I had to make a decision and fast. Every single strawberry guava is infested with Caribbean fruit fly worms. The fruit flies are now also targeting my other guavas, I frequently spot them with their ovipositaries piercing the fruit, laying their eggs.
After much deliberation I finally made the decision to remove the strawberry guavas. I really hate doing this, especially after waiting more than a year for them to grow and fruit.
The plants themselves are really pretty and ornamental, I am running out of space to plant the edibles I still want that are trouble and disease free, so these two plants had to go. I have learnt my lesson, from now on, only fruit-fly resistant fruits.
I am thinking more and more to just concentrate on the fruit we all really like: mango's. I will have to concentrate on the condo mango's as space is definitely an issue, I am thinking of getting some early cultivars, Florigon and maybe Choc Anon, which is supposedly a miracle mango as it fruits from November - January. The earliest cultivars all fruit late May - June.
I'm hoping to get some strawberry guava myself soon, and hopefully the fruit flies won't be so bad up here.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any luck with the mangos in Daytona?
Oh gosh...there is no way to rid those fruit flies organically? This is such sad news. I haven't gotten my guava plant yet, but it won't be a strawberry one anyway! Thanks for letting us know. I just got back to work and am waiting for some money to get rolling in before i buy much of anything! LOL. :)
ReplyDeleteNo way that I know of. The problem is, the strawberry guavas are so small and numerous, its impossible to bag them. At least my other guavas grow relatively big and I can bag them one at a time. Guava's are so delicious, someone said "If you are scared they have worms, eat them in the dark :)"
ReplyDeleteI don't know about mango's in Daytona Beach. You might have luck if you plant them in a protected spot where they won't get too much frost. You could also try to grow a condo mango in a container that you can bring inside if the temps fall below freezing.
ReplyDeleteUgh, sorry to read that! It's terrible when you take care of something and no fruits are edible. That's what happened with our peach tree. Strong winds blew them all down before we harvested one fruit. http://nycgardening.blogspot.com/2010/06/peach-no-longer.html
ReplyDeleteYeah, its is very depressing, at least I have many other fruits that we CAN enjoy. Picked some papayas, guavas and limes this morning, gave them to my neighbour as we have enough of all.
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