Got 5 new trees from Shamus O'Leary's:

• Sapodilla (has about 3 or 4 fruit on it)
• Carambola
• Araviapa Avocado
• Jaboticaba
• Southern Blush Mango

Removed stakes from:

• Pakistani Mulberry
• Oscar Mulberry
• Jaboticaba
• Sapodilla
• Both Mangoes
• Avocado
• White Guava
• Surinam Cherry

Took the tips off the (only) 5 branches on the tree.

Here's a series of photos of how I setup the frost cloth over the sub-tropical part of the orchard for winter. I've tried to plant all of my frost sensitive plants in one place to make it easier to cover them all with one structure instead of doing lots of small structures around each one. I have a sort of door at the south end which allows me to unpin the frost cloth and go inside and check on and care for the trees.

Applied 4 gallons of Neem Oil to a bunch of trees.

Removed most of frost cloth from sub-tropicals

First flower cone.

Good flowers on 2 mangoes

A flower cone has developed

2 mangoes still flowering

Applied Miracle-Gro Water Soluble Azalea, Camellia, Rhododendron Plant Food because I found some lying around and didn't want to throw it away. Approx 2 tablespoons per 2 gallons.

ToDo: This needs to be applied to several fruit trees: Tony Loquat AZRFG Loquat Feijoa Beaumont Guava Red Malaysian Guava Sapodilla Jaboticaba Rajapuri Banana Mona Lisa Bana Pineapple Mango Araviapa Avocado Southern Blush Mango White Sapote (x2) Papaya Tainung #2 White Guava

With lots of flower cones.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 7'6"

Young mangoes starting to grow on the cone.

Trimmed off dead flower cones.

Fruit is now slightly bigger than a quarter in diameter.

Progress on fruit growth

Shade cloth over parts of E orchard. May have been a bit too late for the loquats that have some very brown leaves now. Temp recently hit 100F 2 days ago.

Metrics:

• Girth (inches only): 4.4"

More fruit growth. Two pieces doing a lot better than others. Not much of the fruit is left on the other cones. Fruit now about 2 inches long

New growth on both mangoes

Another flower cone has developed while the fruit is in mid-stage to ripening. This makes 2 new flower cones in as many weeks. Fruit now about 3 inches long. Another flower cone on this tree.

Pruned the branches to make tree shorter.

Fruit progress

I've had to tie the tree to the overhead shade structure stop those 2 mangoes from pulling it over.

Lots of new growth.

One of the Southern blush mangoes is starting to change color from green to yellow

I walked past the Southern Blush mango tree today and noticed that the first ripe mango from this tree had fallen to the ground. It smells incredible. As you can see from the red square on the measuring tape between the numbers 4 and 5 this mango is 16 feet long. The verdict: Very tasty. It was not as squishy as it should be, I should wait a couple of days which was obviously not possible so I think that it would have tasted even better in a couple of days.

Another two mangoes fell from the tree today. The smaller one is probably ripe. This time I plan on letting the larger one sit for longer and savor the taste...

Tipped the branches on:

• 2 Mangoes
• 4in1 Apple
• White Mulberry

• The height has changed by -1' over the last 157 days.

Photo with measure stick shows the tree at just over 6 feet. I've been cutting the tips off the top to make it bushier.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 6'6"

After removing the shade cloth.

Removed all shade cloth. Mostly from sub tropical area but also from Aussie Finger lime and from dead blackberries and figs in the SW corner

The upper branches of the tree are slowly dying back towards the stem so I've trimmed them back. Not sure what's causing this. There's a pineapple mango about ten feet from this tree that's very healthy.

(Edit on 12/31/2016: After further research I thought that this might be Verticillium Wilt. However Mango is not listed as one of the susceptible plants.)

The compost bin is right in the middle of a bunch of trees in the sub-tropical orchard. The theory is that the roots will grow under the compost bin and receive the nutrition from the decomposing compost that will be brought down into the soil be worms and water. (I occassionaly soak the contents of the compost bing to achieve this.) The trees in this photo that benefit from it are, from left:

• Pineapple Mango
• Araviapa Avocado
• (Dead) Carambola Star Fruit (foreground)
• Southern Blush Mango (behind bin)
• Thai Sapodilla (to right of bin with orange strap)
• Jaboticaba (just to right and behind Sapodilla)

Tree still slowly dying back from the top.

More top-down death of this tree.

• The height has changed by -3" over the last 92 days.
• The girth has changed by -0.7" over the last 197 days.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 6'3"
• Girth (inches only): 3.8"

Morning: First frost in yard. Low temperature recorded at 28F. No frost covers have been put on yet. Hope they survive.

Afternoon: Frost cloth put over the sub-tropical area. Took a total of 2.5 hours to cover the existing rickety wood structure with frost cloth and staple gun it to the poles.

Even though it's dying it still appears to want to flower.

Metrics:

• First Blossom: ✔

Manually watered sub-tropicals. 7 trees.

• The height has changed by -2'1" over the last 14 days.

After talking with a friend over the weekend about this tree dying back from the top I've taken her advice and today I cut back all the dead growth which shortened the tree down to 50 inches. The fact that there's been good growth at the bottom of the tree gives me hope. I noticed a black dot in the core of one of the branches that I was cutting back that continued for about 18 inches. I continued cutting until I'd removed that which I think might be part of the disease that's killing it back.

The images show some dead wood at the top of the tree and also what the tree looks like after being cut back.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 4'2"

Largest flower on tree is around 2.5 inches long now.

Sprayed a bunch of trees with Copper Fungicide. Mixed 2.0 fluid ounces per gallon of water.

This is the largest flower cone on the tree and it's growing at a healthy rate.

7 open flower cones and 6 about to open.

Today I noticed the first few flowers open on the largest of the flower cones.

Sprayed with Neem Oil. 2 Fl Oz per gallon. Made a total of 4 gallons for the trees listed on this note.

The most advanced of all the flower cones on the Southern Blush.

All the flower cones on the tree.

During the winter the temperature inside the frost structure often hits 110F in the late afternoon, you can see that at the bottom of the high bar that records the temperature. That would be from the last couple of weeks as I rarely reset that one. This image is from noon today (8th Feb 2017). The frost structure also traps the humidity so the sub-tropicals in here love it. The temperature when I took this image was 104.

With the temperatures rising the inside of the frost protection area is getting super hot in the afternoons. The high recorded yesterday was 115 F inside the frost structure. Outside the structure there is a control thermometer hanging in the Pakistan Mulberry tree which is in full direct sunlight. The reading on that was 90 F. So a 25 F difference from inside to outside.

Removed frost cloth from structure today.

First fruit forming on the flower cone. The fruit are tiny, about an eighth of an inch.

• The height has changed by 2" over the last 75 days.
• The girth has changed by 0" over the last 89 days.

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 4'4"
• Girth (inches only): 3.8"

I like this shot of the Southern Blush flower and fruit. At the center of the image is the flower and you can see how part of the flower is shaped like the fruit that's starting to form right below it.

I'm going to try and track this flower and fruit.

The flowers on the flower cones are now turning brown. Hopefully this is just part of the expected end to the flowers.

More fruit development on the monitored flower. Also an image of the brown that the flowers are now turning.

Some fruit growing - still tiny.

Fruit forming.

• The height has changed by -1'5" over the last 55 days.
• The girth has changed by 0" over the last 55 days.

I don't think that I eradicated the disease from this tree.

1. Looks like there's only one semi-viable fruit on this tree and I don't think that's going to make it.
2. The tree before I started cutting it back.
3. The tree after the first part of the cut-back.
4. Signs that the disease is still there.
5. After more cuts it's still there.
6. This was a lot of cutting and still finding it.
7. No trace for the last 3 cuts.
8. The tree as it stands now. A lot shorter but maybe it will live.
9. Sealed the wound with Tanglefoot Tree Wound Sealer

Metrics:

• Height (inches only): 2'11"
• Girth (inches only): 3.8"

Started putting shade cloth over the sub-tropical and (young) citrus section of the orchard.

Sub-Tropical Shade Cloth Project 2017.

New growth coming out about a third of the way up the tree.

New growth on a few parts of the tree.

No sign of die-back hitting the tree right now. I still don't hold out a lot of hope for this tree. It's looking okay now. I noticed some mottling on the leaves which could be a sign of magnesium deficiency. I mixed one pound of Epsom Salts with four gallons of water and applied to the base of the tree.

No change in last 2 days. Mixed three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into three gallons of water and poured at base of tree today.

Mixed three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and gave to tree.

Put up some more shade cloth on the west side of the sub-tropical part of the orchard. With the 110+ temperatures it seems that these trees aren't ready for that type of heat yet. Hopefully when they're more mature they'll block out the sun on the sidewalk and prevent the reflected heat as well.

Mixed three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and gave to tree - based on the fact that the color of the leaves has not changed I'm not sure if this is helping.

Mixed three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

Mixed three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

Looking much healthier now. This could be a combination of number of things including the recent rains, lower temperatures and the Foliage Pro.

On a scale of 1 to 5 I would give this tree a 4 in that it's getting close to be in excellent health again.

Mixed three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

Weekly dose of three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

Weekly dose of three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree. Unfortunately I can see the die-back hitting a branch at the top of this tree so it doesn't look like I was able to catch it low enough down or the problem is that once the tree gets die-back it will never recover.

Weekly dose of three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

Weekly dose of three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree. Going to be changed to a monthly schedule from now on.

Yet another branch at the top of the tree dying from die-back.

Removed shade cloth from sub-tropicals.

Three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

I'm somewhat surprised that the die-back disease seems to have slowed down on this tree. I still think that it's going to die. Just think that it's going to take longer than I originally thought. Three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

Three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

Started putting up the frost cloth over the subtropical section of the orchard. First image before starting putting up the frost cloth and second from around the same angle after putting the first wrap around.

Three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

Flower cones have started appearing but no flowers have opened yet.

Sprayed with copper fungicide and all seasons horticultural oil. Liqui-Cop Copper Fungicide - 1 fluid ounce per gallon of water + Bonide Horticultural Oil - 3.75 fluid ounces per gallon of water.

Three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

Some beautiful flowers opening on here and a pollinating ant in one of them.

Removed the frost cloth from the subtropical part of the orchard today. How did the trees fare this last winter without the warming lights ever being used in there.

Good

• White Sapote - did incredibly well and kept on putting on new growth and now looks dark green and lush.
• Southern Blush Mango
• Carambola Star Fruit
• Mexican Papaya
• Raja Puri Banana

Medium

• Jaboticaba - seems to be deteriorating but not sure if it was the cold or something else...

Bad

• Pineapple Mango - looks like the top might have died - hoping some of it is still alive.
• Papaya - all leaves froze to a crisp but the good news is that the trunk stayed alive and is now pushing out healthy new leaves.
• Thai Sapodilla - all leaves are crisp and dead.

Images

• First image is from the south. In the foreground the Carambola, to the left the Pineapple Mango. To the right center the Sapodilla.
• Second image is from the north. To the right the papaya and behind it the Sapote.

Image on the day that the frost cloth was removed.

One of the two flower cones.

Three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

Poured some Foliage Pro and Vitamin B-1 Plus Minor Elements and Chelating Agents mixed in four of gallons of water at base.

Over about 10 days I collected all the used coffee grounds I could from some local coffee stores. I got about four cubic feet estimated from a six cubic foot wheel barrow that was around two-thirds fill. Today I spread them all over the sub-tropical part of the orchard and then watered them in so that they'd sink through the mulch. Hoping that this will give these trees a bunch of nitrogen and acidity.

Each year I find it extremely useful to look back at what I did the previous year with shade cloth and frost cloth to try and remember why it worked or did not work. When I look at these images a year later I usually regret that I didn't take more pictures from more angles so this year I've been more prolific with the before and after pics of the sub-tropical section of the orchard.

Added three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

New healthy growth on left side in image.

Added three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

Added three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

Added three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

Spread a bunch of Mung Beans along the irrigation line.

The mung beans have already started to sprout at the base of these trees.

Added three teaspoons of Foliage Pro into four gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

A bunch of pictures of the subtropical shade cloth before and after it got removed today. There's a separate shade structure protecting the Tahitian Pomelo that has not been removed.

Last photos of the old sub-tropical shade/frost structure before it's replaced.

After the shade/frost structure removed. It was surprisingly easy to pull the poles out of the damp ground.

The die back from the top continues.

Continued die-back at the top. Time to get the leaves tested at the lab.

New shade/frost structure now complete over subtropical section.

I dropped a soil sample at IAS Labs today for analysis. The soil sample comes from 2 areas in the subtropical part of the orchard. One sample is from three feet southwest of the Southern Blush Mango (first image). The second sample was around twelve feet southeast of the same plant (second image).

In this area there are a couple of ailing trees:

• Southern blush mango
• Jaboticaba - this one can be seen to right in the first image and with the gas tank in the background in the second image.

One of the trees that recently died near the southern blush mango was a Thai Sapodilla.

There are other trees in this section of the yard that are doing very well:

• Pineapple mango
• Starfruit
• White Sapote
• Papaya

Frost cloth is now up. It's early because I want to test out the temperature differential between the inside and the outside with my new structure and my homemade frost-cloth.

Images in order:

• 1 & 2 - sewing the thermafoam fabric together to make the cover. The material came in a 5' wide roll. I ended up sewing 200' of hem to create the cover. It's a total of 857 square feet of fabric. Weight of the cloth is 27 pounds.
• 3 - Staging the cloth in the house and marking the corners with numbers using chalk to make putting it on and off easier.
• 4 - Before pulling it over the structure.
• 5 - Had to cut the tops off the papaya to get it to fit inside.
• 6 & 7 - The inside during the late afternoon. There's not a lot growing in here now. Hopefully this will help these trees flourish in the future.
• 8, 9 & 10 - The view from outside.

Taking a bunch of pics from one day into the new frost structure to record the impact of this structure.

Got soil analysis back today.

Soil Report

• Grower Soil Analysis (from IAS Labs)
• Report Number 6661607
• Date Received 11/20/2018

Key

• VL = Very Low
• L = Low
• M = Medium
• H = High
• VH = Very High

Soil Analysis

• Lab: 412
• pH: 8.55
• Calcium (Ca) ppm: 4600 H
• Magnesium (Mg) ppm: 360 H
• Sodium (Na) ppm: 280 H
• Potash (K) ppm: 340 H
• Iron (Fe) ppm: 5.9 M
• Zinc (Zn) ppm: 0.54 L
• Manganese (Mn) ppm: 4.0 M
• Copper (Cu) ppm: 0.74 M
• Salinity (EC x 2) dS/m: 1.0
• Nitrate (NO3-N) ppm: 15.0 M
• Phosphate (PO4-P) ppm: 7.9 L
• Computed %Sodium (esp): 4.3
• Sulfur (SO4-S) ppm: 18.0 M
• Boron (B) ppm: 0.32 L
• Free Lime Level: High
• Molybdenum (Mo) ppm: 0.02

Recommendations

Crop: Sub-Tropical Fruit Trees: Banana, Mango, Papaya

Nitrogen (N): 1 a

Apply 0.5 lbs of nitrogen per 1000 sqft now and then apply the other 0.5 lbs of nitrogen per 1000 sqft in February. This will give the plants a constant supply of nitrogen and reduce plant burn.

Phosphate (P2O5): 2 b

Incorporate into the soil 2 lbs of phosphorus per 1000 sqft. Phosphorus works best when it is closest to the roots. Phosphorus is required to make every cell in the plants (DNA formation) and is necessary for the plants energy cycle (ATP synthesis). When the plants cannot find phosphorus, the plants will focus all of its energy to grow roots and not leaves. If the plants cannot find enough phosphorus, they will run out of energy and stop producing foliage

Zinc (Zn): 0.1 g

It may be easiet to use the zinc sulfate form. Mix 0.1 lbs of zinc sulfate in water then spray the zinc solution onto the soil to broadcast. Till after application.

Boron (B): .02 h

Apply boron by dissolving it in water and they spray it over the soil. If you cannot find a boron fertilizer you can use 20 mule team borax located in the laundry aisle. If you use borax, mix 1 tbsp into 5 gallons of water. Then apply 2 gallons of solution per 1000 sqft.

Elemental Sulfur: 15 *

Incorporate 15 lbs of elemental sulfur per 1000 sqft into the soil to reduce the soil pH and to increase nutrient availability for plant uptake. Disper/sul or SSP are sulfur products that should dissolve readily and can be used if you can't till. This sulfur application will also increase the overall sulfur content in the soil, which is needed for enzyme formation in nitrogen utilization.

Die back seems to be suddenly accelerating.

Added four ounces of Foliage Pro to five gallons of water and poured at base of tree.

Die-back check.

Does not seem to have been impacted by the recent cold like the other trees inside this subtropical frost structure.

Surprisingly handling the cold weather pretty well considering that it's dying.

Today I ran the venturi injector fertigation system functionally for the first time. I added three pints of Yellow Jacket Flowable Sulphur and 0.625 pints (because that's all that was left in the bottle) of Foliage Pro in a bucket and then filled it with water for a total of four gallons of liquid. I then ran the irrigation for around 70 minutes to inject all the liquid and then for another 20 minutes to flush out the lines.

In earlier tests (previous day) I determined that the flow rate is cut to about 37% of normal rate when running via the injector and the injector will pull around 6 GPH of water out of the container. (I mention water here because the flow rate will probably slow down with fertilizer.)

I've started trying to measure the pH of what I add to the soil. I discovered that Foliage Pro has a pH of 3.5 which is far more acidic than what I was expecting and I am wondering if part of the reason that this works well in the soil is because it's lowering the pH of my soil in addition to adding nutrients?

I had no idea what to expect when opening the container of Flowable Sulphur. It's a thick white creamy liquid. My guess is that it is just highly ground elemental sulphur mixed with water. It probably needs constant agitation to remain mixed in the container (I shook it well before pouring) as I discovered that once I had mixed it for fertigation it settled out very quickly and required frequent mixing during the irrigation process. I tried to measure the pH of the raw Flowable Sulphur but because of its creamy color it was impossible to determine on the litmus paper.

Once the water, sulphur and foliage pro were mixed together the total pH of the bucket was 6. I believe that the increased acidity in the soil will come from the microbes breaking down the sulphur and turning it into sulphuric acid.

The images in order:

• My first iteration of the venturi setup. It's going to change from my learnings. I'll put the valve for the timer at the beginning of the piping.
• A bucket of mostly sulphur and some Foliage Pro being fed in.
• My control emitter. I use this so check what's coming through the system and into the drip lines. I check that it's clear first and then changes color to the sulphur and then runs clear after I've flushed the lines.
• The pressure before the venturi is 62 PSI.
• After the venturi it's 28 PSI. The venturi is a half-inch mazzei injector. The piping is three-quarters of an inch that leads in and out of the injector.
• The solution when it was almost done. It was tricky getting it out of the bottom. I am going to try and change this so that I have a feed container with a hole at the bottom (lowest point) with a mesh filter that's on a stand. This current setup is too cumbersome and requires too much intervention.

Worst shape I've ever seen it.

Something that I was not expecting from the material that I used for the frost structure was how waterproof it is. Each time it rains a whole bunch of water collects in it.

Not looking good.

Parts of this frost cloth are incredibly waterproof. Last night's rains pulled the roof of the frost cloth down to the ground and the sides up. Luckily the rain days this winter have all been warm days and the frost protection was not needed on the days that this has happened.

Today the frost cloth unfurled itself on top of the structure from the winds and rain. Instead of pulling it back on I decided to pull it off because it doesn't look like it's done much good (because I didn't use heat lamps) and is not going to benefit the trees over the next few days.

It's possible that the only surviving tree in this area will be one of the two White Sapotes. I'm going to continue to consider them all alive and will declare them dead if there's no sign of awakening by sometime in April.

The first picture is from the south and the second from the north.

Spread 50 lbs of Arizona's Best Soil Sulfur at the bases of these trees.

Declared as dead today. The stump pulled out of the ground easily.