34
« on: August 20, 2018, 04:23:03 AM »
Main problem with abiu is that they don't resist very well to the wind. Trees I have grown from seeds years ago keep breaking and uprooting easily as soon as winds get above 120km/h although I have large and tall pinus windbreaks( local variery called "bois de fer" or "iron pinus" in english ) .
As a result my abiu orchard is always a mess even with heavy pruning before cyclons season. The ones that are grafted are even more fragile to breakings. I don't think I have any airlayered ones ( can't remember lol ), but I reckon that uprooting risk/problem will be worse than with a taproot unless they are planted in a windy protected spot.
Another point is that they fruit pretty quickly and there is not much difference between a grafted tree and a seedling in terms of fruiting time ( about 3 years for both grafted ones and seedlings ). The only difference is the flowering. Grafted trees tend to flower very quickly ( first year sometimes ), but they do not fruit. So still have to wait the third year to get a first fruit production. As a result, I cannot see much advantage airlayering an abiu.
For your info, I have planted about 150 abiu trees ( small abiu orchard ) with only about a third grafted ( australian Z4 & Philippino Dr Coronel ). I have also acquired in the past abiu seeds from many differents localities /suppliers ( hawaii, peru, french guyana, tahiti, brazil, australia, etc... ) and got really nice/different fruits at different times of the year which is quite interesting. I am going to start selecting the best varieties I have grown from seeds in the coming year.
I really like that fruit and I am convinced it deserves more work and interest. Great commercial potential value I think.