Author Topic: Myrica rubra  (Read 73271 times)

TropicalFruitHunters

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Myrica rubra
« on: February 07, 2012, 08:15:35 AM »
As many of you know, this fruit tree has been in various forums in the past years and unfortunately has been largely unobtainable.  There is a group from the Cloudforest forum who found a nursery in China that will supposedly ship plants to the US.  There seems to be a minimum order of 100 plants.  Apparently, the group did place an order but no further info is available just now.

One thing to keep in mind and I dearly hope these guys don't discover this the hardway, but there is nothing between China and the USA that is going to help these guys out if this shipment goes into the toilet...or they just take the money and don't even ship.  The guy said they got permits for California but that is still no guarantee with USDA...as we know. 

Here is the nursery website for anyone intersted in browsing.  http://www.fruit-trees-nursery.com/

lycheeluva

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2012, 08:22:31 AM »
the cloudforest group are supposed to receive their order this month- so we should know more soon. if it goes through, id love for this forum to put together an order. they have seedless lychee trees and couple of other cultivars not available here. i would def put in an order for 6-7 trees if we could put an order together, perhaps with delivery to florida where the majority of us live.

TropicalFruitHunters

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2012, 09:44:42 AM »
Sounds something like Sheehan would love to spearhead!!!!   ;D

TriangleJohn

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2012, 10:20:58 AM »
I have a few. One is a small bush sized plant that I have in the ground with protection. It is a rooted cutting from a seedling grown from seed stock imported from Taiwan or Okinawa. The original bush lived for 3-4 years in the ground here in Raleigh before dying (I wasn't aware of it until after it died and I believe it died in the summer). Its leaves are not like the Yamamomo you see in photos online (a bit more serrated). We are having a very mild winter and yet it is still suffering. I think it will survive but there will be winter damage.

I have three potted grafted plants that came recently from Japan. One appears to have died, one is having a few problems but looks fine. The third one is doing great with a great deal of new growth. I have no idea what the rootstock is, it is sprouting leaves and they don't look like any sort of Myrica to me. These three are being wintered over in my simple hoophouse/greenhouse where I store my citrus and large tropicals.

They were legally imported by someone that was buying and importing trees for research (not fruit tree research). He was going to Japan and I casually mentioned that I was searching for named cultivars of Yamamomo and he said if the dealers he was working with had any he would pick them up for me and send them through USDA with his stuff. He surprised me with these three. He is also the person that gave me the rooted cutting from the seed grown tree a couple of years ago. He took a lot of cuttings to be back ups in case I kill any of the ones I bought. I haven't seen him in months and haven't heard how his plants are doing.

It took me five years to track down my first plant. I've ordered seeds from China in the past and none of them sprouted and I did every trick in the book.

These trees are common roadside trees in zone 7 Japan and China but they don't fruit much that far north. Prime fruit production is in the same zones that grow Satsuma citrus.

I assume the grafted ones are females and I hope the one in the ground is male.

Jacob13

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2012, 10:33:00 AM »
Hello Friends,

I am not sure if some of you Remember, but I was going to put together a goup order like this about a year ago.  They had the Myrica Rubra, Maha Chanok Mango tree, No Mai Tze Lychee, and various other cultivars that are largely unavailable in the US.

However, there were many Red Flags that resulted in me canceling the order.  The biggest being that the only method of payment he would accept was Western Union.  He claimed to be the biggest exporter of Fruit trees in his region to the rest of the World, and on the other hand said that his business didn't accept Credit Card payment, nor Paypal.  I obviously thouht this to be pretty wierd that for a business of that size, or at least what he claimed it to be, not to accept Credit Card payment was pretty hard to believe.

He also began with something like a 500 tree minimum order, and some other exorbitant import Fee.  When I told him I couldn't buy 500 trees, nor pay the ridiculously high import fee, we parted ways.  Then he miraculously got back to me, and told me that because of some new trade agreement, the import fee was no longer required, and that there was only a 100 tree minimum order.  I thanked him for the information and told him that 100 trees was still too many and that I wasn't interested.  Again, we parted ways.  Shortly thereafter he got back to me and told me that he now had a new minimum order.  He said that he would ship to me with a $250 minimum order. 

After that discussion, I thought $250 would be doable with a Group order.  So, I proceeded to speak with the Forum folk to see who was interested.  During this time, he became very impatient and very insistent that I send the money right away and would accept payment via Western Union.  Again, I found it hard to believe that a business his size, or what he claimed it was, did not use Credit Cards, and only accepted payment via Western Union.  I mean come on, he claimed to ship 1000's of trees all over the world and was one of the biggest suppliers around.  So the fact that he was really sweating me over a measly $250 also seemed strange for a business that was supposedly so big.  Also, there is that thing about bringing trees into California, so even if he was legit, that was no guarantee that they wouldn't be seized at Customs 

All of these were Red Flags for me and a bit too big of a risk with other peoples' money so I decided not to move forward.  Hopefully, the group that has ordered from Jason Nursery has good luck and will receive the trees.  That would be so Great!  I just thought I would share my experience I had dealing with this Nursery.

Jacob

lycheeluva

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2012, 10:46:36 AM »
wow Jacob- that does seem incredibly suspicious.
maybe the whole seedless lychee thing is a load of bs!!!!!!!!
I guess we will know more in about a month or so by which time the cloud forest order is supposed to have come through

nullzero

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2012, 11:22:02 AM »
We will see if the order goes through. I only ordered (2) trees, so I don't have much on the line if the order fails. There are a couple people who have ordered quite a few trees. Crossing my fingers the order comes in without problems.
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TropicalFruitHunters

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2012, 12:56:21 PM »
Null...can you provide a bit more info on what you guys did...such as permits and anything else?  Thanks

nullzero

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2012, 01:09:33 PM »
Null...can you provide a bit more info on what you guys did...such as permits and anything else?  Thanks

Do not know all the exact details, the order is arrange by a person down in San Diego. From what I heard permits, shipping, and all those details were being completed by the nursery guy (instructions were given by the lead of the group order). The plants were set to be shipped out soon, sometime after Chinese New Year ended. Half payment on delivery confirmation, other half on arrival.
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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2012, 06:59:56 PM »
wow Jacob- that does seem incredibly suspicious.
maybe the whole seedless lychee thing is a load of bs!!!!!!!!
I guess we will know more in about a month or so by which time the cloud forest order is supposed to have come through

I'm guessing that by seedless lychee they really mean chicken tongue seeds, ie aborted seeds, not really seedless, which as far as i know does not yet exist.
Oscar
Oscar

lycheeluva

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #10 on: February 07, 2012, 07:01:13 PM »
oscar, see my post on  seedless lychees

lycheeluva

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #11 on: February 10, 2012, 01:13:39 PM »
so I emailed the website owner and asked what the minimum order was - this was his response-

the minimum order are 200 trees ,of course,you can  satisfy the minimum order requirement with an order of several different varities ,but not more than two varities,because it
will influence apply for Phytosanitary Certificate.


if he was an out and out crook who just took money and run, why make conditions- why not say, sure, order whatever varities you want. anyway. we'll know soon enough when the San Diego order does or doesnt come through

TropicalFruitHunters

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #12 on: February 10, 2012, 01:34:10 PM »
Think how much $$ 200 trees would be.  I hope the guy is on the up and up for the sake of the folks who made this first order.  That's a lot of trees!

TriangleJohn

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #13 on: February 10, 2012, 04:07:12 PM »
Here's some photos of the best of my small collection.

I protect the one in the ground with a wire cage filled with dry leaves and then wrapped in plastic sheeting.

The newly purchased tree shows its label but all I can read is Yamamomo without any cultivar or variety name.
There was an addition ribbon tag put on by the friend that brought it to me with the hand written name 'Zulko'

I grew up in Japan and that is not a Japanese word.






simon_grow

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #14 on: February 16, 2012, 03:39:11 PM »
Hey Ohiojay, Ong's Nursery carries Strawberry trees.  You can try giving him a call to see if he can ship. 

Simon

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #15 on: February 17, 2012, 06:09:30 PM »
Order was shipped out today  :), will update when I get the plants.
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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #16 on: February 17, 2012, 08:06:40 PM »
Do you have an estimate time of arrival to California?  If you can get the details of how this all goes down, it would be very interesting to hear.  I sincerely hope that it goes well for all of you.  Sounds like the China source at least held up there end of the bargain so far.  The biggest hurdle may be our own USDA/Customs.  Good luck!

fruitlovers

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #17 on: February 18, 2012, 08:16:07 PM »
Hey Ohiojay, Ong's Nursery carries Strawberry trees.  You can try giving him a call to see if he can ship. 

Simon

Strawberry tree usually refers to Arbutus unedo, which is very common in California, not Myrica rubra.
Oscar
Oscar

simon_grow

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #18 on: March 01, 2012, 02:18:48 PM »
Thanks for the info Oscar.  I did find a website called Ty ty that has an add on youtube that is supposed to carry the Chinese Strawberry Tree.  Has anyone checked out this site? 

Simon

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #19 on: March 01, 2012, 02:56:43 PM »
Be cautious with anything to do with Ty Ty ! They have been ripping gardeners off for over 25 years.

Thanks,

Ed
Apopka, FL

TriangleJohn

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #20 on: March 01, 2012, 03:34:29 PM »
TyTy has the Arbutus hybrid not Myrica rubra. If that is what you want there are better places to buy it.

Lycheeluva - the guy that took cuttings from my plants says they are not doing well. I will see him tonight and find out if any are good enough to send one to you. Otherwise you may have to settle for cuttins from my older tree while you wait for my lone survivor from Japan to get big enough to take cuttings from.

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lycheeluva

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #21 on: March 01, 2012, 03:56:42 PM »
many thanks TC.

I will probably try and put together an order from the Chinese nursery. Will post details tomorrow.

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #22 on: March 01, 2012, 04:33:52 PM »
nullzero,

Any more word on the order?

lycheeluva

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #23 on: March 01, 2012, 04:46:44 PM »
until NZ replies in more detail- i can tell you the plants came in. Half were in good shape. Half were not, but may be recoverable.

nullzero

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Re: Myrica rubra
« Reply #24 on: March 01, 2012, 05:21:58 PM »
Im going to post pictures this weekend (Saturday evening). The trees did come in some were in good shape others not. Unfortunately, I only ordered (2). Everyone received at least 50% of their order of good trees. However the other 50% were marginal due to the time of shipping.

A new order is being planned (waiting on an email update), I may order (4) trees this next time around. After experiencing this order, one should expect potential marginal trees in the order. The cost of the trees was very reasonable however.
« Last Edit: March 01, 2012, 05:26:19 PM by nullzero »
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