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Topics - jesseblenn

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Just to let you all know that I have LOTS of Salak or Snake Fruit seeds available.  See these and others on ebay.com by searching Costa Rica Exotic.

I have enough Salak to sell in quantity if anyone wants.  For smaller quantities or other things please do use ebay as it saves me time and organizational problems.  I am too busy to answer many messages....

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you check out the THORNLESS Pejibaye or Peach Palm description there.  ALSO, anyone in developing countries who wants some let me know, I can give you a special deal, like free or only the shipping costs.  These REALLY should be more widely planted.

I will have other new fruits like good Santol, Fiji Longan, South American Sapote, etc later.... just search Costa Rica Exotic .  I try to have good prices and the best packing to arrive alive.

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The advantage of styrofoam over other packaging is that is allows plenty of air space which the growing seeds need.  A few months ago I recieved Durio oxleyanus seeds that were FOUR MONTHS in the mail and they are doing fine.   They went to the US in 6 weeks, sat around there 3 weeks, went to my bother in 2 weeks, and came to Costa Rica in 6 weeks.  That is an example of how slow the mail can be.  Six weeks from Borneo straight to here is normal.

I have ordered so many things that arrive dead, some had sprouted well and then suffocated due to lack of air.  Nephelium (rambutan, pulasan) never survive from Borneo but I have had them over 3 months in styrofoam in tests I did, growing well.

HERE IS THE METHOD

1)  Rinse and clean seeds, usually wiping with cloth to remove all fruit. A daily rinse is great to keep them alive before sending.  Some will even start to sprout, which is fine.   I usually do a final wetting of the seeds and shake off excess water before packaging, as they will need water to grow en route.

2) Break up ordinary styrofoam (the white bead board) into a plastic bag.  The pieces should be about the size of peanuts in the shell.  The broken edges are important because they give surface area to hold moisture.  Don't use the smooth commerical "styrofoam peanuts".    I use about FOUR times as much styrofoam as seeds.

3)  Put enough water in the bag that you can shake around to wet all the pieces of styrofoam, then pour it off leaving the damp styrofoam in the bag.

4)  Pack the styrofoam pieces and seeds evenly distributed in a Ziploc bag, then put it inside another Ziplock with the Zip on the other side (to avoid death if one of them opens)...

5) Pack in normal bubble padded shipping envelope or appropriate box.

6) This system has been tested for 10 weeks with Rambutan and 16 weeks with Durian with excellent results.  It can also be used to send live bare root plants, or as a handy way to store seeds or plants when you can't plant them immediately.

**  An additional point is that ordinary Hydrogen Peroxide is a fabulous FUNGICIDE.  It has literally saved hundreds of baby orchids that were on the point of death.  Better than any commercial fungicide, but likely with no residual effect.   I mix it three parts water to one part peroxide.  It would probably be great to disinfect seeds before shipping or storing.

 We seem to have more fungus here in Costa Rica than in Asia, and I lost my initial four or five lots of Baccaureas to fungus within a week or two.   Yet once I used fungicide (soaking the entire seed and pot in a small bucket) it worked wonders and I now have Baccaureas growing great with NO additional fungicide treatments.  I used Amistar fungicide but now use Kiloll (sounds bad)  which is from grapefruit seed extract.   I can recommend a fungicide soak on all Asian seeds, the best insurance policy.

THANKS MUCH AND BEST WISHES!

Jesse Blenn, Costa Rica 

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