Saturday morning finds me in the garden taking pictures to share with the SOS gang that meets at Jim’s Blog Garden Ruminations on a weekly basis. Follow the link to tour other gardens.
I have been planting fruit trees this week. It is hard not to want to grow tropical fruit if you live in South Florida. My collection continues to grow.
Citrus fruit, especially oranges, has taken a beating from the Asian citrus psyllid. This insect carries the citrus greening disease. This disease basically makes the fruit inedible and then causes the tree to die, affecting the phloem.
I attended a lecture that included a new variety of mandarin orange, Sugar Belle and a protective device to keep the insects off the tree until it was six feet tall. This variety of citrus is resistant to the psyllid. Here is the tree just planted. I have not installed the cover yet.
I was directed to plant the tree directly in the sand, then water and fertilize the heck out of it. It took a while to get the tree hydrated, but it looks pretty good now so I am going to install the cover.
This is a Nemesis Papaya, the name sounds a bit scary. I think it is resistant to nematodes and that is the reason for the name. Papayas bear fruit quickly and the trees don’t last but a few years. I have had several and the fruit is worth it. It already has buds and it takes about four months to get fruit. I am hoping it will self pollinate. This is a hermaphrodite variety, most Papayas are male or female and it can be a trial to get the right two from seed.
Papaya buds. Fingers crossed.
A very nice surprise. The yellow dragonfruit actually set fruit! I have had this for years and many flowers but this is the first fruit. Fingers crossed again.
The Rangpur lime was plagued by lizards trying to suck the juice out of the fruit during our hot and very dry month of August. I had about 50 limes and am down to 10. Still hoping for pies in December.
This is a Red Jaboticaba, a nice little shrub from Brazil. These produce a grape like fruit on the trunk. I am not sure how long I have had this, but am still waiting for the fruit! These also are available in tree form and are quite a sight. Clusters of grapes attached to the trunk in swirling patterns. Brazilians make wine from this fruit.
That’s all from my garden this morning. Be advised I am shopping for late season mango trees..Kent or Keitt, any opinions?
The Shrub Queen 
Good luck with all your trees.
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Thank you
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Are mango trees expensive? I have no opinions on them, since I have never grown any. Three of my ‘Kent’ mango seed have germinated and are now growing. More could grow. It is still early. It will be another year before they are big enough for grafting. I do not expect favorable results, though, so should probably just purchase a tree of some sort. I do not want to waste too much time for turpentine mangoes.
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I can buy locally grown grafted mango trees for $35 in #3 containers. It takes at least 3 years to get decent fruit. I think Keitt mangoes are true to seed, but am not sure.
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$35 is not bad at all, and worth getting a tree that is already grafted, since growing a tree from seed and grafting will likely take longer. ‘Keitt’ is the same sort of mango as other cultivars (which are not honey mangoes), so is not necessarily true to seed. I really do not know mangoes or how they work. I know that I can read all about how avocado trees are not true to seed, but I never met a ‘bad’ avocado tree.
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I was very interested in your citrus variety, and I didn’t know about psyllids. I had to google to learn more but I don’t have that kind of insect that causes damage like that on my leaves. I do have other pests, though, like leaf miners or mealybugs. Jabotica is the kind of tree you only see in glasshouses of botanical gardens. You’re lucky enough to be able to grow it at home. Let me know how the fruit tastes! Last thing, interesting to know and grow a hermaphrodite variety of papaya tree
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I thought you might find the citrus interesting, there are a lot of small trees of this cultivar growing under tents on farms here. I think you will see this variety in several years. I was told it is fast growing and takes a year to a year and a half to produce fruit. I may need to prune the Jaboticaba up, when I bought it it was supposed to produce fruit in 6 years..it’s been longer. The fruit tastes like muscadines or scuppernongs if you have had those and it has seeds.
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Juice sucking lizards? I’m glad my lizards only ate bugs. You soil sure is sandy. I never heard of many of your fruit trees. Is the fruit ever commercially grown?
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Yes, invasive agama lizards big and nasty. My soil is sand, no soil! Both Mangoes are commercially available. Rangpur limes are extremely perishable and I can buy them rarely locally. The Sugar Belle mandarins are a relatively new cultivar and I think they are in serious production, so you will be seeing them eventually. I’m not sure about the papaya, they are usually sold as Mexican or Hawaiian. It may be a new cultivar. I said to my husband earlier today I don;t think I ever had a good mango or papaya prior to moving to Florida. You really have to read the labels. Tommy Atkins mangoes are awful but ship well, so that is what is in the grocery stores. There is your fruit lecture!
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Thanks. It sounds like the fruit should be eaten right away and probably doesn’t ship well. I don’t know what kind of soil I have at my new house. There are farms nearby. So maybe not too bad. I will probably have raised beds anyway.
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You will soon find out..
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Are the storms going to affect your area?
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It’s a bit windy. They’re saying 30 mph winds and outer band rain.
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So many exotic things! Exciting to see what’s growing in other parts of the world
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It seems bugs and other critters like fruit as much as we do. Good luck with the harvest!
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Thanks, Eliza
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I live to learn! I never realised lizards suck the juice from citrus fruit.
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Neither did I!
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Lizards sucking limes…a southern version of chipmunks eating my tomatoes in the dry heat of summer! Interesting to see all that sand around the trees. Do the commercial orange groves also have really sandy soil? Fingers crossed you can evade the psyllid!
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Yes, the lizards are annoying. The commercial orange groves are similar in soils, they have berms on either side of the rows of trees to keep the water from draining too fast. Like giant corrugated cardboard.
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Oh, fun! Yes, my parents spent their winters in Florida for several years (they had a second home down there), and they had fruit trees, too. It was always fun to visit them–usually in February or March when I’d had enough winter. 😉 I’m not familiar with Red Jaboticaba. All the fruits look and sound tasty!
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Good luck with the mandarin. The fruit you can grow always sounds wonderful but is clearly not without its trials in your part of the world too. We had a grand total of 5 apples this year, and a small basket of pears – possibly due to late frosts and it was also very windy while the trees were flowering which meant poor or no pollination. The Papaya buds look amazing. And I would never have thought lizards would like lime juice!
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We have had similar problems with mangoes setting fruit due to windy conditions. I think a papaya has set fruit. It makes me realize how much work and worry farmers have to grow fruit and vegetables.
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