Phoenix Tropicals Gardening

[darkcoolboo]

It seems the homepage is rather dated and we can exchange scions for the people that don't have the time or money to go to the AZRFG meetings!
Here's what I'm growing:
-'Valentine Pomelo (developed in 2006 by UC riverside, it is a tri-brid of three citrus: 1/4 'Dancy' Tangerine (floral taste), 1/4 'Ruby' blood orange (color), 1/2 'Siamese Sweet' Pomelo (large fruit size))
-'Ponderosa' Lemon (a dwarf citron-lemon hybrid with huge fruits)
-'Okrung' Mango (said to be the highest BRIX of all mangoes)
-Indian Curry Leaf (adds a celery taste to curries)
-Lemongrass (used in tons of Thai food)
-Moringa (the best superfood evah! )
-'Taiung #2' Papaya (red fleshed)
-'Brazilian' Papaya (red fleshed)
-Carob (no pollinator yet )
-'Frederick' Passionfruit (sooo good )
-'Physical Graffiti' Pitaya/Dragon fruit (loves water!)
-'Tommy Atkins' Mango (seedling for rootstock)
-Monrovia 'Angel Red' Pomegranate (high juice content)
-Peruvian Apple Cactus (like pitaya)
-Aloe Vera (I never get burned but nice texture)
-2x Manila Mango rootstock (awaiting Coconut cream and Sweet tart scions)

Below the picture is a list of the best varieties to grow in Arizona that I plan to grow one day. I will continue to expand this as time passes. Good luck!

[myamberdog]

Nice list...what about the All-In-One Almond? Mine has flourished and produces nice nuts.....

And the Mexican Papaya does very well at my house. I'm in Palm Springs which is quite similar to your climate....


MDoggie

[darkcoolboo]

All In One almond can be found most everywhere. I find it at my local Home Depot in the fall to winter. Aside from that, I'd say it's good. A few of the less visited sites say it needs 500 chill hours, while the more reputable say 400 chill hours. IDK for Palm Springs, but we get 300-400 chill hours. Less chill hours = less fruit set, but Garden Prince has only 250 chill hours which is 100%. Also, you can grow both for more productivity if you wanted. My 'Maradol' do horribly. Though I'm sure it's a personal problem (maybe not good drainage), my Tainung #2 doubled in size, while my 'Maradol' is still the same. Also, the leaves are getting more closely spaced as time progresses. I think this winter was the nail on the coffin. I recommend buying papaya seed from alohaseed.com (though the seeds sometimes aren't always fresh). 'Red lady' does very well in South FL, 'Improved Solo sunrise' is consistent fruit setting variety and 'TR Hovey' is a dwarf one that fruits rather quickly.

Remember, my own garden is only about half a year old, so this is all a learning experience for me. I get most of my info online.

[myamberdog]

I got my TR Hovey seeds from Aloha and the tree is a monster grower. Does yours have yellow fleshed fruit? Maybe I got sent the wrong variety....who knows. I don'[t like the taste anyway - It has a rose water/floral taste to it that I just don't like.

Except for the low growing/covered papayas, all mine got majorly burned by frost and after all the nice leaves fell off, the fruit has begun to know fall, green of course. How did yours do during that recent cold spell?


Maddy

[myamberdog]

Nathan - what do you think of my Edward mango blooming at this time of year? It's in a warm, walled in and southern location in front of my house. I really think the extra heat is what propels it to be my first fruiting mango each year.....and it gets great frost protection too!

You have any mango's blooming about now?


Maddy

[darkcoolboo]

Our winter has been so good to use because we've only had one frost so far back in Dec. Since I only had two papaya in containers, I just put them in the garage. I'm going to plant them in ground this week because many nurseries recommend planting earlier, despite frost. Then I'll move my passionfruit to my tainung #2's pot and build a trellis once the passionfruit gets established.

My only mango, Okrung will become a multigraft because 'Okrung' is a rather inferior variety. I can't benefit from southern expose because my house is in the south and casts a shadow on half the yard. The okrung is in the process of forming the flowers, but I'll probably snip them to allow tree growth or hit it with nitrogen. Your mango is so successful, while my mango is so shrimpy.

[darkcoolboo]

For all those AZ pple out there, I personally feel that Lowes is the best nursery out there. Sure you should support local nurseries, but Tropica mango is expensive and I've never been to shamus o leary (though i follow both fb/facebook pages) before. I'm planning to drive up there on valentines day because he posted that his shipment is coming that day or so. For other places, it might be either HD (home depot) or lowes that supplies the tropical plants, but near my house, it's lowes.

I often look at the messages at Tropica mango fb page and i feel discouraged at the sheer fact that tropica mango costs 3x $$$ than lowes. On average a plant at lowes is only 22$ (12$ on sale). Tropica mango varying prices (5-200) and it's very confusing. That okrung was 200$, but now I realize that I could have just bought a 20$ rootstock at lowes, took a grafting class at AZRFG, then grafted much better varieties like coconut cream, lemon zest and carrie. Of course tropica mango has herbs and small things, but once you get passionfruit, mango and white sapote at lowes, you're pretty satisfied (I call it the 3 factors: flavor/sour, juicy, and creamy). You can always just graft a scion that growers online will happily give to you as long as you pay shipping (5-10$).

[darkcoolboo]

I think the highlights of both HD and Lowes that aren't mentioned already on the forum are the jacarandas, Brazilian papayas, Honeyhart cherimoyas, Hawaiian-type plumerias, Ice Cream bananas, Fuyu persimmons, Low-chill/All-in-one almonds and finger limes.

[darkcoolboo]

Among the deciduous trees/cold hardy ones, the most notable ones, in my opinion, are persimmon and the almonds. Persimmon along with stone fruits are among the most productive of all plants, rivaling tropicals like white sapote and citrus. It gets better that not many persimmons varieties are better than the common nonastrigent/Fuyu and the astringent/Hachiya. This come off two way; you becomes tired of the flavor of common varieties or that these varieties are the easiest to collect.

[myamberdog]

dcb - what is an example of a "Brazilian" papaya....?


myamberwoofie

[phoenixtropicals]

I'm always trying papaya and they get consistently killed every year. The problem is that even lows of only 32 do them in, which happens here almost every year. While mangoes are good to 29 or so. Palm springs being just a couple degrees warmer makes a big difference I think. I have gotten papayas to grow to about 4 feet but didn't get fruit on them, even then. Oh well, I just put out the seed these days and hope for the best.

Another source of tropical fruit trees is mail order from Florida. I have had good experiences with Top Tropicals. It's a bit expensive but you can find things there that you will never find locally.

[darkcoolboo]

Brazilian papaya is the one from Laverne that have the papaya print on the pot. It's a normal looking papaya with a similar leaf structure as 'Maradol', but the color is different. I kept mine in the garage since I bought it in Oct, but I'm surprised that they are that tender. We've only had 1 week freeze this year and I'm surprised that growing on a mound, Xmas lights and frost cloth isn't enough. I suppose that I could try heat lines/mats as well or pot them until they start to flower then hit them with nitrogen in the winter and fruit in the spring next year. I just hope my lone 'Brazilian' will fruit by itself (my 'Tainung #2, no one could identify its gender). I plan to germinate some 'Solo' from the market next month.

[myamberdog]

Thanks PT - yeah I think my story on Papayas will be a longer version of what you experience. Mine can go 3 years or so between really killing frosts, and I'll cover them up to about 10 feet high, then it gets a bit ridiculous to try and cover them, and when we had two nights of 28.8 degrees (at least that what I registered on my weather station) the leaves just went limp and that was that.

I actually live in a cold pocket here in Palm Springs that gets the cold air drain coming down from the San Jacinto mountains as i live real close to them. So even though I know our reported LOW temps generally average a few degrees warmer than yours I don't experience that, unfortunately. I'm probably, actually, closer to what you guys get.

So my conclusion is that normal papayas planted outside will suffer dire consequences every few years....unless.....I get and plant the dwarf varieties which will be coverable/protectable for a longer period of time and thus should produce more of a crop of fruit. This year, many of the small green papayas that had formed have fallen off the trunks of the trees, which did not happen the last few years when there would be some frost damage and they stuck around to ripen in the spring, so this was a really snappy cold that caused this damage.....yeah, I think dwarf varieties may hold the key because of their ability to winterize more easily.

DCB - I don't see the brazilian papaya print on the HD or Lowe's pots that we have in our local stores. Maybe we don't have the same varieties delivered....

maddy

[darkcoolboo]

Aside from TR Hovey, Red Lady is a dwarf variety from Florida. It's a Mexican type, so it has red flesh. I hope that Brazilian tastes better than store bought Maradols.

[raimeiken]