Caribbean/Tropical tree work!!!

[vharrison]

Swing, Gigi, do you ever get to work on Baygrape/Seagrape Coccoloba uvifera?

I have a bunch to do, mostly small shaded ones that have sent up loads of vertical growth. I have to try and get them to thicken out a bit.
ITs nice when you get a larger one and are able to get some timber, beautiful strong, flexible red wood.

Yes we do, have you ever had seagrape jelly? John loves it! There are a couple of ladies on Spanish Wells that make it, we get it every time we go. He is down to his last spoon fill, I told him it is time to go back to the Wells!! I also heard from a bahamian that coco plum fruit makes a great jelly.

 

[Bermy]

Yes, baygrape jelly is delicious!
Unfortunately the stones are so big it takes a lot of them to make a decent amount of jelly.
Just off the tree they are yummy too. There are loads of blossoms out now, should be a good crop if we steer clear of hurricanes.

Climbing casuarina today, the bark up at the top was really slippery, skidding off at the blink of an eye, made footing a bit precarious! THese ones are kept as windbreaks and sight screens, all handsaw work up at the top cutting back the regrowth from 18 months ago when I renovated the tops from a hacking. Funny, no matter how horizontal a lateral you prune to, it doesn't take long for them to revert to vertical growth pattern, damn things just do not respond to wind shear or directional pruning for very long at all.

 

[swingdude]

Bermy I sure do work on Seagrape. I am on holiday in New England doing some climbing and hanging out with my arborist buds. When I get back will post some pics of me working on one that is scheduled. The seagrape is a nice fruit.

 

[Bermy]

Buds...haha, unintended pun

 

[Bermy]

"Kay,who likes deadwooding Guava, they just seal off the branched by themselves, quick slap with the silky and off they pop, right at the collar, nice!

 

[swingdude]

Bermy Guava is really tough wood. When I was a kid at school I took many a lash ( a$$ cutting ) by teachers with the good ole guava stick. Flexes good too so ya get a good beating. Guess it more of a whipping.

 

[Bermy]

Haha..here it was the oleander stick!

 

[woodworkingboy]

You beat me to the draw, Fiona, I'm now laying in the street.

 

[Bermy]

clickclick..gotcha

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Haha..here it was the oleander stick!

Grandma used to send me out to the orange orchard when I was a kid. Damn switch was like a buggy whip.

 

[Burnham]

But you deserved it, right?

 

[rskybiz]

I had to pick my own "switch" and it had better not be a dead one!

Maple saplings were preferred, just not by me!

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Least she kept rule of thumb. Sucked for me when I tried to down size

 

[Burnham]

That's the truth...bruises heal way easier than cuts.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Damn straight.

 

[Bermy]

The heat is really cranking up now...all day in the bucket reducing casuarinas and pruning white cedars...I'm working in 'Billionare's Row'...and all the landscrapers passing by are getting a kick out of me fully kitted up in a bucket with secateurs...that's why i'm a tree SURGEON fellas!

 

[woodworkingboy]

Flip them the bird, Fiona!

 

[Bermy]

Throw Callophylum berries at them...ripe ones...

Pruned some casuarinas this week that I last did 21 months ago...6-8' of regrowth...

 

[vharrison]

Bermy, sheeze, billionare's row? We have a million dollar row, Jimmy Johnson (Dolphin's coach) and some movie stars that have property on it but not billionare's. Any famous people that we might know of live there?

 

[Bermy]

Yup, billionaires...Ross Perot and Bloomberg spring readily to mind, and there are a good few more.
No Paparazzi here, they can almost live like normal, one can see Perot zooming around in his truly amazing sounding cigarette boat every summer...

Hey, someone said you could eat Callophylum berries...tried one today, very interesting, sort of like cinnamon and caramel.

 

[Tree Reb]

Which one do you have?

I wouldn't try eating Calophyllum inophyllum nuts. Aboriginals used the oil for fish poison. http://violets-and-lace.com/archives/1226

 

[Bermy]

Hmmm...not entirely sure of the species name but inophyllum sounds familiar...we have more than one kind. I shall look into it.
They were introduced here in the 70's or early 80's I think, for coastline locations, very tough, salt tolerant and have become naturalized and do self seed readily.
The tallest I have worked on are about 40', but a bit spindly.

 

[Tree Reb]

Sounds like them, they grow just about everywhere in the tropics now.

The oil is pretty good for a lot of things. http://agroforestry.net/tti/Calophyllum-kamani.pdf

 

[Bermy]

INteresting Reb!

Bringing a discussion about mahogany over to here...

We have the west indian one, Swietenia mahogani (spelling suspect)
It has a sweet smell when you cut it, the sap is a bit sticky, and the bark peels easily, you have to undercut well to prevent tears.

Young ones are VERY branchy, multiple leads...
INterestingly, working on the last one, it was full of deadwood in the interior, as I was clearing it out it kind of looked like it was being liontailed...long branches, lots of foliage at the ends, interior branches and twigs shaded out.

Hmmm, time to transfer this to the Tropical tree thread...

 

[vharrison]

Can anyone identify this? Some kine of orange mushroom/fungus growing in our yard.