SKULLBIKERS 2023 G.O.LOG

[skullbiker]

Is the man killer plant related to the gympie-gympie plant by any chance?

No, This is just your good ol’ common place Castor Bean Plant. I think eating the leaves would make you quite sick but the white stuff inside the beans is very poisonous. The beans are fairly safe to handle as long as you don’t break the coating.

 

[skullbiker]

The Mango tree is dropping it's "surplus" fruit quite heavily now. It always looks horrible but usually there are plenty left on the tree.

I potted up several of my Miracle Fruit seedlings from Solo cups to half gal. and one gallon pots.

 

[skullbiker]

I picked the last of last seasons late pineapples. A good looking specimen.

I potted up some pineapple tops that I had in Solo cups with water as they now had enough roots.

I now have some unknown pest eating my Passion Fruit vines. I originally caught rabbits doing it but had since put a fence around them. Probably time to put a camera on them. I went out in the dark last night and inspected them with the U.V. flashlight but saw nothing.

 

[ahayastani]

That's the pineapple shape I prefer: cuboid, easy to cut off the rind with minimal loss of fruit and preparation time.

 

[Ratatouille]

Delicious! Really wish I could grow pineapples. I'd settle for small ones, I'm not picky.

 

[ahayastani]

Delicious! Really wish I could grow pineapples. I'd settle for small ones, I'm not picky.

In season, they often sell 4x$50 here (€1 ~ $20). Small ones that take ages to prepare and yield little flesh... If you have a greenhouse, you should be able to grow pineapple in the Low Countries. It will take a while though...

 

[Ratatouille]

I only have a poly tunnel. It'll be to much of a hassle I think.

 

[Ratatouille]

Right. Of course I immediately started researching how to grow pineapples. What have you done @ahayastani.

 

[skullbiker]

The bananas are now ripening. I took 17 off of the bunch and there are many more left.

A couple of Miracle Fruit berries just about ready to pick.

 

[skullbiker]

I picked the first of this years Miracle Fruit berries this morning.

There are some people on OfferUp trying to sell these berries for $2.00 each!

 

[Erinmojo]

The Mango tree is dropping it's "surplus" fruit quite heavily now. It always looks horrible but usually there are plenty left on the tree.

I potted up several of my Miracle Fruit seedlings from Solo cups to half gal. and one gallon pots.

Your mango is loaded! How old is the tree?

 

[skullbiker]

Your mango is loaded! How old is the tree?

The mango tree dropped a bunch of fruit this week, 30 mph winds for 4 days. It still looks like there are plenty left.
I'm not sure how old the tree is as it was here when we bought the place about 4 years ago. It was fairly big then already. I just got done processing(freeze drying) last years harvest, about 60 pounds after deseeding and pealing. Most of the fruits last year were 3/4 to 1 pound each.

 

[ahayastani]

Were you hit by the recent rainfall?

 

[skullbiker]

Were you hit by the recent rainfall?

The big rain event was about 150 miles south east of me. I got about .25 inch.

 

[skullbiker]

I planted ten of the new Miracle Fruit seeds. We'll see how it goes this year.

 

[skullbiker]

Update on the Mangos, they are growing steadily.

I picked a few more Miracle Fruit berries.

Here's what the seeds look like. They don't have a very big window of viability.

 

[skullbiker]

I just noticed today that one of my super neglected Dragon Fruit plants is blooming.

 

[skullbiker]

MANGOS, MANGOS, MANGOS. The mango crop is now ripening. I have to pick them as soon as they have a bit of a yellow glow and ripen them in the house. I would prefer to keep them on the tree until ripe but as soon as they are 1/2 or more yellow the birds go after them, and once the skin is opened the smell is in the wind the possums and raccoons come for them. I have processed about 50 of them so far, pics below are what I have inside and there are still a lot on the tree.

Here's one of the bigger ones.

And, here's what happens when you have root knot nematodes in your soil. This was a tomato plant.

 

[ahayastani]

Our mango season is running on its last legs. The local empacadoras (fruit packers, where producers go to sell their produce) are not accepting mango anymore. The fruit quality deteriorates once the rainy season kicks in. I've never eaten as much mango as this year...

 

[skullbiker]

I've never eaten as much mango as this year...

I know what you mean. That was one of the reasons we got the freeze dryer years ago. Up north we always got more apples and plums than you could eat in a hurry, I still occasionally open a vacuum sealed jar of freeze dried apple or plum sorbet to snack on(processed in 2018). Now the freeze dryer will work non-stop until these mangos are done. I use that machine for all kinds of stuff.