Date: 7 Feb 2017
After Super Bowl Sale
Chill out and relax by planting a tree! We just watched the most exciting Super Bowl ever... What a game! It was the greatest comeback in Super Bowl in history. Now it is time to let Top Tropicals help give your garden a great comeback too. Relax, have some peaceful happy time, and nothing can be better than planting a tree!
The best tree ever, by many features is a Mango tree. Here at least 5 reasons why:
1. Mango tree is good for beginners since it has low maintenance requirements, including low water needs.
2. Mango tree is easy to ship.
3. Mango tree is a great present.
4. Mango tree is a rewarding fruit tree that will produce fruit for you the same or next year - all our varieties are grafted and ready to bloom.
5. Mango tree produces the most delicious fruit in the world. The sweetest, flavorful, fiberless varieties can be only tasted from home gardens - they simply are not available from grocery stores due to transportation reasons (only fiborous low quality fruit can be safely shipped and stored).
Take advantage of this generous 25% off offer and get yourself a mango tree:
- Dwarf varieties, "Condo" mangoes, great for containers: Carrie, Cogshall, Ice Cream, Julie, Lancetilla, Lemon Meringue, Mallika, Nam Doc Mai, Pickering.
- Large, fast growing, vigorous trees that will quickly create shade and comfort in your garden: Bailey's Marvel, East Indian, Haden, Jakarta, Philippine, Southern Blush, Valencia Pride.
- Exotic collectibles that are hard to find and almost nobody has, be a proud owner of delicious exotic flavors: Alampur Baneshan, Alphonso, Choc Anon (Miracle), Heidi, Maha Chinook, Pim Seng Mun.
Happy planting, end enjoy your fruit soon! See all varieties
Date: 25 Jan 2021
Healthy Plants: Q&A from Mr Booster
How to get Canistel tree to produce
without dropping flowers and fruit
Q: My Canistel tree is 3 1/2 years old and is growing very well, see the picture below. It gets hundreds of pea sized "berries" but then they fall off. No canistel fruit. What's wrong?
A: You have such a nice looking tree, it is a shame you can't get
any fruit to ripen.
In our experience, Pouteria trees dropping fruit prematurely is a very common problem.
There may be one of the following reasons, or a combination of them:
- Cold winters may affect production, and while Canistel is generally
pretty hardy tropical plant that can easily withstand short periods of chill, the
fruit may never form properly if it had a cold winter.
- Lack of water. Canistel tree is pretty drought tolerant, but for the
proper production cycle it needs regular irrigation. Especially during hot
summer.
- The tree may be not strong enough; young trees drop fruit very often when
they don't have enough "fruiting energy" built up in their system.
Your tree looks well established and vigorous, however, flower/fruit drop
is often a sign of insufficient nutrients of particular kind, usually Boron
(B) and/or Molybdenum (Mo): either when a tree is too young and not strong
enough, or because of poor soils and lack of necessary elements.
Here is what can be done, considering you live in a warm, frost-free climate.
1. Provide regular fertilizing program. We recommend liquid
fertilizers Sunshine Boosters that are safe to use with every watering and year
around. It is beneficial to switch plants from traditional "slow-release"
fertilizer to the liquid one because it makes a huge difference in plant growth
and flower/fruit quality and quantity. See also:
- Why liquid fertilizers are better than dry
- Article about benefits of liquid fertilizers.
Use this plant food for your Canistel tree:
SUNSHINE C-Cibus - Crop Nutrition Booster
2. Apply micro-element remedies that are very effective for improving fruit production, especially when flower or fruit drop occurs:
SUNSHINE Honey - promotes more efficient blossoming and pollination, makes
flowers bigger and reduces bud drop.
SUNSHINE SuperFood - improves plant vigor and quality and size of
flowers
These are all natural, eco-friendly supplements that work great for fruit
trees and other edibles.
Date: 16 Nov 2019
When to apply super boost?
Sunshine Boosters: a breakthrough in Winter fertilizing
In the photo: plants are tough survivors. Life can't be stopped even by a brick road!
Q: Just wanted to know best time of day to apply super boost as spray and watering? Only listed to make sure night temp doesn't drop below 65F...
A: As a rule of thumb, plant's needs in fertilizers are very low
in the cold season because they consume less nutrients during dormancy. For
tropical plants, when minimum temperatures drop below 65F - we stop
applications of dry (granulated) fertilizers until spring, to avoid root burn.
Liquid Sunshine Boosters are exceptions from this rule to a certain extent,
for 2 reasons:
- they are amino-acid based which means, salts do not build up in the soil,
and thus will not burn the roots even with slower plant metabolism.
- concentrations/formulas are mild and designed for as frequent as daily
watering
Tips for winter fertilizing:
1) When a plant goes into full dormancy (drops leaves and does not show any new growth), you may stop fertilizing with any Macro NPK products (both dry and liquid)
2) If a plant is evergreen and continues growing during the cooler
period, and especially if it is a winter bloomer, mild liquid fertilizers can be
applied, depending on the stage of plant development.
Robusta and TotalFeed are used for vegetative growth and pre-flower.
Megaflor and C-Cibus are used for winter flowering/ fruiting plants during the bloom
stage.
See full list of liquid boosters
3) Micro-elements can be used all year round for all plants that are not dormant (do not drop leaves)
4) Always use Sunshine-Epi as a foliar spray to activate immune system and unlock protective mechanisms, BEFORE applying other boosters. It is especially important during Fall-Winter for improving cold tolerance and disease resistance.
5) Always apply foliar spray and/or drench the soil with solutions in morning hours so the plant has time to process the nutrients during daylight when metabolism is the most active.
6) Avoid any dry fertilizers during winter
Date: 2 Mar 2025
What Fertilizer to Use Now and How?
Sunshine Boosters liquid fertilizers
🍲 What Fertilizer to Use Now and How?
Part 1. What are important keys to healthy plants
❓ Q: It's early Spring this year. Should I start fertilizing my plants sooner than usual?
- ✔️ A: Most fertilizer instructions recommend fertilizing tropical plants from March to November. This is because plants don't need as much food during the cooler months when many go dormant, and excess nutrients can burn the roots if not absorbed. However, for the most effective fertilizer program and healthy plants, consider these points:
✔️ Sunshine Boosters Year-Round
Liquid amino-acid-based fertilizers like Sunshine Boosters are safe to use year-round. Since watering is reduced in cooler weather, the intake of water-soluble fertilizer is also lower, providing plants with just the essential nutrients for their minimal needs.
✔️ Dry Fertilizer Schedule
Be cautious with dry fertilizers. Apply them only during active growth in the hot season.
✔️ Temperature Is Key
If March is still cold, delay dry fertilizer use. However, if nighttime temperatures in February stay above 65F, you can start a dry fertilizer program using slow-release, granulated plant food.
✔️ What Fertilizers to Use and How
Check out our Sunshine Boosters selection for different types of plants and choose the right type for your needs. These can be applied as often as with every watering. We will explain in details about every type of fertilizer in our next post🔽
🛍 Shop Sunshine Boosters
#Fertilizers #How_to
🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals
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.
