Alphonso mango- Much ado about not that much
lycheeluva
15 years ago
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jsvand5
15 years agolycheeluva
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Much ado about mulch
Comments (37)I'm very happy with how all the mulch I put down last year is starting to work. Mine came from NJ Mulch (no spaces, dot com), which is composed of shredded tree and shrub waste left to compost for a year, then shredded again. The result was a nice mix of particle sizes (going down to something about the size of peat moss), and when my order of 15 cubic yards arrived, it was steaming-hot. Since this is a new garden, I had to create beds. Before the mulch arrived, I laid sheets of cardboard over the weedy grass, weighing it down with trimmings from a tree I was cutting back. As I cut more of the tree and thus had more trimmings to use, I kept extending the cardboard. Note that there were a lot of leaves put down while still green. Naturally, they browned over time, but I figured the nitrogen was still in there. So then when the actual mulch came, that went over it all to a depth of about 6 inches. And since I had so much, I continued my "bed-making" elsewhere. This year, about a month and a half ago when the snow finally cleared, I started broadcasting blood meal over all the mulched areas, as well as giving 1/2 cup of organic rose food to each rose in the ground. Then a couple weeks later I did it again, this time with Milorganite over the mulch. Following that came the composted manure (mix of horse, sheep, goat, cattle and pig) from Rutgers University, which I lightly tilled in. A week ago I started planting the perennials. While digging down into the mulch, I noticed it was filled with earthworms and mycelia, as well as being dark and moist despite the top half-inch being more of a dry crust (which has lightened in color considerably from the previous pics). As of now, the mulch is still just sitting on top of the reddish clay that is my native soil. The roses were planted into the native soil, but the perennials were planted in the mulch (I dug down to the top of the soil level and placed the bottom of the coco-pots there for those liking "regular" moisture, while planting much more shallowly those that like it more free-draining). There is nothing emerging from below that I smothered with the cardboard, tree trimmings and mulch, and any weed or tree seedlings sprouting now on top are very easily pulled out. The mulch helped to lay the foundation of a new bed without grass or weed removal, and along with the fertilizers and compost I added, is forming the basis of a great new soil. I want to see how long I can go without watering this year (we do get a lot of rain much of the year, anyway). Come Autumn, I'm going to add a layer of shredded leaves collected from the curbs of neighbors -- and probably repeat that yearly. That should allow me to go without another big mulch delivery for a couple years -- unless I catch the town trimming trees in my neighborhood, in which case I might just ask for a bit. So, yeah...I'm all for mulch. :-) ~Christopher...See MoreMango Lovers - Alphonso mango
Comments (138)No big leaves on mine this year either. I did have anthracnose, though, and pretty bad for awhile: I had the tree inside a round plastic greenhouse and leaving the door open during the daytime was not enough. There were I think eight velcroed openings above but I'm too short to reach them. I think my 6'8" husband's almost too short: you have to lean over the curve of the thing and the velcro was so strong that the one time we tried, the handle you pull on for it tore off. To be fair, it was a few years old then. The problem was that water condensed on the inside of it enough to soak towels as I wiped it down every day, and the tree took a hit in that humidity. And yet you had to water it in winter because rain didn't make it in. The door tore and the company replaced the whole thing but then the pandemic hit; the whole reason for buying it was so I could go off and visit my small grandkids, but since we weren't going anywhere we took it down and I went back to my old method of multiple layers of frost covers on cold nights. So those were the drawbacks of that greenhouse--and yet. It made it so we could travel and not worry about losing fruit or the tree itself to the cold while we were gone. It's across the yard from the house, so, no radiant heat to help out there, and incandescent Christmas lights help a lot but you have to hold that heat in. The tree gradually recovered. We still have the unopened replacement greenhouse at the ready....See MoreQuestions about pruning new mango trees
Comments (3)One important point that he didn't mention in the video is where to cut. You want to cut 0.5" above a SINGLE leave node, not above the MULTIPLE leaves node. cut above a multiple leaves node will grow multiple branches at the same node, and they will be weak branches, no good. Sapote...See MoreLooking for specific info about Mango varieties.
Comments (2)Really, tropicalfruitforum.com is the home to the best mango growers around. Pine Island Nursery has some info on most of those varieties, but the experts over on the forum really know their stuff....See Moreohiojay
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