August in the garden

After going through summer with a successful rainy season, the wetness has come to an abrupt halt. The last substantial rain was around 3 weeks ago, forcing me to resort to irrigation. This has been the most product time yet on my property, with more and more varieties coming into production, but still so many more to go. We've been harvesting 5 varieties of muscadines, two of which are new. There are two new ones which are not producing this year. I often eat them at the vine, and toss the skin (despite being the most vitamin rich portion) to my chickens. Muntingia has a couple dozen ripe every day, usually eaten right at the tree. They're quite tasty with a coconut flavor. Harvested about 3 dozen Kohala longans. They were undersized and not as fleshy as desired, but this was its first crop and hopefully will improve next year. My 'See Chompoo' (Thai variety) longan has a dozen or two fruit still to pick, but they'll likely be undersized for the same reason.


We had our first crop of Brogdon avocados, totalling over a dozen. These fruit also were smaller than we expect for future crops, but not bad in size. They did taste extremely good, buttery and nutty flavored. Hoping my Choquette 'avo' produces next year.


Dragonfruit were productive, had eight 'American Beauties', which are the tasty magenta fleshed variety, and four 'Giant Viets'. Looks like the 'Giant Viet' is sending out flower buds again in larger numbers. We'll see if they stick and how many.


Solo papayas have fruit, still on the tree, hoping they'll size up and ripen. A few persian and key limes here and there. Have some watermelons growing in the rose garden which are getting colossal. Planted some butternut squash here and there from seeds from a grocery store bought fruit. They grew to tremendous size and have been harvested. Some fruit were two feet long! Pineapples were the biggest success, harvesting about three dozen fruit and three different varieties, 'Smooth Cayenne', Champacca and 'Cheese Pine'. The last of which was the best pineapple I ever had.




Pomegranates were a failure, the fruit never getting sufficiently ripe without succumbing to an apparent fungus. Three varieties of figs, 'Pasqualle, Green Ischia, and Improved Celeste' have fruit currently. My Alano sapodilla has a half dozen fruit going, they are around quarter sized. I am giving up on barbados cherries due to lack of enthusiasm about the taste. Will dig up the tree this fall or winter, same with my red mombin. They are in a prime real estate area on the south side of my house. Will replace with tastier choices.


Bananas are in full glory. Only have harvested two bunches, but have multiple bunches in fruit of Raja Puri, Apple, Namwa, Pisang Ceylon, Sweetheart. Not much else going on fruit-wise, but I've been impressed with the constant state of growth of my '9861' canistel. Its around 7 feet tall and constantly has new growth emerging. Its in flower but I don't think they'll end up as fruit. Oh yes, my 'barbie pink' guava will probably be dug up. Its ending up to be too much work protecting them from Caribbean fruit flies. Shame, as the tree is getting huge, 12' tall and 12' wide.

Pitaya in central Florida

Dragonfruit (Pitaya) are an excellent tropical fruit for areas which rarely reach freezing temperatures in humid Florida. They are an epiphytic tropical cactus, and do well if provided good drainage and something to climb. If placed next to a large tree, they will grow all the way up it, and eventually the fruit will become unreachable, so keep your trellis at harvestable size. They can take regular watering, and foliar fertilization on the epiphytic roots will do it well. There are many named varieties, and unless you've tasted a superior variety, do not judge it yet by taste. The yellow (Selenecerius Megalanthus) is often considered superior for taste (it is also attractive), but it's small fruit size makes it perhaps not as desirable as one which tastes almost as good, but larger. My favorite so far is 'American Beauty', which is a magenta fleshed cultivar. Here is a link to the popular Pine Island Nursery pitaya cultivar viewer: http://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/dragon/index.htm