is much, much lighter than real soil. It is cheaper to ship, easier to pack, and easier for consumers to lift. Even more importantly, they could often get these materials for next to nothing or even free as waste products from the timber industry.

3) the idea that plants need lots of rich organic soil has now totally taken hold in the public's mind. There is this completely fallacious idea that the roots of plants somehow "eat" the rich material down in the soil and grow better because of it. Organic matter is not food (for plants) and better understood as vitamins. The plants eat glucose from photosynthesis. They don't need an overload of vitamins touching every root and that organic matter stays too wet and decays. Rainwater washes all the nutrients plants need from the soil surface down to the buried roots. In nature, the organic content of most soils is less than 5%.

4) there is now economic and cultural inertia resisting positive change. Every single academic source, web search, magazine article, and local gardeners club is going to pimp rich organic soil to you.

If you tried to sell the public a bag of sand, perlite, pumice, and peat they would think you were running some kind of scam to stick them with rocks instead of "good" soil.

I can tell you from first hand experience that the only way to change people's minds on this is to do it yourself and let the results speak for themselves. People just cannot wrap their heads around the idea that the word "soil" actually refers to silt, sand, and clay instead of a bunch of black organic hummus. When I first figured this out it blew my mind. I used to mix manure compost into my potting soil and into holes in the ground. I called a grower friend at 11PM on a weeknight to tell him I thought organic soil might be killing our plants. He (and I) thought I was insane. He is now a convert.

Yeah but it’s heavy

Is it possible to flower and fruit that tree (or similar) in a single growing season, spring to fall?