Garden Update by Cory

We hiked to the new gardens Thursday this week.

We need rain, things are still green but even some established trees are wilted.

Gardeners in the floodplain are busy preparing gardens and planting peanuts.

The share cropper has part of our big garden freshly planted to rice.

Note the erosion control berms made of the old weeds.

I have expressed concern to him about topsoil erosion and the berms are the usual local practice although of limited effect on soil loss from our heavy downpours, about 150 inches of rain in a normal year.

It is good having someone working the garden for free to help keep livestock out but he isn't there all the time.

A neighbor reported that he tied up a big cow that was in the garden and said we should come more often.

Damage was minor with nibbles here and there and only one palm mowed off.

I sprayed most of the trees/palms on the underside of young leaves and at the base with deer/rabbit repellent, will see if it keeps livestock and rhino beetles from eating the trees.

Peach palms on campus are blooming again as harvest starts.

One tree that had a small bunch of small fruit last year has four good size bunches now and several flower buds.

 The fruit are much bigger than they look on the tree.

The flavor is good.



Fruit harvested on campus this week:
front - 3 banana varieties (Gros Michael, Ceylon/little Cory, and a FHIA hybrid), breadnut, hot bird peppers, miracle fruit and two barbados cherries/acerola, wild passionfruit.

2nd row - bilimbi (sour fruit) peach palm, sapodilla, breadfruit slice.

3rd row - starfruit/carambola,

4th row - Blanc' mango, atemoya, cacao, avocado, biriba, 'Baptiste' mango.


5th row - squash, black sapote, coconut.

Not included but also producing: guava, African oil palm, regular passionfruit. There would probably still be a few pineapple but the last few disappeared before full size.

Amazon Custard Apple. Post by Cory

One of the new fruits we are enjoying now is the Biriba, Rollinia deliciosa / Rollinia mucosa.

A type of custard apple that's soft, mild flavored, slightly sweet, and the better ones have a hint of lemon or lime flavor.

I was not real impressed with the flavor when I first tried them in Brazil.

The fruit I grew here tastes about the same, but now that a 5 year old tree, in half shade, produced about 35 fruits weighing from 1-2 pounds each, my interest is growing. 

Eating one are two a day has also improved my opinion.

The people that we have shared fruit with like them and Gener's kids love them.

 So we planted 50 seeds in the nursery this week.

There are 12 fruiting size trees growing on campus and they are blooming heavily now so we may have a second crop late summer or fall and that will make demand for the trees.

I try to be careful to distribute the best varieties if fruits.

I have a few small trees from another source that may be better quality shorter trees so it is hard to know whether to wait or to propagate plenty now.

They are drought sensitive so they will not do well in the drier parts of Haiti.

The sugar apples that thrive on LaGonave do not do well in this area, so each has its own climate.

Garden update

We are enjoying more variety of harvests as new fruits come into production.

Bushels of star fruits are almost ready to share with the summer conferences.

 This Ma'afala breadfruit tree came from the Breadfruit Institute almost 3 years ago, Aug. '11 as a 2 or 3 inch tall plant.

First harvest June '14. A few other people we shared trees with have also reported fruit set.

 Starfruit and a small Ma'afala breadfruit

 Guajilote, year old tree fruiting in a gallon pot. Looking forward to trying this.

 Bamboo sprouts.

Jackfruit. Supposed to be 'Super Thai' but can't tell the difference from our 'Black Gold' so not sure of the variety.

They are productive now for small 5 year old trees. Sweet aromatic fruit.

Looking forward to first pitaya/dragon fruit harvest now that one of the self fertile varieties has a flower bud.

Vanilla pods

The best for last... Due to a drier than usual year we enjoyed a great mango season April through June. Mangos rotted on the ground even along the main road just miles from Cap Haitian and the main road less than a mile from Port Margot. 

Many people nearly live on mangos while they are in season. Cory tried to limit them to about half of daily diet. 

The campus mango production ended abruptly in July, except for a few of the new varieties that are just coming into production.

 The photo is Okrung, Van Dyke, and probably Florigon, photo taken today. We also enjoyed Valencia Pride, Fairchild, and Choc Annon, along with all the Fransic and Fil blank we could eat, from huge campus trees.

New Mango

After waiting since 2008, it is good to finally taste the fruit of a mango we brought to Haiti from Florida. Choc Anon mangos are non-stringy with a sweet good flavor. It produced its first crop in September and December despite rains while blooming. Our rainy weather causes all but one of the local varieties to yield poorly most years and the only one that produces every year is stringy.  Many of the local mangos this time of year are wormy so it was also good to see that the worms don't seem to like this variety (most of the fruit disappeared before getting mature, one of the hazards of being on an open campus with lots of kids around). This new mango will usually grow true to type from seed so it won't require grafting to multiply.
Cory for Kris