Some Pics of My Yard

Tip: You can right click the photos and display or safe to your computer for larger/higher quality image...

Here is my very productive Key Lime tree (four years old):

My Seedling Bitter Orange:

My seedling mango (Jax) I posted about last year:

My seedling Toledo mango from Santiago de Cuba:

Various citrus trees (around five years old):

Various citrus trees (around five years old):

Various citrus trees (around five years old):

Barbados Cherry from Cuba (cutting from very old tree):

Florida Sweet Barbados Cherry (around 2.5 years old):

My Makok sapodilla (I love this tree):

Three year old potted tamarind (has one fruit!):

More potted stuff:

Random potted stuff:

Very productive grapefruit (Ruby Red):

Mayer lemon grafted on bitter orange (2.5 years old):

HB pomelo (no fruit yet, just growing):

No fruits, but still cool:

No fruit, but also cool:

Pitaya plant of unknown variety:

Carambola, planted a year ago:

I got a bunch more stuff, but I figured that was plenty for now!

* At 32F and above:
. I protect nothing.

* At less than 32F:
. In ground: Mango, Key Lime, Mamey Sapote.
. In pots: Makok, Atemoya, tamarind, Barbados cherries, mango, and other delicate plants.

* At less than 29F:
. In ground: Carambola, guavas, pineapples.
. In pots: White sapote, Brogdon abocado, pineapples, Surinam cherry.

* At less than 26F:
. In Ground: Pitaya (<= 24F), grapefruit (<=24F),Mexicola (<= 24F).
. In pots: Limequat, misc citrus.

* Never protect (lowest temp ever was 22F):
. In ground: Pineapple guavas, date palms, pomelos/oranges/mandarins/kumquats, loquat, mayer lemon, gardenias, plums, apples, blueberries.
. In pots: All potted plants are protected at this point.

I try placing plants around the yard in such a way that I can make use of the location and other factors to maximize the daytime heating of pots to reduce the number of times a given plant has to be protected. Of course, the raw temperatures don't mean anything without taking the length of freezes into account. I guess the information above applies to short term freezes (one or two nights). My goal during the winter is minimizing the amount of work I have to do to keep things alive. In some cases that means building a structure around some tree (e.g. mango trees) in other cases it means wait and see what happens and protect if the forecast is low enough (e.g. limequat).

I hope this helps in understanding.

* Are you willing to sell some budwood from your Toledo and Bizcochelo seedlings?
At this time, I'm not interested in selling budwood from either tree. However, I would be cool with sharing, free of charge, but we definitely have
to coordinate the process to improve the chances of success.

* Mango chino for trade?
I am definitely interested, I've never had it and would like to try it.
How did you get your mango chino?

* I was fortunate to try Bizcochelo y Toledo this year and they were mediocre at best...
I've never had a bizcochuelo here in the US, but I've had many Toledos from my father's tree in Miami and the mangos are kind of watery, definitely
not anywhere as good as the ones from Santiago. My potted Toledo is better, but still not like the ones I eat when I visit Cuba.
I hope that the fruits from my Bizcochuelo tree are as good as the ones from the mother tree, but even in Cuba, on rainy years, mangos are not as good
as on normal years. My grandfather always says that mangos from really wet years are for pigs!

Yeah, the neem oil is very effective for a lot of bugs, but not for miners. The miners live/eat inside the leaf tissue, so the neem never gets in contact with them. You have to use some type of systemic insecticide. Insecticides containing imidacloprid are extremely effective and appear to have relatively low toxicity for
mammals. I *only* use the spray kind (not the soil formulation) and I make significant efforts to apply it only to the new growth, in order to minimize the amount of imidacloprid that ends up in the fruit. Also, I *never* spray flowering citrus, because bees and other insects would then be killed.

* Also, for potted mangoes could you please share which fertilizer do you use and what is the size for your pots?

. currently my largest mango pots are 18 gallons. I plan to up pot them to 30 gallons for their final home.
. I buy a generic soluble fertilizer (24:7:15+micro-nutrients and add potassium chloride and Magnesium sulfate to convert it into a more balanced formulation. I apply a micronutrient spray twice during the winter months.
I use one table spoon of potassium and one of magnesium per every six table spoons of generic 24:7:15 (usually the Miracle Grow from HD). I've used that method for years and it has worked perfectly. the only thing I change is the amount I use, depending on the species in question. For example, citrus typically respond to higher fertilization levels than mangos...
I spend about 15 dollars per year on soluable fertilizer for all of my potted plants, so it is also cost effective.

good luck...

I lived in Jax for many years and for those who don't know... mostro is doing something amazing here. It gets COLD there. I grew up in Central FL and when I move to Jax I couldn't believe the climate difference. (Just as I can't believe the difference between Central FL and St. Petersburg.)

Mostro, is that a recent photo of your Makok? If so, when did those fruit set and when is your typical harvest? My tree is filled with fruit also but they are marble sized at the largest.

Thanks again for the photos.

The picture of the Makok was taken back in April. The fruits started ripening in May and I just ate the last one this morning. Currently, the tree has about 150 marble sized fruits and smaller, plus it is still flowering.
I just wanted to post a picture where the tree is well fruited, to show that it can be done. The rest of the pictures are from right now.

* cuban007:
Yeah, the Makok has been a wonderful tree to own. I would totally recommend to anyone, especially someone that has to protect the tree in winter. I did a preliminary count of the fruits on my Makok and I came up with around 200 fruits currently (the tree will be three years old in December).

* charleslou23:
In general, my potted trees are planted in around 80% yard sand with the remaining 20% comprised of coffee grounds, oak leaves, pine bark, and some random amount of grass clippings. I don't usually buy soil, but I often recycle soil from one pot to another. Of course, I am careful not to spread pathogens, so when in doubt, I just trash the soil instead of reusing it.
Mango trees I usually plant in plain yard sand without any organic additives at all. They are not too demanding when it comes to soil, as long as there is some amount of drainage and the ph is not too low. I am lucky that the sand in my yard has a ph of 7, so it is good to use for almost any plant with little change. I know my mango trees grow without issues when planted directly in it...

I hope that helps.