Overwhelmed by Fruit

I am getting mixed results with the gardening.

With the increased rain, the peppers are thriving. My prig ki nu bush is nearly as big as my lime tree. I am going to have to prune it back before it kills the tree and the pepper bush next to it. The Trinidad Scorpion bush is so big it fell over. I am going to have to tie it up. I have a number of pods on my Fatalii bush. My only weak bush is the yellow habanero.

I have two bunches of Orinoco bananas going, with several big trees nearly ready to fruit. I’m going to try to manage them better, cutting off hands instead of bunches. As soon as you cut a bunch down, the bananas get ripe, and then you have a problem.

My nam wa bananas are finally nearing bearing size. I expect a bract any day now. The PHIA 21 plantains are growing well, but not as fast. The French Horn plantain is in third place, and unlike the other trees, it only has one pup.

The bigger of the two Carrie mangoes is getting huge. For a while, it had new pinkish leaves on it nearly every morning. The smaller tree is healthy but it’s about a third of the big one’s size. I am hoping for a decent harvest this time. I’m pretty sure the demented mango-cutting squirrel that terrorized the neighborhood has been called home to paradise.

My ponkans are fantastic. This little Home Depot tree looks wonderful, apart from a small spider mite problem I can’t get rid of, and it has so many fruit on it, I can’t see how it remains upright. My Sunburst tangerine has never recovered from the weedeater attacks, but it’s getting better all the time. The tangelo tree is healthier than it used to be, but I should still replace it. My cara cara tree looks swell, but it dropped its fruit. Maybe next year. The grapefruit tree looks great, but the fruit are small, so far.

My dragonfruit has two new buds. I am hoping the weedeater maniacs will manage not to gouge it again, so the fruit won’t fall off.

The lime and Key lime trees are out of control. Every day I harvest one to six limes and at least two Key limes. I have maybe three dozen fruit slowly drying up in the kitchen. I am literally throwing them out. Sometimes I try to leave them on the tree longer than I should, and they start to rot and have to be dumped.

The mamey is completely dead. Never buy a tree that doesn’t look happy at the nursery. The lychee is healthy, but I didn’t get fruit this year.

I keep seeing funny little green lizards wrapped around my fruit, waiting for bees or something. I should photograph a few.

I may as well dig up the mamey and replace it. What a gyp that was. I might plant black congo and yellow congo peppers, since they’re rare, and I happen to have seeds. I should kill the peppers I have in pots. The maintenance is too high, and they grow fine in the dirt.

I think I’m going to have to learn to love bananas, starting this fall. I sure hope so. It would be great to have a steady supply of fruit better than the stuff they sell at the store.