Tigerlaff

Finally harvested a ripe Jalisco Roja. Fell off the tree yellow 4 days ago and counter ripened in a paper bag until this morning. Here are my thoughts.

Any guava before October is early season for me. The early season fruit is always inferior to the late season fruit with the very best coming in November and December. This is the first fully ripe guava I have harvested this year; all the others fell off the various trees while green and were not ready. I usually do not get any ripe guava in August. In other words, this is the earliest of early season guavas and I would expect it to be inferior.

This guava is nothing short of excellent. Very high sweetness and a bright bubblegum red berry flavor with perfect acidity. Strong guava fragrance, more than ruby supreme. Most interestingly, the skin has no bitterness. I usually do not eat ruby supreme skin because of that bitterness. This is the best early season guava I have ever had by far. Moreover, it is better than about 80% of ruby supremes I have ever harvested in any ripening window.

There are several more getting close on the tree and many that are just getting started. I will wait until late October to render a final judgment, but if this quality persists and improves it will be time to declare victory. I'll propagate it for myself to replace my other guava trees then start selling air layers to get this variety into the market.

It's just one fruit but I think I've hit on something very special, which would corroborate the reports of the few Californians lucky enough to have one of these trees. The seller I got it from, Mia of Zone9Tropicals on Etsy, bought the genuine article directly from Frank Paderia who discovered and named the original seedling. He has since moved abroad and no longer sells Jalisco cuttings or air layers. Highly recommend her shop; she is not pushing fake varieties.

Exciting times!

BANANA WATCH: day 60. Starting to see some of the lower ones filling out.



Got my 15g Lara honeyquat loquat repotted to a 25g and pruned for height. I keep two loquats in pots (Oliver and Honeyquat) just for the guarantee of having some early spring fruit. Have plenty in the ground too but it's much easier to roll the pots under the patio for sub 27F nights.



Got in a legit rajapuri banana pup from Tefoe Farms today. Will finally be able to grow the real thing next year.



Obligatory it's hot AF out here comment.

Lanier, do you have any of this on your lipstick?



The image doesn't really do it justice. It looks more red in person.

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I think it helps tremendously that my pots are white.

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It absolutely does make a huge difference. Hurts in the winter, but the tradeoff is more than worth it. I'm going to experiment with reflective insulated skirts on certain pots next year.

I don't know why because I work my arse off with this stuff, but sanding down, priming, and spray painting the black plastic is just too much for me. That's my line in the sand and I don't even know why.

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Didn't realize that with the super thrive. Thanks. I have used osmocote as well but i only do that twice a year.

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Do osmocote 3 or 4x per year.

Oh boy. There's a lot of them.

Let me just give the biggest and most comprehensive one:

America is a leftist Protestant experiment and our entire history is about being liberal (in the sense of shirking what has worked for long periods of time in favor of something radically new).

In other words, leftist egalitarian abolitionist America is the real America. The current day "conservative" 1776 Americans derive their entire worldview from liberal revolutionaries who were willing to spill blood and burn down traditions/society for a radically new set of beliefs.

When your Fox News conservatives say that "those beliefs were right!" they make the exact same argument as victorious Russian Soviets in 1920. It was right because you won. Of course, American capitalism has "won" the recent history debate. And by recent I mean fewer than 100 years since 1945. But our current state is the blink of an eye in human history and it is far too early to judge its success. In fact, most conservatives will admit that our society is fraying and degrading in very important ways. The government instituted by the American founders appears to be a government suited to a very particular type of independent, literate, and adventurous people.

There are many poignant English critiques about why the American Revolution was hypocritical and disingenuous. But you will never, ever hear those arguments unless you seek them out. George Sydney Fisher's The True History of the American Revolution is a great starting point.

It really makes you wonder about what the world would look like with the combination of English empire and American power.

TL,DR: the American revolutionary story you grew up with has a lot of extremely leftist values and you never get to hear the opposing arguments.

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Any advice on pruning a star fruit? Seems to be a challenge to get a main trunk to go up as these things just seem to want everything to go sideways. I have a Belle and a Kari. They are both doing much better now that i moved them out of the direct sun all day and now they just get sun in the morning until about noon and then they are shaded.

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Pics my man. It's impossible to give useful pruning advice about a specific tree without seeing it. All I can say is that they are super vigorous and will take heavy pruning without issue. If you don't like where a branch is heading, cut it at the point you want it to send out new growth and select the branches growing in favorable directions.

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My mango's and guava's seem to have no problem being in this blazing sunlight all day.

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Doing better than me. Mine are showing leaf scorch with daily water but it's 8-9 hours full blast on a tile patio in black pots. Only sapodilla is unfazed.

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Mamey is doing well too, although getting a little brown on the edges of the bottom leaves. I think this may be from over fertilization. They seem to be a little more finicky about what you feed them

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im not measuring out my superthrive when i pour it into my watering can

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This is a huge and very risky mistake and you should cease that practice immediately. I would also encourage you to move away from super thrive as your main fertilizer. Is it great? Without a doubt. It is one of the only "complete" fertilizers with every single micronutrient that plants need. But because it is a synthetic liquid fert, all of its contents are immediately available to the plant instantly. Certain plants are going to burn. I would really recommend granular slow release fertilizer. As your collection grows you won't have a choice. :lol: It's too time consuming to hand water. Osmocote plus is excellent and the easiest option by far. For tropical trees, I personally think that 8-2-12 slow release palm fertilizer is best. Osmocote has too much nitrogen and phosphorus in my opinion. We are trying to grow fruit, not foliage.

Riskiest thing you can do on a plant is unmeasured liquid fert. For super thrive, I use 3 teaspoons for 3.5 gallons. And I only use it when I see something not growing or looking off. On lychee, 1 teaspoon for 3.5 gallons.

If you started a foliar feeding program, you would see much better results than super thrive.

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Maybe its because that thing is so small but the shape of those fronds look different than mine. Not sure which variety I have.

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Most palms have juvenile phase fronds until they get bigger. You got yours when it was much older. Yours is the regular flamethrower, Chambeyronia macrocarpa. Wish I could have found one that large but just not possible here.

Pretty clear evidence of thinning effect. Nice. When you cut them tell us about flavor difference, if any.

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Have had a few gauvas just fall off recently. Brought them inside to ripen fully, another 4-6 days. I must say pretty dang good! Not as sweet as late season fruit, but I thinned them to one per branch and think that’s helped considerably!

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Awesome! I'm glad to hear this. Show us some pics when you harvest the next ones.

I thinned my ruby supreme the same way this year and I've got about 25-30 fruits left on the tree. What I've noticed after thinning is that all the fruit are symmetrically round and huge. No small ones or off shapes like in years past. Really hoping to see some quality improvement in the early fruits! Would be a game changer.

After a year and a half of care, I FINALLY have a jalisco roja guava ripening properly on the tree. It is much more fragrant than my other guavas. Cannot wait to taste it but I'm leaving it on the tree as long as possible. I'm even rotating the tree to keep it out of this scorching sun. :lol:

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Do you ever order feijoa from a farm? Just looking for recommendations.

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I'm assuming you mean the fruit. I've only seen it for sale once in a very niche Facebook group. I did not buy it. Only ones I have ever eaten are from my trees or someone I know. Growing it really seems to be the only way to get it.

If you do decide to grow it, do your research first. Get some of the select cultivars from New Zealand. They far surpass the quality from the seedling trees found in nurseries here.

Alright we are now going into day 238 of 110F+ heat index, humidity above 70%, and no rain. Also hit 18F this winter and 10F the year before. I can now make some pretty qualified statements about what fruit trees are 9a tough and which are not. This is not a zone pusher post. This is for those who want to set it and forget it. Luckily the list is short:

2nd runner up: kumquat. Not as cold hardy as a fig, but close enough for 9a. Very few disease or pest problems for a citrus. Many pests don't like the leaves. Takes full sun and heat no problem. Hardy to about 16-17F. Leaves that don't scorch, fruit that takes freezes better, and lack of fire blight issues pushes kumquat above loquat despite the better cold tolerance of loquat.

Runner up: figs. Still can get sunburn, rust, and winter die back in the coldest years. But the weather here isn't killing it. It will come back reliably and fruit. Tough but shows signs of stress and damage. Easy to graft, air layer, and root from cuttings so they can almost always be cloned and saved.

Winner: feijoa AKA pineapple guava. These trees have that DOG in 'em. Absolutely zero stress response to triple digit heat, 10F cold, drought, no pests, no disease. Only drawback is poor to non-existent self pollination for nearly all varieties. The varieties Coolidge and Unique are self fertile but will set much better and larger fruit with cross pollination. Beautiful evergreen foliage and flowers make it a true ornamental. I cannot think of anything that has proven tougher here than feijoa.

Would love to hear from anyone with mulberry or jujube experience to see how they stack up.

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I have been thinking of putting my cattley guava in the ground as landscaping it and tenting it for the winter.

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If you have to choose between the two, the cattley guava will be much tougher. I would definitely protect with a heat source for the first 3-4 years to get the roots established. Mine is doing great in the ground but something ate all the fruit. Had to net my potted one too.







If you're looking at a landscaping tree also check out cherry of the Rio Grande (Eugenia involucrata). Even more cold hardy than cattley guava.