Here’s my April 2021 update on my Satellite Beach, Florida Zone 9b fruit trees. Growth is coming along nicely on most of my trees and plants, though I lost one mango (a choc anon) to the salty sprinkler water, two look to maybe be on the brink because of loss (neelum and pineapple pleasure), and one that I moved out back, a rosigold, isn’t looking so great. That leaves me with one mango that’s doing very well, and four that seem to be doing okay. Far and away, mangos seem to be the most difficult to grow here by the beach, until they are tall enough that the leaves are not hit by the sprinklers.
Mangoes: The valencia pride is doing great, producing lots of mangoes. Fingers crossed. (We planted it as a 30-gallon last year). Some smaller mangoes are hanging in there – a cogshall, nam doc mai, and fruit cocktail. All the mangoes were planted last summer/early fall. Interestingly enough, even though the sprinklers have really impacted leaf production (either they don’t grow, or they grow and turn brown quickly), the pannicles grew really well on many of the trees. I cut them off all but the valencia pride, though.
Avocados: all seem to be alive and doing okay. Many have little avocados growing on them. None are in the path of the sprinkler water, though a few started there and I moved them when the sprinklers were killing them. All were planted last summer.
Barbados Cherry: tree and bush are both healthy and flourishing, even in the sprinkler water. No cherries yet this year, though the tree produced about 10 or so last year. Planted summer last year.
Blackberries and Blueberries have small developing fruit on them. Planted last summer.
Figs: Leaving out, trunks still super skinny. Have-to-be-held-to-a-fence skinny. No figs yet. Planted summer last year.
Guava: Plant is huge, healthy, saltwater doesn’t seem to bother it at all. Lots of flowers and small guavas. (Second guava planted right next to it died, however. ?). Planted last summer.
Pomegranates: Leafing out, trunks still skinny but seem stronger than last year. No signs of fruit, but I thought they died over the winter, so I’m just happy to see them alive. They seem to handle the salty sprinkler water okay. Planted last summer.
Peaches: Peach trees went in healthy, all planted over the winter, from 7 to 15 gallon trees. All are producing peaches. Flordaglo and tropic beauty have produced a few ripe peaches already, and they are quite small, but delicious; they both still have some ripening peaches as well. The tropic snow has a lot of peaches, and it looks the healthiest of the trees, but all of its peaches are still green. The leaves are browning at the tips of the tropic beauty and flordaglo – maybe too little water in heat?
Bananas/Plantains: All planted in the past 2 months. All are consistently producing leaves. 3 get hit with some sprinkler water, 3 do not, but I can’t tell if that affects them at all. It’s fun to watch them sprout up so quickly.
Below are pics of all these different fruits/trees. Clicking on an image will bring up the image and a caption, and you can scroll through the pics to see the progress of the various fruits listed above. (Here’s where my plants were about a month ago).