Rambutan in Florida

[Tomas]

Hello,

I am not even going to ask about Pulasan, but is there anyone anywhere in Florida who has a fruiting Rambutan tree? I assume there must be a couple of enthusiastic people already tried to grow rambutan in Florida and failed.

Tomas

[HMHausman]

Tried....never got one larger than about 2 feet tall. 

Harry

[Tomas]

Hi Harry,

Sorry to hear that. But I think it was valiant of you to try. Do you happen to remember if they died when the cold weather set in or was it more slow, declining process?

Tomas

[murahilin]

Rambutan definitely seems to be more cold hardy than pulasan. I've grown both and my pulasan even survived a winter outside. Not the two cold winters two years ago but more like 4 years ago.

I bought two seedling rambutans from Excalibur about 5 years ago. They were in 3 gallon containers and about 3-4 feet tall. Decent sized trees. I kept them in the container and continuing with my usual style of neglect I left them outside for the entire winter. They only lost their leaves and had barely a few inches of die back. Resprouted in the spring and I killed them by not watering them by summer. That was my rambutan story.

They seemed to be more negatively affected by the high PH water than the cold.

Excalibur used to have a bunch of grafted rambutan in the front corner of the nursery that seemed to survive a few winters outside. They looked pretty bad due to being chlorotic from the water and not enough fertilizer but the minor cold wasn't the big issue. The first super cold winter 3 years ago killed them I think. If grown in a container, and moved inside for super cold and fertilized well, I think rambutan can be grown and fruited in S FL.

The biggest problem would be to keep the water and soil PH right.

[Cookie Monster]

Makes sense. A lot of the more interesting tropicals prefer an acid soil. That's why I like mangoes so much -- because they thrive on neglect (here in FL at least :-).

Rambutan definitely seems to be more cold hardy than pulasan. I've grown both and my pulasan even survived a winter outside. Not the two cold winters two years ago but more like 4 years ago.

I bought two seedling rambutans from Excalibur about 5 years ago. They were in 3 gallon containers and about 3-4 feet tall. Decent sized trees. I kept them in the container and continuing with my usual style of neglect I left them outside for the entire winter. They only lost their leaves and had barely a few inches of die back. Resprouted in the spring and I killed them by not watering them by summer. That was my rambutan story.

They seemed to be more negatively affected by the high PH water than the cold.

Excalibur used to have a bunch of grafted rambutan in the front corner of the nursery that seemed to survive a few winters outside. They looked pretty bad due to being chlorotic from the water and not enough fertilizer but the minor cold wasn't the big issue. The first super cold winter 3 years ago killed them I think. If grown in a container, and moved inside for super cold and fertilized well, I think rambutan can be grown and fruited in S FL.

The biggest problem would be to keep the water and soil PH right.

[HMHausman]

I pretty much agree with everything Murahilin says....except that there is no "seems' to the relative cold resistance.  Pulasan is flat out more cold sensitive. Neither likes the cold and while I would love to fruit either here in Florida, rambutan would be a whole lot easier to fruit than Pulasan.  Of course, you'd figure that would be the case since I like pulasan better than rambutan.  But, I would be more than willing to suffer through a fruiting rambutan tree if I was forced to.

Harry

[lycheeluva]

  Of course, you'd figure that would be the case since I like pulasan better than rambutan.  But, I would be more than willing to suffer through a fruiting rambutan tree if I was forced to.

Harry

your comments nearly always give me a chuckle.

[natsgarden123]

Rambutan definitely seems to be more cold hardy than pulasan. I've grown both and my pulasan even survived a winter outside. Not the two cold winters two years ago but more like 4 years ago.

I bought two seedling rambutans from Excalibur about 5 years ago. They were in 3 gallon containers and about 3-4 feet tall. Decent sized trees. I kept them in the container and continuing with my usual style of neglect I left them outside for the entire winter. They only lost their leaves and had barely a few inches of die back. Resprouted in the spring and I killed them by not watering them by summer. That was my rambutan story.

They seemed to be more negatively affected by the high PH water than the cold.

Excalibur used to have a bunch of grafted rambutan in the front corner of the nursery that seemed to survive a few winters outside. They looked pretty bad due to being chlorotic from the water and not enough fertilizer but the minor cold wasn't the big issue. The first super cold winter 3 years ago killed them I think. If grown in a container, and moved inside for super cold and fertilized well, I think rambutan can be grown and fruited in S FL.

The biggest problem would be to keep the water and soil PH right.

Do you think if you had watered them more, they would have survived? - I love the taste of Rambutan but I didnt think it would grow here

[Mike T]

It might be worth trying some of the less equatorial types.Rongrien.R134 and R9 are three of the best and grow strongly right through Winter here which is fairly mild admittedly.They could stand more cold if healthy in good soil and out of strong wind.

[FloridaGreenMan]

Of course, the famous plant collector Bill Whitman fruited outdoors them on his property in Bal Harbour Florida but this man did whatever was required to get them to fruit, no expense was too much. 

[Tomas]

Thank you all for the input. I will give it a try.

Tomas

[fruitlovers]

Of course, the famous plant collector Bill Whitman fruited outdoors them on his property in Bal Harbour Florida but this man did whatever was required to get them to fruit, no expense was too much.

I think the other person to fruit rambutan in Florida was Adolf Grimal. Murahilin is right, the rambutan, and also pulasan, are allergic to your limestone soils. Your high water pH will also kill them. So if you pot them up in good garden soil , use low pH or neutral water, and protect from Arctic blasts you should be able to fruit them. Rambutan is much easier because it's a plant that is more widely adapted and more vigorous than pulasan. Puladan i s a bit of a challenge even here. I think pulasan is more at home closer to the equator than we are.