Tigerlaff

Looking good! You can and should go heavier on the osmocote. Gary's is basically sterile. No nutrients at all in the mix. All your fertilizer is going to come from that surface layer and whatever you choose to water with. Follow what the label says. One spoonful is not enough for that soil volume.

Lol so how heavy are those pots with the Gary's? Insane, right?

I'm happy about this and thank you for the post, but I just can't really care anymore. I hate the new college football. Hope he signs after the bidding war.

Solid gold.

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Y’all need to chill shitting on players

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These are adults paid money to win baseball games. The players can suck it up like the rest of us if we perform poorly at our occupations.

OK man, how many (if any) mangos should I let this Pickering hold? I have already removed 75% of the fruit with only 5 remaining. But I need this tree strong for a zone 9a winter. My instinct is 0-1 but I want to hear your opinion. This is a 15gal recently uppotted to 25gal.

frick that ump.

Nobody has to make us look stupid. We are stupid.

Awesome. Dwarf Hawaiian is a little chlorotic but nothing a good fertilizer and foliar feed won't fix. Pickering looks great. From what I have observed so far Pickering is a very curious combination of both robust and small. It's just a strong arse tree, which usually means wild growth. But it stays small. Mine was dragged from Miami to Louisiana on 04/06/25 laying down in a truck bed, bare rooted, and repotted into a wildly different soil medium. It didn't drop any fruit and it's pushing new growth despite the repotting process happening on 04/15/25. Nine days. Didn't even blink.

Yeah in the fine print everglades tells you that the size of their plants includes the pot. So a 3 foot plant is a 2 foot plant in a pot. Everything I have ever received from them has been small but sometimes they are the only source for unique things. Plus mangos grow fast anyway compared to something like citrus.

ETA: at this size, you REALLY need to watch some videos about how to selectively prune young mangos. You need multiple scaffold branches. People instinctively prune them into a lollipop with a single origin of branches at the top of the trunk and it creates a very weak tree. Don't do this:



To be fair, that is a Valencia Pride and will grow upright and gigantic anyway but I use the picture to illustrate the principle. You don't want all the growth originating from a single point. Wiltz, correct me on any of this if I'm wrong.

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Should I trim damaged leaves off of the banana tree? I buckled one of them while loading it in the truck. IDK if I should cut it off or leave it drooping.

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You don't have to but I do for aesthetic appeal. It will shoot out replacements in no time. When winter approaches leave them hanging to further insulate the trunk if you are attempting to overwinter and get fruit. Use the discarded leaves you cut down as mulch. Best possible mulch for a banana is shredded banana leaves.

Nice. Yeah my 2 lychees are by far the most difficult thing I have going. One I am treating for the erinose mite and the other so far shows no signs of infection and has flushed new dark green growth. Test your soil pH. Lychee stands no chance without pretty acidic soil. Like pH 5-6. I water only with rain and distilled water. It hates chlorinated alkaline city water. Make sure to check for signs of the lychee erinose mite. If you have it you need to take action immediately.

Today was a day I've been dreading. Had to thin the fruit on my Pickering. I left 5 of the largest fruits but I really need to take at least 3 of those off as well. I need the tree strong for its first winter more than I need the fruit.



First round of scotch bonnets also ready today.

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Picked up a Blue Java banana from LA Nursery, there were two left when I got there. Hopefully it's a Namwah but from what I've read I'll enjoy either.

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It would be utterly shocking if a Louisiana nursery actually had a real blue java but again, for my money, namwah is what you actually want. Only somewhere specializing in rare things like Almost Eden would have blue java. Plant it somewhere with plenty of room. :lol: