Looks so much better. It doesn’t really look like it because its still overruned, but now its over run with my plants and not weeds and grass (mostly). Most things are growing really well. My greenhouse was a little dry. I talked to my mom (whos taking care of them while I am gone) that the greenhouse plants are the ones that need to be babied, specifically the black pepper and vanilla.
Had to trim back alot of herbs and so much scarlet sage. I netted my luffa trellis, planted a yaupon holly and coral tree, and composted some dead plants. I also fertilized my berries and figs. I didn’t fertilize my tropical trees (at least the tall ones) because they are already growing good. Hurricane season is also coming, so anything over like 7 feet I usually like to keep shorter to avoid damage (except the banana).
When I come back in August, lots of plants are gonna get uppoted or put in ground. At minimum my Manilla Tamarind and my Allspice are going in ground. I also need to devise some sort of permanent or portable protected structure + trellis for my vanilla and black pepper. They are starting to crawl all around the greenhouse.
Taking down some pigeon peas and tamarind to try grafting mature tamarind scions on. Don’t think the pigeon peas are gonna be graft compatible but I have extras, so why not.
Babaco papaya with 4 fruits and more blooms but it seems unhappy for some reason not sure if I burned it with fertilizer or what. Could be too wet but I also doubt that
Yeah it’s constantly flushing new blooms. I got it from Everglades farm in may of 2023. Really small with what I’d call a fresh graft union, but now it’s about 5 ft tall and wide and my favorite tree.
My first crop of Meyer Lemon looking pretty good. Not much June drop–I actually thinned a few dozen fruit off myself because the plant didn’t drop hardly anything.
Still shows some sign of the spider mite damage it took in the cooler months. Hybrid Spanish/ball moss just chilling, seems to do ok, though it’s much less vigorous than straight Spanish moss, at least here growing in more shade in a lemon.
US-942 coming back. It inexplicably froze to the ground this winter, taking poncirus plus, US-1279, and US-1281 grafts with it. I was rather put out about that.
A really good flush from a statsuma that was completely defoliated this past winter. I’m letting the kuhraske rootstock send up a few waterspouts as I’m thinking I can get a little extra hardiness this way (accidental discovery from this past winter where two satsumas side by side showed complete defoliation on one and no damage on the other, the only difference being one had a large rootstock waterspout–I think it’s a combination of the waterspout sheltering the satsuma under it, and better dormancy/cold resistance transferring from the rootstock leaves to the satsuma leaves)
Wild growth on US-802, less than two years and it’s pushing 10 ft. Citrumelos seem to have issues with weak joints though, as the new growth often breaks off. Both US-802 and Dunstan do this. I’ll be watching US-1516 to see if it does the same.
What’s wild is I had TWO grafts and a rooted cutting. The graft to US-942 died to the ground, the graft to Tri x Sat bark split a few inches above ground at the snow line, and the rooted cutting froze completely and died.
Thomasville also died this past winter, even though I protected it.
But my non hardy citrus are all fine
Sometimes the dice just land in ways you don’t expect.
Strawberry lemon guavas are all heavily in fruit. They spent the winter in one or two gallon pots and were clearly pot bound. I’ve finally got them in ground or potted up.
This one is in ground in an exposed full sun location with lots of soil moisture. I’m expecting it to grow a lot but also get fried in the winter. I’m testing to see if it’ll survive and still fruit next year.
Plants in somewhat larger pots. This one I brought inside during the worst of the cold. Honestly it didn’t make much difference, the ones protected outside had a bit of dieback but not that much. This one is a few weeks ahead of the others for fruit, which is the only significant difference. But only a few weeks, despite blooming more than a month ahead of the others. The fruit develop in hot weather, so the later blooming plants aren’t actually that far behind since this one bloomed and set fruit indoors but then didn’t do much until the weather outside got warm.
Fifteen gallon pot for this one. We’ll see if it makes much difference long term. So far it’s looking happier, with more new growth. It also set fruit twice as the first fruit set was pretty thin. These plants just aren’t satisfied unless they’re covered in fruit…
My one in ground plant that’s seen a winter already. This one is in a sheltered location though. Slower growth and fewer fruit than the full sun plants, but this one was also set back this spring by having it’s rootball massacred by voles, I think it’s mostly recovered from that now. Myrtaceae are so tough!
Much more upright and taller growing. Huge leaves compared to the others. I’m surprised that this one is supposed to be the harder one, it looks way more tropical.
It took a surprising amount of damage in the winter, but it’s back with a vengeance. I like how thick the stems are too. Strong and more cold resistant that way.
Ichang papeda is supposed to be a slow grower, but on US-942 and on US-802 rootstock it’s putting on really nice growth. Sorry for the blown out image, the sun had come out.
If I were an old rich scoundrel, I’d probably want a looker, but right now I’m interested in something more of a fertility goddess than a socialite. I murdered my Marjorie Sherwin this spring as she was waking up.
I’m still getting a few suckers from it here and there, but I’ll pull them and if they persist I’ll hit them with a little glyphosate. I dig and share root suckers from the other plants and I’d hate to give someone the wrong variety so I’m doing my best to make sure this one is gone.
Yes, the purple ones are tetraploid hybrids. They’re mostly incarnata and cincinnata but they do have some edulis in them which sometimes gives the fruit’s skin a reddish blush. They’re seedlings of seedlings of the original hybrids I think, and I’m growing out their seedlings. Byron Beauty is one of the ancestors.
They are fully hardy here in zone 8, probably good into zone 7 if I had to guess, especially in really well drained soil. The flowers are way, way bigger than incarnata and are highly fragrant. The plants are somewhat fertile and do set fruit, though it’s very weather dependent and the initial flowers almost never set. The fruit take forever to ripen but once they do they’re pretty good. Decently sweet, and with good flavor but not as fragrant as I’d like.
Flower and fruit quality on these so far is pretty uniform. So right now I’m growing out seedlings and weeding out plants that are less vigorous, less fertile, less floriferous, or later growing (one that’s on the chopping block didn’t come up until early June this year…).
I’m planning to backcross them with tetraploidized seedlings of an improved strain of incarnata. And if my Fato Confetto produces fruit, I’ll try and tetraploidize its seedlings and cross with those as well to work in some tucumanensis. I’m hoping to also work in some flavinata (flavicarpa x incarnata hybrids) and potentially other crosses, but that’ll depend on if the seeds I got of those germinate.
Lady Margaret I got more on a whim. It’s marginally hardy here so I’ll take a backup cutting. I really adore the color of the flowers though, so I’m glad I got it. It’s not known to be fertile to any significant extent, so I don’t know that I’ll ever get seed from it to play around with.
