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Messages - Finca La Isla

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1
I’m curious why you guys use a medium of peat and perlite. What are the roots supposed to feed off of?  We use our potting medium that has clay, sand, manure and coir. No issues and the roots develop in a medium more similar to where the trees will be eventually planted.
Peter

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Marang on Jackfruit
« on: March 27, 2024, 11:47:37 PM »
But the cambium of the scion is not in contact with the cambium of the rootstock at the time the graft is made, right?  So how does that work?  I’ve seen that in Malaysia but I’ve also seen more conventional grafting and top working of sprouts that come on strong when cutting a large tree back. I’m interested in this not so much because of the Inter species graft but what I would call un conventional top working.
In Malaysia I saw  very immature tips grafted onto 1 year old in sight root stocks 1” in diameter onto a cut much wider than the scion. There was no way the cambium layers touched but the grafts took. I showed the photos to Gary Zill and he couldn’t understand it. I’ll post a photo for your comment.
Peter




3
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Marang on Jackfruit
« on: March 27, 2024, 09:24:36 AM »
In your technique it looks like you are not lining up the cambium layers.  Is that so?
Peter

4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Aggressive rambutan pruning
« on: March 23, 2024, 06:55:25 AM »
This is a common problem here as well.  Usually you can cut back to the stump, say at 1-1.5m.  The stump should respond with a multitude of branches.  I would select 3-5 once you can see who is growing and positioned nicely.  Shape the tree as these branches grow, continueing to cut tips, etc.  prune the branches back with the last of the harvest.
I said usually because sometimes the tree might not survive the heavy and traumatic cutting back to the stump.  For this reason you might want to take a marcot of the material first.
Peter

5
Most of the fruit trees we grow want sun so in those cases you would keep the Inga back.  Keeping in mind that to successfully shape fruit trees it’s important that the sun hits the sides of those trees as well as the top. 
So, we might be planting small fruit trees of less than a meter high with a spacing of perhaps 8-10m between them.  If your main problem is aggressive grass it would be ideal to shade this area between the fruit trees and maybe even tackle the grass with geo textile.  If the grass is manageable it would be nice to grow other stuff like bananas, pineapples, passion fruit, and many other intercrops to use the space between the small trees up until they are able to dominate it.
To get back to your question, the thing is that we are talking about Inga because it produces a dense shade.  Cacao can grow, up to a point, in this shade.  Some garcinias, but I really prefer a lighter shade for these shade tolerant fruit trees.  I suspect that you would need a combination of shade trees that Inga could be a part of.  We use Brownea, glircidium, and erithrina, which are also nitrogen fixers but the shade is less intense than Inga.  Every option has its advantages and I think that the Inga is not something to completely cover any fruit tree but to be there in a managed context.
Peter

6
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Top working rambutan
« on: March 21, 2024, 10:44:51 PM »
Yes, I would cut it off at about 1m-1.5m.  There will be a lot of new branches.  Eliminate most of those and graft several if you have the budwood.
Peter

7
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Top working rambutan
« on: March 21, 2024, 09:15:01 AM »
Hi, I have very little experience top working rambutan but it should probably be done a lot. Personally I would want to do cleft grafts with fairly young material and, in that case, bag them with a transparent bag.
Peter

8
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Seattle has fresh durian.
« on: March 19, 2024, 02:43:54 PM »
You know, Elijah, you don’t have to grow up with durian to like it.  I never grew up with it and at our farm we have introduced durian to so many people who liked it the first time.
But then I liked kimchee the first time I tried it without having heard about health benefits…
Peter

9
I’ve never seen goats work out.  They prefer tree bark to grass.  Sheep would be a way better option if you are attracted to this type of solution.
Peter

10
I think that when the trees are young it is important to do good quality maintenance. Grass will compete with superficial roots. You want to have the root feeding area covered with mulch and keep the grass and aggressive weeds out.
However an older grove is different. Under my large mangosteen trees practically no maintenance is necessary. We need to keep the surrounding forest back somewhat but that is not monthly weed whacking.
So the shade is what is making the difference. If open areas between young fruit trees were planted with inga, for instance, that would cut down on surface maintenance as well and provide more mulching material.
Peter

11
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Protect base of trunk from moisture?
« on: March 09, 2024, 06:16:19 AM »
It’s going to depend on what kind of tree.  Most truly tropical trees occur naturally where there is abundant biomass and the trunks have to be able to tolerate that.
Peter

12
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Moving to Panama
« on: March 08, 2024, 08:38:53 AM »
There’s some material there but not like Costa Rica. People come here to get plants frequently. Bocas del Toro is good for growing durian and other equatorial, low land fruits.
For higher altitude, cooler climates Boquete and Volcán can work well and they are also close to the CR border.
Peter

13
I think that if the tree has flowered it is a good idea.
Otherwise it would depend on if the tree was planted from seed or reproduced asexually.  If it is a grafted or layered tree then yes you can gain from layering it.
Peter

14
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Anyone growing rare artocarpus?
« on: March 02, 2024, 05:35:08 PM »
Marang can also be very good. Sells out fast at our fruit stand. Very easy to open, no latex. Very sweet. I introduce a lot of fruits and I’d say it gets a better initial response than champedek which I rate highly.
Peter

15
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Cacao questions
« on: March 02, 2024, 06:11:57 AM »
In Central America and Mexico we call theobroma bicolor pataxte, not mocambo.  Besides having a creamier pulp the seeds can be dried and eaten like tasty nuts.
Peter

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Cacao questions
« on: March 01, 2024, 06:56:31 PM »
I agree with that but would add that to make good chocolate the harvested beans need to get a good quality ferment. A very small batch of a few fruits is not going to ferment properly.
However, a small cacao tree with some fruits on it is going to be very satisfying!
Peter

17
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Belize chocolate!
« on: February 29, 2024, 07:08:25 PM »
Nice. The mixing of all the different cacaos is what has led to criollo getting scarce. If it got the premium price it deserves then it would be taken care of but the buyers in that sort of situation don’t distinguish so productive, disease resistant wins out over quality. I’m adding the photo of a split bean from our criollo tree.
Peter


18
‘Smells bad’ is very subjective. We love the smell of those fruits and durian as well. I, and most of my friends, enjoy picking up those 3 fruits and smelling them.
Peter

19
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Jackfruit grafting
« on: February 22, 2024, 05:24:37 PM »
Champedek is routinely grafted onto jakfruit.
These grafts are not easy to do in my experience for a beginner.
Peter

20
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: marcotting vs rooting question
« on: February 22, 2024, 12:28:24 PM »
That’s interesting. Rooting cuttings and marcotting have a lot in common. Since the whole thing is alive and supported by a root system it makes sense that marcotting should be more forgiving. But I guess, then in agriculture, there’s always an exception.
Thanks, Peter

21
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: marcotting vs rooting question
« on: February 22, 2024, 08:15:16 AM »
That is a very good answer except for the last point. Any cutting that can be rooted can be air layered. But not necessarily the other way around.
We commercially layer rambutan, for example. We must get 90% or better. We’d never get that with cuttings if any at all.
Peter

22
Besides cracking the shell with pliers you can also barely cut into it with a fine saw or the edge of a file.  Some will germinate anyway but canistel gets a better germination rate with scarifying. 
Peter

23
It looks like a monstera to me as well. Did your son try to taste the fruit?
Peter

24
It’s interesting. We had a lone seedling that was well isolated and it produced profusely.  We have a grafted caimito that flowers nicely but produces poorly.  We have lots of pollinators so that’s not the problem.  Both sites have good sun and drainage.  Unfortunately the seedling got heavily damaged and had to be eliminated but it was the best.
Peter

25
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: pruning safou, dabai, entawak, fiji longan
« on: February 15, 2024, 04:15:43 PM »
In the case of safou I’d say 7-8m
The others are more complicated but being really serious 10m might be practical.
Pedalai is another that is very difficult to control.
Where is your project located?
Peter

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