Three Mangoes on Two Mango Trees

 Mark and I LOVE mangoes, and one of my goals for P2 has always been to have mango trees.  I've bought and planted about 6, but only two survived:  Tommy Atkins and Valencia.  Both were planted in 2017, and this year they had their first mangoes.  I figure that since it's year one for fruiting the fruits may not make it to maturity, so I'd better get some pictures now.  

Today's mystery bug....  I have no idea who this grasshopper is :D

Update On Fruit Trees as of March 12, 2021

We're nearing the end of winter here in central Florida, where it's 77 degrees F right now.....  It's the perfect weather to go for a walk around the five acres and experience the beauty, and to check on all of the delicious fruits and vegetables growing.  My goal has always been to have fruit on trees outside, covered with fruit, ready to taste, and it's been challenging to find the right trees that flourish here.  I've had some successes, and all signs indicate that 2021 is going to be a good growth year for the fruit trees.

Papaya Trees 6-28-19

 The back papaya trees, Pip and Pop, have a new "Peep" companion.  Original Peep was done, so I planted a new 3rd back papaya tree. I circled them in the picture so you can see new Peep.  Pip's papayas are too high now, so she's purely a "statement papaya" and not a food source.  The prolific papaya tree is in Palm Island, and she produces fruit every month or so.  But Pip and Peep are still amazing, beautiful, and fragrant, and the original star papaya trees.

Pip, Pop, and new Peep.

The papaya canopy by the pole barn.  I planted a few extra papayas in the ground, and they "accidentally" took off and became a beautiful papaya forest.

Food Forest Update 6-28-19

 It's about time for an update to the food forest progress.  I'd love to say that it's producing loads of fruit, but it's only been about a year so it's too soon for a huge harvest.  I'm happy to say that I have been eating fruit from the overall P2 garden, but the total 2019 fruit count is about 15 tangerines, 5 figs, 10 bananas, and 2 papayas.  And none of this is from the official "Food Forest", which I really got going only last year in the pictures below.

Part 2 of the food forest is the "main" part, with 2 mango trees, 2 avocado trees, 2 fig trees, 1 dwarf mulberry, a banana tree and lots of sweet potato plants.

Part 1 of the food forest has loquat, guava, barbados cherry, and several figs.

The newly added western wall has papayas, lots of bananas, and a few figs.

The cranberry hibiscus grows strongly in the summer... the leaves are edible and very tangy, not my first salad choice but nice if I'm ever real hungry.

Sweet Potatoes!

We grew 20 lbs of Okinawa Sweet Potatoes!  I really didn't expect to get any harvest from the slips that Indy gave me in 2015, but I rather added them to the food forest as ground cover.  Lots of food forest plans include Sweet Potatoes as a ground cover to increase microbial life and to crowd out weeds, so I was happy to get them going crazy in the banana circle, the food forest, and in a few pots for fun.  The sweet potato vines are prolific here in central Florida and really did make it tough for weeds to survive in the banana circle.  They've escaped from pots in a few other places out back in the nursery, and they are a simple but beautiful green ground cover wherever they grow.  Bugs don't eat the leaves, so they always look fresh and green.

But the real surprise came in the 2 whiskey barrels that I planted some slips in 2 years ago.  Last year we had a cold winter with a couple of freezes, and when I checked for potatoes last winter after a year of growth I didn't find any potatoes.  I probably didn't dig down deep enough, but rather only grabbed a tiny fingerling or two near the surface and decided they must not have got enough of whatever they needed to produce food.

I was out last Sunday digging through pots to try to clean up for the new growing season, and I decided I would finally clean out the whiskey barrels.  The vines were incredibly long, growing way out of the pots and around the area by the papaya patch (Pip, Pop, and Peep).  As I pulled the vines out to clear out the pots for new plantings, I found THIS:

It's about 20 lbs of sweet potatoes!  The largest one in the lower left corner is 1 lb 13 oz, and an average sized one (upper right) is 3/4 of a pound.  I'm happy!  I had to dig many of them out of the bottom layer of the wood whiskey barrels, as they were lodged deep in the crevaces.  

My takeaway here is that there are a LOT of these beasts throughout the property where there are vines!  I think that's pretty cool.  I don't need that many sweet potatoes, so rather than disturb the banana circle I'll probably just leave them there and see what happens.  The microbes down in the ground licking the roots will thank me.

What's the future here at P2 for sweet potatoes?  Interestingly enough, even before I found these guys in the pots, I had already decided that I need to try growing sweet potatoes of different varieties this year.  Indy had given me Okinawa sweet potatoes (white on the outside, purple on the inside), but I know Mark prefers REAL sweet potatoes with yellow flesh.

On January 30th, I placed an order with Gurney's for a LOT of sweet potato slips.  They had a half price sale, and I figured why not try EVERY variety!  I ordered 12 slips of each:

• Beauregard
• Bush Porto Rico
• Georgia Jet
• Majesty (purple)
• O'Henry
• Covington
• Vardaman

The tomato cage is officially converted to a sweet potato cage, complete with 10 25-gallon fabric pots.  The vines will grow and be trained up the strings and hooks, just like the tomatoes.  It's going to be fun!

I also have plans for a 100' x 10' sweet potato patch out on the far property by the little pond.  There's a sandy patch that the previous owner made to potentially build something on, but it's just a sandy mound.  Perfect for sweet potatoes.  Between the sweet potato cage and the sweet potato patch, and the whiskey barrels, I will hopefully find places to plant 84 sweet potato plants.  Ok, I went overboard a bit, but why not!

April 2018 Garden Update

There have been a lot of delicious things happening here at P2 as I chip away at my plant projects...   The priorities for April (other than celebrating Mark's Birthday!) in the garden were:

1. Get cherry tomatoes growing so that there are PLENTY of tomatoes coming out of the garden
2. Plant fruit trees in the new "food forest" 
3. Get the Okinawa Spinach started in multiple pots so that there's LOTS for salads every day

Success in all three areas!  It was very exciting yesterday to get a shipment from Fast Growing Trees of some fruit trees that aren't available locally:  loquat, june plum, guava, jaboticaba, and a couple new avocados (Haas and a Cold Tolerant pollinator).  There's a picture at the end of the post.  But now, let's see how things are going...

These two cherry tomatoes look like amazing full size tomatoes, but they're only 1" in diameter.  The goal is to have 20 cherry tomatoes ripen every day...  I'm on it! 

We got Mark two orange trees last year, and they're growing in pots and making oranges!  The largest is about 2" in diameter, and the blooms were so fragrant last month.  We're feeding them lots and hoping for delicious oranges.

Six months ago I didn't know what a Canna was.  Now, I'm enthralled with their amazing leaves.  Oh yeah, they flower too.  But more importantly, these leaves love Florida's hot humid climate, and will grow in sun, shade, pots, ground, or even in the pond.  The "Tropicanna" variety has stunning pink/red/green/orange leaves.  You're going to see a lot of these around....

And now, the tomatoes.  This is a cherry tomato plant from Home Depot, so he got an early start.  Wow, he's doing great.  Mark rigged up the most impressive pond watering system using PVC, Rain Birds, brains, and love.  The plants are SO happy.  Right?

I have a bunch of banana pups that I harvested from their mother mats in December that BARELY made it through the January freeze, but they're in pots and thriving now.  I only lost one out of about 12, so I'm happy about that.  Water, worm castings (aka poo), and more water makes them happy.

This cherry tomato is a beauty!  So happy in his pot with a firmly fastened tomato cage ready to climb on.  

And now, the tomato seedlings.  I found a source online that claimed that these are THE tomatoes that grow well in Central Florida.  We'll see!  I bought a 30% shade cloth for mid summer to keep the ball rolling even when it gets too tropical here.  Mark and I are designing the structure to cover the heirloom tomatoes with the shade cloth.  I have a bit of time to decide on the final design while I wait for these little guys to grow up a bit.  But for now, seedlings in blue Solo cups!

There's always one seedling that towers above the others...

My biggest seedling is a Ukranian Purple, and he's very anxious to start producing amazing purple heirloom tomatoes.

Another happy tomato is Cherokee Purple... also excelling a week after transplanting.

I have a bunch of smaller plants in the nursery...  crotons, split leaf philodendrons, and this lovely mottled banana pup.

I'm hoping this Fuyu Persimmon is a big producer of delicious fruit.  Right now, I'm happy to have flowers.  

My goal is to have plenty of tropical perennial greens growing for food.  The Cranberry Hibiscus is edible and tastes good, but I'm really trying to get the plant HUGE before I graze on it!  Right now, it's good enough to see a pot full of the leaves with some gorgeous hibiscus flowers.  The dining will come soon enough...

The story of the central Florida Lychee....  the leaves did poorly in the freeze of January, but they didn't fall off.  The new leaves are there, but not robust.  I've read that the Lychee is picky...  not sure I'll put up with a picky plant, but for now I'll feed it, mulch it, and hope it does amazing in it's pot.

On to the food forest.  I started this patch last fall with lots of cardboard, wood sticks, top soil, mulch, and water to create a perfect bed for fruit trees.  Mark added the amazing pond water distribution system, and yesterday I planted the fruit trees: Valencia Mango, Tommy Atkins Mango, and Brogdon Avocado.  There are 3 more holes for the 2 newest avocado trees plus the Loquat.  The lovely flowers are black oil sunflowers.

Big bird, spraying delicious pond water on the food forest.

I've extended the food forest south by several feet, adding cardboard, top soil, and a hold for the loquat.  Mulch coming soon (probably tomorrow, today is a rest day LOL).

The Food Forest plus part of the southern extension.

A bamboo update!  Sixish (a Seabreeze bamboo planted near 6 of the original 1-10 field clumps of Emerald bamboo) shot up her first cane of the season.  A nice big thick happy cane, already about 6 inches tall.

The bamboo plantation is looking full, leafy, and green now in April.  Remember how the leaves all got melted in the January freeze?  No worries, all of the mats are alive and happy with new leaves and bananas aplenty.

We have a 5' tall fig tree near the front of the house.  Sadly he doesn't get irrigation except when it rains.  Still, he's starting to produce figs for 2018.  He's happy and healthy.  Looks like the 4 bags of composted manure and 4 bags of mulch last fall made him happy.

Close up of the new figs forming.

And now, the seven new fruit trees from Fast Growing Trees.  Starting in the front, clockwise:

1. Haas Avocado (2-3' size)
2. Cold Hardy Avocado (pollinator) (3-4' size)
3. Guava (2-3' size)
4. Loquat (4-5' size)
5. Jacaranda (3 gallon pot)
6. Jaboticaba (1 gallon pot)
7. June Plum (3-4' size)

In case there's any question, the June Plum is the bare stick.  Apparently he lost his leaves in the South Carolina winter.

The trees all look amazing!  I'll let them sit for a day or so and then plant them.