Thread: What's in your garden?

^ Norts your nails need tending to not just the veg.

Tis my better half.

Originally Posted by NamPikToot

Snap Mendiip, our 3 bigger Mangos had next to nothing last year but this year are also covered in flowers.

NPT and Mendip
The same thing is happening with some of our mango trees. Absolutely covered in blossoms this year and I have been trying to work out why.
I always thought Mangoes needed lots of water to go crazy but this year it has been so dry and I haven't made any attempt to water them like some other years. So do they like it dry rather than wet?
My other thought is that last month was very cool so did the cooler weather trigger them to suddenly want to reproduce?
I suppose we will need to wait and see if the blossoms actually develop into fruit.

Originally Posted by ootai

NPT and Mendip
The same thing is happening with some of our mango trees. Absolutely covered in blossoms this year and I have been trying to work out why.
I always thought Mangoes needed lots of water to go crazy but this year it has been so dry and I haven't made any attempt to water them like some other years. So do they like it dry rather than wet?
My other thought is that last month was very cool so did the cooler weather trigger them to suddenly want to reproduce?
I suppose we will need to wait and see if the blossoms actually develop into fruit.

'Tis a cyclical thing thing, Mendy.
Kind of a survival mechanism - feast or famine paradigm.

Observations will show that most native mangoes are extremely hearty and resistant to long periods of dry, flooding, fire, the occasional natural affliction that might come around, etc.

Most potential harmful insect invaders never stand a chance, as mango trees also act as a host for the highly protective mot daeng, which exist in a cooperative effort [among other tree species].

My view is that like most things when really stressed they look to reproduce..

Originally Posted by NamPikToot

My view is that like most things when really stressed they look to reproduce..

No doubt. See that all over in places like Patters, Patong, Nana, Soi Cowboy and numerous other locations.

Mango trees here full of blossoms but we had heavy rain which always results in bumper crop.

^ Norton, in Korat we head practically no wet season last year. In 13 years it's the first time we've had no standing water around our raised land, and I can't remember one single torrential downpour.

Yet, ten out of eleven of our mango trees are absolutely covered in blossom. The eleventh is completely bare?!! I've never seen so many of our trees with blossom in one season... usually maybe two or three at the the same time at most.



The tree on the right behind the pond produced around 800 mangoes two years ago, and it had nothing like this amount of blossom that year. Just hope all this blossom goes on to develop into fruit.



Incidentally... what do you guys do with all the mangoes in bumper years? I can just about eat 3 or 4 a day, supplemented with mango smoothies... but there's a limit. Even after the wife's family and friends have had their fill, we have loads left. The chickens do extremely well in these years!

Maybe I will have to press on with making mango cider?

Under ripe for mango chutney, spicy indian style.

Or maybe if you have enough freezer space

Juice them and make sorbet and lollies.

That doesn't seem right.

Herbs not doing well this year.


I give up. Why rotated?

A lovely mango/ganja condiment is in order.

Damn old hippies.

Originally Posted by Norton

Herbs not doing well this year. I give up. Why rotated?

Originally Posted by Norton

That doesn't seem right.

No so sure Norts, maybe the weeds is working

Originally Posted by Norton

I eat several, friends and family

Originally Posted by OhOh

I noticed your "shade house" what % mesh do you use on the roof? The mesh seems to be available with different % of shade/sunlight

You also now have an irrigation system.

Are your supply pipes pre cut with water holes, have you just punctured them where you've planted the crops or have you individual drippers ?

Do you open the end valves manually or have you any timing devices?

Have you a soil moisture % meter and if so what type?

OhOh

To answer your questions.

The shade cloth is 60%, no particular reason I went with this instead of 50% but I prefer the black to rather than green.

I cut the holes in the pipe using a "hole bit", I have a picture but the insert images doesn't seem to be working for me this morning so I will try again later.
I don't use the higher grade 2inch PVC but instead a lower grade as there is not a lot of pressure involved.
I drill the holes where I want them.
The valves are operated manually.
No moisture meter as that is too high tech for this old guy. I like the keep it simple idea but even then it is hard to train the MIL in how to operate it.

One thing I have worked out is you need to be able to control the pressure of the water coming in from the pump. My pump which is a simple Mitsubishi operates at 1.4bar and the drip line is only meant to operate at between 0.5 and 1 bar. So I bought a pressure reducer on Lazada which solved the problem.
However when I added more lines the reducer became redundant as the pump couldn't keep up with the demand so the pressure didn't build up.
What I do now is turn some lines off to get it to balance and have all the open lines dripping as they are meant to. I just change which valves are open each time I water.
I water for a short period, about 30-40minutes, in the morning and afternoon this keeps the ground a bit too wet but the plants seem to like it as the sun can be pretty hot and if they don't have enough water the leaves get burnt, my theory anyway.

I have several pictures which I will post later.

fork knows why the insert image wouldn't work for me before but it seems to be back now so here they are.


This is the hole bit I use and also shown are the rubber inserts that go into the hole, the tap is then pushed into these inserts.
I have also included in the picture a drip line joiner



This is the drip line I use 750baht for 1000m. This one has drippers every 200mm but you can buy them spaced at 300mm if you wanted.
Each dripper is rated to provide 3 litres per hour.


Here to 2 taps are both on but what I wanted to show was how the drip line fits onto the tap. The green "nut" is screwed open and the drip line pushed on to the end of the tap and then the "nut" is tightened to hold line onto the tap. Really simple to do and works well. From memory I think the taps cost 5 baht each.



Here you can see I have 1 tap open and the other closed and then I alternate between watering mainly to get the balance of the pump water flow right.

Something else we have in abundance just now... limes.

We are absolutely inundated with them. If the mango trees perform as well as the lime trees, I'll be a happy man!



Good size too.



So, what to do with so many limes? I have one or two a day squeezed into soda water on ice, or sodaaaaahhhh as the gardener calls it. The wife uses a few here and there in her cooking and chili sauces... but that only uses up the windfalls.

Any suggestions please?

^ Mendip is going into the the Lime Pickle business

Mendip,
I have 6 limes trees that produce like yours are and do. We typically give them to neighbors. I have in the past squeezed them and put the juice in a bottle and freeze it. It will last a long time. But I only keep maybe 4 bottles. The wife defrosts and will use the juice for cooking. I on the other hand use it to make Margaritas or occasionally in a Whiskey sour.

Short of that......i dunno

Same with our Mango trees. We have 8 trees of 3 different varieties and we get lots every year. What we started to do was thin them out when young so we got a nice bunch of really good ones. My FIL even gets up on a ladder and bags them to keep bugs out. We do not use any pesticides at our house.

This is always the problem with fruit trees. You can only eat so much and then whats the point. We have 2 large Lumyai trees and after a day of my wife and FIL gorging (I do not eat them) on them they are done. Then what. so again we give them away.

I had this same problem in the US with Lemon, Orange and Washington delicious apple trees. Sadly I spent more time picking up rotting fruit.

BTW, I have a Meyer Lemon tree that I snuck over here in a suitcase from the US that is doing really well. I got 4 off it the 1st season. Soon it will be like the rest and too many. They are not common here and expensive in stores but Thai's do not use them so it only has value to me. I also have a Haas Avocado tree growing. It too is doing well. No idea if it will fruit but I like the tree and they do get big.

Many thanks for the info and photos.

I have similar on my two plots.

The supply for both is from the tesse ban system. The pressure varies but min is 1 bar max 2 bar. The reduction is due to "others" opening their taps/washing machines etc.

The primary system is generally 18mm blue PVC piping and fittings. Some later additions use Low Density Polyethylene, 20mm dia. squishy as it's less expensive/m. All of which is buried to allow grass/weed cutting.

From the main runs I use the same Low Density Polyethylene as laterals, but only 4/6mm dia. Again placed underground and popping up adjacent the trees.

As the trees are of different ages, 6 months to 5 years, I place either single "drippers/sprayers" or 3/4 for the mature trees.

Irrigation drippers:



The drippers are colour co-ordinated with their L/hr output.

Sprayer



I used to buy at Global or Lazada but our local farm supply shop now has a good selection.

Once established and by trial and error I found a couple of hours is sufficient to keep the trees alive/happy. Irrigation is required from October to March, the water costs are about 100 THB per month.

The two older durian are now flowering or have having been fertilised by passing insects small Durian "buds". This will be year 2 of production for one tree and year 1 for the other. Judging by the increase in the number of flowers this year we will have a bumper crop.

Originally Posted by ootai

The same thing is happening with some of our mango trees. Absolutely covered in blossoms this year and I have been trying to work out why.

Our Mangoes are the same, wondered what was going on, thought it was my care and attention
Never seen so much "bloomage"

Something else just started blooming out of control in the garden just now... we have three of these trees and they're all getting covered in flowers.

I don't know what they're called but the flowers give off a really pungent perfumey smell. On a still night, if we leave the windows open the whole house is full of this wonderful aroma. I would recommend them to anyone.

Originally Posted by Mendip

Something else we have in abundance just now... limes.

We are absolutely inundated with them. If the mango trees perform as well as the lime trees, I'll be a happy man!



Good size too.



So, what to do with so many limes? I have one or two a day squeezed into soda water on ice, or sodaaaaahhhh as the gardener calls it. The wife uses a few here and there in her cooking and chili sauces... but that only uses up the windfalls.

Any suggestions please?

This has been my 'go-to' drink every day since I started KETO.

Soda, my new best friend and 15KG down as at end of the year!

Yes - we are growing lemons and limes in the new place and as you know, we purchased the mango-land so I am expecting the same problem with mango abundance later on.

Originally Posted by Mendip

On a still night, if we leave the windows open the whole house is full of this wonderful aroma. I would recommend them to anyone.

Mendip,
We have a few of these plants around our house and ours are flowing as well. We have numerous flowering trees and shrubs on our property to enjoy the aroma and whats nice is they bloom at different times so the smell around the property is always nice. We are slowly phasing out some fruit trees and replacing them with bigger leaf or flowering trees. We really only want maybe 2 Mangos, 2 Limes, 2 Coconut, few Lumyai, a few varieties of banana.

We have 2 of these trees now. I had no idea they actually produce a fruit that looks like a mini jackfruit. I just like the shade they offer and found one a few years ago and planted it.



The leaves are huge and the tree, once it gets established, grows reasonably fast. Surprisingly you would think with big leaves it would require a lot of water but we do not really water it much. The other one is near our outdoor kitchen and the plan is it will grow to offer shade and we will have a table under it.