Author Topic: Seeds of Borassus flabellifer, the Asian Palmyra palm, Toddy palm or Sugar palm  (Read 6310 times)

Roy-Ind

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A few seeds are available with me

Each seed weighs 220 to 250 g.

Roy
« Last Edit: September 26, 2013, 12:15:40 AM by Roy-Ind »

micah

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Aloha Roy,
Could you tell a little about it the fruit?. I've read male/female? how is the fruit harvested when ready? I saw pics before of a BIGGER fruit variety, have you ever?
We got 3 growing well..
.and some direct seeded into the ground...they grow slow..I mimicked a pile of elephant dung substituting with a huge heap of horse dung...the poops gone and the palms are healthy but very slow ...just a couple of long leaf.

Roy-Ind

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In India Toddy palm has many uses.Sap is collected from the tree and made into toddy or boiled to make candies.Palm candies are used in cold & cough.Leaves are used to make roof.Leaves are also used to make hand fan.Jelly seed sockets filled with water from the unripe fruit are a delicacy.Yellow juice extracted from ripe fruit is dropped into boiling oil to make a famous sweet in Bengal.The tree is dioecious. It is very slow in growing.It takes many years to fruit. There is proverb that the father plants a seedling and the son enjoys the fruit.
The fruit is very large weighing more than a kg.

Roy

fruitlovers

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Hi Micah, they're delicious. Kind of similar to a jelly meat coconut. In India and Thailand they grow in areas that are extremely dry but seem to tolerate high rainfall as well. I noticed in Burma that everything practically is made out of them, including furniture. The leaf sheaths are used like bamboo.
I've got some growing here and can show you the plants next time you're over. They are about  5 feet tall.
Oscar

plantlover13

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Aloha Roy,
Could you tell a little about it the fruit?. I've read male/female? how is the fruit harvested when ready? I saw pics before of a BIGGER fruit variety, have you ever?
We got 3 growing well..
.and some direct seeded into the ground...they grow slow..I mimicked a pile of elephant dung substituting with a huge heap of horse dung...the poops gone and the palms are healthy but very slow ...just a couple of long leaf.

Fruit tastes delicious, I don't know why but to me a longan is a good comparison for the taste.

HIfarm

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Oscar, I have heard estimates of 12-15 yrs to fruiting -- does that sound reasonable with what you have seen for growth rate? 

John

fruitlovers

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Oscar, I have heard estimates of 12-15 yrs to fruiting -- does that sound reasonable with what you have seen for growth rate? 

John

Yes because they are quite slow. Maybe even longer, like 20?
Oscar

Roy-Ind

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Anyone has seen sugar palm(We call it Tal) tree fruiting in 20 years.

I have not seen it fruiting in 30 years.

Among all palm fruits in India,this takes longest period to grow and give fruits.

Every part of the tree is useful(I mentioned in my previous reply).Even the trunk is used in many ways.

Roy

HIfarm

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Thanks, guys, not on my "short list" of things of I gotta have (I would like to see fruit before I die).  I was a little suspect of the 12-15 yr estimate as Roy Danforth estimated its cousin, B. aethiopica, as taking 25-28 yrs.

John

fruitlovers

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Thanks, guys, not on my "short list" of things of I gotta have (I would like to see fruit before I die).  I was a little suspect of the 12-15 yr estimate as Roy Danforth estimated its cousin, B. aethiopica, as taking 25-28 yrs.

John

They are very rare in Hawaii, and if everyone takes the same attitude they will never be. Look at it this way: a very attractive palm. And you can certainly see that in your lifetime.
Oscar

plantlover13

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Thanks, guys, not on my "short list" of things of I gotta have (I would like to see fruit before I die).  I was a little suspect of the 12-15 yr estimate as Roy Danforth estimated its cousin, B. aethiopica, as taking 25-28 yrs.

John

They are very rare in Hawaii, and if everyone takes the same attitude they will never be. Look at it this way: a very attractive palm. And you can certainly see that in your lifetime.

Again it's this mentality of "it takes too long." so what if it takes 15 years? all that means is that you better start now.

fruitlovers

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Thanks, guys, not on my "short list" of things of I gotta have (I would like to see fruit before I die).  I was a little suspect of the 12-15 yr estimate as Roy Danforth estimated its cousin, B. aethiopica, as taking 25-28 yrs.

John

They are very rare in Hawaii, and if everyone takes the same attitude they will never be. Look at it this way: a very attractive palm. And you can certainly see that in your lifetime.

Again it's this mentality of "it takes too long." so what if it takes 15 years? all that means is that you better start now.

I get that line all the time when trying to sell trees: "i'll probably be dead by then." Surprisingly a lot of the people that say that are still quite young, not at all seniors. Yet they also often have little children at their side. It seems they don't mind that their children will be orphaned?  :o :o
Oscar

plantlover13

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Thanks, guys, not on my "short list" of things of I gotta have (I would like to see fruit before I die).  I was a little suspect of the 12-15 yr estimate as Roy Danforth estimated its cousin, B. aethiopica, as taking 25-28 yrs.

John

They are very rare in Hawaii, and if everyone takes the same attitude they will never be. Look at it this way: a very attractive palm. And you can certainly see that in your lifetime.

Again it's this mentality of "it takes too long." so what if it takes 15 years? all that means is that you better start now.

If you don't start now, then when the heck are you going to start?

I get that line all the time when trying to sell trees: "i'll probably be dead by then." Surprisingly a lot of the people that say that are still quite young, not at all seniors. Yet they also often have little children at their side. It seems they don't mind that their children will be orphaned?  :o :o

knlim000

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the challenge with this palm is that when you get it to fruit by the  time you are senile, you cant even climb up to pick the fruit unless you are still a young lad. or you can post on craigslist for a hobbyist climbing to challenge them to climb up the tree.

DimplesLee

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Interesting. In the Philippines sugar palm is Arenga pinnata. Supposedly we also have Borassus flabellifer if wiki is to be believed. Prob something I have to look for when I get back as well.
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bsbullie

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the challenge with this palm is that when you get it to fruit by the  time you are senile, you cant even climb up to pick the fruit unless you are still a young lad. or you can post on craigslist for a hobbyist climbing to challenge them to climb up the tree.

There are fruiting Sugar/Toddy Palms in Boynton Beach.   They arent to such extreme heights that you cant harvest them.  The bigger issue or challenge, unless sowing directly into the ground,  is germinating and raising them in pots for future planting.
- Rob

knlim000

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http://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/Borassus_flabellifer

are there different variety? i am use to seeing the one in cambodia that are so tall.

bsbullie

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http://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/Borassus_flabellifer

are there different variety? i am use to seeing the one in cambodia that are so tall.

While there are different species of Borassus (a few i know of off hand being native to Africa ) however I am referring to flabellifer or a subspecies thereof (seeds were brought here from Thailand ).  Yes, they can get upwards of 100 feet but they fruit well before they reach that height.   I am not saying they fruit at 10 feet but the fruit is able to be harvested  by extension ladder or cherry picker, just as a Panama Giant coconut.
- Rob

knlim000

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can it be topped off so that it doesn't get too tall?

DimplesLee

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It does not seem to be the suckering type of palm? The specimen at  George Brown Botanical garden doesn't seem to have suckers altho it drops nuts (do we call it nuts) everywhere? And people prob used to get those and plant them all over as I remember seeing it a lot in the area (it was not a Bismarck palm as it had the characteristic black trunk). 

I think most non-suckering palms die when topped? But I have seen Coconut (Cocos nucifera) grow an alternate branch (wrong term?) sometimes, after the growing tip has been damaged say, by a storm. Although it's very, very rare, most times the coconut tree just dies off.
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bsbullie

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can it be topped off so that it doesn't get too tall?

I would not make it a habit to top any palm.  The life is in the crown.  As Dimples said above in rare instances I have seen solitary growing palm "branch " off the trunk however it is very uncommon to rare.
- Rob