Amazing to see how well little damage your tropicals are showing despite your low temperatures. The wind is definitely a big factor in my winter damage this season
Thank you. Although the wind is a major factor, almost all of my exposed/unsheltered trees in my yard have been through numerous winters. I suspect these experiences gives them an edge over other trees that may encounter the cold every once in a while.
You’re very welcome. If you are binge watching some of my videos, I apologize for the unstable camera movement and audio clarity issues with some of my previous videos. Since then, I have made great improvements to ensuring the camera movements are as smooth as can be as well as the audio coming in clearly.
I use the Kellogg Palm, Cactus and Citrus potting for my container tropicals and it works well. It has peat, sand, pumice and some organic fertilizer in there.
That’s awesome. I’ve been avoiding the use of any wood products as a growing medium. One of the issues with the use of any wood products is their quick decomposition, in that they almost act like compost over a period of a few years. Sadly, almost all nurseries use wood products as the primary growing medium, resulting in the decline of the tree after several years as the wooden product breaks down.
Decomposition of organic material, also known as compost is perhaps one of the worst growing medium for any tree. As the compost continues to decompose/rot, it robs the oxygen from the roots. This process also generates unnecessary heat, in the winter time, it’s not a big deal, however, come summer, you’ll want the roots as cool as possible.
We're on track to have over a 1000 chilling hours here in the Sacramento area so in the future I may have my apple, peach star fruit, mango and avocado trees all producing fruit in the same backyard. So far it's been cold enough to meet stone fruit chilling requirements but not too cold it kills tropicals. Just hovers around 30-34 overnight.
That’s awesome. I know your region is typically a few degrees warmer in the winter than mine, but it’s great that we’re able to grow all sorts of trees, including ones that absolutely require a certain amount of chill hours next to heat loving tropical fruit trees.
Do u change out the soil from containers after you purschase it from a nursery? I recently bought some trees from Mimosa, the soil doesnt look very sandy. Should i change it out after a few weeks with my sandy mix for my containers.? I only do container gardening .
I should, but I do not. I find the proper changing of the soil to be too tedious and time consuming. In my case, I chance it by simply amend the soil when upsizing the container tree purchased from nurseries. Some of my tropicals in their original nursery containers have died over time due to poor soil. I have yet to find a nursery that uses good soil. The best method to changing of soil would be to only change 1/3 of the soil, wait 2-3 months, change another 1/3, wait another 2-3 month before ultimately changing the past 1/3. This puts less stress on trees and allows them to acclimate to the new soil slowly.
Looks like we have similar houses with yours a little newer . My gas bill for a 2,200 sq ft. was $25 in December. January $309 . February $500 . There were articles on February prices dropping 68% . Mine went up . These prices are 20 times higher but therm unit only went up 4.5% ? Was your gas bill this high ? Our gas is for heating , laundry dryer and stove oven/burners. With your newer house it may be solar or electric ? Still im curious on your gas bill increases ?
Specific to my gas bill, it was “typical” for February, at $309.52, and the month prior at $92.33. This was because we practically had the centralized heater on 24/7 for January-February. Beyond that, my gas is typically $20 as its only used to cook and heat my water.
Wonderful Video! Great tips and your fruit forest is looking great as usual. The frost and freezes really hit the hardest towards the end of the winter it's like the trees hadn't had enough already. It's like this is their boss fight and the others were just mini bosses. Fortunately if the trees made it through most of the winter their chances of survival are pretty good but not guaranteed. My fruit forest of containerized trees looks great and seems to build resistance as time passes and the quantity of trees sort of microclimate each other. I mainly lost some seedlings since the beginning of the winter but since then the rest of the plants are just a bit defoliated or burnt but they should make a comeback.
Great info as always. Do you get snow in your location? I'm in the same zone (9b) and we typically get one big snowfall, maybe two that last about a day or two (I'm in socal).
Thank you. We do not routinely get snow. Every once in a couple of decades, we do get a light snow, when the conditions are right. That said, we get a few hail which is more destructive than snow.
Those two types of trees are on the opposite end of the spectrum. Figs practically thrive on neglect, and therefore, are more forgiving. Fig trees prefer a more neutral pH, while guava wants more acidic soil.
It really depends on the age and state of your tropical. For instance, if container growing a seedling sized tree, I would go with something like a 60% peat moss, 30% sand and 10% perlite. If the tree is more mature, you can get away with 40% peat moss, 40% sand and 20% perlite. Bear in mind too, some trees like higher concentrations of water such as jaboticoba and guavas while others prefer a drier period in between watering, such as citrus. For this, you can adjust your ratios accordingly.
Totally agree. Just about anything that holds soils works, though I’ve not experimented with grow bags as they seem like they would hold the weight of trees.
Hi in August I started 20 red lady papaya seedlings . They grew 6" and then slowly died off in fall/winter. Its been a cold winter here in 10b Cerritos. I have only 2 left . I tried bringing them indoors but not much success. I will have to try them again when it warms up. It was 39°F last night
That’s a bummer. I’d try again in April/May. The trick with papaya is to fatten them up as fast as possible (lots of fertilizer as they are heavy feeders). This technique has served me well.
How do you make sure trees in the ground don't have wet feet? I mean how deep can you possibly dig and replace the soil until a tree reaches the original clay? Or is the rainfall there so little that it doesn't get far down?
For my in-ground trees, I perform heavy amendments to the soil when initially planting it in the ground. Many of my holes are about 1.5 times the depth of the container tree that I am putting in the ground. For instance, if the container is 1 foot tall, my hole will be 1.5 feet deep. It’s not the depth that you want, it’s the width of the hole as you want the roots to spread wide. Not sure if you’ve seen my DO NOT DEEP WATER video, but the feeder roots of most tropical fruit trees do not go deep. The whole idea is to provide the new tree with a solid foundation and encourage it’s roots to spread far and wide, into the native clay soil.
In visalia- My bananas look completely dead. Im hoping they bounce back cause i went to LA to get a blue java 😭. I think for one of them, i didnt amend the soil as deeply as i should have. The meaves have brown splotches qhich im assuming is root rot...
That’s a bummer. From the description of it, it sounds just like my Cavendish banana that was shown in the video. If so, mine has always bounced back. I’d leave your banana alone u til the threat of frost is gone, then start cutting back the dead parts. Banana plants are surprisingly hardy and will likely bounce back from the roots.
Would you be able to show how u made your green house? I do have some fruit trees that are cold sensitive and I grow them in containers too but need something to protect them during cold temps
Although I do not have a video that covers the construction process, I made a video which goes into details surrounding the use of the greenhouse: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZsA0VQk5mr8.html Concerning the actual construction process, it’s simply metal 10 - 12 feet long pipe/tubings connected with angle joints for the frame. The box frame is then wrapped in a thick painter’s clear plastic.
Thank you for the response, will check the link and do u keep that setup forever or do u remove it every year? Ours is a very small backyard and I don’t have that much space to keep that setup. Although I just move the plants to covered patio but I need something to cover like a small greenhouse to keep them warm during freezing temp. I might have lost my sapodilla plant this winter, last winter I protected it well.
Practically any sand will do, but see if you can get the beach style sand which contains rounded particles. You can find them in your local home improvement store (Lowe’s, Home Depot, etc) typically in the garden/nursery section. They’re typically labeled “play sand”.
Yes, I do have a Malay Apple tree in the ground, enclosed in a heated greenhouse. I believe this was the last video which showed the Malay Apple: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-77UclhvBZZA.html
I’m not sure about your region, but I would imagine you should have no issues obtaining one as you are virtually in an all tropical climate. In my case, there are a number of tropical fruit tree nurseries in Los Angeles which carries them.
That’s a bummer. I’m surprised it suffered that much damage. Luckily, all of my mango trees, including the in-ground seedlings (1-2 years old) are taking it like champs.
@@TropicalCentralValley I normally only get down to 32 for an hour or 2 but not much colder. This year is a cold one. The giant mango tree in downtown Marysville somehow always seems to get very little damage even when mine are damaged badly. It’s all about that special location with mangoes 🥭
