The Tropical Fruit Forum

Tossing a few cents in here but I'm with Stressbaby on his comment about the sugar apple.  I'd cut it way back...branches too.  This will kick off a nice growth flush and most likely some blooms to go along with it.  Since you are keeping it in a pot, strive for the more compact shapes.  I'd do the same with the plant you think is a cherimoya and your rollina as well.  They look healthy enough to take a good pruning.  Everything looks good though.  Keep up the good work. 

Just recently finished up a new one...at least for our market area...lemon drop melon.  Very sweet with definite taste of lemon.  Very good.

Well pluck me...

The link is to the knife that I just recently purchased.  As stated in another thread...I love it and don't know why I waited this long to get one.  It makes one hell of a difference.
http://www.amleo.com/victorinox-folding-budding-grafting-knife/p/7475E/

Ant...yes...jack is in the GH.  I'm in Ohio!  It is also planted in the ground.  It's 5 years old now and it's been pruned numerous times to keep it under 13 feet. 

Wondering if I shot myself in the foot this time around as far as flowering goes.  I recently pruned it during the winter and THEN saw the Crane video that says to only prune them during the summer months.

Just wanted to share some pics of a few things going on up here.  Thanks to Adam, Harry, Noel, and Ian, I've been busy doing a lot of grafting lately.  As you will see in the pics, it is still a bit early to hire a band just yet, but so far the grafts look promising.

Thai sugar apples.  While putting out a nice crop this year, I am experiencing a steady dieback on the branches.  This has been going on the last few years.  I've yet to halt this.




Super dwarf nana...courtesy of Warren.


Bell starfruit really starting to put the blooms out.  This lone plant has unfortunately proven to be a shy bearer.  Short style VS long style issue?  Hopefully it will have pity and put out a nice crop this year.


One of nine Imbe grafts I recently attempted.  Thanks again to Adam for the female and Sharry Larry(hermaphrodite) material.  It's been a couple of weeks now and so far 6 of the 9 still look really good and a few even look to be pushing new growth...slowly.  I did a mix of cleft and veneer.  With some input from both Ian Crown and Bryan Brunner, I tried at least two grafts on each of the 4 plants...1 somewhere down low to middle and 1 at the top.  Bryan suggested the top believing this would be the target for the best chance of the graft taking.  While not the ideal spot of course, his reasoning was that if the rest fail, I've at least got a better chance of preserving the material for future graft attempts.  And so far, all 4 top grafts look good.  I also tip pruned each and every terminal bud on the plants to redirect the energy away from those spots.


One of my Edward mango grafts.  Harry sent me a nice selection of mango budwood of Edward, Pickering, Lemon Zest, and Coconut Cream.  So far, 9 of 9 grafts are either pushing new growth already or bulging out wanting to.  Again...I did mainly veneer but did a couple of cleft grafts too.  One cleft was done on a small seedling plant.


Lemon drop mangosteen turning a nice pretty yellow.  Keeping a close eye on that!  This is a grafted plant picked up in PR last year.


This is the start of an Imbe fruit forming.  The ONLY flower of four plants that remotely tried to put out a female type flower and fruit.  Only time will tell whether it actually develops or not.  Kind of sad that the damn plant only puts out one frakking flower.  I approach grafted a branch from the big male onto this plant in hopes that more females eventually decide to join the party and in the event that the other grafts fail.


I believe this is my Sunflower pawpaw.  Thanks to our Ohio false spring, later freezes decimated all of my outside, yard fruit.


A very very lonely male jackfruit bloom.  #$&%@# %$&@ *)(@!* aggravating $&*@@!* tree!


New mangosteen grafting pushing growth.  Again...still early to jump up and down but it has remained green for many weeks now.  I'll take that bread crumb!  Ian had some mangosteen, durian, and pulasan cuttings sent up to me a while back.  This was the only mangosteen graft to take out of 3 or 4 attempts.  The durian and pulasan attempts went down in flames...rotting and turning to mush very soon after the attempt.  Actually staggering how quick they went south on me.  Very disappointing...but not really surprised.


Mayong chid maprang grafted onto the big mango that was cut down for the other new grafts.  This has been going for over a month now and has fused nicely.  Obviously no guarantee of future success but...  Since the mother plant continues to decline, all hopes are banking on this graft.


Saijo Persimmon.  Just planted this spring and it has been blooming quite a bit.  All have fallen off so far.  The one in the pic looks like it has developed farther than the rest.  I probably should knock them off so the plant can get to growing instead.

A lot of that write-up sounds like it came directly from Bernie Dizon's website.  Dizon in the Philippines has been doing the nurse stock or multiple rootstock grafting for ages and seems to have huge successes with it.  His website shows that they have better results grafting mangosteen onto mangosteen.  Using one of the other garcinias with better rooting systems as a nurse stock sounds interesting.  His website has changed and there is no longer links to the many articles covering these efforts.

The grafted plants I've seen in Thailand or have received here from Thailand all seem to have been grafted onto mangosteen rootstock.

Bryan Brunner, in PR, experimented with mangosteen grafting onto g. xanthochymus and g. hombroniana.  In several instances, the mangosteen scion outgrew the rootstock resulting in plants that could not support the weight.  The scion's trunks were at least 2-3 times the size of the rootstock after several years of growth.  It was very odd.

Here are some insights on Dizon and multiple rootstock grafting from Joe Real...many of us are familiar with Joe and his grafting prowess.

I knew that site and I personally know the site owner.

Bernie Dizon is cool. He has received many achievement awards in the field of tropical fruit trees. He promotes multiple rootstock. I have also suggested to Bernie Dizon to use rootstocks that are non-siblings. Apparently, they have used any compatible rootstock they can get hold of and do multiple of them.

I mentioned my theory of how using non-sibling rootstocks can enhance survival and vigor based on scientific research published for the sibling and non-sibling plants grown in containers. We have this proof to that theory and another one that came well before that, which is the Parent Washington Navel tree which is composed of three kinds of non-sibling rootstocks.

If you ever go to the Philippines, you have to visit Bernie Dizon. His nursery is located next to my high school alma mater, Philippine Science High School in Diliman, Quezon City.

Bernie Dizon, Verman Reyes and other Philippine Rare Fruit Growers are actively using the yahoo group forum. Kind of not-user friendly unlike the forum we have here, but it is great for disconnected users who seldom have direct or troublesome internet connections. so the email type forum works in such country where the web based type of forum is unreliable. So you know why the site has not been as active. Not a lot of users can get connected online for long periods of time.

The following was posted many years ago on a Philippine Ag Site...author unknown:

I've been doing some research for the last 3 years on this Multiple Rootstock Technology which was popularized by Mr. Bernie Dizon. Here some facts regarding this practice and you'll will be surprised this practice is not new and was just re-branded to make it like a new practice or technology or lets just say it is a new propagation variation which is great propagation technique or style.

First of all the other terms used by other fruit growers on multiple rootstock:

1. Tripod Method
2. Double Rootstock
3. Triple Rootstock and so on like Quadruple Rootstock so forth
4. Octopus Method
5. Prolific Method

Scientific terms related to Multiple Rootstock:

1. Inarching
2. Bridge Grafting
3. Nurse Grafting
4. Repair Grafting
5. Interstock Grafting

History:

Well, Multiple Rootstock if you're going to search it in the agricultural books or in the internet, you'll have limited topics on it except ofcourse from the website of Mr. Bernie Dizon which popularized it in the Philippines.

The reason for this limited search is because the term is not accepted by the scientific world. Its is a new brand of a hybrid propagation technique.

So, why is this a hybrid technique? Because it is a propagation technique which entails combination of propagation techniques for fruit trees. To be able to make a multiple rootstock fruit tree; first, you will be needing a single graft fruit tree then a rootstock or seedling of a same species then inarch it with the grafted fruit tree. You can also make a faster double rootstock tree by cleft grafting a large scion unto 2 rootstock that is equal to the large scion.

Does international countries use multiple rootstock:

Answer is yes, they do but not as termed multiple rootstock. Some of the terms they use with relation of multiple rootstock are interstock grafting, repair grafting, nursre grafting etc...

In the USA, repair grafting is used when a fruit tree like an apple or citrus is already hit by a disease in the roots and is given another rootstock to aid the main branch. This is in connection with Mr. Bernie Dizon's book that was saying an american has used the multiple rootstock technique in his apple trees.

Nurse grafting is mostly used for marcotted fruit trees like Lychee, Longan etc... to also aid on the sturdiness of the fruit trees root system. As we all know, marcotted fruit trees have a weak root system because it was air-layered, a form propagation technique. By adding another rootstock with a marcotted fruit tree, you are making the tree sturdy from the soil and making it more productive.

But to sum it all up, Multiple rootstock is an old age technique practiced by nature itself from the survival instinct of trees. Trees tend to have a natural instinct on bridge grafting another root unto the branch when the tree is damaged.

I do consider that multiple rootstock is a hybrid propagation technique because it is a combination of 2 or more propagation technique.

Thailand has used multiple rootstock on there Durian trees because of Phytoptora disease. Multiple rootstock is mostly used if you're going to notice it is from root problems of fruit trees. Another use of multiple rootstock is for propagation purposes, because of flushing of multiple rootstock, propagators tend to have more scions for grafting.

In a normal cleft graft, we'll see a cambium layer.  Is there anything like this in type method or does it not matter here?

When used with good sense, these super hots do have a nice flavor and can impart another dimension to a dish.  Oscar's pretty much hit the nail on the head...it is a macho thing for the most part.  A lot of it is the fun of someone else's reaction!

I've made numerous types of fruit jellies with them.  Let me tell you...cream cheese on a Ritz cracker with a dollop of the hot jelly is crazy good.  Even the folks who don't like heat will line up for this.  I've also incorporated the chilies...fresh and powder form...into peanut brittle.  The amount of sugar and fat is just enough...well...almost enough to cut the burn.  And it's great for a little Christmas gift to the guy in the office who thinks ketchup is hot!!

Seems like half the people I work with are into this and everyone brings chips and salsas in during the season.  How can one NOT appreciate that?!

But yeah...it is pretty f'ing stupid at times!!   

The ghost is a crazy producer.  A second year plant had about 700 chilies on it at one time.  I'm growing the Butch T.  Didn't hear of the Moruga until afterwards.  But hell, once you get to that heat level...it's nothing but hallucinations from there!   

I believe he said that the grafted ones flowered/fruited no quicker than the seedling plants.

I recall someone on the Yahoo group grafted a few and the seedling plants did better.