Thanks for the information. Seven inches is a lot of water in three days, that could be a contributing factor to some of your fruit falling off. How far south of me are you? I ask, because my Name Doc Mi is just about "finished" fruiting this season, I've only got a few left on the tree. When you spray, I would recommend that you only spray copper - I reserve (again my opinion) Neem when it's only absolutely necessary for the destruction of bugs. When you fertilized were there bloom spikes/ flowers? How many fruit are on the tree? Grunches of them? I've had fruit abort just because there were too many (citrus does that all the time). And you say there's new growth developing? I may be wrong, but I think it's too late for the fruit AND the emerging growth together. Mine usually sprouts after the fruit has been picked. Can you get any images for us? Thanks Anyone else have any comments?

Sorry about the double post, I realized I didn't answer Honu's question. Honu, Aloha! Honestly, I cannot say I have had the pleasure of trying a Hawaiian chile. Someday I certainly will if I can get my hands on the seeds. Regarding your question; I will split it into two parts. First, as far as heat, heat is a somewhat subjective thing. Now, it's true that no one on earth would day that a bell pepper is hotter than a chocolate hab, but different species of capsicum have different types and ratios of capsaicin. Therefore, if someone has only eaten habaneros (capsicum chinense) their whole life and then bites into a manzano chile (capsicum pubescens) they would certainly find it hotter than someone who has been eating manzanos their whole life. For instance, I can bear habaneros but choke like crazy on jalapenos, which have lower levels of capsaicin but a type of capsaicin I am not used to. Capsaicin is a vanilla-like compound (no kidding) that binds to the pain receptors in your mouth. I'm not quite sure what happens to build tolerance (perhaps an increased level of some certain enzyme?) but something makes eating a certain type of chile more bearable after a while. That being said, I have read HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography, which involves the extraction of capsaicin from the sample pepper and the direct measurement of the level) reports on some of these chiles, and nothing compares to the amount of capsaicin in the capsicum chinense species. They have a very high level of capsaicin compared to other peppers and HPLC is a much more accurate and less subjective method of measuring heat than the scoville units test (a dilution test). The hottest capsicum chinenses that I have tried? Trinidad scorpion, chocolate scotch bonnet, chocolate habanero. I have a friend who claims the USDA datil is the hottest thing he has ever tried (out of I would guess hundreds of different chinenses) and another friend who swears by something called a trinidad 7-pod (also known as a 7-pot, the name being a derivation of the fact that one pepper will season 7 pots of soup, go figure). With that, we will see what comes for me in the future but I can say this: the red savina is not the world's hottest pepper. Regarding taste: that's a tough one. I like the more fruity, citrusy chinenses over the smoky ones, and don't like the taste of annuums that much. For annuums, pequins and long slim cayennes are nicely flavored and pretty versatile. My favorites are obviously the chinenses though, and if I were to pick the best tasting they would be, in no order, limon, fatalii, datil, caribbean red hab, chocolate hab (quite smoky but still very nice), billy goat, true scotch bonnet, devil's tongue, red hab (wonderful!), yellow hab (like an incredibly hot datil), grenada scotch bonnet, scotch bonnet, red (from tomatogrowers). Of these if you are looking for something a bit milder and not so explosive stick with scotch bonnet, red, yellow scotch bonnet, and limon, I think they are bearable. If you are looking for something mild but still good tasting go with aji dulce #2. I hope I didn't overanswer your question. To trim it down to five chinenses would certainly involve limons, datils, caribbean reds, fataliis and chocolate habs, but that does not do justice to the wonderful flavor and versatility of some of the others I have tried, which are just as delicious but not as brutally hot. Good luck with chile growing and if you have any other questions let me know. Mark p.s. we did have a humid summer this year, very humid in fact, and the chiles did well. I don't know if humidity affects them as much as heat, and certainly fertilizer and water level affects them as well. Basically, the more stress the hotter the pepper, but I am in NJ so we are not usually incredibly hot or humid. Peace!

Yes, I use a single layer of stockings. They are old stockings which I cut up; each leg portion into 2 sections, 1 will need simple stitching. When the fruit is about 2" I will put a stocking over it & tie loosely with a string but when it gets big enough to fill & hold the stocking I remove the string. That allows me to later easily check the color & stage of ripening. Good luck with your papayas Shannon. :)

O.K. So how does one get a hold of some seeds? I've yet to try aGreen Sapote. I am a huge Mamey fan though. Because of where we live, we cannot really expect to plant Mamey, and get any fruit. That being said, I am extremely interested in getting a some GREEN SAPOTE SEEDS. I need to find someone who can send me seeds!!! If you know of anyone, or anyone that knows someone, who might be able to help, please let me know. I'm in it for the long haul, and am anxious to see how it does here: both on the barrier island, and on the mainland (not far from the ocean), in the Melbourne, Florida area. I am led to believe that the Green Sapote may be a tad bit "cold hardy", than any of the Mamey varieties. I am looking to try seedlings, GS grafted onto GS rootstock, and possibly GS grafted onto Mamey stock. I'll pay shipping, and whatever other "fees" that would be required. This may be the answer to my dreams, as the Mamey just will not make it this far up the East coast. My Rollinia are growing well so far. Please let me know if you can help me out by hooking me up with a contact. I'll pay whatever is fair. I can pay by Paypal, Money order, Cashiers' check, or credit or debit card.