Picked only 3 days earlier these rambutans have blackened hairs and look unappealing due to rough storage and handling.It hardly looks like one of the classic reds.R134 is the first of the season and a premier variety with little testa clinging to flesh.

Lately I have had quite a few abiu from seedling trees and many have been great and different from their parent.In the picture at the top is a 1.6lb fruit from a Z4 seedling that was of terrific quality with a single seed.The lower fruit is a 1.4lb E4 abiu.It is clear that seedling abius are well worth growing and fruit can turn out as good as named cultivar parents.I have also heard that poor quality offspring can result but it seems to be only a small proportion from good quality parents.There seems to be alot of potential to breed new varieties.

Pearl is a variety of mango I have noticed turning up in the markets lately.I am told it is a daughter of Keitt and it has a similar taste.The stall holder at the market today told me it is under PBR and is only on a few farms at the moment.
 

There are quite a few varieties of lowland bali salaks and this is one of the best.They might not quite mix it with the upland gula pasir but they come close.The ones I have been eating today are very large with a nice apple/pineapple flavor and crispy flesh.

Today I saw large durian trees,lansiums,mangosteens dropping leaves and being scorched by excessive heat and UV in spite of the humidity being very high and there being ample moisture in the soil.

If max temps don't get below 35c soon and the UV index doesn't start dropping from 15/16 (10 = extreme rating) there could be casualties in my yard.




This kan yeow durian is getting a roasting.



Mangosteen foliage is showing signs of damage.

If the humidity was very low as well then tree damage would be far more severe.

Honey gold is a mango starting to appear in the supermarkets more often in my neck of the woods and is taking some market share from KP.It has good skin color, is sweet and tasty but has pale flesh.Above it is between a nam dok mai and a fairly colorles KP.

The same fellow with the chempedaks who lives around the corner from me has a great collection of fruit fruit trees in a small backyard with concrete paths winding through them.20 to 30 year old rambutans,mangosteens,chempedak,duku.longkong,maprang,abiu and durians trees and many more fill his block and it doesn't seem crowded under the 15 to 20 ft canopy.
There has been a record low 8 inches of rain in 6 months and the trees are stressed but responding with multiple flowering and excess fruiting.Temperatures have also been high with 25 to 34c every day lately.Many fruit and flowers fall off but clusters of survivors are hanging in there..

The durians are gumpun,luang,kan yeow,montong,D103,D99 and D102 and all are responding in a similar way with leaf loss and multiple flowering.They have been on easy street for many years. 

While the leopard skinned chempa is a fantastics fruit its twisted sister is better in my opinion.The large bulbs have thick,delicious yellow flesh and they are up tp 18lbs.

http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/new/Sorting/CATALOGUE/Pt2-Asian-eggplants.html#Solanum-torvum

The above link shows a selection of asian eggplant varieties.There are loads of types and they are used differently from the large soft fruiting annual types.

I like small crunchy types in stir fries and many dishes.
 


This tiny pea sized solanum referred to as an eggplant seems closer to a small highly flavoured tomato.It is used to flavor many asian dishes.

A friend found a tree in a suburban park today with dry old pods under it.Is it a kola and are the purple seeds (once peeled) inside still viable?

 A friend who is a retired govt tropical fruit researcher and grower advisor dropped off one his prized prized rag free leopard skin chempadaks.What a great taste and rag and flesh is the same and fruit are quite small.This is what he and I rank as the no. 2 variety in Australia and there are many.He also has the number one.

I am told by growers that my E4 abiu is one of the last fruiting adult trees of this type left after cyclonic wipeout of where they were mostly grown.I have given budwood to a few growers who say they prefer to eat this type to their commercial Z4's,as well as grays and Z2's.They have mango leaves that hang,long nippled fruit and perhaps taste the best of all types.They are not firm like some so may not be as commercial as some types.
It has been a dry year and mine have not produced as well as they should.I see bug bites on the babes and I need heaps to survive over trhe wet season.Hopefully I can show the mature fruit and it will be obvious that they are an aberrant abiu.