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Messages - Kapiak

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1
Carlos,

What is the taste of the wolf apple, good eating out of hand?

2
Thanks a lot Oscar! Will plant them next week when we go down to the lowlands.

Do you think it may do well up here in the highlands as well at 1500 m (5500 ft), if we get several seedlings coming up?

I would only keep two plants, because of the large size. The 2nd plant is for backup purposes.

And is it enough to have just one plant to get fruits, or would I need both?

3
Tropical Fruit Discussion / How do you plant seeds of Lecythis zabacujo?
« on: November 28, 2014, 12:48:53 AM »
I finally got the seeds yesterday!

But didn't find much info about how to best germinate them...

Anyone who had good experience in germinating them and would like to share it? :)

4
Thanks Nullzero and Bangkok.

I will skip seed method then,  as cuttings seems so simple. Got in touch with Afriadoni in neighbouring Indonesia. Thanks for test hint! :)

Look forward to finally enjoy figs here! (Hopefully...)

5
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruit in New Guinea - anyone recognize it?
« on: November 27, 2014, 02:32:05 AM »
LOL I know what you mean, done something like that too, Dreamfrutas ;)

6
What about New Guinea, at the equator? What would work here? I'd really love to have some figs here. Lots of native figs here but they don't taste nice and are usually cooken or eaten sliced with salt. So nothing like the delicious fruity Mediterranean figs that I grew up with in Sweden.

So, anyone have suggestions on figs for rainy hot equatorial New Guinea?

And... it is easier to bring seeds, would a superior variety produce good seedlings that I could select from, or will most of them be lousy like avocadoes are from seeds?

Because it won't be a too good idea to bring plants into New Guinea :(

7
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruit in New Guinea - anyone recognize it?
« on: November 26, 2014, 05:40:14 PM »
Ah yes Calabash tree! Now my memory is back :)

Thanks guys, I knew it would be quicker to ask here... I remembered that I had seen it somewhere outside of PNG but couldn't remember what it was called.

OK so the info about using the juice must have been a misunderstanding? Maybe they meant that they just keep the homebrew in it then? ;)

8
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Fruit in New Guinea - anyone recognize it?
« on: November 26, 2014, 07:42:51 AM »
.

9
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Fruit in New Guinea - anyone recognize it?
« on: November 26, 2014, 07:34:59 AM »
Hi there folks!

This photo was sent to me today from a friend who works in Sepik (Northwestern PNG) where she wondered what kind of fruit this was. She thinks the locals said that they brew some liquor of its juice.

( http://www.paradiseforest.net/00FruitPNG.jpg )

It is called "diwai wain" which means "tree vine" but it is a very generic term and the woman who sent it wasn't sure if it actually was a vine.

Anyone else recognizing it at least to family or genus level?

I am still trying to find out what it is, as I have only this picture to follow up, no flowers etc. But I recall I have seen something like that in SE Asia, but can't remember what it was right now, so my "memory thread is a bit loose" as we say in Swedish...

10
Luc & DurianLover, you're so right. Many plants that deter Europeans or Americans don't deter the locals here. They're indeed a tough bunch here and don't mind walking through spiny pineapple at all while I myself (being from Europe) don't even want to touch the leaves without a glove... the unfenced pineapple garden are being picked all the time by hungry kids despite the thorns. Kids in my country would just look and drool and ask someone to help them to pick the pineapples, but here the kids just jump into the thorns and pick the fruits as if there were no thorns.  :o

So what we need is a thorny devil hedge that scares even the locals here despite they're bearing machetes  ;)

- But it should still be manageable for us though so the Salaks don't spread all over the place and deter us as well, haha :o

Not sure though how we can get material for... 300 metres of fenceline though. Can I propagate salaks fast vegetatively after obtaining seeds of them?

And hey Nullzero - The Opuntia could actually work. We have access to unlimited amounts of gravel from the nearby rocky river to increase our drainage where needed. It is not swampy and excess water drains away within one day. I just need some pads to try out... know where I can get some to try? ;)

11
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: Duguetia for Trade/Sale
« on: September 25, 2014, 05:51:52 PM »
Dada, I also am surprised that the second photo is "Duguetia" because it looks like Annona to me too.

What seeds are you offering actually, from the first or second photo?

12
Doug, I must line in with you on this against others. ;)

I did try Durian in both Singapore (two varieties), Vietnam and Thailand. I NEVER ever liked it. My husband from New Guinea (I'm European) however loved it at first bite and bought one more fruit. I was shocked and asked "Don't you find this fruit disgusting like I do?!?"

He said "Oh no, it is just so delicious!"

I sat there watching him eating 6 segments of Durian in Singapore while I could barely eat one single segment.

So I think it is a pretty controversial fruit, where some love it and others dislike it, like mature cheese. I don't like mature cheese at all.

But I got curious on Durio kutejensis, having "bubbelgum flavour and no odour", so I did try to obtain seeds of it recently that didn't make it unfortunately.

The point is - I don't understand the hype of Durians from my tastebuds' perspective ;) But I still keep trying every time I see Durian to see if I can be saved too *LOL*

13
Micah and Sumatraexotics:

We have Terminalia kaernbachii fruiting in our garden every year here in New Guinea.

The flesh here is completely iridescent crimson-red, and the kernel is VERY hard to cut.

I can't tell from the photo if this is the real thing as the photo is so blurred.

Here is a photo from our own fruits for comparison to see if it looks correct? (click to see larger image)


14
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Citrus in New Guinea
« on: September 21, 2014, 12:46:59 AM »
I look forward to see when it fruits what kind of Citron it is.

15
Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Re: WTB - Finger lime
« on: September 20, 2014, 08:06:52 PM »
A friend has the best tree which is the oldest surviving relative of the Rick's Red (Original was dozed). He says cuttings are not hard and actually work well when shipped properly, as the gasses stimulate the rooting process. Of the other nurseries only Chester seems to have the true ricks red. Daley's version seems closer to Wauchope by comparison. Some of the cutting grown ones from the mob that stocks bunnings are pretty good, but not quite up to RR imho.

BM, and would it be possible to buy cuttings from his plant you think when we visit Australia? (hopefully around Christmas)
Where is he located by the way? We expect to be in Cairns area and Brisbane area.

Starling and BM - are Gourmet Limes' varieties good ones? We're considering to get from them. Those are Chartreuse, Red Champagne, Pink Ice, Crystal, Crimson Tide.

16
Citrus General Discussion / Re: Citrus in New Guinea
« on: September 20, 2014, 11:49:49 AM »
Whoa that was fast! :) Glad to add another species of tropical lowland Citrus in our garden! I suspected it wasn't a native Citrus.

Will keep looking for seeds of the indigenous Clymenia polyandra, have heard about both sour and (fairly?) sweet varieties at two villages but haven't traveled there yet as it's pretty remote.

17
Citrus General Discussion / Citrus in New Guinea
« on: September 20, 2014, 10:57:41 AM »
Hi there,

I found a Citrus in a village garden in Western Province of Papua New Guinea.

It had no fruits, so I couldn't identify it by the fruit.
But I did notice a peculiar character with the plant, it has no marked petiole, ie. no petiole wings, and no "joint" between leaf blade and petiole. The short petiole simply becomes leaf blade without any "joining line/mark" like you see in most other Citrus.

They say the fruit is a bit sour like lime or lemon, and the tree we saw is short, 2-3 metres tall and thorny. This was growing in the muddy swamp in the hot lowlands.

Any idea what it could be? The villagers said it was planted from somewhere else.

18
Oh yeah. Youngberry will grow in the tropics. Main thing you need to be aware of is that they are susceptible to fungal leaf diseases, especially in humid climates like mine and yours. I have found the best thing to do is plant them in a spot where they'll get sun all day.

Not a huge fan of muntigia either, but they do produce a lot of food.

You're right, there's tons of fruits on one single tree of Muntingia here. But no one picks them. Not even me who usually go far beyond most people in eating all kinds of fruits.

Youngberry, yeah! Finally a Rubus for the hot tropics! We do have sunny spots so can put it there.
Any chance it can be easily shipped for 3-4 weeks to New Guinea, as I guess seeds don't come true?

19
Many interesting plants I had never thought of!

Checked up some of them, which seems to be better suited to drier climates. Naranjilla seem better suited to the highlands than the hot lowlands?

That was an interesting idea with male Salaccas lining the fence, and having female salaccas on the inner part. That would be a good solution to have enough male trees and not tempting the people trying to reach the salacca fruits along the fence.

Just tricky to know which is female and which is male when you must grow them from seeds - I doubt I will ever be able to import small plants of Salaccas, only seeds.

The Manila Tamarind was interesting too, will explore that further :)

We got Cherry guavas but we need thorns. People here aren't hindered by smooth shrubs, as most of them have machetes. Thorns slow them down better ;)

Thanks a lot folks, and keep more ideas coming!!  :D

20
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Baccaurea
« on: September 19, 2014, 08:24:18 PM »
We found two Baccaurea species in Western Province last month, but none of them were ripe... I tried the unripe fruits but spat them out immediately, so astringent and acid!

One species green-skinned and the other one red-skinned.

No ripe seeds or seedlings so couldn't bring anything back to our garden :'(

The red one was said to be delicious and the green one a bit acid.

21
Starling, would the Youngberry be suitable in my hot lowland area you think? You got me interested there!

And Muntingia, how do you eat it? I tried some here, the taste is quite odd, sweet but I am not sure if I should like it or dislike it.  :o

22
PS - I do like to share fruits and vegetables from our garden, but that doesn't mean I like to get robbed ;)

23
Is there a good fruiting plant that can keep intruders away?

Our garden is surrounded by a living fence of Gliricidia trees as posts holding 90 cm tall (3 ft) pig fence and topped with barbed wire. It was initially aimed to stop goats from getting inside and eating our plants. It worked perfectly for that purpose.

But now we found out that instead some people jumped over the fence to get some of our garden produces.

Most of our fruit trees are not producing yet, so nothing to steal yet from them, but later on there may be lots of fruits which could also mean a lot more people tempted to jump over and pick our fruits.

A tall wire fence around our garden isn't a workable solution for us, so we are looking into plants as living hedges.

It is half shade along 50 % of the fence line, full shade on 25 % and full sun on 25 %, ultra-tropical wet lowland with a very short and not very distinct dry season.

I was thinking about good varieties of Salacca for the shade + half-shade areas, but not sure how to deal with all of the suckers that I heard would pop up all the time around the mother plants...?

Are there other alternatives, that are both delicious and easily propagated?

24
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Best Way to Consume Carambola
« on: September 19, 2014, 07:49:29 AM »
The best Carambola breedings are now coming out of Taiwan, the Taitung Honey is very sweet & productive.  I got to get my ass out & find a space in my Garden for them.  I cut down my bell, kari and kwantung to make room.  Hopefully they flower next year so I will have recalcitrant seeds for their monthlong journey to you; did the Papua New Guinea Postal Office stole the Annona seeds I have send to you more than a month ago Nathalie? ???

Jack, the seeds weren't stolen this time! So I am very excited to "soon" be able to enjoy your amazing work on those delicious Annonas.

That Taitung Honey carambola sounds delicious, so I won't say no thanks to seeds of that next year! Let me know and I'll happily chop down my awfully sour carambola tree.  ;D

25
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Best Way to Consume Carambola
« on: August 27, 2014, 06:47:43 AM »
Here in New Guinea I can't even eat carambolas out of hand. You say "it's sweet"... Carambolas here are NOT sweet at all, even when fully ripe :( But I do remember nice sweet Carambolas in.. where was it now...? Thailand?

So, are sweet carambolas good to plant seeds from, ie. would the sweetness generally be inherited or is it a very tricky business like planting avocado seeds?

Can't wait to have my own carambola smoothie and dried carambolas after reading all those nice recipes here ;)

Will chop down my tree, if I can get a sweet strain.

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