You can buy premixed agar (with plant nutrients included) from hydroponics or tissue culture shops. You only need to boil the agar powder when you get home, pour into sterilised containers and pop in seeds in the jello once it cools then you're set.

http://www.ngadjonji.bigpondhosting.com/Food/table1.html

http://keys.trin.org.au/key-server/data/0e0f0504-0103-430d-8004-060d07080d04/media/Html/taxon/Mammea_touriga.htm

Seems to be used mostly as animal feed?

A cubic metre of good soil (aged manure and mushroom compost and other odds and ends) costs $80 Oz - and an IBC container (around $30-100 each depends on how grubby/clean it is) needs roughly 2 cubic metres of soil    all that just to plant one banana in a "pot" instead of letting it grow wild in the ground and keep peace with the neighbours!

I will stop when I've run out of money and any kind of space to stick plants in otherwise, this "oh, a fruit tree/odd veg/pretty orchid/endangered timber/possible biofuel source and so on" is prob going to on indefinitely    unless I sprain my back/shoulder or end up tripping and falling inside those blasted IBCs.

Oscar haven't encountered a seeded pineapple in the Phils ever pineapples in the stores (locally) come from Lapanday (Aloha and Estrella) or Del Monte and DOLE Phils. Smaller pineapple farms grow the old Spanish Red I think as the plants have very spiny red leaves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BK2bfkjqJw

Camp Phillips - Del Monte Bukidnon Pineapple Farm - wonder what sort of pineapple they're growing

Hi! I was thinking I'll try some Plinia for bonsai - first guinea pig is Jabos  - Sabara and Branca (as I am already growing a couple of less than 5 year old seedlings).


Since growing a decent sized trunk means I have been growing them in terracotta pots half buried in the ground (so they can grow out roots from the holes at the bottom of the pot and help them grow a larger trunk a bit faster) and I am assuming since Jabos as are supposed to have generally shallow root systems they would probably end up in the plant ICU when I lift the pots out of the ground and trim roots (and crown) a year from now and move them into bonsai pots - but hopefully won't die(!) - what other Plinia species would make a good bonsai candidate?


Anyone have any experience root (and crown) pruning other Plinias and how did it go? Which ones ended up needing TLC for a year (or two at most!) and which ones made a decent rebound within a year and which ones kicked the bucket?


More info:
I usually give trees a year or two to recover from a drastic root and crown pruning before I start training branches and shaping the tree into a presentable bonsai.


Regarding crown training - I'm going for the easiest and most natural form - either a Chokkan (normal round crown) and Hokidachi (upright  broom style) - this will be the least fussy training wise (less wires and clamps and twisting growing limbs and so on).
For size - I'm going imperial, the largest bonsai class - 60 to 80 inches max height-wise. I'm thinking this would mean I don't have to cut off too many branches given the size of my current seedlings and this will let me use pots large enough to give them enough space to regrow roots...


And the most important question - any chance they will still fruit a few years after being given the bonsai treatment (even a handful of fruits will do!) as being able to grow a fruiting/blooming bonsai would really be nice


TIA for tips and advice. 

Hi, I'm Nick from the UK, living in Brighton. I've just started my own online nursery selling tropical fruit plants and seeds for UK and Europe area. I grown using 2 polytunnels and also have a whole room in my house set up as a grow room with 6 dual spectrum HPS grow lights. I grow at the moment, grafted mangoes (nam doc man and keitt), air layered lychee (unknown variety), lemon drop mangosteen, theobroma cacoa, herrania balaensis, grafted attemoya, cherimoya, jackfruit, surinam cherry, pitangatuba, grated stone ruby guava, dwarf cuban guava, strawberry guava, mangosteen, sugarcane, various bananas, pineapples, cas guava, grafted carambola B17. I've also started to teach myself tissue culturing techniques. Having to now move house......as i've run out of room to grow any more plants!! My dream is to build a tropical "house" where I can literally grow everything to fruiting size.......Regards Nick

www.thebloomingjungle.com

Hi Nick, welcome to TFF!

I believe during the 80s Arenga, Areca, Caryota, Nypa, Phoenix, Borassus - have all been tested for tapping - for fermenting sap for toddy liquor to pure bottled pasteurised sap - there was a small market for "healthy palm juice" way back then, I can remember my grandmother buying bottles of the stuff from some obscure farmers market when I spent summers with her as a child.


Nowadays the Philippines prefers coconut - so coconut sugar and coconut "nectar" (pasteurised sap sold as bottled health drink). It's one of the reasons why old traditional tall coconut trees are gradually being replaced with dwarf coconuts - easier to tap and collect sap from height-wise, plus it only takes 3-4 years from the first inflorescence vs 8-10 years if you plant the tall coconut (traditional) cultivars.


Regarding fermentation - I was told farm workers collect the sap every 4-5 hours and the sap is filtered and boiled right after collection - no additional anti-fermentation additives used, organic sells better so everyone does the organic cocosugar processing route.


All of the palms listed in the table (in the link you provided) can actually be found in the Philippines - some are endemic, some introduced for ornamental purposes! Even the endemic C cumingii is commonly sold as a potted houseplant. A lot of commercial establishments have large potted fishtail palms - they look particularly nice in in giant white/black pots beside marble or granite clad building walls.

I'm not too sure as I only have one "Bangkok" santol (yellow) tree vs 5 "Native"santol (red).





Bangkok (yellow type) - personal observations
New leaf - very light green
Mature leaf - large dark green (sometimes up to 30cm!)
Dry - yellow


Native
New leaf - reddish
Mature leaf - light green actually, size? smaller around 12-18cm
Dry - red


I should add that what we call Bangkok santol in the Philippines is actually the Thai cultivar Teparod or Kan Tong (fruit generally 250g) vs Native santol (fruit barely 80-100g).


I've seen a really large Santol fruit the street vendors call "Super Bangkok" I'm not sure which Thai cultivar that one would be.  It's starting to get popular/more readily available - bought a few and they topped the kitchen scale at around 400-500g each.


Oscar, what have you observed please? Also, any idea what Thai cultivars have fruits that are that heavy (400-500g)? And since I popped a few seeds of those Super Bangkok in pots any chance Santol grows (relatively) true from seed?

There is a seedless guava Zulfiqar that is supposedly popular in Taiwan and Thailand?
It's pretty bland.

You can take a day tour of John and Lyndall Picone's farm in Tyagarah NSW and go on a sampling adventure of their various jackfruit crosses if I remember correctly its $20 (Oz) per person for the whole afternoon. They've got a lot of other exotic fruit trees, vege, herbs and such in their collection - visitors are allowed to eyeball the whole farm and eat whatever is available - ripe pickings. Not sure if they can help you ship seeds / seedlings out of Australia but you can probably ask they're very nice people. Took a tour of the Picone Farm a year or so ago if I remember correctly they have about 200+ kinds of fruit trees on their property - not counting their own crosses.

He's got fruit still on the tree - so he has a tree 
If there's one thing I learned from buying gardening supplies and plants thru gumtree - fellow gardeners are quite generous and will let you take scions for free as long as you ask nicely.

I'm still propagating from my tree and have 9 more up as seedlings from fruit 1 of 2 this year.

Seeds I would love but no one is offering it seems.

Pulled fruit 2 of 2 tonight and will get a few seeds out of that for propagating.

you have to start a new topic in Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell and Trade for that - here it's just general questions for where to find and stuff not outright trading and such.


http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?board=2.0


And pardon mods - I know no selling here but Treemo there's a black gold available on gumtree:


http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/wishart/miscellaneous-goods/very-sweet-tasty-jackfruit-and-chempedak-cross-black-gold-/1107244761


And ads for jackfruit available within QLD:
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-qld/jackfruit+trees/k0l3008841

http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CACTI/Family/Cactaceae/10426/Neowerdermannia_vorwerkii
Anyone growing this or already managed to a taste test? I saw some of it being sold (pricey!) And figured I'd ask for actual cultivation/growing tips not something off the web?