Marsha's grolist photos 2015/2016

[jhp]

Wow! A mango tree! I've never seen one before. I can't imagine having a load of mangos like that. What do you do with them all? Thanks for posting all of your wonderful pictures. You've added a bunch of 'want to grow' to my list for next year. Probably don't have room for them all!

Jen

[jmsieglaff]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Love the pics!

Your picked pineapple looks about store bought size. Another reason why the homegrown pineapples taste better is we can leave them on the plant until they yellow or start to yellow. I've found when planting the tops will produce small fruits, but then the shoot left on the mom plant will produce bigger fruits and any additional side shoots replanted will produce much quicker than just the tops. Then you have the mom plant which will produce a big pineapple, etc. A wonderful cycle.

Having fresh fruit like that makes the 5 months summer more bearable. Lots of nice shade under your mango tree.

Marsha, your jungle is incredible! And I'd think that makes up for tomato time off and then some.

I was going to ask about pineapples. So the plant will keep on producing after you harvest the fruit, another shoot will develop a fruit? I've heard about planting the top, so I wasn't sure if it was perennial or if tops were planted. Do the leaves come off the fruit as it grows or do you cut them off?

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by jmsieglaff

Marsha, your jungle is incredible! And I'd think that makes up for tomato time off and then some.

I was going to ask about pineapples. So the plant will keep on producing after you harvest the fruit, another shoot will develop a fruit? I've heard about planting the top, so I wasn't sure if it was perennial or if tops were planted. Do the leaves come off the fruit as it grows or do you cut them off?

Plants last for years; first time to get a fruit is about 2 years. So at a minimum each plant will create 2 plants. Sometimes the mom plant will have 2 shoots, so 3 plants. It doesn't take long before you never have to buy a pineapple again.

Hawaiian pineapples produce 4-5 shoots and fruit every year. So far my Hawaiian pineapples have been small though.

[greyghost]

Marsha, the flowers are beautiful and the fruits are like a fantasy for us in the north!
Thanks for posting the photos-I've never really seen much of those kinds of fruits growing.
Darlene

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Starlight

Your pics make my mouth water with all those tropical fruits. They so expensive in the grocery store. Your Tibouchina is stunning too. Love that plant. I bought me a huge tree like plant of it one year and we just get to cold for it here. Croaked the first winter I had it. Hundreds of dollars down the drain. I didn't feel so bad about the money, but felt bad that this huge Tibouchina that had been growing for so many years was dead in a matter of months. Lesson learned to watch when pushing the zones.

Do you eat the Star fruit? If so what does it taste like and how do you eat it?

Yes we eat the starfruit. The taste is like an orange mixed with rosewater. Texture is crisp you can eat the whole thing seeds and all, or remove the 5 or so seeds in each. Cutting it crosswise gives a 5-6 sided star shape.

Originally Posted by sdambr

Wow, that is really impressive, all the fruit and flowers make me want to move to sunny Florida.
Not to mention two tomatoes seasons.

Really its just one long tomato season from August until around first week June. I just start a few more in December just because...

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Love the pics!

Your picked pineapple looks about store bought size. Another reason why the homegrown pineapples taste better is we can leave them on the plant until they yellow or start to yellow. I've found when planting the tops will produce small fruits, but then the shoot left on the mom plant will produce bigger fruits and any additional side shoots replanted will produce much quicker than just the tops. Then you have the mom plant which will produce a big pineapple, etc. A wonderful cycle.

Having fresh fruit like that makes the 5 months summer more bearable. Lots of nice shade under your mango tree.

yes, the pineapples are a bromeliad, they produces pups from under after a fruit is harvested. Mine only take 1.5 years from planting a top until I get ripe fruit. Then every 1.5 years another. One is 9 years old.

Originally Posted by jhp

Wow! A mango tree! I've never seen one before. I can't imagine having a load of mangos like that. What do you do with them all? Thanks for posting all of your wonderful pictures. You've added a bunch of 'want to grow' to my list for next year. Probably don't have room for them all!

Jen

hey Jen, thanks! I wouldn't try these where you are unless you are able to bring them in in the winter. None of these would be frost tolerant. We just dont get frost here.

Originally Posted by jmsieglaff

Marsha, your jungle is incredible! And I'd think that makes up for tomato time off and then some.

I was going to ask about pineapples. So the plant will keep on producing after you harvest the fruit, another shoot will develop a fruit? I've heard about planting the top, so I wasn't sure if it was perennial or if tops were planted. Do the leaves come off the fruit as it grows or do you cut them off?

Yes another shoot forms from the base, like a bromeliad pup. That grows a new pineapple. The leaves stay put while it is growing. The base of the main plant is about 2.5 feet wide, and I cut the sharp tips off the leaves.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Plants last for years; first time to get a fruit is about 2 years. So at a minimum each plant will create 2 plants. Sometimes the mom plant will have 2 shoots, so 3 plants. It doesn't take long before you never have to buy a pineapple again.

Hawaiian pineapples produce 4-5 shoots and fruit every year. So far my Hawaiian pineapples have been small though.

Barb, I never knew about Hawaiian pineapples, so they grow 4-5 pineapples per year? Where can I get those ? Mine are just from tops cut off store bought.

Originally Posted by greyghost

Marsha, the flowers are beautiful and the fruits are like a fantasy for us in the north!
Thanks for posting the photos-I've never really seen much of those kinds of fruits growing.
Darlene

You're welcome Darlene. To me, having grown up here, all this is second nature to me, I love going further north because it's not tropical anymore.

[Barb_FL]

I will send you some shoots. They should do fine in the mail. Did you ever look to see what they sell pineapple plants online for? It is insane; although some pineapples in supermarkets are having holes drilled through the top so they are not viable to plant.

I can see pineapples being shipped without tops for room, but to deliberately cut through the tops is criminal. Not many people can grow pineapple or willing to wait it out.

Obviously I love growing pineapples because there is nothing to do. I will have 3 possibly 4 store bought size this year.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

I will send you some shoots. They should do fine in the mail. Did you ever look to see what they sell pineapple plants online for? It is insane; although some pineapples in supermarkets are having holes drilled through the top so they are not viable to plant.

I can see pineapples being shipped without tops for room, but to deliberately cut through the tops is criminal. Not many people can grow pineapple or willing to wait it out.

Obviously I love growing pineapples because there is nothing to do. I will have 3 possibly 4 store bought size this year.

That's fantastic! I must send you some dehyd. mango even though you have all those Kents, dehydrating gives such a different flavor. I am sending to a bunch of others, might as well to you too. Those pineapple shoots will be very special.
I agree that the hole drilling is criminal. I havent seen that, but now I'm going to look for it. I have seen where leaves are missing from the center, but that's no big deal.

[wildcat62]

Marsha,
I just noticed this thread. I've never saw a mango tree before and had no idea what one looked like & I know those pineapples taste great. It won't be long now and we will finally get to taste the GGWT & others varieties that you sent. They sure look good. We started picking our 1st ripe tomatoes this past week.
One here and there for now.
Thanks again,
Mark

[My Foot Smells]

what is the gestation for a pineapple from root to fruit? thought it was like 18 months or something, never grown one myself, but if could deliver within 12 months - might be able to start in GH in a pot and then go outside.

my dream plant is an avocado tree, love 'em. Also love mango salsa, your tree looks lovely.

great picture of the flowers and all around. also like crushed seashell for base or walkways, all we get is sb2 gravel here, which is bleeeech.

[peebee]

I absolutely LOVED those pictures Marsha! Esp. the outdoor orchid; I'm just starting to get into those now. But nothing like yours. I have plants that look just like those Mexican petunias, except mine are purple and the stalks and leaves are darker. I never knew the name till now. They grow like crazy in any soil.
What do you do with all the mangoes? I bet the ground under the tree is teeming with worms!

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by wildcat62

Marsha,
I just noticed this thread. I've never saw a mango tree before and had no idea what one looked like & I know those pineapples taste great. It won't be long now and we will finally get to taste the GGWT & others varieties that you sent. They sure look good. We started picking our 1st ripe tomatoes this past week.
One here and there for now.
Thanks again,
Mark

Thank you. Nothing like a homegrown tomato. Its summer so for me there's nothing even like a homegrown tomato.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by peebee

I absolutely LOVED those pictures Marsha! Esp. the outdoor orchid; I'm just starting to get into those now. But nothing like yours. I have plants that look just like those Mexican petunias, except mine are purple and the stalks and leaves are darker. I never knew the name till now. They grow like crazy in any soil.
What do you do with all the mangoes? I bet the ground under the tree is teeming with worms!

If your Mexican Petunias are like mine, they are super invasive, and those have bern going for 16 years now. A friend gave me 6 small shoots years ago, I planted them, and I do nothing, except cut them down and back.
My mangoes, some go to the freezer, they make the best ice in a smoothie. Lots of fresh eating, many more dehydrated( crazy delicious that way) I dont add sugar, just plain dehydrated.
Mango bread is great too.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by My Foot Smells

what is the gestation for a pineapple from root to fruit? thought it was like 18 months or something, never grown one myself, but if could deliver within 12 months - might be able to start in GH in a pot and then go outside.

my dream plant is an avocado tree, love 'em. Also love mango salsa, your tree looks lovely.

great picture of the flowers and all around. also like crushed seashell for base or walkways, all we get is sb2 gravel here, which is bleeeech.

From top rooting to ripe fruit, about 18 months, then you get a new shoot from below, and a new pineapple in another 18 months, and so on. I throw some citrus lime avacado fert on them every year in January, and give them some water when they start their bromeliad like bloom until fruit is ripe. Thats about it

[clara]

Marsha, you really have a tropical paradise around you! All those lovely flowers, all those delicious fruits remind me of holidays in South-East Asia - I have to take a 12-hours flight and you simply go out into your garden... You must do something very right to create this paradise!