HARRY! Never get tired of looking at your trees. Seems like you escaped the worst of the cold. I don't think you ever mentioned your means of cold protection, and maybe that's because you obviously can't protect these large, healthy trees, but what about the smaller, under 6 foot trees?

Anyway, if the winter remains normal from here on out looks like you will have a good crop all around...

One question though - what do you do about the fruit you have on trees that have grown out of reach of harvesting?
Just let them fall?

thanks a lot, there is happiness in your yard - I can see it!

mangodog

Wow, nice pic's, Harry. Do you have any info on the 95-45d jackfruit? It was supposed to have come out of the breeding program, but I'm not sure which are the parents.

Jeff

Hey Harry,

Like always, you never cease to amaze all of us with your collection. Everything looks great. What's the story on the Spirit of 76 Mango? Is it pretty common over in Florida? Your Sapodillas look awesome. Some of my Jakfruit trees from the seeds you sent me are well over 4 feet tall and doing great.

Anyways, would love to see some more pictures and love the ones you have already posted. Thanks Again,

Jacob

Looking great Harry. Hopefully this season gives you tons of fruit after last year light crop. I am pretty amazed at your Tabouey x J-30. Big difference since it was a two leaf sprout when I was there.

Harry ! Do you fertilize your trees at all? Everything looks quite healthy as usual

Harry, your yard looks amazing, I think I'm going to take your open invitation and pay you a visit this July. Your Hasya nispero is huge, do you ever prune it? I've notice some of your mangos are bushy, is that the result of fall pruning or are some of the trees just dwarves? I though Edward was a vigorous grower but it looks like and open bushy tree. Last question, how long have you had your green sapote?

Harry,

Beautiful pictures, all those fruit trees... I am envious! Keep the pictures coming :).

Hi Harry,
Your pics are always much appreciated! I cannot get over the size of the Jean Ellen! Didn't you just buy this last year?? How much taller would you say it is now? Very impressive Harry!
Andrew

Great pics! Does Alano have a less gritty texture? I've read that it has texture of an ultra fine pear, while others are more gritty like a regular pear.

Jacob- "Spirit of 76" is a Florida cultivar created and named by Lawrence Zill

Harry I think you should should give tours of your yard :)

Gary:

There is very little "out of reach" fruit. I have a 16 foot orchard ladder and then a "pick and hold" picker or two other varieties of fruit pickers with extension poles that allow me to reach about 25 feet up the tree. Mangoes, and other fruits tend to develop at the tops of the trees, sure, but then the weight of them tends to allow them to droop downward and so makes them more accessible. I have had unpickable fruit on the top of my Brewster lychee. The solution has been to trim out the tallest branches from the central leaders of the tree, felling the fruit to the ground and opening the canopy for future growth in center, previously shaded out center of the tree. The even fewer fruits that I cannot get to at the very tops of some trees are easily taken care of by the local birds (which then keeps them, in a perfect world, from touching what I can reach). If bird damaged or other unreachable fruit fall, then in the case of mangoes, it creates the opportunity to have a new seedling develop, all while returning the fruits nutirents to the soil. The seedlings are later plucked when they sprout and used for grafting.

Jeff:

I've never encountered nor even heard of the 95-45d jakfruit.

Jacob:

Thanks for the kind comments. I'll have to dig up some info on Spirit of 76. I believe it is from Zill's as is alluded to in this thread. I'll post more info when I get home tonight.

Maureen:

Actually, I haven't fertilized my established mango trees in years. I did fertilize them 3 times a year until they got up to the size I wanted them to be. During that time I always used Lesco 13-3/13 with minors....not that you can't do just as well with other fertilizers. I will still fertilize other trees on a tree by tree basis depending on what I am trying to accomplish (blooming vs. vegetative growth).

Andrew:

I purchased the Jean Ellen mango from the Fairchild Mango Festival in July of 2009 as I mentioned in the thread I started called "What if you don't prune?"

TropicalGrower89:

Alano and Hasya both have the smooth, without grit (stone cells), texture. There are other selected culitvars that have the smoothness of these, but these are my favorites.

jfernandez:

Thanks. Come on down, anytime. As far as pruning is concerned, I am not against pruning. I just can't do pruning when trees are so small and not yet fruit bearing. I just don't have the patience. My trees were in the ground 5-7 years before any pruning took place. Then I would top them or take out central leaders once a year to try to control height. Then is 2005 we had Hurricane Wilma. Virtually all of my mango trees were toppled. In order to upright them, they had to be severely hat-racked (definitely a pruning of "pug" proportions). There has been no real pruning since. This has not been by plan, but rather by happenstance. My guy who used to help me with the trimming isn't available anymore and I haven't found the right person to replace him. I'm also still a bit shell-shocked from the hurricane loss of canopy on my trees and I am sure that that has caused me to be less than diligent about pruning or finding help for pruning.

Harry

Gary:

Missed your question about cold protection. Last year, I did put some bed sheets or pillow cases over and towels around some of the smaller stuff that was planted out...a newly planted Emperor Lychee and my Borneo Red Jakfruit. It was of marginal benefit and so I didn't do it this year. This years cold hasn't been as bad as last year was...so far anyway. Everything is pretty much on its own. I did bring in my potted "Kai" Maprang. It was sheltered in the garage but the garage door was left open so there was only a small differential is temperature between the inside the garage and outside the garage temps.

Harry

Sorry for being out of topic, but how can I post pics on this forum? I would like to post pics of my mamey and other fruit trees of my yard, which I downloaded into my computer from my camera.

topicalgrower89:

I answered this very question in another thread. See attached link.

Harry

Here is a link that might be useful: Notching mango....but picture posting included in one of last posts in response to Invar

Thanks Harry.

Harry - I love your backyard. Your trees look fabulous.

Thanks Harry - yours is a live and let live arrangement - many of your trees are so mature. I bet you still enjoy roaming the grounds to discover something new that wasn't there before....endless surprises keep life fresh, don't they?

If I ever get to Florida again, I'll definitely look you up, Captain Mango!

gary

Hi Harry,
SO that Jean Ellen grew at least 4ft+ in one year! That is amazing. I wish I could get that kind of growth on my Maha but then agai, I got it so late in the year, it reall didn't have much time to adjust to its new surroundings before it could start growing. I still don't have much growth on it. The claws are starting to grow more conical now but that's it. I am thinking it may still take a few weeks before they really get going. That was one thing that blew my mind last year with my mang trees that I lost. It may take some time for the inflos to start growing upward but once they do, it seems like you could measure the growth every few days!! I am going to move it into a larger pot but I think I will wait till the inlfos are done growing. I have not decided yet if I will remove the fruits. I am thinking of leaving just one for me to enjoy, IF it decides to hold on to maturity.

Right now, I am finding that it needs to be watered every 4 days or so. When I brought it in, I watered once a week and that ws plenty. This tree took a while to adjust to the HPS but now it is really happy. I have been feeding it a liquid fertilizer at helf strength at every other watering, sometimes even every 3 weeks along with a peletized fertilizer that I apply to the top. I all ready told you about that and once summer gets here, I think I will just swith to the Osmocote.

I have definetly learned a lot from you guys and also from my own experiences. So far, this mango has done the best for me out of all the mango trees I have had.

How are your cherimoya seedlings doing? Did you protect them during the cold nights? They may not have even needed it. I accidently left some of them out when we had 30 degree nights and I didn't realize my mistake until the next day. When I checked on them, they were fine. No damage but then again, I had them up close to the foundation of the house. My grafted 'Fino de Jete' is actually starting to grow and bloom now. I counted 6 flower buds on it. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I can pollinate them and at least get one fruit to hold.

Good luck with the rest of your winter temps. I really hope that you don't lose your mang ocrop like last year!
WOW! I cannot believe how large your Carrie mango is! I can't believe they consider it a condo type! Is it just a slow grower?
Andrew

Harry, those are some happy mango trees. How does the Spirit of '76 taste? I read a dated "top 10" list of mango varieties and the Spirit of '76 was on there.

in 2009 Maha Chanook, Dot, Edward and Cushman were rated "Best of Harrys Yard" with Julie, Carrie, Graham, Mallika, Cogshall, Pickering, Okrung, Nam Doc Mai, Spirit of 76, Ice Cream, Valencia Pride and Southern Blush coming in the tier below them.

Last year was a horrible year to judge mango cultivars, we had a crazy winter and too much early rain

Here is a link that might be useful: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tropicalfruits/msg122306159561.html

Mango Kush,
Thanks for the info. I remember reading that Cushman made his top list. I really would like to try a Cushman. If anybody has any that they want to trade for some Kents, Keitts, Nam Doc Mais, Glenns, Mallikas, or Bailey's Marvels, let me know. The trading post is now open!

Wow Harry,
I cant wait to see your yard for myself, someday, I imagine the pictures just don't do it justice. Good thing you are not allergic to mango pollen. Did your tabouey cross jak fruit grow back from above the graft (was it grafted)?

-Ethan

Ethan:

The Tabouey x J 30 jakfruit was a seedling......so no graft point to have to worry about. That's one good thing about having seedlings and airlayers. Even if they freeze to the ground or break off at the base in a windstorm, you can still save the tree.

Harry

Interesting since the tropical fruit forum.com experts swore Theobroma could not be grown in south florida. Worst forum of plant experts on earth.

wow-How old is that Baileys?