Yangmei (Morella/Myrica rubra) thread

[K-Rimes]

Forgot to mention I did get these fabulous yangmei scions, and I am excited to see if they work on this Californica. If they kill the plant again, I swear to god, I give up other than seedlings. This Californica has been in ground since around Sept or Oct last year and has been growing robust.

[simon_grow]

Lets see the progress of everybody's yangmei

Here’s a couple pics of my Yangmei jungle.






Thanks Fruitfool, pinkturtle and ScottR! It would be awesome to get some homegrown fruit this year.

I also planted seeds from my Weee order last Summer and some seeds are just starting to sprout. I just ignored them like everyone else and they sprouted on their own.

Simon

[nattyfroootz]

Just dug up some seedlings to transplant them to a wider spacing. I had about 10 seedlings i planted at 6' apart, lost 3 but the 7 have been growing incredibly fast.  After seeing people talk about them being huge i wanted to make my spacing more in line with the rest of my yangmei block, about 10' spacing. Not very many roots in the top 6-8" of soil and lots of large roots with fibrous roots coming straight down off the bottom of the plant. We'll see how they recover. Plants are about 2.5-3' tall. Was fun to do in terms of learning what their roots are like. Very little gopher activity around these lower roots.

[Reedo]

Just dug up some seedlings to transplant them to a wider spacing. I had about 10 seedlings i planted at 6' apart, lost 3 but the 7 have been growing incredibly fast.  After seeing people talk about them being huge i wanted to make my spacing more in line with the rest of my yangmei block, about 10' spacing. Not very many roots in the top 6-8" of soil and lots of large roots with fibrous roots coming straight down off the bottom of the plant. We'll see how they recover. Plants are about 2.5-3' tall. Was fun to do in terms of learning what their roots are like. Very little gopher activity around these lower roots.

This is great! Thanks for sharing Nate! I never would have guessed their roots would look like that. Seems like they'd be really drought tolerant with roots like that. It will be interesting to hear how those do compared to grafted plants on other species.

[gozp]

I received my yangmei's from China. They shipped with the soil, barerooted all of it & drenched with diluted hydrogen peroxide then rinsed with seaweed & placed on pot full of myco powder & drenched with seaweed.

Did not notice any knots after carefully inspecting the roots, the only way to find its clean is through a microscope.


Varieties are white crystal, dongkui, black carbon, black crystal & early beauty.

I had them for 2 weeks now. So far they doing fine outdoors.

[seng]

gozp, where you bought it from?  How much each?  Thank.

[simon_grow]

Here’s another update of my Yangmei. The weather is getting warmer and we are also getting more sunlight hours and I’m not sure if it’s the increased light, warmer temps, or a combination of both that is causing my blooms to convert to vegetative growth.

If it’s the heat that is causing the blooms to turn vegetative, the growers in warmer climates such as those growing in Hawaii or Southern Florida will have to ensure they get sufficient cold stimulus to get blooms and fruit set. Alternatively, they can look for varieties that may not require as much cold stimulus to trigger blooms.

My male tree still has blooms on it but there are very few male blooms left. The good news is that it appears this male produces enough blooms/pollen to pollinate the earlier and later blooming varieties. In April, there are very few blooms on my male and female plants, everything is definitely winding down in terms of blooms.

Here’s my Ann Hai on Californica rootstock. It is growing in a large pot and it set a ton of fruit. I stopped counting after 200. So far, I have not noticed any fruit drop.










Here’s Dongkui on Californica rootstock





White Honey on Cerifera







Wandao








Biqi



Special variety from a friend






Male with blooms winding down






Simon

[wampee]

My young yangmei tree leaves are browning slowly one by one, and fell off, not many leaves left. Does anyone know what I can do to help?

[K-Rimes]

Yet another rubra on californica graft pushing, lets see if this tree dies like my others did. I have several other grafts on it that are older than this one, it has been maybe 3 weeks since I put these on. This tree is in a part shade area of my yard, and the last Californica that was growing nicely with "crystal" on it was full sun. Died from the yangmei graft downward till the Californica itself died. It is so frustrating.



Seedlings in various other parts of the yard, a few are looking quite good

[simon_grow]

My young yangmei tree leaves are browning slowly one by one, and fell off, not many leaves left. Does anyone know what I can do to help?

Do you have a picture of your tree? Please give us some background. What rootstock is it on? Did you graft it? Is it imported from China?

Simon

[simon_grow]

K-Rimes,

Looking good so far. Hopefully this one makes it. Did you leave any supporting leaves to keep the branches alive?

Simon

[K-Rimes]

K-Rimes,

Looking good so far. Hopefully this one makes it. Did you leave any supporting leaves to keep the branches alive?

Simon

I left a good amount of branches on a few parts of the tree. They are certainly growing way stronger than the grafts are, but I am willing to leave them be for awhile while the grafts get some weight to them. On the last californica that died on me, I removed all the lower growth once I had some weight on the crystal graft, but I suppose maybe not enough?

I'll leave some nurse branches on there for much longer this time.

I do think that this californica, being in part shade, will live a happier life than the last one.

[Reedo]

K-Rimes,

Looking good so far. Hopefully this one makes it. Did you leave any supporting leaves to keep the branches alive?

Simon

I left a good amount of branches on a few parts of the tree. They are certainly growing way stronger than the grafts are, but I am willing to leave them be for awhile while the grafts get some weight to them. On the last californica that died on me, I removed all the lower growth once I had some weight on the crystal graft, but I suppose maybe not enough?

I'll leave some nurse branches on there for much longer this time.

I do think that this californica, being in part shade, will live a happier life than the last one.

Are you experimenting on any other rootstocks? My grafted M. californica looks a little chlorotic compared to my pensylvanica plants. I'm growing out some cerifera to experiment with as well.

[simon_grow]

Some of my Yangmei grafts on Californica had yellow leaves during the coldest part of Winter and they started turning green as the weather warmed.

Simon

[K-Rimes]

Are you experimenting on any other rootstocks?

Negative, just californica here.

[FV Fruit Freak]

Here’s another update of my Yangmei. The weather is getting warmer and we are also getting more sunlight hours and I’m not sure if it’s the increased light, warmer temps, or a combination of both that is causing my blooms to convert to vegetative growth.

If it’s the heat that is causing the blooms to turn vegetative, the growers in warmer climates such as those growing in Hawaii or Southern Florida will have to ensure they get sufficient cold stimulus to get blooms and fruit set. Alternatively, they can look for varieties that may not require as much cold stimulus to trigger blooms.

My male tree still has blooms on it but there are very few male blooms left. The good news is that it appears this male produces enough blooms/pollen to pollinate the earlier and later blooming varieties. In April, there are very few blooms on my male and female plants, everything is definitely winding down in terms of blooms.

Here’s my Ann Hai on Californica rootstock. It is growing in a large pot and it set a ton of fruit. I stopped counting after 200. So far, I have not noticed any fruit drop.










Here’s Dongkui on Californica rootstock





White Honey on Cerifera







Wandao








Biqi



Special variety from a friend






Male with blooms winding down






Simon

Awesome work man...Congratulations are in order!!! Guess you don’t need to buy from Weee this year Super cool to see those fruits on your trees!

[simon_grow]

Thanks Nate!

I love Yangmei so much that I will still be ordering through Weee this year. I started thinning the fruit on some of the branches and I noticed that the fruit is covered in a type of resin that has a strong Yangmei/sandalwood smell. The smell makes me crave Yangmei so bad!

Since this is the first year I’ve fruited Yangmei, I don’t know how much natural fruit drop to expect from my potted trees. If my potted trees are able to hold a decent amount of fruit, I would guess that Yangmei will be a very coveted dooryard fruit tree for those gardeners that live in a climate suitable for growing this delicious fruit.

Simon

[simon_grow]

A lot of the fruit are now marble size and I have not noticed any natural fruit drop yet. I was afraid to thin too much fruit but since it appears the trees are going to be holding most its fruit, I will have to do a heavy thinning this weekend. Check out how heavy the fruit set is.







Simon

[nattyfroootz]

I had a dream last night that my Yangmei plants were loaded with fruit this year. I must have been thinking about Simon's plants!

[roblack]

I had a dream last night that my Yangmei plants were loaded with fruit this year. I must have been thinking about Simon's plants!

I dream of awakening in Simon's garden at harvest time, and gorging on yangmei and other goodies.

Then, my dream turns into a nightmare, as Simon realizes I'm stealing his fruit...

[Jaboticaba45]

Any updates from east cost people? How are they doing for you?

Tbh I’ve stalled out with yangmei, but I hope to grow a few for me!🤓
Going to be grafting some more!

[simon_grow]

I had a dream last night that my Yangmei plants were loaded with fruit this year. I must have been thinking about Simon's plants!

I’ve been dreaming about Yangmei for about the last three years so hopefully this is the year my dreams will come true There’s still plenty of time for me to screw things up and I’m especially worried because my trees are still in pots and these fruit are supposed to ripen in Summer.

I hope you and Rob will get to live your dream soon, maybe just not in my yard, lol!

I’d also love to hear how everyone else’s trees are doing from other states/climates. Yangmei can supposedly take pretty cold temperatures so hopefully members from other states can have success growing them in the cooler climates.

Simon

[Nick C]

Up potted my seedling plant. Currently flushing new growth