Date: 29 Aug 2021
Those mouthwatering Blackberries...
Blackberry Patch Bundle Exclusive Collection
Two Collections of Superior Blackberry Varieties, well adopted to tropical and subtropical climates. Mouth watering, all time favorite fruit will be always with you - these plants are so easy to grow!
Blackberry Patch Bundle Exclusive Collection - buy 3 get 2 free.
The Collection includes 5 blackberry varieties: Navaho, Osage, Ouachita,
Triple Crown Thornless, Iceberg White Blackberry.
Blackberry Patch Bundle Premier Collection - buy 3 get 2 free.
The Collection includes 5 blackberry varieties: Arapaho, Caddo, Kiowa,
Natchez, and Prime-Ark Freedom.
Mouth Watering High Protein Blackberry Cobbler
Ingredients
25g light butter
45g self-rising flour
33g vanilla whey
20g egg whites
50g almond or cashew milk
75g blackberries
Stevia/Splenda to taste
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter half-way so it's just warm, not hot. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except for blackberries. Pour into a 4-5"ramekin sprayed with Pam. Sprinkle blackberries on top of batter and bake for 15-20 minutes. It's best slightly gooey on the inside (not completely cooked). Enjoy!
Date: 22 Aug 2021
How to fertilize herbs and vegetables
Q: We moved to Florida from New York earlier this year. My wife and I used to grow many fresh veggies and herbs in our garden up North during Summer, but it seems like in hot Florida the season for them is not until Fall. So we are preparing the beds and also looking for some organic fertilizer solutions. We've heard a lot about your natural Boosters and wonder if they can be used in our vegetable garden?
A: You came to the right place for organic fertilizer solution.
Sunshine Boosters are based on organic amino-acids and are completely natural,
non-toxic, eco-friendly, and do not build up nutrients in the soil. Their
mild formulas designed specifically for edibles.
We just have started our own vegetable garden with some Biquinho and Wiri Wiri peppers, cherry tomatoes, and basil, and will be adding more
as the the weather cools down.
For small scale gardens (both vegetables and herbs), you can start with Sunshine Robusta - a total feed "all on one". All necessary elements are provided in just one bottle, both macro- and micro-elements, it is a scientifically balanced formula. For larger gardens, especially if you have fertilizer injector system, we recommend
Sunshine Boosters Pro Series - this product is much more economical, and
you will need to mix only 3 solutions into your watering tank at the time of
watering.
For more information, please contact our Booster guy Ed Jones, he can help you with selection and dosage information. Sample Discount program
is available for samples of Sunshine Pro.
Date: 15 Aug 2021
How to grow Cerbera and make it flower
Q: I purchased Cerbera manghas - Enchanted Incense a year ago. As you see from the photo, it's doing great however, no blooms. I fertilize properly and very often and use worm castings for micronutrients. Yes it's not "your" fertilizer, but my plumerias, that are also in pots they are over 5 feet tall and blooming like crazy. I don't see any inflows coming on the Cerbera at all and it is hot and humid here in North Carolina, so it's happy but no sign of blooming. What is your advice?
A: Top Tropicals first brought Cerbera manghas into the US plant market a few years ago, it was recommended to us by our friend, plant taxonomist John Mood who visited Thailand, and among other exotic plants noted this fragrant beauty. Since then we've been successfully growing this plant, it has become one of everybody's favorites.
Generally speaking, Cerbera culture is very similar to Plumerias. These plants are closely related. So if you know how to grow Plumeria, you sure will succeed with Cerbera. Hot and sunny location, well-drained mix, moderate water and bloom boom fertilizer will do the trick. However, we have noticed a few distinctive features that make this plant somewhat challenging at times.
1) Flowers
For past years, we've been studying what triggers its flowering.
Sometimes these plants start flowering in 1 gal pot, 1 ft tall. Other times a large
developed tree 5-6 ft tall, in 5-7 gal pot, grows beautiful foliage with no
signs of flowers. Eventually all of them bloom, no matter how stubborn they
are, it's just some individual plants start flowering sooner than others, all
grown in the same conditions.
One of our plants in the ground, a well-branched tree, was covered with
flowers for a few months, but only on the 3d year after planting. Before that,
it only produced a few random blooms. Others bloomed in pots at very young
age.
The following factors benefit to Cerbera flowering:
- full sun at least 10 hours a day
- hot temperatures above 85F
- regular water but not heavy rains
- regular fertilizer - Bloom Booster type
- very good drainage and drying out before waterings. If root ball stays
moist, the plant may look healthy but won't set flower buds. Keeping on a dry
side will encourage flowering. Very similar to Jasmines: they bloom like crazy
in April while it's hot and dry in Florida, but once our summer rainy season
starts, they reduce blooming.
We highly recommend using Sunshine Megaflor bloom booster or SUNSHINE Pikake in combination with micro-element supplements Sunshine Honey (B-Mo) and Sunshine Superfood (complex micro) that induce flowering. Dry and granulated fertilizers may not supply exactly what a plant needs: certain elements that trigger flowering may be missing. Sunshine Boosters formulas are scientifically balanced, they contain precise amounts of nutrients needed for setting flowers. Besides, excessive salts from regular dry fertilizers create nutrient lock up that may retard plant metabolism; with liquid amino-acid based Sunshine boosters, plants consume the whole menu of elements without building them up in the soil.
2) Fruit
Fruit of Cerbera are very pretty and cover the tree after profuse flowering. To inexperienced eye they may look very much like small mango or avocado fruit - so make sure kids or visitors don't try to eat them! Cerbera seeds are extremely poisonous.
3) Leaves
If you ever grew Passiflora or Milkweed, you know how leaves can be
eaten by caterpillars overnight. This may happen to Cerbera too, as we
discovered. In Florida environment this exotic plant doesn't have natural predators for
protection from certain insect species that may feed on it. So watch out and
if noticed first signs of leaves damage - its time for insect control.
Other than that, Cerbera foliage is usually beautiful and colorful, here in
Florida it looks much healthier than that of Plumerias often affected with
rusty residue during high humidity months.
Hope this helps. The Cerbera fragrance is enchanting, it is worth the efforts and waiting!
Date: 4 Mar 2021
Healthy Plants: Q&A from Mr Booster
Ylang Ylang leaves after winter
Q: Hi, I purchased ylang ylang tree a couple of years ago. It's grown quite well in my Greenhouse but I'm having some trouble figuring out if I'm watering it too much not enough or if it has an insect. Can you please take a look at my photos and maybe give me a suggestion of what my problem might be?
A: It is normal for Ylang Ylang tree to get dark spots during
winter time. Sometimes Cananga gets whole branches darkened (especially dwarf variety fruiticosa), some may even fall off. But they will be replaced
with new growth in Spring-Summer. There is nothing wrong with your plant, it is
just a reaction to cold and short day light when you keep this plant indoors. These leaves eventually will fall
off as the weather warms up, and will be replaced with a new fresh green growth.
Luckily, Cananga is not susceptible to insects and diseases, but its leaves
can look unattractive in winter.
Make sure to keep watering at minimum until temperatures raise to 80's.
Start fertilizing as soon as new growth appears. We recommend SUNSHINE Pikake
- Fragrant Flower Booster, an ultimate fertilizer for fragrant plants.
Date: 19 Jan 2021
Healthy Plants: Q&A from Mr Booster
Fertilizing in Winter
Q: I have many tropical plants in my garden, both in the ground and in pots. I realize it is wintertime and some of them, the Hydrangea, Hibiscuses, and roses are in bloom but the rest of them seem wilty and droopy. Is it alright to fertilize them now, or should I wait for a few days? I have an all purpose tropical fertilizer and a 20-20-20 also. Please advise what to do.
A: During wintertime, tropicals may suffer from low temperatures
and lack of sunshine which causes droopy leaves, and leaf loss.
Regardless of the cause and plant condition, you should NEVER apply
traditional dry fertilizers during cool months. When cold, dry fertilizers
(EDTA-chelated) may create nutrient lock up in soil and damage the roots. Dry
fertilizers (both granulated and water-soluble) can be used only during hot season -
when min temperatures stay above 65F for at least a week in a row, and
daytime temperatures are over 75-80F. During hot, active growth season plant
metabolism increases. This provides less chance for a chemical root burn, as the
nutrients are used up quickly.
However, liquid fertilizers, as long as they are amino-acid based, can
be used year round. From our own experience last winter, we discovered that
fertilizing sickly looking plants (with signs of cold damage and root issues)
with Sunshine Boosters actually revived those plants. Sunshine Boosters even
brought back to life some hopeless specimens. Take a look at this gardenia
that grows in our garden (picture above). See full article.
In your case, it would be beneficial to use a mild formula of liquid
boosters in combination with Sunshine Epi -a natural plant hormone that boost their growth and helps
to cope with cold-, temperature- and low-light-related stress.
These are the products we recommend:
- Sunshine Bombino - add to every watering
- Sunshine Epi - twice a month as foliage spray
Since you grow plants in pots, feeding program is especially essential,
because plants are limited with a container size where roots can't reach out to more food in the outer soil.
In professional nursery set up with injector irrigation systems, container plants are fed daily (depending on season, more than once a day) with every watering. This is why greenhouse plants are so healthy looking.
So feel free to give your plants Sunshine boosters with every watering,
dozing according to the label. During cold period, plants need less frequent
watering, so fertilizer input will be balanced accordingly, it will depend on
temperature and plant metabolism.
Sunshine Bombino - mild, "pampering" formula for young and tender plants, as well as plants recovering from stress and/or winter damage.
