DickTater

Okay have a question in regards to trimming my Pickering. The tree has never wanted to really grow super upright, I get it’s a dwarf in a pot. Tried tying it up in spots for over a year, never really lignified. So I said the hell with it and let it do its thing. The 3 main scaffold branches are spaced evenly, and branch at about 16” above root flare, but immediately droop down towards the ground..new growth has drug it down further. Now it has eventually gone back up right somewhat. Curious what the thoughts are if I should just let it be and do its thing, eventually it will get going up, or if I should head back to a larger branch and start over, which I don’t want to do, but may be best :( ?


I just worry about fruit load down the road, but maybe it’s stronger this way?

Tree is in a 15 gal pot

Yea I think you’re right on pot size. Guessing that’ll be the final up pot for that tree’s life ? Maybe a root prune in 5 years?
I don’t think I’m far from jumping my guava. That thing can suck a pot dryyyyy and goes from perfectly perky to droopy mess by the afternoon lol.

Yea I would love a winter not in the teens…just really screwy with all the plants..would love a normal flowering cycle for my deciduous fruit trees also.

And my poor Reed avocado despite my best efforts is so stressed by spring it drops all its leaves around flowering time, been in a holding pattern for 18 months on size. It’s finally pushing well again. I do think it’s the wrong variety for our climate though. My potted ones and the Maria black in ground I think will do substantially better.

Would love some star fruit this year, but any that set end up dropping, guessing the heat??

Have you reached out to the bonsai store under hill out by you in Folsom ?
They sell a mix for $68 5 gal of pumice lava and shale.
Wonder if they mix it or can get bulk product before it’s mixed ??
We really need a nursery to pick up a contract for top pot or at least the precursors !

Few questions on heat wave.

I’ve repositioned my trees to be in the shade by about 430, they seem to be doing much better. My dwarf Hawaiian was reallllly struggling to hold new leaves without burn. Pickering that tree didn’t care.

On the kari, I k ow I read you call it a drama queen. Does it yellow and drop leaves easily? It seems happy, then bam a whole branch of leaves will yellow lol. No drooping or folding, so guessing not water. Gonna throw up an umbrella and see if it just needs less sun late day.

My avocados under shade cloth are very happy and are just pushing growth like crazy.

I listened to the Gary avocado video and in it he did mention that there was some issue with shipping his mix. Something about distribution errors and a possibility of a mixing plant being initiated on the east coast…but hopes to have it sorted out soon!

Man just catching up, been out of town. Pickering is really pushing right now. It’s such a floppy tree though!

I have good framework, but it’s like the tree pushes faster than the lignification can take place! I have it tied up some for support, but trying to wean it off the ties and just let it drop then come up from there I guess. It’s much less upright that dwarf Hawaiian.




Also my DH having some odd chlorosis maybe ? On newer leaves ?

Same nutrients on both trees as well as soil.

Used osmocote plus , azomite

Should I spray some micros ? Iron ?

Laff what do you have in the 45gal pots? Hard to tell

Ruby sup guava is wildly thirsty in this heat, wants water daily! Leaves go from perky to sad back to plump!

Nice!
Just extra pumice on top the seedling?

I got some ataulfo from Costco to scratch my itch,, going to plant the seeds just to have some fun and try grafting on them.

Got my new cecilove, and lil gem in. Look pretty good, 2 flushes above the graft, genuine Zill yellow nursery tags.

Planning to go into Cajun top pot mix in a 15 gal pot.
Would you completely bare root them, or just shoot for maybe 50% reduction in the terrible soil? Worried if I go too aggressive on these in this heat (even after shady recovery) they will get more shock and reduce vigor for a while…thoughts ?

I’ll add fuel to the spectacle fire. It’s worth every penny. I have 25k of turf, and my weed pressure has dropped to nearly zero. I was a long time prodiamine user. Now I do prodiamine early spring, spectacle late spring, and again in early fall.
Poa is gone, spurge is gone, doveweed is almost gone.
I think just need another yearly cycle to squash it.

Buy a proper electric sprayer, and good pre em tip (coarse droplet) and get it down

Thanks for your thoughtful reply.

So with our weather we inevitably will get temps that likely stimulate flowering in fall. Is that when you’re allowing it to set fruit? Then holding on to the fruit all winter and spring? Or are you allowing BBs to form then picking off and only wanting it to hold the fruit in the spring flush ?

So the utopia trees restock was a bust. They didn’t have any cecilove in stock and also wanted $115 for a 3 gal.

Chat gpt convinced me to have a well rounded flavor profile in 4 trees I needed a cecilove and a lil gem. This was with the constraints of container growing, and good fungal tolerance due to our climate.

This is what it said. Do you agree ?

?? Pickering ? Coconut base
??? Dwarf Hawaiian ? Spice/resin
?? Lil Gem ? Pure sugar anchor
?? Ceci Love ? Complex dessert mango

Found a seller on Etsy (exoticpalmsource)with current recent feedback selling 3g trees for $80. Messaged him about a ceci and he has them both even though ceci wasn’t listed. So got 2 more coming. Lil Gem , and cecilove

That should complete my container mango group.
I should have known this thread would cause this lol.

Now to wait 3 years for fruit ???

Was at chapel farms today getting some wood chip mulch for a bed, and browsed his tropical shipment. Ended up grabbing a Kari Starfruit. It was on my list of eventual purchases. lol.

Funny that common though process on potting up tree sizes to always go slow (3,7,15,25) bc of drainage issues and having the root all sit in a wet pot, but I don’t think that’s the case with Gary’s mix. I think you can go straight to a 10-15 from 3 and not have issues. That’s been my experience anyways so far. They usually stall for about 4 weeks after the bare root wash, then flourish!