The Tropical Fruit Forum

http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CACTI/Family/Cactaceae/10426/Neowerdermannia_vorwerkii
Anyone growing this or already managed to a taste test? I saw some of it being sold (pricey!) And figured I'd ask for actual cultivation/growing tips not something off the web?

Simple pick me up tea when feeling slightly off-kilter - usually drink this when start sneezing all of a sudden and am afraid I'm starting on the flu path.


Pick mature lemongrass stalks and dehydrate (machine) or hang to dry outside in the shade.
Just dry them enough to avoid them getting mouldy - not too much that they turn yellow and dry up.
Cut up the whole thing - leaves and white stalk (scissors work better than knives once its already dehydrated) - 1 full cup of chopped up lemongrass is good for 1 liter of water.
Boil about 1 liter of water once you get a rolling boil, pour water into ceramic/stoneware teapot or a large covered mason jar works as well
Add one cup chopped lemongrass and a half cup of fresh Moringa leaves only (please do your best to remove the bitter stems, it will seem like too much trouble but your taste buds will thank me later!)
Close lid tightly and let this steep for about an hour.
After an hour add sliced lemon/lime/calamondin/clementine wedges (about a full cup) - whichever citrus you have available or whichever you prefer taste-wise. Keep covered and refrigerate overnight.
Lemon and calamondin will turn the tea a nice yellow colour, clementine will turn it orange, lime, well, it's going to stay a boring zombiesque green.
Drink whenever you feel like it - just add some sugar/stevia/honey.


IF you hate Moringa as the tea will still have a bit of a bitter aftertaste (barely there) even if you were patient enough to remove all the stems and steep the leaves only, you can skip it although I'm not sure just the citrus and lemongrass by itself will be an effective enough immune system booster.
My mum hates Moringa and prefers to substitute grated ginger/white turmeric/black turmeric rhizomes (also half cup) all of which seems effective enough.
IF you already have the flu - go with the lemongrass/citrus/black turmeric/honey combo. And try to drink one to two cups of tea a day.

PACSOA Show

The annual <<PACSOA show>> will be held this year on the weekend of March 12 - 13, 2016, at Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens Auditorium, Brisbane. Saturday 9am to 4pm, Sunday 9am to 3pm. Admission $3 / $2 Concession.

This will feature Australia's largest selection of common and rare palms and cycads (both plants and seeds) for sale, as well as displays of native and exotic palms and cycads, and the bookstore. All of our members are invited to offer palms and cycads for sale.

Let's see if next week's batch is consistently 700-900gms each. Unusual for a green star apple to be almost Latexless and be this size given the El Niņo drought and me having been gallivanting up north and not watering anything back here in my city backyard. Tree is over 12 feet now, about 7 years old overall, bought a few years ago as a 20 gal potted seedling and then planted in ground right after purchase.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2r917xbc5cqvo18/IMG_20160224_195555~2.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lkjhcorpdbvqziq/IMG_20160224_195624~2.jpg?dl=0

Figured I should ask whether C cainito comes true from seed or seedlings are quite close to the parent quality wise? No other cainito tree in the street but I have a younger red select seedling from the same plant breeder but the red is a couple years younger and isn't even blooming yet so figured no cross pollination hanky panky going on at the moment.

That Indonesian plant doctor seems to THE ONLY believably legit guy when it comes to Gm precocity.

And trees meant to be grown indoors? Protecting them from extremes if necessary - yes, that is why we have all those amazing glasshouse Botanical gardens and backyard greenhouses.

For sustainability and health-consciousness only an organic, grown in one's backyard fruit counts as AAA in my book.

Maybe you should waste your time participating in the Mars One experiment instead? You might find them more receptive to your idea.

MANGOSTEEN PRECOCITY in 2 YEARS or less !!
In earlier eras you were probably quite correct.  However, I find that if a mangosteen can be brought to precocity and bear premium fruit within 2 years, it is very economical and super-cost-efficient.  Filtered Plexiglas, artificial light powered by photovoltaics and supplemented by sun light.  The major cost is in the set-up expense, estimated to be recoverable in 5 to 6 years, if my trees are used.  Mangosteens require a great deal of water and hydro provides that constantly, which results in constant growth.  I use the best plant nutrients in the world and I pay attention to the needs and priorities of the plant, in order to meet all of the plant's pre-precocity requirements.  Its really that simple.  Commercial growers have been planting, growing, maturing, fruiting and seeding defective mangosteen stocks for generations.  They are not concerned that a plant is defective and slow-growing as long as it produces fruit and seeds to be sold.  From those seeds come other defective plants because mangosteens are clones of the mother plant.  I can grow mangosteens in Alaska, with 24 hour sun and 24 hour nights.  I do 'baby' my plants, but babies get babied and they usually turn-out great.  Mangosteens were meant to be grown inside anyway.  Mangosteens are only expensive because there are never enough of them.  The glass/Plexiglas concept is doable with used glass, and the cost of the voltaics is coming down.  Out there in the jungle where you are, I am sure your perception of things can tend to be different, where the trees grow semi-wild.  We want to produce our own premium AAA mangosteen, instead of relying on imports, where the quality often varies with the grower.   Inside growth is 100 times better, and hydro -- super !!  The thing is, if you produce a defective tree, ALL of the fruit will bear the defective predisposition. Selling the seeds from those trees should be illegal, but it isn't.  If you acquire the best seeds you will get the best plants.  Everything else can be improved with environmental conditioning.  If you used crappy seeds, you are wasting your valuable time. YOU, have to use YOUR brain and don't believe all of the hype about 10, 20, or even 6 years to precocity.  If my trees bear fruit in 2 years, I will sell them for between $20,000 and $25,000 each, or more and the seeds will be priceless.

HCS1

http://daunijo.com/praktek-cara-mencangkok-tanaman-pepaya/

Hi Maryoto! Is it okay if we ask for a short, simple explanation? I can get the idea thru the pictures and Google translate but just curious:

(a) If this is a popular technique in Indonesia?
(b) And how effective/successful is this actually?
(c) How many times can we get air-layered new plants from the mother papaya tree? Infinite? Or does it eventually die from the stress of having to regenerate top growth after how many air-layer attempts?

Thank you!!!

http://www.filipinorecipesite.com/filipino-dessert-recipes/bibingka.html

http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/santol-turnovers-a-la-marketman

Credit to blog owner. I miss eating santol-based recipes. Anyone in Oz have a fruiting tree and want to sell or donate some of the roly poly buggers?

http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/guinataang-langka-at-hipon-unripe-jackfruit-and-shrimp-in-coconut-cream-a-la-marketman

Credits to blog owner - pardon admin murahilin I posted this recipe for the forum members who might want to consider cooking immature jackfruits.

And yep, I eat anything with coconut milk and seafood (I put shrimp or smoked fish flakes in this one or in my Sinantol).

Hi! I am curious to know how to manage the no taproot problem when it comes to air layer, stem/root cutting some trees vs seed grown.

I have a lot of young trees I have grown from root cuttings/suckers (guavas, breadfruit) and air layer.  The problem is that a year or so from being planted into the ground, they keel over the moment a storm hits.

I have tried two common work around mainly a steel tube teepee for support growing them into 2-3 ft pvc tubing to encourage long roots before planting them in situ - usually mounded up.

The result is the same, unless they already spent at least a full year in the ground, once a storm hits the steel supports remain standing but the tree tries to go as horizontal as much as possible, tie wires be damned.

I do tell the caretaker to prune as much as possible to keep them low and not top heavy but doesn't seem to make that much of a difference.

http://mgoyenec-wonderfulheavensandearth.blogspot.com/2012/03/wonderful-asian-cuisine-how-to-cook.html?m=1

Credits to the blog owner - I follow the same procedure in making canned sinantol - goes well with grilled fish and rice as a side dish - except I add some salt during the first time I rinse the grated Santol.

Hi! I'm Dimples and I am currently in the Philippines, however, spend most of my life in Brisbane as we migrated when I was barely a toddler.
I now own a small homestead in the Bicol region, but I want to send seeds for both the pili nut and the elemi tree to some people in Brisbane and Perth and Byron Bay.

Has anyone ever tried importing the seeds of either plant into Australia and New Zealand? How does one go about doing that? I was asking some friends who used to export processed pili nut products into Australia - but they said they no longer do so (they quit about 8, 9 years ago), mainly because they lost quite a bit of their orchard and can no longer sustain export level production.

So I've kind of hit a brick wall with the whole Australian customs/quarantine rules.  If you have any idea or anything that you think would help, I'd love to hear about it! I am mainly going to be sending/distributing seeds of the Magnaye and Laysa variety of Pili and yes, I am able to get a phytosanitary certificate from the local Department of Agriculture and a certificate from the Bureau of Plant Industry to say that I've had the particular trees DNA tested and that I do have the right variety/ies.

TIA!