Myrica rubra

[fyliu]

Richard, your plants look much better than mine although mine are all still alive so far. I did the plastic bag cover for humidity. I was worried when several people told me theirs had turned brown.

The delay with the original "rootstocks" had several contributing factors. They dug up the plants right after the 15-day Chinese New Year and went to apply for phytosanitary certificate. Of course other people were also applying and they waited a week for it. The package was shipped immediately by 2nd day air, and arrived in the U.S. at the start of a holiday long weekend. Then the package was lost for several days where the inspection station had not receive it and the shipping company said it's waiting for inspection. So the plants were bareroot for 3 weeks. I was only able to save 1 out of 6 rootstocks.

Things that would have helped were deeper shade, smaller pot, less/no watering, slug pellets, vitamin B/superthrive soak.

[Rtreid]

My plants are still doing well. Four of the five have been hardened off and are in light shade. I will probably start shifting them to full sun soon. The fifth plant will be coming out of the tent this week. Interestingly I am finding that the dongkui are hardier and more vigerous than thi dingao.

Richard

[nullzero]

Richard,

That is great to hear, I am glad the Myrica rubra are doing well for you. I only had two and did not have the accommodation immediately to humidity dome the two I had. Oh well there is always a next time.

[fyliu]

I also took my plants out of humidity for a day but put them back after discovering 4 of 6 had no root growth. The 2 dongkui had roots and good foliage. My mistake was suffocating them with too much watering. Barefoot + humidity tent means water is mostly trapped and the plant isn't able to use much of it. I've been not watering for the past 3 weeks and the pot still feels heavy.

[nullzero]

Sounds like a light weight airy mix would be best, for the bare root Myrica rubra. 50% perlite 50% vermiculite?

I think I would go with these steps, If I put in a new order of Myrica rubra (after learning from mistakes, I would make sure I had all on hand ready to go);

*Soak bareroot Myrica rubra for 6-12 hours in water with some hydrogen peroxide mixed in.
* Dip Myrica rubra in Clonex
* Plant in 50% perlite/50% vermiculite
* Water with distilled water with mycorrhizal fungi mixed in.
* Place humidity dome/plastic bag over
* Place near window indoors or use artificial light such as CFLs.

[TropicalFruitHunters]

Yeah...as I stated in that write-up, the roots are not capable of taking in water for a while and can only get the moisture from the humidity.  That is why boosting humidity is so important...and fighting that impulse to water.  Glad to hear your plants are making it. 

[fyliu]

Where can I find this useful writeup?
I think light is something to avoid too much of until there are roots. Same with fertilizer.

A friend told me he soaks bareroots in worm tea with a bubbler and mycorhiza mixed in. Sounds like a neat idea.

[fyliu]

Ahh, I just found the writeup. I blame the iPod.

[JujubeTexas]

Did you buy your Myrica from Jason's fruit in China?
I notice they sell Myrica and seedless Litchi.
I am thinking of ordering from them.

http://www.fruit-trees-nursery.com/myrica_rubra.htm

Lee

[fyliu]

Did you buy your Myrica from Jason's fruit in China?
I notice they sell Myrica and seedless Litchi.
I am thinking of ordering from them.

http://www.fruit-trees-nursery.com/myrica_rubra.htm

Lee

Yes that's the place for both. Minimum order applies. I believe it's 10 for lychees and 100 for M. Rubra. My M. Rubra still hasn't recovered after 5 months.

[TropicalFruitHunters]

That really sucks man.  Is it actually alive though?  If so...don't give up hope.

[nullzero]

I have two right now, one is doing good Ding'ao... the other is in decline Dongkui (lost all its leaves). I am really disappointed that Dongkui is not doing great, it was a gift from someone in the order.

Myrica rubra seem to be very finicky growers. The drastic change in climate and the stress was indeed tough on the plants. I am hoping Ding'ao does well so I can trade scion for Dongkui.

Fang,

I am going to share some scion with you when the Ding'ao gains more size soon. I was planning to try grafting to Morella californica.. since its adapted to this region and easier to find sources of seedlings to use as rootstock.

[fyliu]

2 of 6 have leaves. 4 were hurt really badly from 2 heat spells. The grafts on those are probably gone and I'm hoping the rootstocks will come back. It was a big mistake to bring them to my Burbank apartment where there's nowhere that escapes the daytime heat buildup.

They're supposed to have fibrous roots so maybe a larger pot will help once it has enough root?

[nullzero]

2 of 6 have leaves. 4 were hurt really badly from 2 heat spells. The grafts on those are probably gone and I'm hoping the rootstocks will come back. It was a big mistake to bring them to my Burbank apartment where there's nowhere that escapes the daytime heat buildup.

They're supposed to have fibrous roots so maybe a larger pot will help once it has enough root?

Roots were fibrous when I checked them out... I thought one of the roostocks was dead... turned out it was still alive with white roots. Myrica rubra really despise the hot dry weather... very lucky to have a more humid moderate warm summer.

[Soren]

Managed to sprout 3 Myrica rubra seeds last week (out of nearly 40); I had treated them with GA3 and do hope to see more sprouting the coming weeks.

[fyliu]

Managed to sprout 3 Myrica rubra seeds last week (out of nearly 40); I had treated them with GA3 and do hope to see more sprouting the coming weeks.

Seems to be about right for this year. I heard that this year is not so good. Hope they turn out to be good tasting.

[TropicalFruitHunters]

How long did it take for them to germinate?

[Soren]

I got the seeds from my brother, who went to China in June. They were treated with 900ppm GA3 in August and have otherwise been placed in zip-lock bags wrapped with moist coffee filters.

[tabbydan]

I got the seeds from my brother, who went to China in June. They were treated with 900ppm GA3 in August and have otherwise been placed in zip-lock bags wrapped with moist coffee filters.

Lucky you.  I asked my wife to get some seeds when she was in China last summer.  She did but she didn't put them in any kind of bag, so they were kind of sorry looking when I met up with her in Singapore.  Probably I should have still tried them but I figured they were dessicated and no longer viable.

What did your brother think about the fruit?  My wife had a very low opinon of it but: she isn't a fruit fantatic like myself, and she didn't necessarily get a good variety (she just bought some from some random vendor).

[TriangleJohn]

A Japanese nurseryman was in town giving a lecture at the local arboretum. I asked him about M. rubra and he said that he does a lot of business in China and that he has seen a new variety that is massive - like the size of a chicken egg and very tasty. Both Japan and China are putting restrictions on exporting their newest creations. He was not allowed to buy and ship any, so it may be a while before I get one. I did get some seeds from a friend that went to China. They are in the dried fruit sold in convenience stores. Most often they are soaked in a licorice flavoring, these don't seem to be. I don't know how hot they may have gotten during curing. I'm going to sow them anyway. My one surviving tree imported from Japan is still hanging on and looks healthy.

[tabbydan]

A Japanese nurseryman was in town giving a lecture at the local arboretum. I asked him about M. rubra and he said that he does a lot of business in China and that he has seen a new variety that is massive - like the size of a chicken egg and very tasty. Both Japan and China are putting restrictions on exporting their newest creations. He was not allowed to buy and ship any, so it may be a while before I get one. I did get some seeds from a friend that went to China. They are in the dried fruit sold in convenience stores. Most often they are soaked in a licorice flavoring, these don't seem to be. I don't know how hot they may have gotten during curing. I'm going to sow them anyway. My one surviving tree imported from Japan is still hanging on and looks healthy.

Do you still have contact with that nurseryman?   I heard (over a year ago) a claim that the Japanese developed a loquat the size of an orange with no seed.  I think in Japan they call it something like "bee-wa" (the Chinese word for it sounds like "pee-pa").  I'm very curious about their extra large seedless loquat.

[siafu]

Dan,

Check the link below for info on the Japanese seedless loquat.

<http://www.hawaiifruit.net/kibou.htm>

[tabbydan]

Dan,

Check the link below for info on the Japanese seedless loquat.

<http://www.hawaiifruit.net/kibou.htm>

Thanks.  It seems "the size of an orange" part of the rumor was way off (a 70 gram orange would be incredibly tiny).

[TriangleJohn]

Yes Biwa (bee-wah) is the Japanese name for loquat. Chiba is the region that grows a lot of them and this nurseryman told me that they had many new varieties and some that are very large (he did not say anything about seedless). He said that there is a restriction on exporting them for either 10 or 20 years so it will be a while before he can send me one. His business is collector trees (though he does sell blueberries). In Japan the plant nurseries in an area split up the list of plants to grow so that they do not compete with each other - one nursery grows camelias, another grows azaleas. Everyone is allowed a specialty and everyone refers customers to their neighbors. Most of the land suitable for growing plants is small so all the nurseries tend to be right next door to each other. He sells a lot of trees to China (you should hear the prices some people will pay for rare conifers!) and goes there often. The best he could do for me was offer seeds from Myrica rubra fruit he has eaten which would not be sexed or named cultivars - I told him I'd wait to see if anyone had named varieties.

I can get messages to this nurseryman through local connections - he is good friends with people that work at our local arboretum, but I don't know him personally.

The best way to import trees from Japan is to piggyback your order with someone officially importing trees. The only requirements they told me was that there can be no import restrictions by the US (there aren't for Myrica rubra, I don't know about Loquat) and that I understood that the plants may not survive quarantine. Lucky for me a lot of nursery stock research is done in this area and trees are imported at least once a year. It helps to volunteer at the arboretum and to participate in all their fundraising efforts.

[nullzero]

TriangleJohn,

Very interesting info, I would love to grow Myrica rubra again. Unfortunately, I lost 3 Myrica rubra trees due to shock and weakened from the travel time from China and quarantine wait. I would love trading for seeds of good varieties sometime (I am straying away from the grafted tree due to the weakened status after the shock of travel).