For anything fruit trees

I'd be very interested in hearing from folks who are interested in "Black Sapote" trees, also called chocolate pudding trees, Custard apple trees, fig trees, orange trees, star fruit trees,avocado trees and lemon trees. I have all of them oh and also something called white sapote which I know nothing about. I'm interested to learn what fertilizer and how much you might use, how low you can trim them and still have them bear fruit. These all do very good in south Florida and for the life of me I don't understand why every one doesn't have a star fruit (carambola) which gives such a hugh crop and costs @2.00 each at Publiks

Hi Jim
The only fruit trees I have other than bananas are lychee (my favorite), unknown fig, alma fig and carambola. and payaya. Unfortunately they have been on the neglected side and are still young so I need to get after them and get them going. I prefer to buy my oranges at the produce stand rather than grow them because of the fruit rats. I don't want to have to put out poison because of my cats & dogs.

Wow, fruit rats! I've only once seed an iguana, long since frozen to death in the horrible winter of o9 , never seen a rat or a mouse nor any sign of anything other then birds eating from my fruit trees, I guess I have to count myself lucky. Get after that carambola, they are soooo good, my fig is an unknown also, I don't even know what a fig looks like unless tit has newton after it's name. How do you do with your bananas? I usually get 4 hugh stalks weighing about 90 lbs each, my neighbors get sick of bananas, but, heck, they are soo easy to grow.

They would do much better if I fertilize but I tend to let most things here go native with no additional supplements. I'm planning on downsizing on the backyard nursery end and devoting more time to my personal gardening.

Your down sizeing and I seem to be up sizeing, Actually I am getting too old to keep it all up, but I just keep on keeping on.

I'm only downsizing because I have other things going that I need more time for.
Not enough hours in the days when I put in about 50 hrs a week at work. Not to mention I have run out of room. My backyard is wall to wall plant benches.

For me it's a fact that I actually work harder now that I'm retired then I ever did during my employment life. The big difference is that I love my garden work. Constantly seeing the miracle of birth (seedlings) and trying to raise them to adulthood is both challenging and fascinating. I think some things are particularly difficult and probably the reason I chose to put in weird trees like the Black Sapote and Custard apple. Not to forget that they both produce the most delicious fruit that is impossible to buy in the markets. Picture is of my black sapote.

Satsuma Tangerines grafted on dwarf stock are the best thing to grow in mid-central Florida. They have thick puffy skin and only a few seeds. Ripen in November before the hard freezes in Dec or Jan. These did not get fertilizer or spray. The secret to large fruit: THIN-OUT the tiny marble sized green fruit in summer before they develop. Take out 1/2 or more, so there's more energy devoted to each fruit.

The commercial growers recommend bare soil under the trees, but I tried using recycled tree-trimmer mulch and it worked great. Don't mulch too close to the tree trunks. The earthworms do all the hard work. These pics are from Nov 2008.

This a tree shown from pic above transplanted to this new site in 2009.

John, so glad to see a post here. So, you don't have any problem with the sri lanken weevil huh, I have to keep my two year old orange tree dusted with diatomaceous food grade earth, it's the only thing that keeps them from eating my little tree to the ground,.do you have any other fruit trees?

Pink Grapefruit is the only other so far. It is also care-free, but watch out for the thorns :-/ Last year we got a thornless blackberry bush that is blooming and bearing fruit now. Might propogate that. Also I'm trying muscadine grapes.

I just bought a muscadine grape at Lowes a few weeks ago. Trying to decide where to put it. Bought another blueberry bush and a raspberry bush also.

Day late and a dollar short...
but I appreciate the info on the Satsuma, ApopkaJohn.
I've got new this spring nectarines and peaches - one nectarine, Sunraycer, has about 6 fruit on it. The blueberries I planted last fall all have fruit, too. I'm optimistic about the Meyer lemon and a grapefruit I planted, and there is already a mandarin orange here (so sour, so seedy!). Also planted a Barbados Cherry, but I'm expecting to have to protect during some winters, like the one we just had (my first here). Two muscadine grapes are working their way up a cattle panel trellis, too.

Hi all, I am having problems with my grapefruit, it looks scabby - but what to do????
My lemon tree still going strong but some branches died, so I have removed them, I had a seedless orange which did nothing so I told it that it was the last year if it didn't produce it would go - so it went mad and produced so many fruits, and just to upset me it then died! I have one clementine tree (I think it is) and that produces some fruit every year, but I am so disappointed with my grapefruit that I do need advice on it's welfare, it was OK until last summer. Any help and advice would be appreciated.
Never had this problem in UK - no citrus trees!

Wish I could help but I won't grow citrus trees. Too much upkeep and rodents.LOL
I am starting to grow some of the more unusual fruit. Lychee, starfruit, etc. And of course bananas, and berries.

Predatory insects will keep your trees pest-free. Under or near the trees plant some mini-wasp-atracting plants. Rudbeckia or Agastache.

Jim, reference sapote trees, they are just too tender to grow up here in Tampa. They may make it for a year or two but they get too big to protect and the cold will eventually take them out. Carambolas will grow here but most folks don't know of them and others have tried a bad cultivar and didn't care for the flavor. The difference in taste between the cultivars can be striking. I like Arkin and Kary and a few others but some of them can be nasty.

In my yard I grow Brogdan avocados, Williams Bananas, Cattley guavas, black Surinam cherries, ruby red grapefruit, jaboticabas, Meyer lemons, longans, Hak Ip lychee, several mandarine Xs like Murcott tangors, Orlando tangelos and Wekiwa tangelolos, Carrie mangos, naval oranges, papaya, Sims passion fruit, Fuyu persimmons, Francis pomegranate and Hirado Buntan pummelos. I've tried cherimoya and custard apple but the conditions are not right for them here and the cold finally won out.

Jim

Yum Lychee, my favorite. I have an air layered tree that's been in about 6 yrs but is still on the small side. I get blooms almost every year but they fall off or are blown off by storms prematurely. I had 2 whole fruit make it to ripening and had to buy 10 pounds to satisfy my annual lychee habit. I am going to look for a longan tree, low chill nectarine, peach & apple. I don't do citrus. I'd rather buy it than do the yearly maintenance, not to mention the fruit rats. As it is, I still get them in the garage rom the neighbors trees.

I have blueberries and got blackberries this year. I also have several types of bananas. A couple of unknown, one a fingerlady type and one the chaquita type, also manzano and my favorite, dwarf Namwah, so sweet!