Has anyone here experience with Kapok trees?

[Ansorgii]

Hello everyone,
Maybe someone can help me with this complete off topic.

I moved to Mexico this spring and now that I have a subtropical garden, I wanted to plant various trees and plants I kept in germany but never could really see flourish due to our winter and staying in pods.

And nearly everything I planted grows amazing. I am especially happy for my Mango tree that just keeps on going. But other well growing plants include fig, lime, banana and tomatoes.

The only two exceptions to the great progress in my garden are a papaya, which I believe has some sort of infection and wont make the winter, and the Kapok tree, which hasn't done anything except getting some dried up leaftips. I grew them before in germany from seeds, and they always spurted meters in Months despite being in a tiny pod.

In my area here are lots of Kapok trees aswell that look great, one in particular, which I believe is a different variety, has been flowering for months now, but sadly bears no "fruit" I could grow the seeds from.

So my question is now, is there anything he is upset about I should change? Is this just the normal planting shock, do they only grow seasonaly?

The soil is mostly clay, but I added organic material in the toplayer, mostly fallen leafes. In the hot summer I watered daily and now every few days, but the soil never gets dry or wet. At least on the surface.

The tree is essentially a 3m Spaghetti with some thorns on the base, I wanted to upload a picture, but can't again for some reason, maybe later.

Its just kinda frustrating to see, and I am thinking of replacing it with another Mango as I am just very happy with the one I have.

 

[jjohnwm]

Lol, I certainly can't help with this, but will just say that I only wish for the kind of success you are experiencing. Sounds like everything you tried is doing well with the one exception being the Kapok? I'd call that unqualified success. My ratios are reversed; I'll try a half-dozen species and if one "takes", I celebrate.

I moved from extreme southwestern Ontario, where my original home was at the same latitude as northern California; listed as hardiness zone 7A. I'm now, a few moves later, in zone 2B; to put that into perspective, I believe that most of the planet Mars is zone 2A.

When a new plant or shrub or tree actually comes back into bud after its first winter here, we practically dance around it holding hands.

So, enjoy your successes, and remember your failures just well enough to avoid repeating the exact same ones. In the immortal words of W.C.Fields: "If at first you don't succeed...quit! No sense being a damned fool about it!"

 

[Ansorgii]

Thank you for the reminder, I guess I got carried a bit away by seeing the failure to much.

I am not familiar with the scale, bit similiarity to mars sounds very harsh, I can imagine the pain of finding plants that grow there, and those that do typically grow very slow.

If you want I can give you some recommendations for trees that at least grow in the northern deserts of mexico, and are somewhat resistant to frost. And if you water them they grow quite well.

 

[jjohnwm]

Thanks for the offer, much appreciated, but in reality there is little likelihood of a Mexican plant...even one that is "somewhat resistant to frost"...having much of a chance here. It would be exposed to a long winter, with at least a couple of months of temperatures in the -30C or even -40C range, and certainly below freezing for a minimum of 5 months.

In any case, I'm closing in on 70 and I am beginning to ration my energy. What little I can conjure up is devoted to cutting down trees for firewood, rather than planting new ones as an experiment.

I didn't realize that the hardiness zone scale was not a universal thing? I guess not; even so, to put it into perspective: extreme northern Mexico is about 33 degrees north latitude; my backyard is at 51 degrees north latitude. Okay, not quite Mars, but...

 

[Ansorgii]

That is very cold, I guess I just associated the mars comparison with a more warm desert, despite the planet being freezing. My bad.

The latitude comparison has its limits aswell sadly. 51 North is the center of germany, with a rather mild climate and lush green. But Europe is just a lot warmer and milder for how north it is.

70 is already a ripe age, I hope your energy will last long and you can enjoy the outside despite its harshness. I do miss making firewood, despite the millions of ticks, and enjoying the fruits of that labor in the living room.

Mexico has its own way of home, but I would lie if I said I wasn't longing for my swabian forests and hills sometimes. Its just not the same and I don't think this whole can ever be truly filled.

(And the mosquitos here make me furious, my ankles look like battlefield)

 

[ken31cay]

No experience with Kapok trees but Papaya trees are notorious for sucking out the nutrients in the soil. Once you've grown out a Papaya tree you can be sure that the soil around needs to be replenished, preferably with natural fertilizer.

 

[Ansorgii]

Thanks for the advice! I only grew them once before in Spain. There they grew insanely fast given enough water. I fear my soil here is not the best, but I am adding as much organic material as I can.