Tropical Fruit Seminar - April 13, 2019

Well, good morning! How are ya? So, let's see, a lot of faces, familiar faces out there, some people I don't know. My name is Scott Walker, and I absolutely love tropical fruits, among other things.

Just a quick background: when I was a young boy, I grew up in South Florida, and my mom, the minute I woke up, I'd eat breakfast, and she'd be like "out of the house, go play!" And so, South Florida back in the early to mid-'70s was a cool time to be down there.

We'd get hungry throughout the day, and so we would pillage all the neighborhood fruits, you know? You'd find me up sitting with my friends at a mango tree, just eating mango with strings of mango coming down my face. And then, of course, the citrus trees, and then I'd be up in another tree—star fruit, you know, even though it was a little bitter back then. It was one of the varieties that was not quite as sweet.

And then over in another tree in another area, eating these weird pods I found—I don't know what they were, I didn't know what they were at the time—but someone said I could eat them, and so I started eating them. You break it open, a little crackly pod… and tropical fruit… well, it wasn't a fruit, it was a seed, but which is really a fruit, but… And I had a real sticky inside, hard shell, sticky inside, and you just ate around the seeds, and it was really kind of sweet but kind of sour in a way… No, tamarind! It was tamarind, you know? So, I had all these things to gnaw and chew on and eat, and then I'd come in for dinner and all that stuff, but… but that was my childhood down in South Florida, early to mid-'70s, a lot of fun down there, and so that kind of got me hooked on certain tropical fruits.

Fast forward after the hurricanes with Gene and Francis… I’ve been up here 30 years, and I thought… we had a piece of property over on 50th Avenue, and my wife said, "Let’s start replanting after the storms." I'm like, "Great!" You know, so I started putting in bromeliads and all these things, low-maintenance, because I'm a lazy gardener. And so that's right about the time when… when citrus greening hit, and the canker was already there, and everything was going south with citrus, and I thought, "Oh man."

So, I put in a Meyer lemon and a Persian lime and a key lime, which tend to be a little hardier of the citrus varieties, and they worked well. I did lose, I think, a Persian lime, but they're… they're pretty hardy. But then I started… I met a couple guys, Lee and Allen. They were with the Rare Fruit Council of Indian River County, and, man, a couple of characters, but boy, they knew their stuff! And I… my whole world began to open, learning about these tropical fruits that we can grow right here that are like bulletproof, you know?

So, I'm talking mangoes and carambola—you know, starfruit trees… this one right here behind me… Does anybody know what this is? Sapodilla! Look at this little fruit on here coming up! This little fruit right here is actually one of my favorite trees… I mean, of course, we're going to talk about the mangoes, I'm going to talk about the… the avocados and the papayas and the basics, but you need to know about trees like this. This tree right here itself is pretty much windproof, it's drought-proof, it's flood-proof, and it has a beautiful look… it looks gorgeous. Hardly any leaf drop. But it's a sapodilla, and this variety right here will put out a fruit, and it'll get to be about the size of… what? What is that, like a goose egg, something like that? A large, large egg.

And then you pick it off the tree, you scratch it, see if it's ready to pick… three, sit on the counter, like you would an avocado, and you wait till it starts to get a little soft, and you cut it open, and it's the texture of a fine pear, but it tastes like it's been soaked in brown sugar and cinnamon. I kid… I kid… I kid you not! It's just one of those fruits that you eat, and you're like, "I can't believe this is just… this looks so hideous…" but… It's most incredible, and you can only eat like one or a half of one, they're so delicious.

And you can make all kinds of things with it, but who would have known? Sapodilla, you know? I know they grow wild, they're called dilly trees, down the Everglades… smaller varieties, some are edible, some are not. But… but, you know… So there's all this stuff that I just didn't know about, you know? Miracle fruit! That's a crazy one there, we can talk about that a little bit later… a Barbados cherry… Has anybody heard of one called strawberry fruit? The strawberry fruit tree, that the Latin name is Muntingia calabura… It actually puts out a small little red berry or cherry, what, maybe the size of a small marble, but you eat them, and they taste like… like cotton candy! Like, literally, like cotton candy. Super-sweet, 97% sugar!

So, there's another one! And they actually have three or four of those trees right over there. They grow about 10 feet a year, they make a beautiful canopy tree. They live about 15 years, so you got to replace them. But it's a wonderful tree to have on your yard. So, all these odd, weird fruits that no one really knows about are out there, in addition to all the ones that we do know about, the… the kind… the standards, you know? So just by show of hands, how many people are currently growing tropical fruits of some kind? Quite a few? Wonderful! Okay, good. Of those hands that… that were up, how many people are growing mango? Quite a few? Wow! Okay, what are you guys doing here? Little mangoes, yes! There's so many kinds.

Okay, so listen, mangoes have come a long way… if you go to the store and you get a mango, it's typically going to be a Tommy Atkins because they look pretty, they've got a beautiful blush. But the problem with those is… that they usu… is because they're full… they have a lot of fiber in them, and that's okay, some people enjoy the fiber.

But typically they don't ripen properly because they've been picked at a certain time, maybe a little premature, and then the fiber content… some people don't like that… And so if that's all you're ever exposed to is… are those Tommy Atkins mangoes and perhaps the little champagne mangoes that weather up too quickly and get weird… you don't know what's out there.

But there are so many fantastic varieties, even, you know, starting back in the… probably the '30s and '40s in Florida, they started developing varieties of different mangoes. Walter Zill, down from… down south… their family still doing this… produce some incredible varieties.

One of my favorites right now that I have in my yard, I've had it for probably 15 years, is a Cogshall, C-O-G-S-H-A-L-L. If you don't have one, and you have the space… it literally stays compact, no more than 10-12 feet in its out years. It stays naturally small, so it's a good mango to have if you have a smaller yard or just want to get another mango when you're… But it's… It was developed in Pine Island in the '40s, and it's a very pleasing mango. Nice and sweet… no fiber!

So, there's some great varieties, mangoes, and I'll talk a little bit about mangoes real quick… Mangoes are something you definitely want to manage and keep under control. There's no reason that a mango tree needs to be as big as this tree here. And I remember climbing them as a kid, this big, but anymore with the varieties they have out now—not like a Glenn will get as a medium-sized tree.

That's the number one recommended, in my opinion, is a Glenn because it's… it's relatively anthracnose-free, which means there's… it's resistant to disease. Everybody likes a Glenn. I've never seen… of anyone that doesn't like a Glenn. Nice and sweet, and then has zero fiber. So, that's a really good aspect of a Glenn mango. And then a few others I would recommend—and I can—and I'm going to be sticking around afterwards, after we talk, and I'll answer any questions, I'll be here as long as I need to be, if you have any very specific questions about varieties—but I want to tell you a cool story about the new… about your mango varieties because there's probably, I don't know, 5-10,000 varieties of mangoes all over the world, and we know of a few here.

A lot of people think Haden and Glenn and Edward and Kent, all the standards… But we talked about Zill… Don… Walter… Was it Zill…? Was one of the original guys, I don't remember… son's name Glenn… it was Glenn… But anyway, down south, in Lake Worth… He's got a really unique way he does things to develop new mango varieties.

Now, some of you may not know that if you plant a mango seed, like everybody loves to plant an avocado seed… and everybody said you can plant a mango seed but… I don't want to get too technical here, but there's two types of mango seeds. There's monoembryonic and polyembryonic… and those are just the two varieties… Most… Most Southeast Asian mangoes—the real long, skinny ones—are going to be polyembryonic.

What that means is… and I'm not going to get technical… but they have more likely of a chance to be true to seed when they… when you plant it. So in other words, it's going to… probably be like its parent plant. But all the other mangoes typically will revert back to the old turpentine mangoes, the ones that just have… too… they just… They don't taste good, they're good for rootstock. But every once in a while, when you plant a few of those mangoes out, you'll get one or two that are actually a new variety that actually meets or exceeds what it was… what the original one was.

And so back to my story… the Zills down in West Palm Beach or Lake Worth area planted out 10,000 seedlings. And of those 10… my numbers might be off by a thousand… but 10,000 seeds… out of the 10,000… he had a knack… a capability where he could go around and smell the leaves… and know if it had reverted back to the turpentine, the old original… But the ones that didn't, he kept… maybe about 1,100, 1,200 of those, okay? And out of those… he let those raise up, fruit, see how they were.

And from those are coming this new variety of Florida Zill mangoes that are… they'll knock your socks off! And I had… I've had some in the past few years… One's called Orange Sherbet. And… and it's like… you can't imagine what you're eating when you're eating a mango… it's… you know, you're eating mango… and there's no fiber to it, but it tastes like a… like a lemon… or orange sherbet! There's a citrus overtone to it that just freaked me out when I ate. I'm like, "This can't be…" because I'm so used to eating just regular sweet mangoes; some are peachy, some are vanilla…

He's got one called Coconut Cream. He's got one called Peach Cobbler. He's got one called Piña Colada! And then, of course, there's the… So I say all that to say, if you think you know mangoes, stick around! I mean, there's… there's a lot being done on the mango front. And thank God, we've not had any major freezes and no killer storms. But even if you get a storm, though, you prop it up, and they're good to go. But anyway… the mangoes are exciting, if… Yes. I'll take… By the way, I will take questions if they're… if they're kind of talking about exactly what I'm talking about, otherwise, I'm going to stick around at the end for any questions you have. Yes, sir? What grows here, as far as mangoes? Any kind of mango grows here. All of them grow here. Now, I live in a cold pocket, which is off 58th Avenue. If you're riding a motorcycle, and you go down the road, you know… if you've ever ridden a motorcycle at night or even have the windows down, and you're going at night down the road, and all of a sudden… oh, it just got really cold… In that area! I don't know what… I don't know… maybe the land dips or something, but I live in a really cold area. So, to address your question, I'll grow any mango in this… in the area. The closer to beachside the better, as you get inland where there's cold pockets, it's going to get colder. So, all you have to do is protect that mango, when it's young, from freezes. That's really the only thing we have. But it'll grow on sand, it'll grow on… you know, I've seen them grow everywhere. You can go along the ridge here and see them growing in sugar sand, producing… Downtown there's mangoes, out west there's mangoes, beachside there's mangoes. So any kind of mango, really. They're all about the same. Real quickly… yeah! I do! She asked if there's… if I have issues with anthracnose or powdery… powdery mildew with… I do, especially on some varieties like ice cream. Ice cream is a phenomenal mango, it's a smaller one, but I rarely get fruit because I'm a lazy gardener, and it always seems to… If there's rain during the flowering season, it happens.

Now, what you can do to prevent that is… I try to be as natural as I can, but a copper fungicide spray right before those flowers have opened up. And so it's almost like a pretreatment. So, she's asking, basically, when… when mangoes bloom, sometimes they'll get a powdery mildew, and then they just… the flowers will fall off, then they won't fruit. I had that with my Carrie this year, actually. And so you can take a pump sprayer, copper fungicide, spray it carefully over… before the flowers have opened up. So we're talking probably early winter, right when you see the panicles come out. But that's the best thing to do for those. And some varieties are more susceptible than others. Anthracnose, sometimes it just happens, especially if we get into a wet season. Sometimes anthracnose is… those funky black spots you'll see in a mango… or tearing they call it, where it drips down, and that… it's… But, quite honestly, I'll still pick the mangoes, and I'll cut them open, and some that are thick-skinned, it may hit the surface area, but it doesn't really affect the taste or flavor. I just cut that out and eat the whole thing. The only thing I don't eat after is squirrels and raccoons… So… yeah! You had a question back there first. That's a lecture I'm going to do in… in the fall, specifically, on protecting tropical fruit trees. Please come back for that because I have a document I wrote up about that. But I will talk to you after, very specifically, about that. But there are ways to protect tropical fruit trees that I… that I do have. Yes. Oh, copper fungicide… copper fungicide, yes… And is there any way to kind of deter the squirrels away from your rainbows…? I can't talk about that here, we're in mixed company… Squirrels are… I'm going to take a sidetrack and talk about squirrels for a second because we're talking about tropical fruits… All tropical fruits… squirrels will destroy… peaches, they'll destroy… I have beautiful lychee trees, I don't know if you know what a lychee tree is, and the squirrels decimated it in 2 days! Gone! All my lychees last year. Okay. So there are a few things you can do that I've heard…

So I've heard that you can take… you can take nylon stockings and put them over particular fruits, papayas, or whatever… and the squirrels don't like to get their little nails caught in that… yeah, that may or may not work… Some people have taken hardware cloth, which is that mesh wire stuff, and if you're desperate and you really want mangoes, then you kind of put them around maybe… maybe if you have some panicles of lychees or a fruit that you really, really want to get… At least, you know, a dozen of them… You can take the time and do that… they have a hard time getting through that mesh…

One thing I found… I had a particular tree early on… when my Nam Doc Mai, which is a great fruit… great mango… it's a Southeast Asian mango, long and thin… tastes like peaches… But I'm like, "I'm going to get at least 12 of these things before the squirrels get them." Because I live in an area where there's pine woods, and squirrels are awful… and… The… The squirrels will go up and they'll bite and drop a fruit before… It's not even ready yet. It's green. Which is… can… meat and green, but… And then it ruins them! So that's a whole 'nother topic, I think. A… squirrel… squirrel topic… But, um… Some people take 2-liter bottles, soda bottles, you cut it right down the side, open it up… put it around the mango or mangoes, and then put a little zip tie around it, and tie it… just connect it to a branch… and they do not get past that! I guarantee they don't get past that. They don't. I tried it, and I did it for like five or six mangoes… and they just… they leave that alone… So, um… There are some people that… that, um… what's the way they relocate squirrels to heaven…? Um… Uh… You know, I… I… I trap them and take them out by your place.

Yeah, that's where they're coming from! Yeah! You know, if you have a neighbor or someone you don't like, you know, but… Uh… But, you know, I… I'm not a big advocate of poisoning because you don't know what other stray animals are going to come in and, um… I… I selectively have taken out a few, myself… But I just… I try to have enough fruit so that… and I have 17 varieties of mango in my yard, and I've got a lot of other trees… but I try to… I try to have enough… enough variety of tropical fruit so that I'm going to get some of it, and I have to… you have to know that they're going to get some of it. There's a certain ratio, especially with mangoes… nothing more frustrating than walking and seeing those pieces… of half-eaten… piece on the ground that's not even ready! So I try to plant things like sapodilla, and strawberry tree or strawberry fruit, and mulberries, and other things that they may or may not eat… that might detract them or… or… maybe not that you want to attract them to your… But maybe make… during mango season, make a peanut station, and just pour peanuts out there every day… way out somewhere, away from the mango trees… So, um…

I'd love to say that I shoot all my mango… or my squirrels, but I'm not going to say that out loud, but… No! I… There are some… of my daughter… loves them. She's like, "Don't… don't shoot those! Don't kill them!" And so I don't… and… 'cause they're fun when they play, and they're good eating…

Make… like a mango salsa… right on top of that squirrel… So, um… Um… So, listen, mango trees… you got to get ahold of… and manage these trees… same with, um… any tropical fruit tree! I'm going to… I'm going to jump from squirrels… I'm still on mangoes here… but take control, have dominion over your trees! And what I mean by that is this… Here's a little mango tree right here… Well, yeah! If a mango tree has not started branching… Can everybody see that? See where that's… See what this… See where this mango tree is branching right here? These were… These are going to be… If you look back at this oak tree, there's your main structural things, and it starts about 5 feet off the ground. That's what this is going to do. So one, two, three, four… and maybe five, you could cut that out. That's going to be your basis for your tree. If you have a mango tree that's this tall and hasn't started branching yet, you put it in the ground… or if it's in the ground, you take your clippers and you… snip it! And you create this structure to happen lower to the ground because if it's way up there… Um… I just prefer them to be smaller because you start… if you want the tree to become packed and produce… stick with me… then you start it small, right?

So, this mango tree here… I will allow this tree to branch out… each one of these is my main structures, and if it gets to be about 15 inches and it hasn't branched again… snip! I'll cut it. And what that'll do is that'll produce another set of three or four… Save three or four of the… of those branches, and they'll come out and create another… and then when those get about 15 inches… snip! If it hasn't started branching. And what you're going to do is you're going to create this small, compact tree… with more tips! Because what do the tips do? They produce fruit, right? So you're going to have… And so, um… that's how I do it, and all my trees start in my yard… they're… they start branching about here, they come up, and then they branch again, and then I've got these nice compact trees. Every summer after the mangoes have fruited, I go in and I take out… maybe the… I open up the canopy a bit, I get some airflow… I cut the tips back by maybe a foot, all the way around… and really manage and control that. Now, some trees will stay managed a lot easier… the smaller ones like… like Cogshall, or Nam Doc Mai… Um… there's a lot of other varieties… Carrie stay small… Glenn stays relatively… but ones like Valencia Pride… that's… want to go and shoot, and some of the new varieties… you've really got to… got to work on keeping those back because if you've got this massive mango tree with only a few random stray things… you're not going to get as much fruit, and it's going to be way up in the air… So, uh… And… and if you've already started… you already have a mango tree that's kind of sparsing out… don't be afraid to knock a branch back because it will… it will start to come out there, and… and you can reset that tree basically. So, with any tropical fruit tree, you want to manage it, keep it smaller, because you're… just… Otherwise, you're feeding squirrels way up there, and it's really hard to reach, and then it becomes a… you know, could become a hazard if it's too big and falls in your house or whatever… So manage your trees!

Okay, so, um… let me jump real quick to starfruit, carambola… When I was growing up, this is a great fruit tree to have. It can grow in shade, it can… I've seen it grow not in water, but in moist soil, it can grow in dry soil… it's a beautiful tree… has a slight leaf drop at certain times, but it's… really pretty… And then the starfruit can be used in so many ways… There are some varieties that are more tart… they're good in salads, crunchy, they're… they're… knock your socks off antioxidant-wise… lots of fruits and lots of vitamins and minerals… There's a really good fruit to eat. And there are varieties that are very sweet; I have a variety called Sri Kembangan. It’s two words. S-R-I… K-E-M-B-A-N-G-A-N, I think… And it's a great blend of everything: it's a little tart, it's a little sweet, it's crunchy, and it's got a good floral aroma to it. And I… my wife has made upside-down carambola cakes… and you can put them in salads, and you can eat them right out of hand, you can juice them… It's a really well-producing fruit for this area, um… and so I definitely… if you have an area

…and they you can keep those small… I keep mine about 12-15 feet, kind of comes up and branches out like an umbrella. I can walk underneath it and look and see what's going on. Um… that's another great tree, starfruit. And like, again, they grow in shade, they'll grow in this area right here under all this canopy here. And so, um… and they'll grow in full sun, but they seem to prefer shade, in a way. I have one right underneath my elm, and it's produced insanely this year.

Yes! Absolutely! Yeah! In fact, so two years ago, I got into bonsai, which is really fascinating, you know? It's like I just… I'm always into something new, and, um… So, but… but learning about that really made me reflect back on how I did my trees when I started training them. I'm like, "Hey! I did a pretty good job!" Because… because now my starfruit tree that I started training early… it has these gorgeous, neat-looking lower structure that I started early, and then it breaks us out. And so, yes! Any tropical fruit tree… even my sapodilla… I have… I started that early, but it kind of naturally did its own thing, but I do top it at least, you know? So most… you can do… So she asked if you could… if you could train those… like you would a mango. Absolutely, yes.

And when is the best time to do your fruiting? Well, with mangoes… after they… Mangoes… and lychees, and longans… after they fruited… like, within that short timeframe, after they fruited, um… carro… Yeah. That's a good question… Is anybody growing a lychee… lychee… lychee… however you want to say it? A few people?

The lychee or lychee… you know, I asked this because I… I talked to a few people from China, actually, and depending on the region they were from, some said lychee, some said lychee… So a lot of people used to say "lychee nut," you know, for the… But I don't know where that came from, but I think it dries. Um… It's… it's an Asian fruit, Southeast Asia… and it's red. Uh… how long does it take…? Um… a lychee tree is strange in that… it gets in the ground, and it seems to do kind of nothing for about 3 years, and then it gets a little bigger and does nothing for 3 years… and then about the 5- to 7-year mark, somewhere around there… it starts fruiting… and sometimes those fruits will just drop off, you're like, "Ah!" But then another year, then… But the longer it gets, I would say you have to wait about 6-7 years before they really start fruiting well… and I have a Brewster, which is a good… great variety… Um… I have a Mauritius, and a… uh… a Sweetheart, and they're all really good varieties, and so you can't go wrong with any variety… Um… but they do take a while to get established. For some reason, they just… I don't know if it depends on the soil, I have some in different areas of my yard, and, uh…

But lychee is another one… another one of these strange ones… and if you want to try other than mangoes and whatever, lychee is a great tree to… to try out. It's a wonderful-tasting fruit, but I would suggest trying them first… maybe run down to Stuart or Fort Pierce… Nelson's, in Fort Pierce has them usually… during the season, you can go buy… the produce there. I mean not the tree, but the actual fruit, and try it, see if you like it, you know? Both…? Yes! I mean… I both… little of both is fine. They seem to… better in the sun, you know? So, um… So mango, carambola… avocado! How many people growing avocado? Great! How many people having trouble with avocado? A few here and there! Yeah. And I'll address specific questions about your troubles after.

Avocados are great to grow! I lost mine, all three of mine, to that little stupid beetle that, um… that came in from… on a pallet from China, into the Carolinas. And it destroyed all the, uh… the red bay trees from here to Melbourne or Titusville. You could also… you could go down to I-95 a few years back and just see dead, dead, dead! That same family as the avocado… For some reason, my yard got hit… I lost my Monroe, my Lula, um… and my Brogdon. I lost those… those avocados. So I'm not saying I'm not going to put them in again, I will! Avocado is fantastic to have on your yard, but just know that there's certain things… they're a little picky to grow in certain yards. The most common problem I see is overwatering; they need high and dry… they need a lot of well-drained soil. And if you overwater them, they will die back, they'll get root rot and die back. So make sure… if you do have an avocado planted… it's in… it's in an area that can drain well, and just be careful with you watering, you know? Especially if you have sprinkler systems or things. But, listen… the biggest thing that I had trouble with, beyond the death of my trees, was, um… uh… cold tolerance… There are some varieties now that are fantastic for cold tolerance, avocado-wise… Uh… you want to plant a Winter Mexican. Now, I'm seeing a Florida Haas out there. I don't know… I don't know much about that, but I'm assuming that it can do well. I do know that a Choquette, C-H-O-Q-U-E-T-T-E… a Lula… and a Monroe… are three fantastic mangoes that you can grow in Florida… that have a cold tolerance down into the 20s, which is very important because we get a freeze here!

Everybody's going to be like, "What the heck happened… on my tropical fruits trees?" It can… it can hit hard. And we haven't had one for a while, and so, um… but in the fall, I will talk about protecting them. Um… But, um… so those are good varieties. I always look for cold protection when it comes to, um… cold tolerance on…on avocados. And I also look for oil content. And the Lula, a Monroe, and Choquette have a good oil content because I've had some Florida mangoes that… are kind of watery. They're not quite as good as that rich, oily Haas, but… those are good… three good varieties.

Um… if you don't have… if you don't have a pineapple or 12 in your yard… plant a pineapple! It's the easiest thing! When I start… I usually start my lectures talking about, "Get a pineapple in your yard! Get…" I have, you know, pineapples everywhere. I use them as landscaping, you know? You go to the store, you eat a pineapple… you buy one here, they're going to fruit quicker… but I always go to the store… and I take pineapples… and… Just a real quick on how to do pineapples… A lot of people cut the top and then try to plant the top, and they… they're like, "Why did it rot?" or "Why… the leaves falling out?" or this and that… Here's what you do… from all the Florida people here that know how to ring a lobster… you take the pineapple under one hand, take a towel, put around and you… ring… you ring the… the… the top off! You just… ring it off, twist it off! And I wish I would have had one to do for you today, but… You ring the top off, it comes right out… little, teeny core, and then you take it and you peel back several of those… lower leaves, and you just kind of peel them off, and you'll see these little weird… little flat things that look like kind of flat worms… those are the roots! Okay? Don't touch those! Just peel off those… a couple of those bottom sections of leaves, and then set the thing on your counter for a week, and let it dry out.

It's a bromeliad. They can survive anything… typically… but they can't survive wet… wetness… or too much moisture, because… they get… they're really susceptible to… to rot, as are bromeliads… So let it dry on your counter, and then go… stick it in the dirt… in your yard, or put it in a pot, and then let it go! And then the minute you see… on that little pot, only takes like a month or so… the minute you see the little roots coming out the bottom of that pot… pop it in the yard! Easiest way to do it… Most failures I see with people trying to get pine… apples going are… the rot! And that… you want to dry that thing out before you actually plant it… So that's a really great thing to do. And I… and you could put… you could do… row… I've seen people do rows of pineapples and do them as landscaping, with some other… Bromeliads are gorgeous, and they produce great. Some of them… some are smaller, the little Cannonball, that the ones you'll get, but eventually, the more you get going and the more slips they put out, the pups… Those will fruit larger! And… and it's fun just to walk around the yard in the spring… my wife and I do this… and look… out down each one and see, "Oh! There's one!" "There's one coming up!" You know?

Yes! Yes! You can leave that plant in… yeah! And typically, it's going to… it's going to put out other pups from around the edges… and you can either take those pups and pop them off when they get to be one-third of the size of the mother plant… when they get to be that big, you could pop them off, just stick them in the dirt, and they'll grow, you know? Now, that mother plant won't produce anymore, but it's going to produce a lot of offspring that will produce. And, typically, they say… I've not noticed this in my yard… but they say that those offspring will produce quicker than the crown had done. And so, you know… has anybody had any experience with that?

Okay! Yeah! So, that's the way to do it. So, man! There's nothing like… nothing like…

Okay! So then we're back to rodents! I had… I have a lot of, you know, pineapples, but the simple thing is… when that thing starts looking yellowish-green… I made this chicken wire cage… and it was easy. It took me, you know, an hour to make it… and I take it and I just go put it on top of that… a little tent… I put some tent stakes down in the ground, and I know that nothing's getting that! I will eat that! It won't… these raccoons… impossible!

So I saw… You got a… dominion, guys! So, take control! So, mangoes, pineapples, carambola… A lot of people ask about papaya: "Do you grow papaya here?" I've grown it from seed, from stuff from Sam's… There's some good varieties like the Red Lady, which fruits at about, I don't know, 5 feet… stay smaller. The biggest battle with… with those… things… with papaya, are the little worms that you get… the extra protein that's in the papaya… But there's several ways around that.

If you really like to eat papaya, sometimes you can eat them green… and make papaya… like a Thai papaya salad! You grate it green… it's unbelievable! But for those that want to let it get nice and yummy and ripe and sweet… a stocking will work… When the papayas are small, you put a… hose… stocking… the… Somebody call them stocking… hose… pantyhose? Pantyhose! That's it! Right… strange words… But you put those on there, and what that does is it prevents that particular wasp from coming in and laying its eggs in that, which are… what produces those little worms. So, put the stocking on there, and nine times out of ten, from my experience… it… it prevented those… those worms from coming in. So, papayas are great to grow…

Let me just look around, just do a quick inventory… There's so many good varieties of mango here! I just want to take everything home! Oh! Mangoes, guys, by the way… real quick… with mangoes… with, um… avocados… even with lychees and some other tropical fruits… extend your season! What I mean by that is… a Pickering mango… Pickering mango, which is a fantastic mango… um… or a Rosegold… Pickering a Rosegold… fantastic mangoes… they will fruit as early as May. Okay, stay with me… My Keitt mango… I can have on the table at Thanksgiving! So when you're looking for your mangoes… um… and your… your… If you… if you can put more than one in, I have a book somewhere, I don't… I don't know if it's in this book or not… um… maybe not… You might have to… you might have to go, um… to… sometimes, there's… like, Pine Island Nursery has like a mango viewer. And, um… other places online can tell you when the mango will produce.

There are early-season mangoes and avocados… there's early… there're mid-season mangoes, and late-season. So, instead of having all of your mangoes come up in June, you could actually have mangoes from May almost into September, October, November! Okay? So, when… if you are going to plant more mangoes… "Hey! I like to put one more mango in the yard!" Think about… and find out when it's going to fruit because it's nice to extend your season so you can have mangoes all summer long.

Yes! They do. Yes! That's… is that the EDIS site? EDIS? Oh, okay, good! Yeah, University of Florida… they put out fantastic things… Among all their blueberry cultivars, which are excellent… for… for around here. And that's… that's more subtropical… But, gosh, they have a great website. It's… They were… she was saying University of Florida… but if you just type in Google… or type in "EDIS"… E-D-I-S, I think it is on the back of my brochure… that will give you a lot of good information. Yes, sir? I've got it? You got it? Okay, great!

So, um… so that's a really good site to… to look at. So, yeah. You want to extend your seasons, have a… a longer variety of fruit seasons… um… Sapodilla… let me just look at a couple quick things here… Um…

What's that? Guava… What happened to our guavas? Okay! Again, I was raised in South Florida, and we… My… my grandmother would make guava jam and guava jelly… these little, small, yellow guavas… They would grow wild… everywhere! Um… I tried to grow the, uh… Oh! It's like… it was called like… like… It's called like Mexican Cream or something guava, and it just didn't do well in my yard. I might have had it in the wrong spot… um… But guavas, I think… what I love to find, and guavas are great to grow… but I think you'd almost want to go back to and try to find that old variety! That little yellow small guava that really is very pungent, tastes great… um… and makes the best jams and jellies! Guavas are great to grow, you're going to battle fruit flies, just like you would with… like… Surinam cherries or those types of things… but, um… but guavas are definitely something to try to put in your yard, and they're… they're… You can't eat them out of hand; they're kind of seedy, but they do… make great jams and jellies.

So that's another fantastic treat, and then keep that small… treat… like a bush… Let's do like a… like… left or right… introduce yourself… thing… Uh… bananas! Oh, let me start with bananas real quick… hold on! Okay, bananas! Put 'em in your yard… my yard… So my father-in-law can grow bananas like nobody's business! He's got this mucky section of his yard, and he can… he… and he ribs me about it… because I'll put bananas in my yard and… on my property, which used to be, I think… it was… like a… a cattle field… And it was like a… pond… that… where I live, the property… the ground… they just don't… They'll grow, and they look kind of cool, but they never produce… or I'll hit a freeze… So, um… some areas are better than others for… for bananas, but there are some great varieties… the, um… Manzana or Manzano… apple… the apple banana… um… ice cream banana is another really good variety… Stick a banana or two in the yard… you'll be surprised.

But I will tell you about bananas: they're heavy feeders! I don't… really fertilize much… uh… Maybe sometimes, when my trees are getting going, I'll put fertilizer down… but bananas… you can come put compost and leaves and stuff on them, and you can literally fertilize them every month… and sometimes I think that's what it takes. I'm a lazy gardener, I like mangoes and the things that you have to worry about, but, um… sometimes with the… with the bananas, the things… I can tell you is that they're heavy feeders, and if you want to really get them to produce… you've got to really feed them heavily! Six… six… six… whatever it can be! It can be, um… organic, chemical… whatever you want to do, however you do it. However you… compost… worm castings, or whatever! So, um… we've got bananas… some stay smaller, but… I mean… some… some can be, um… Well, not quite as, you know… I don't know… they get to be about… maybe 12-15 feet, I would say, you know? Um… What do we have here, on bananas? Yeah!

Yeah! I… I'm… I… what I've seen… yes! My father grows them on mucky soil… And then also, with the bananas… one real quick note about the bananas: they say that… when you, um… when you take the pups out… like, say, I want to give someone a pup… I don't know… I've not done this, but I've heard this… I just want to pass along… They say that the… the pups… that come out where the leaves are rounded at the tip… won't produce as well as the… ones that are… pointed at the tip… Maybe a banana expert can verify that. I'm just not… I love bananas, but they just don't… do well in my yard… so I gave up on them… a little bit. So… But… that's… It is a good thing to try and grow! My father-in-law just… kills me… with that.

Yes! They'll… yeah! They just suck up water! They're… they're… you know, it's like a herb, almost, you know? So… they can take a lot of water… they really can. Yeah!

You can… I mean… that… yeah! I mean, I… Just be careful, but… I would say once a month would be better. But, uh… they will… they will… they'll grow and produce, you know? They should… Sometimes, it takes a couple years, you know?

Um… back here, more of a subtropical, but, uh… I love a good mulberry… and mulberries… There's a couple kinds that you'll find here… one is the Everbearing, which is a smaller little bush… smaller leaves, tiny little mulberries, and… they're pretty good… they're sweet… some are a little spicy… But these larger-leaf varieties like this… this… this might be a Tehama or an East Coast or a Pakistan… These produce… nice, long… (size of my pinky…) mulberries that are really tasty… One of my friends sent a picture, and she's like, "Look at my hands!"… and they were completely colored… like… completely blue or… purple, whatever it was… because she was picking mulberries to make… like… jam and stuff… So, that's a good one to grow. It's not really tropical, but… it's a nice one. It's a good deterrent fruit, you know, for… for squirrels and such. Um… What kind do we have here…? Jackfruit… great variety… neat tree… Has anybody ever had jackfruit before? A few people? It's the largest… tree-bear… tree-born fruit… It's… giant… they're… like 50-60 pound fruit, and you cut them up, you've got to use gloves and… and oil, because… there's, like, latex on them and it's just a messy process. But… it's like a… real crunchy… little fruit that… Well, the… the arils inside… which… the arils are the flesh around the seeds… they're crunchy… and they taste like kind of like Juicy Fruit gum, that's… sort of the best way to describe it. And some are sweeter, some are… have complex flavors, but… it's one of those trees where… first, get mangoes in, then… maybe starfruit… or avocado, and a few things… But that's a… neat tree to play with, and I've got one right now that's… finally fruiting… so… in my yard… Um… Sapodilla… I love this tree! It's… it's underrated people… I mean, you know, I wish I would have had some… free to taste… but… again… maybe you can, um… There's a place down in Homestead… Um… Florida City, actually… does anybody know where Florida City is? Down… on the way to the Keys? Okay! You might want to write this down for trying fruits… the place is called Robert is Here… Robert is Here… some people… that… if you know it, you know it… we stop there every time we're in… going into the Keys… and every time we're coming out of the Keys. And… they do these tropical fruit milkshakes! But they have… all these… they always have tropical fruits that… available to try! They'll give you pieces of it… um… Where was I going with that?

Oh! So my wife's favorite fruit is a canistel, so… we know what a canistel is? Like, one person? Okay. Canistel… it's about… it's a… it's about… this big… it's a… large… large… Some are smaller, some are big… It's shaped like a top, okay? And it's… yellow, all right? But when it gets ripe, you… sit on the counter… pick it when it's yellow, sit on the counter… when it gets ripe, it gets sort of, um… I don't know… it's sort of soft, but you can take it in… Sort of… It's a thin skin, so you just kind of break it apart, and the texture of it… is… the texture of, um… a hardboiled egg yolk… that's the texture… cheesecake, but it tastes like pumpkin pie and cheesecake mixed together! This is great, like… again… all these troubles, like… what… you know… But… but back in the '50s and '60s, you'd make milkshakes out of them! Pies… canistel pie, out of them… they're fantastic! But back to my story… trying things… like canistel, or sapodilla, or… sapodilla, or lychee, or mamey sapote, or… all these weird things… Robert's Here will ship them to you. Like, I bought them in… Just… I think I did it with PayPal, and I just typed in… what… it's available… how sho… it's available, and they'll… there's a nominal fee for shipping… like… I don't know, $10 shipping fee… But… anybody got a squirrel…?

Um… and so that's a good way to try things. I know they're cute. I know… um… But… but that's the best way… if… "Hey! I'd love to try… uh… some longans!" You know, if you can't find anything locally, they'll ship them to you. And so, it's a, you know… But that's a good way to try things. Try sapodilla, you know? Try these different things… try jackfruit… they're delicious… um… Here's a nice one here… that's… It's more subtropical…

A loquat is a good tree to have on the yard… After… If we have a devastating freeze, like… you know, some of them… like mulberries and loquats, you know… After we get a freeze and half of your mangoes are burned back, like… the loquats are like, "Look at me! I'm fine!" You know… And so they take wind, they take drought… they produce a good fruit that's… good out of hand… it’s a Japanese plum… It's called a loquat… it's not related to the kumquats, which are citrus… but loquats… you know, it depends on the property, uh… that you have and… how much… but that's a decent fruit to have in your yard that's… going to be there, and it's not going to get destroyed by cold or anything like that. So that's a nice one to have, um… for loquats… Sun? Sun? Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah! Get it in the ground… uh…

You know, I've had loquats fruit at… like… like… no… no bigger than this, you know? I've had loquats fruit very small… especially… there's a grafted variety, which is something I would like to touch on… real quick… um… Guys… when you're planting your trees… Thanks for… But we'll talk about the… word and put that after. Um… When you put a tree in… you know… citrus… mango… avocado… um… Here… I'll almost show you something… So… look at this little guy… trying so hard… to reproduce! Look at him! Nam Doc Mai, my favorite mango… But… what this little tree is… is it's… it's, uh… about a 2- to 3-year-old rootstock, and it was grafted… that… This is how they do grafting, just… just to… maybe some of you don't know… um… Say… we have a tree that's producing… here's a big, giant mango tree… and we want to create a new… when we do a grafted variety… So, we grow up some seedling rootstock, so you got this… little… small 2-year-old mango tree… or even smaller…

You go over to the mango tree, and you snip off what's called a scion… scion… the tip… of the… of the tree that… you want it to be… and then you take it, and you graft it onto… You cut this one off… and you graft them together… and that makes a new tree… That's how all these grafted mango trees come to be, okay? But this little thing here, the top part of this… doesn't know it's tiny… and it's… only been in the ground… in the ground for a month, and it's… it can't possibly support… And these… these… it thinks it can, but it doesn't know that it's not even… on this. So my recommendation… (much to… much people's dismay…) is for the first, you know, year or two… just pop these things off! And just… just get rid of them! It can't hold those… It's going to set your trees back… and it… What needs to do for the first 2 or 3 years is… get its roots down and establish in the yard. It needs to… All the vigor… from that tree has to go into the yard, and getting established… and getting that that that… whatever it has going… All the mycorrhizae fungi, and all the… all the proper stuff… and nutrition… that's happening… And when that thing's finally grounded… maybe the 4th year… then you can let it… let some fruit, and it’ll know… It'll… typically… it’ll sometimes drop… what it can't hold… and the trees know… and even during a certain… certain time, some trees just drop fruit… who knows why? But… don't ever… let a tiny tree… fruit like this, even if it was a little bit bigger. I'd still… would probably pop them off, you know? That’s probably ’cause I have other mangoes, but… still!

You want these trees… to become really established before you allow them to fruit, whether it's citrus… or anything like that!

Yes! Yeah! Great! Mangoes… from seed are worth a shot… if it's, um… if it's a polyembryonic mango, which is typically going to be… more likely true to seed… However… anything from seed—avocados, mangoes—are going to take, probably, um… 10 years before they actually finally fruit. And then you're not sure if it's going to be the same variety… But… if you have a lot of property… like… I'm friends with a guy… good friend of mine, his name is Grant Gilmore… he's a scientist, he's been in the papers… he used to be with Harbor Branch… on the Discovery Channel… he's a marine scientist, marine biologist… but he… his passion is mangoes! And he has several mangoes… one… it's phenomenal… named after his wife… Marilyn. And that's one… that he took… exactly what you're saying… grew one… took a risk, from seed… and it just happened to be… like Gary Zill's… an amazing new variety! And it's kind of a blend of a Edward and a Kent, I think. And it's just… unbelievable! But, um… But… if you really… definitely want fruit, I'd go with grafted. But you can try… if you just want to… give it a shot and try it out, you know? So… she was, basically, asking if you can grow… up from seed. And I… I certainly try, if you want, you know?

So I want to talk about planting… When you do plant any of these trees here… um… I'll just kind of… go through my list… Don't amend the soil! Up north… I think… sometimes, people amend the soil. They… put other things in with it… and… Don't do that! Here's why: what you want to do… because if you amend the soil, this… well… it's… we have to say and… basically here in Florida, right? So, if you amend it, you create this nice… little, happy pocket of nutrition, and the roots don't ever have to go anywhere. They just… stay, and they'll just weave around… go in circles…

Sometimes, I always take my trees… when I plant them, I take… them out of the thing… I've got a whole dug, probably, you know, 1½ or 2 times… bigger than the actual root ball. Um… I'll put it… I’ll take it out the pot here, shake it out… a little bit, just gently get the roots out… take some… that soil… put it away… and then I will put it into the hole, okay? I'll put a… water the hole first, put in there… and make sure that… the crown, which is… the crown of the tree right here… right where… the roots begin… you want to make sure that is… above… the soil, because you're going to get settling, and you don't want that crown below the soil line. Your basic soil. So you want the crown… above… a little bit. So I'll put that in… I've got my hose… I water it in… and then I'll pull some dirt from the… whatever I've dug it… dug… out from the yard, put a little bit that in, water that again… get all the air pockets out… water that again… and then… just… Then, I… that's how I do it. And then keep it cleanly cultivated… a good ways around that… keep… And so… that's step one. Um…

Only to have the moles come… dig it all up! But, anyway… So, um… so, that's how… that's how I plant. Then, I go… When I get this stuff right here… magic! It's called pine fines… For years, I used cypress mulch… and, um… and… and… You know, people talk about, um… you know… "Oh! It does this to you…" but, well… not really… they use it… they… it's the… scraps from lumber and stuff… But the reason I stopped using it, the pine… the cypress… is because… it would… create this… impenetrable… mat. And I'd go… We have a real long dry spell… and I go to water, and it would just, kind of… resist, and roll off that… and then it was… bone-dry underneath… after a heavy rain. So I found that… these pine fines put just a perfect amount of acidity in the soil… um… they allow percolation from the… from water… through this… It's a nice… loose… free… -able mulch… um… I put it on thick! When I put a tree down, I put about 5-6 inches down around that… keeping away… from the… the actual trunk… but… but put it around that… just so that there's no… other grasses or weeds competing… um… and then I'll… I'll replenish it… when… when need be.

But what happens… is… there's… this really interesting thing… they're finding out with microbiology and plants that… you want to feed the soil… and not necessarily… the tree! So… I… My… I… I don't… really use much fertilizer, but… what I try to do is make it… so that… the environment… that the tree is in… is natural… and gets this natural… vigorous thing… going… this… this… There's… basically, I… I need to learn more about the science of this so I could tell you… exactly what's happening… but I know… there's a fungus… Sometimes… if you pull back… mulch and stuff, you'll find this… white… fungus-y stuff that is critical that allows the uptake of… of all the nutrients… to that plant. So you get this… thing going… it's… this process where the fungus works with this… and that… helps… with the uptake of certain minerals and chemicals… and it happens! So I always… heavily mulch… my tropical fruit trees… and I… start with this, and I'll use stuff from the yard too… just… clippings, or whatever… but I… I always like to… create a nice, healthy bed so that… the soil… and the earthworms come up… and they get… all this thing going… this whole process happens… that really affects the… the… the… the way… the tree… pulls in its nutrients… and… and has the sugars going up and down… and what it gets from the soil… because we all know that… even… even, you could fertilize a tree… till kingdom come… with fertilizer… but… things… like your acidity… of the soil… If that's not right… it'll… never… uptake… into the tree. So… there's… very… And you could always go get a soil test, a k… and… I think, um… is there anybody here with the extent… the local extension office…? But… you can go to the agricultural extension office, whatever they call it, here in town… Take them a sample of soil, and… they'll test it for you and… tell you where it is on the acidity level, and that's a… really good thing to know because sometimes you might need to put a little lime down or go the other way depending on where it is… but… without the proper acidity, and… I remember them talking about pineapples with this… um… you… you could… feed it till… all… till… all day long… but… it's not going to… take it up… if the soil acidity is not right. Okay? So that's another kind of technical thing…

Um… so if you're having a plant falter or… not quite grow… a certain area of the yard, maybe it… does better up on the fill that they put your house on… or vice versa, you know? So it's kind of a… hit-and-miss thing in my yard. If I put a tree in… and it's not thriving, I'll give it… a couple years… I'll pick it up, and I'll… move it! I'll put it somewhere else, you know? Um… Again… I'm kind of a… lazy… the lazy gardener… I don't like to have to… maintain stuff and baby things along… so… that's kind of what I do, you know?

So, yeah. Are they all self-pollinating…? Good question! She asked if they're… self-pollinating. First of all, mangoes are… pretty much self-pollinating.

You don't have to worry about that, yeah. Um… avocados… Um… there's one variety called a Brogdon that… has both A and B flower, so… it is self-pollinating, but other ones are usually A or B. But, um… you'll… you'll still get production on it… like… yeah! Because typically… there… will be… bugs… or whatever that… sort of stick around over… a couple days… and that'll… that'll… that'll create that… Plus, if you have a… if you have another avocado tree… within about a mile and a half… or two… which is a pretty… broad area… then, you'll get cross-pollination. That's… because bees… and things… pollinate that.

So… Yes! Yes. I have… it may take a while. Yeah. She asked… if there's something called a Marcus pumpkin avocado… That's an old variety! I'd be curious to see what happens with that, but… from seed… it's going to take longer, typically… with an avocado seed or any tree… like… it's going to be really… it's going to want to… shoot… straight up. So a seedling… tree wants to go straight up, I usually top those out to… really encourage… that… lateral growth, you know?

Um… so… quickly… what's that? Yeah.

Someone told me that… if you get a cut from it… and your… brand, or you… get a, uh… you don't have to worry about… getting another avocado… because… it's already… I guess what I'm saying is that… a grafted variety… does it… need to be pollinated…? Yeah, I mean, they do have… some do have one particular flower, one… do, but… they always seem to… I've never known a full avocado… you know… like, a… mature avocado tree not to produce, so… I think… I don't know if it's cross-pollination, or whatever, but it's… uh… Um…

Yeah! I… That does sound vaguely familiar… though. It does…

Barbados cherry! Another great one, right here! This thing here… yeah! Barbados cherry… um… fantastic little tree… creates… either a small tree… or a bush… puts out… a… literally a cherry… um… about the size of a quarter… If you… during the rainy season… very tart… but I think they say… one of these fruits… is the same… vitamin C level as… 20 oranges! So, pop that in… and there's… little seeds in it… and they grow readily… from seed. You can… grow them from seed. It's a great… it's a… fun little tree, Barbados cherry.

One thing… three seeds? Three seeds…? So the three seeds in there… plant them all? Right? Do you really? Okay! Now, I had one in my yard that didn't do very well, and I wondered why, and I thought… "I'm going to move this thing… put it in a different spot…" because I've seen them do… fantastic… around here. "What's wrong with my yard?" Pull it up… and sure enough… I had root knot nematodes! So… tomatoes… everbearing mulberries and… these guys… right here… struggle, sometimes, in… certain sandy soils with… root knot nematodes.

So, if you have… all I can say… is… if you have… one of these trees… and it's not quite doing… as well as… you want it to… either move it into a more organic-rich soil in your yard… or mulch heavily… like… a fig… susceptible… to root knot nematode… down here… So, some people plant them by patios… So the roots can go under the patio… where it's not affected. So, root knot nematodes… do not like… heavy… thick… dense… organic soil! And so I plant… heavy, heavy… mulch, or… even… patio stones… on top of… these particular trees… in my yard, because I have some real… sandy soil up… by a certain area… So just… know that if there's a susceptibility to those root knot nematodes, mulch heavily… thick… deep… organic… get it… rich! Get it… get it going… Get the earthworms coming in… That'll change the type of soil that's underneath there… So, again… you want to feed the soil… to the… certain trees…

Strawberry tree! I love these things! This is just a… cool little tree… again… This is the one that… there's already some on here! Look at that! I'd let these fruit, though.

But… This tree right here… is that Muntingia calabura. It produces a… neat canopy tree, and just… hundreds and hundreds… you can't keep up with these… little… cherries that taste like… cotton candy! They're delicious! They're so good! Um…

Miracle fruit! It's more of a novelty… Anybody know what a miracle fruit is? A couple people? Yeah! It's… this little thing right here… It would actually be fun… just to kind of… put this in a yard, and just… have it just… instead of a… instead of a Aucuba, put this in… around your walkway… and then you… see these… little… berries here, little small fruits… you put them in your mouth, and you chew them up… for a little bit… So, it's not a drug! That's okay, so… but you… and… and… What it does… and you roll them around your mouth for about a minute or two… and then you spit the seed out, and it changes… Oh, there's… some… glyco… something… receptors… on your tongue, it's… what it's… so that… after you do that, for about… 2½ hours after… you can drink straight… you can eat… a lemon… out of hand, and it's… the sweetest lemon you'll ever imagine! Crazy bizarre! It's really strange.

Yeah! If you don't… anybody that's… undergoing… any medical treatment, especially chemo… get that fruit! Yeah! This… yeah! This will allow, uh… He was just saying… if there's someone that you know that's going through any kind of chemo or… having a problem… with… with, uh… with appetite hunger… They actually… they actually take a derivative of this, called miraculin… It's a… powder form… the FDA… is battling… everybody on this… thing… but, um… And… it allows… you to eat things… that may be… otherwise… metallic-tasting… to you, or whatever… Things that chemicals do… But it's… really… a neat… plant. I mean, look! We got this… put it in your yard, whatever… It's like… what, 20 bucks? Or something… you know? Maybe it's more than that, but… they probably won't eat it, or else that would be funny to watch!

But yeah, it's really strange, um… David Fairchild discovered these… down in Panama… back in the… I don't know… maybe it was the '50s, '40s… and they… the guy… some… one of the… locals said, "Here, put this… in your mouth, and try it", and then gave him some limes… and it just blew his mind! It's the sweetest… It's like… drinking the sweetest limeade or lemon you could ever possibly imagine! And then it… goes away… But then… you walk in circles for 2 days. No! It's… no! It's… there's… no… other side effects.

But, um… it's… it's a novelty, you know? Um… So again… I just… real quick… plant stuff! Get stuff in the ground! There's no better time than today to start, um… make sure that you're… take control of that tree, you… graft it properly… oh! Sorry! Not graft it, you prune it properly! Structure it properly… Even if it's already big on you… You… You can prune back… some stuff, no more than 20%… of the whole canopy at one time… um… Try a couple varieties… extend your seasons… fruit, um… Um… There's so much to talk about! In the fall… I did tell, uh… Tina Nelson that I'd like to do one on… protecting your trees, uh… because I… we had… we had… nights in the… in the… mid- to low 20s in my yard… years back… and my trees survived… with what I did… so we'll talk about that in the fall. But I will, um… I'm going to stick around…

You…

You…

You…

Um… forever to answer… Yes! Real quick… Yes!

Absolutely! Um… people are still planting them… they're doing well… My naval orange did very well this year. My grapefruit… I must be in the wrong place… It's sitting in the same spot, and it… hasn't even budged… in 3 years! It's the… same… it's not even growing. I think it knows that I don't like… I mean… I love citrus, but I don't know… so I need to move that… But I would say… with… with citrus… great question, because… people are still growing citrus… They're… they're needy. And… you really can't, like… develop the soil for citrus… like you can… with other fruit trees… You want to… feed them, so you… want to keep them… cleanly cultivated… no weeds… no mulch at all… ’cause they… they're… susceptible to rot… to root rot. But I would… feed them… I think it's once every… 6 weeks. So, you want to… definitely feed them… an organic or… non-organic… whatever you choose… whatever side you're on with that… but they… definitely… need fed… every 6 weeks. Um…

And then you… stop… you stop… around October… I think… and then you pick it back up in January… I wouldn't… I wouldn't…

Just… dirt, yeah! Try to keep it nice and clean… cultivate it, but, you know… all the… There's so many… good varieties! That… the Temple orange… I love the story… of the Temple orange… Uh… the guy that… that that… actually… cultivated the Temple orange, which is… amazing! Kind of a… sit… it's got a spice to it. It's delicious. Um… But… we wouldn't happen today… if the guy… I can't remember his name, but I have… this old document written on a typewriter that… a story that… he was up… wherever it was in… the central Florida, and… he protected… the one tree… through… a massive… freeze! He got a military tent and put it… over the tree… and had a fire going inside, and the stove… and protected that tree… and that's why we have Temple oranges today!

So, um… you know… fight the battle! We may… have storms, we may have floods, we may have droughts, we may have freezes… but… good grief! What a great… place to live, you know? What a… neat thing to do.

Yeah! Yes. Yes!

Is it really? So, don't go away. I got a drawing real quick.

Now… would I ever produce fruit… if I grafted…? Or… let's talk about that after. I got a couple answers… for you, on that one…

Let's… Okay! If anybody, real quick… yeah, what color is the… Right. Uh… this same color. Never changes… this… scurfy, gray color. You take your finger… and… scratch it… If it's green, when you scratch it… it's not… If it's brown, it's ready to pick. And then it ripens… on your counter… yep. Yeah, yeah! You say how big your property is? Uh… half an acre? Half an acre? I… I… and I'm… I'm… all about playing… tight! It's… I'm… honestly… you know…

I... I just... I have trees that I keep small, and I... I put... I put them 9-10 feet apart, you know? And then I still have a big area that my wife wouldn't let me touch... for the kids to play in, you know? So... But now I took the swing set down because they're now in college, and so I'm starting to approach a little bit, you know? So...