I just watched the attached video with my wife.  All talking is in Thai but I will write down what is actually happening in the video.  Once you read the following, you will be able to pretty much follow the video rather well.  They are in Chantaburi.

- Opens up with him eating a bunch of fruit.  Longkong is his favorite but has never tried durian.  He wants to go where there is lots of durian.
- He's directed to a large wholesale market called Thalad Nun Sung.  It is the central location where most durian come in for export...international as well as local.
- He wants to see a durian farm or nursery.  The guys tell him there is a place close by but he must help unload the truck first.
- At a fruit farm that grows and sells durian, rambutan, mangosteen, and longkong.  Diversify.
- Gets to taste some fruit.
- They take him to one of the trees that produce huge amounts of fruit.
- Asks about using a ladder.  Demonstrates by climbing the tree...asks him to move out some in case a fruit is dropped.  Don't want it landing on his head!
- He wants to try catching and the guy shows him how.  Practices with a tiny little fruit!!
- Asks how they know which to cut.  Says the spikes start to turn brown and dry up.  Seams start to dry up and crack.  The stem has a knot that bows out more.
- The only tools used are a burlap sack and a knife.
- Ready to taste one.  The one he is holding is not ready and he asks how the guy knows.  Sound and smell he's told.  Taps the fruit to hear the difference.
- Cuts the seam from top down.  Pulls aparts, then cuts middle and pulls.
- Says it doesn't smell as strong as he thought it would.  Sweet with a little bitterness at the end.  Tastes pretty good.  Easy to eat.  Creamy.  He now understands why Thais love them.
- The next fruit is called durian blalah.  Blalah is a delicacy in Thailand of fish that has been fermented for over a year.  You can just imagine what the smell is like!  Durians, regardless of the variety, that reach this stage of ripeness are called durian blalah.  Not very popular and not sold much except to a select market. 
- The guy taps the fruit and says it sounds like a bloated stomach!
- Color is more intense.  Soft and mushy.  He says it smells like an overflowing toilet!!  Eats eat and says he doesn't understand how Thai people can eat this.  Like a fruit that has gone bad.
- This stage of ripeness...the fruit usually goes on to be processed into a candy and such.  So he wants to go see where and how this is done.
- The guy shows him how it is done and has him help out.  The product is called Thurian(durian) Guan (stir).  You stir stir stir, about 3 hours, until sugar is added.  Using a boat paddle...multi-purpose tool!
- Once done...he holds up a piece and starts to say that it looks like shit but stops when the guy comes up!
- The end product has kept its pungent smell!!  Won't go away!  Says the guy keeps forcing him to eat it!  But does say that when it starts to cool down, it does start to taste a little better.
- He purchased 1/2 kilo but swears the guy forced him to eat 1 1/2 kilos of it!  I can definitely see Warren loving even this!!!  LOL!
- He wraps up the story buy saying, like people, don't judge a fruit by its looks.

หลงกรุง - เนื้อแท้ 17Jun12

Fruit Hunting in Puerto Rico 2012

Well…another fruit hunting trip in lovely Puerto Rico has come and gone.  And what a trip it was!  We packed this trip full of farm visits like never before.

This year’s trip included Harry Hausman(HMHausman), Noel Ramos(Floridagreenman), Robert Pierce(Stressbaby), Ethan Moses(Ethan), John Vandergrift(Jsvand5), Warren Condon(Fruitguy), Kim…Warren’s girlfriend from Australia, Gwenn(GwenninPR) and her husband Ray.  All were repeat offenders except for John and Kim.  Gerry Grunsfeld(Lycheeluva) was expected to go but unforeseen circumstances at the last minute kept him from joining.  We also missed Sheehan and PJ(PJ1881) this year.

All of us non-Florida fruit hunters joined up in Florida early Sunday morning.  All ten of us would fly out to PR together Monday morning.  Warren was gracious enough to pick Robert and me up in Miami.  Sheehan grabbed Ethan from Ft Lauderdale and John drove down from up north.  We all met up at Harry’s house for a little get together and fruit tasting.  Clint(Sleepdoc) was there as well.  This young man is part monkey I’m telling you.  He also brought along a nice tasting, but unidentified, mango for us.  The orange crisp jackfruit was courtesy of his climbing abilities. 

Harry gave us a nice tour around his property.   Harry’s yard never ceases to amaze.  It really is incredible.  We had lots of laughs and ate some really wonderful tasting mangos.  Here is a breakdown of the fruit we tried at Harry’s:  Orange crisp jackfruit, seedling abiu, wax jambu, garcinia intermedia, longan, goldfinger bananas, possum trot and kari starfruit.  Mangos:  Beverly, Maha Chanok seedling, mesk, Pettigrew, Graham, Kent.   There was a couple more but I cannot read my own writing.  Link to pictures:  http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/ohiojay/Puerto%20Rico%20-%20August%202012/Florida%20-%20Harry/

Everyone piled into the vehicles and we drove over to Noel Ramos’ home.  Noel had a beautiful table full of fruit for us.  There were green and red sugar apples, Marissa and #2 abius, J31 jackfruit, Graham mango, and many of us ate some culantro for the first time.  This is the tropical version of cilantro.  We toured the yard seeing Noel’s famous sugar apples and abius.  Very very nice.  Noel fixed us mamey shakes.  Now most of us standing in the kitchen were not big fans of mamey but let me tell you, the shakes were delicious!  Link to pictures:  http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/ohiojay/Puerto%20Rico%20-%20August%202012/Florida%20-%20Noel/

The next stop was at PJ’s.  PJ has a beautiful yard and you can tell he has put a lot of work into it.  He has a lot of cool trees…fruit and ornamental.  He showed us his nursery too.  The plants were very healthy looking and all at a nice size.  Just incredible.  A few of us picked out several plants for shipping home.  And what a host!  PJ and his wife had a BBQ feast prepared for us that included a fresh salad and guacamole made from his avocados.  A good meal for a lot of hungry guys!  We sat around chatting and laughing until nearly 10:30.  Sheehan once again played chauffeur and got us to our hotel by the airport.  Link to pictures:  http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/ohiojay/Puerto%20Rico%20-%20August%202012/Florida%20-%20PJ/

So a big thanks to our Florida hosts Harry, Noel, Sheehan, and PJ.  What a way to start our trip!

It was early to rise on Monday morning.  Our flight left for San Juan at 6:10 a.m.  We landed early and got our vehicles without any issues.  Warren and Kim rented a vehicle for themselves while the six of us piled into a minivan.  Lots of great conversations but everything was a little more toned down without Sheehan and PJ along!!!  LOL!  The plan was to drive the southern scenic route to Cabo Rojo and meet up with Ian Crown and Felipe Osborne at Jardines Eneida nursery.  Ian knows the owners and was able to talk them into giving us a tour of the nursery and the rest of the property not open to the public.  The original owner, Milton Perez Zapata, who had passed on a few years prior, was good friends with Ian and Felipe.  The collection of fruit trees in the back is incredible.  Zaida, Milton’s daughter, was kind enough to be our tour guide for the afternoon.  She is a wonderful person and let us eat anything we could get our hands on…Jose Pabon and Sasha Spanish limes, mangosteen, rambutan, abiu, cashew, Malay apple, Julie and Palmer mangos, longan.  The Jose Pabon and Sasha Spanish limes were the best that I’ve tasted.  The flavor was very good.  The flesh of the Jose Pabon was somewhat softer than the Sasha.  Still one of the last fruits I would go for, but these were the best of these I’ve had.

The tour was good for Ian and Felipe as well for it brought back many fond memories.  All along the tour, we were treated with stories from Ian about Milton and the farm.  For anyone wishing to know a little more, the link below is a translation found on their website page.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://jardineseneida.com/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Djardines%2Beneida%2Bcabo%2Brojo%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1920%26bih%3D940%26prmd%3Dimvns&sa=X&ei=KHEmULnJIYaR7AHAn4DoAQ&sqi=2&ved=0CFIQ7gEwAQ

Zaida also let us pick out some grafted plants not available in the nursery.  I picked up a grafted rambutan and grafted mangosteen.  Had to.  Everybody but Harry picked out numerous plants.  Ethan needed a big cart to haul his around with Gwenn and Ray coming in a close second.  All in all, a wonderful first day in PR.  It was time to load up and head to the hotel in Mayaguez and get ready for dinner.  The first thing I did back at the hotel was to bare root my plants and repot in Promix.  A much lighter mix and good enough for keeping the plants in until the next repot.  I kid you not, each plant weighed in at least 20 lbs…the soil they were planted in was that dense.  Link to pictures:  http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/ohiojay/Puerto%20Rico%20-%20August%202012/Jardines%20Eneida%20-%20Monday/

Dinner was just the gang from Florida.  Ray and Gwenn stay in Rincon and had other plans for that evening.  Ice cream after dinner and it was time to hit the sheets.
 
For three years now, we have stayed at the HoJo in downtown Mayaguez.  The hotel was an old mission.  The rooms are cozy and the staff are terrific.  The manager allows us to clean our plants with their one and only hose and also lets us keep our plants outside in an out of the way spot instead of chilling inside our air conditioned rooms.  There is a bakery across the street that also does hot food for lunches and dinners.  It also pulls duty as a convenience store.  The hotel is center to about everywhere we go.  A perfect place to crash after a long day of fruit hunting.

Tuesday.  Another early start.  We are on our way to Ian Crown’s Panoramic Fruit farm.  We were warned that the odd weather this year had messed up some of the fruiting times.  They had more than the normal amount of rainfall every month followed by 26 days in May with not a drop, then more rain.  As usual, Ian allowed us to taste virtually everything that could be eaten and take as much as we could find and want.  The rambutan this year is probably the best I’ve ever tasted.  Unfortunately, many fruit were not ready such as durian, marang, and rollinia.  Walked the first half of the farm with great weather.  Then all hell broke loose.  We made it back to the house before the downpour hit.  Then it rained buckets non-stop.  So we hung out, chatted, and ate fruit for a while.  Some of the fruit we had:  mangosteen, red and yellow rambutan, Baccaurea macrophylla, peach palm, plantain, breadfruit, abiu, Spanish lime, lemon drop mangosteen, diamond river and ping pong longan, pulasan, white sapote, pachira aquatic, guarana, pili nut.  Link to pictures:  http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/ohiojay/Puerto%20Rico%20-%20August%202012/Ian%20Crown%20-%20Tuesday/

Since it didn’t look like the rain was letting up anytime soon at Ian’s, we headed on over to Felipe’s place…Machabuca Farm.  Felipe is now 87 years old and still gets around as good as any of us.  We all hung out on his balcony overlooking the mountain while the rain and some vicious thunder and lightning rallied for a big finish.  It cooled down nicely and was still overcast.  This made for a pleasant walk about the farm.  Felipe has a few huge pedalai trees that had several still developing fruit…unfortunately for us.  He has tons of rare cacao and herranias as well as many different fruiting garcinias.  Some of the fruit we got to try from here:  lemon leaf, salak, garcinia magnifolia, acuminate, laterifolia, and brasiliensis.  All wonderful.  It’s always great to hang out with Felipe.  Link to pictures:  http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/ohiojay/Puerto%20Rico%20-%20August%202012/Felipe%20-%20Tuesday/

The steep hills at Ian’s and Felipe’s farms wiped us out.  It was a long ride back to Mayaguez…especially after taking a wrong turn.  This is something we are used to on our trips.  GPS can only be partially relied upon and it’s very obvious that we all have a serious lack of listening skills…at least when it comes to receiving directions.  We met Ian in Rincon for dinner.  Food, beer, laughs.  Back for more ice cream and call it a night.

Wednesday was our earliest morning yet and was going to be our busiest day of the week.  Another rainy day was on us as we headed to Juan Miranda’s farm.  Juan has about 90 acres he’s been slowly cutting out and putting in fruit trees.  He has a nice selection of rambutans and of course his stand out pulasan.  And yes...there were some available this year!  They were wonderful and we ate what we could.  Amongst the rambutan and pulasan were the blue grape(vexator), and Surinam cherry.  Juan is a very humble and generous guy.  He enjoys our visits and is very happy to show us his wonderful farm.  The rain had finally slacked off a bit and it looked to be a pleasant day…no sun and not too hot.  We didn’t stay too long at Juan’s since we were all due to go back to Ian’s for a little get together.  Link to pictures:  http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/ohiojay/Puerto%20Rico%20-%20August%202012/Juan%20Miranda%20-%20Wednesday/

Ian invited some friends from Rincon as well as some others to the farm to enjoy some fruits and local foods.  I cannot remember their names but one lady I believe was a writer for a food magazine, another was an organic grower.  I’m sure Noel will remember more details since he was able to converse with them all better.  All of them were very nice and were quite impressed with our fruit hunting trip.  A neighbor of Ian’s stopped by as well as Felipe and Bryan Brunner. 

Ian took us on a tour to the other half of the farm.  More hills and steep slopes.  Warren and I slid our way down what seemed like a cliff to get at some fruiting Baccaurea macrophylla.  They were not quite ripe yet, but the potential for this fruit was high.  We think it will be a winner.  It is a relative of mafai but bigger and sweater.  Getting back up the hill/slope/cliff proved to be a killer.  A ski lift chair would have been appreciated right then.  The combination of it being very steep, wet with loose soil, vines around your feet, and hoping not to piss off nearby killer bees was very exhausting.  Oh…don’t want to forget the damn fire ants!

Ian’s crew fixed us some local treats one of which consisted of fried, mashed plantain mixed with garlic and fried again.  Delicious!  There were plantain and breadfruit tostones as well as others.  They boiled peach palm.  This was a very interesting food.  The taste was good and the uses for it were endless. 
Felipe brought along a bunch of his garcinias for tasting.  There was plenty of refreshments as well.  Some other fruit we tried were white sapote and a durian we got from Felipe.  All the durian virgins got to try some.  Most enjoyed!  Link to pictures:  http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/ohiojay/Puerto%20Rico%20-%20August%202012/Ian%20Crown%20-%20Wednesday/

After we ate more than we should have…actually ate all the food they fixed, we followed Bryan up to his farm and nursery.  Bryan is a very interesting guy to be around.  He has lots of knowledge to share and does so willingly.  He has a large path cleared out winding down to the bottom of the property.  We stop here and there to look at this plant or that plant.  About half way down, Harry says to me “Going down you don’t realize how far you have gone.”.  At the bottom is a nice little stream under the canopy of very large trees and bamboo.  It was a very cool and pleasant place to stop and rest.  Time to head back up the hill.  And boy was Harry right.  It was quite a climb and it felt pretty damn warm by the time you reached the top.

Most of us picked out some plants from Bryan’s nursery after being shown around.  Bryan also is finishing up a very nice home on the property that will be available for guests to rent.  Some of the various fruit:  strawberry guava, cupuassu, ice cream bean, mace, coco plum.  We also ate some cone ginger.  Link to pictures:  http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/ohiojay/Puerto%20Rico%20-%20August%202012/Bryan%20Brunner%20-%20Wednesday/

This was a hell of a day for everyone.  It was late by the time we got back to the hotel and we were beat.  We got cleaned up and headed back to Rincon to meet Ian once again for dinner.  Dinner was at a Sushi bar near the ocean.  The food was good and the beer was cold.  However, the service was very slow.  I don’t think we left the restaurant until close to 10:00.

Thursday was going to be our “whirlwind” tours.  We all had multiple plants that needed bare rooted, packed, and shipped.  So we had to keep our visits on track and in motion.  Time to giddy up!

Our first stop was near the hotel…TARS…Tropical Agriculture Research Station of Mayaguez.  A very old establishment with a very nice collection of all kinds of trees…ornamental, fruiting, and bamboo.  Sadhu Govardhan of Govardhan Gardens met us there to give us a private tour.  Many of you probably have either met or ordered plants from Sadhu in the past.  Nice guy and loaded with knowledge.  This is the second time he’s offered to guide us around.  We got to try:  Uvaria Rufa, Triphasia Trifolia, acai berry, madrono, garcinia bethmanii.  Link to pictures:  http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/ohiojay/Puerto%20Rico%20-%20August%202012/TARS%20-%20Thursday/

We all then piled into the vehicles and headed to Sadhu’s nursery to pick out another car load of plants.  We got to see just a hint of his farm.  What we could see was very nice and orderly.  Again, we were not able to hang out and chat long.  We said our goodbyes and speeded over to Sherry Ballester’s home and farm.

What a sweetheart of a lady.  She belongs in a class all to herself.  This lady had just gotten back from a 2-3 week trip to Panama and was hardly unpacked but willing to let us come to the farm and take us around.  Her husband Carlos, whom she says is part monkey, immediately shimmied up a very tall, narrow rambutan tree to reach some fruit for us.  Sherry was very excited about her trip.  She had gone to a Heliconia International Society conference and also did some farm tours herself.  She was in seventh heaven with all of the seeds she collected.  We ate rambutan, mangosteen, nino bananas, and langsat!  What a terrific fruit!  Thanks again to Robert who climbed the tree this year to reach the fruit and toss them down to us hungry hunters.

It’s always great to visit Sherry.  She makes you feel a part of the family and always welcome.  But we had to scoot!  Our short visit probably helped give her time to finish chores and relax so we took some pictures and speeded off to the hotel to start preparing plants.  Link to pictures:  http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/ohiojay/Puerto%20Rico%20-%20August%202012/Sherry%20-%20Thursday/

The race is on!  The post office about a mile away and closes at 5:00.  It’s going on 2:00 or more.  I have one new plant to clean off and repot that I bought from Sadhu.  Once I’m done, I make a couple of trips to the third floor carrying plants to start packing.  Bryan Brunner was kind enough to give us boxes.  I wrapped up the plants real good and started securing them inside the box.  I did not leave them bare rooted this year but repotted each one.  So it was a little more challenging to get the plants distributed throughout the box and to make sure they stayed in place.  Robert, John, and I finished first and we set off at a brisk pace to the post office…figuring we’d get there on foot faster than in the van thru all the traffic.  Finishing this up felt damn good.  We went back and offered support to the others…mainly just staying the hell out of everyone’s way.  Warren was able to get his shipped out before closing as well.  Bare rooting and packing is a lot of work!

After cleaning up, we again headed to Rincon to meet up with Ian for our last night.  Ian invited us to his condo on the beach and we hung out a while watching and listening to the surf and catching the sun going down.  Dinner was interesting.  It was done as a “tasting”.  The chefs prepared numerous dishes that was brought out one at a time with enough for a few bites for each person.  Everything was really good.  You left wanting more but pleasantly satisfied.  I believe the boys hit the ice cream place for the last time while I headed up to the room to finish packing.

There certainly was NOT going to be any sleeping for a while that’s for damn sure.  Right on the corner of our block, a night club was hosting a big techno music party for the college crowd.  None of us have ever heard anything so loud and obnoxious in all our lives.  The beat and sirens and other shit that some may call music vibrated all objects in the room.  You would have had to shout at someone standing right next to you in the room.  This went on until 2:00 a.m.  I hope a several hundred pound speaker falls on the owner.

So ends another successful PR fruit hunting trip.  A huge thank you to all of our hosts.  You each make it more than just about the fruit.  Your willingness to share your time, knowledge, and bountiful fruit is much appreciated.

Friday was our traveling day.  We had a leisurely ride back past the southern coast and up to San Juan.  I had a minor delay out of Charlotte but all in all, not bad for the airlines.  It’s good to get away but it’s great to be home.  Now if only my damn plants would arrive!!!

Just wanted to share some pics of a few things going on up here.  Thanks to Adam, Harry, Noel, and Ian, I've been busy doing a lot of grafting lately.  As you will see in the pics, it is still a bit early to hire a band just yet, but so far the grafts look promising.

Thai sugar apples.  While putting out a nice crop this year, I am experiencing a steady dieback on the branches.  This has been going on the last few years.  I've yet to halt this.




Super dwarf nana...courtesy of Warren.


Bell starfruit really starting to put the blooms out.  This lone plant has unfortunately proven to be a shy bearer.  Short style VS long style issue?  Hopefully it will have pity and put out a nice crop this year.


One of nine Imbe grafts I recently attempted.  Thanks again to Adam for the female and Sharry Larry(hermaphrodite) material.  It's been a couple of weeks now and so far 6 of the 9 still look really good and a few even look to be pushing new growth...slowly.  I did a mix of cleft and veneer.  With some input from both Ian Crown and Bryan Brunner, I tried at least two grafts on each of the 4 plants...1 somewhere down low to middle and 1 at the top.  Bryan suggested the top believing this would be the target for the best chance of the graft taking.  While not the ideal spot of course, his reasoning was that if the rest fail, I've at least got a better chance of preserving the material for future graft attempts.  And so far, all 4 top grafts look good.  I also tip pruned each and every terminal bud on the plants to redirect the energy away from those spots.


One of my Edward mango grafts.  Harry sent me a nice selection of mango budwood of Edward, Pickering, Lemon Zest, and Coconut Cream.  So far, 9 of 9 grafts are either pushing new growth already or bulging out wanting to.  Again...I did mainly veneer but did a couple of cleft grafts too.  One cleft was done on a small seedling plant.


Lemon drop mangosteen turning a nice pretty yellow.  Keeping a close eye on that!  This is a grafted plant picked up in PR last year.


This is the start of an Imbe fruit forming.  The ONLY flower of four plants that remotely tried to put out a female type flower and fruit.  Only time will tell whether it actually develops or not.  Kind of sad that the damn plant only puts out one frakking flower.  I approach grafted a branch from the big male onto this plant in hopes that more females eventually decide to join the party and in the event that the other grafts fail.


I believe this is my Sunflower pawpaw.  Thanks to our Ohio false spring, later freezes decimated all of my outside, yard fruit.


A very very lonely male jackfruit bloom.  #$&%@# %$&@ *)(@!* aggravating $&*@@!* tree!


New mangosteen grafting pushing growth.  Again...still early to jump up and down but it has remained green for many weeks now.  I'll take that bread crumb!  Ian had some mangosteen, durian, and pulasan cuttings sent up to me a while back.  This was the only mangosteen graft to take out of 3 or 4 attempts.  The durian and pulasan attempts went down in flames...rotting and turning to mush very soon after the attempt.  Actually staggering how quick they went south on me.  Very disappointing...but not really surprised.


Mayong chid maprang grafted onto the big mango that was cut down for the other new grafts.  This has been going for over a month now and has fused nicely.  Obviously no guarantee of future success but...  Since the mother plant continues to decline, all hopes are banking on this graft.


Saijo Persimmon.  Just planted this spring and it has been blooming quite a bit.  All have fallen off so far.  The one in the pic looks like it has developed farther than the rest.  I probably should knock them off so the plant can get to growing instead.

Picked up some fresh jack from a local Asian mkt today and would like to roast the seeds.  Most recipies are specific dishes.  Can't you eat these just like pumkin seeds or something?  What's the best way to do this?  Thanks

Great story and click on "view all images" under the pic of Ken and Bill Pullman.  There is a nice little video at the end.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fg%2Fa%2F2012%2F05%2F18%2Faloha_friday_exotic_fruits.DTL

For those out there who have good, blooming/fruiting plants...do your plants bloom more than once per year?  Three of my four plants put out blooms earlier and all were male.  The one plant that had hundreds of blooms did produce maybe 3 blooms that had female parts but were obviously non-functional.  My fourth plant did not put out any blooms this go round.  I wanted another chance to examine the blooms.  Hard to produce fruit when only the boys show up to party!

Here's a fun article.  There is a slide show at the bottom.  In one of the pics...the guy looks like Sheehan with curly hair!!   
http://www.nonstophonolulu.com/blogs/my-week-of-durian-love/

I love this hobby and unfortunately do not live in a climate well suited for the plants we love to grow.  Nor are there any nurseries selling these types of plants.  My only recourse is mail order.  On the GW forum, we've discussed receiving bare rooted plants a few times...especially when several of us were ordering from Thailand.  Ever since the boys designed this wonderful forum, I wanted to put a little something out covering what I've learned over the years and what works for me.

I've certainly killed my fare share of plants since beginning this hobby.  Let's just say that the shape of my learning curve would have been popular well back in Columbus' day...you know...the earth is flat theory?  Anyway, I just didn't get it.  After crying to Bryan Brunner often and some experimentation here at home, the sun was finally shining thru.  Humidity.  Boosting the humidity around the plant was the key.  There are several methods for this.  Oscar mentioned the other day about a misting station.  This method is recommended by many.  If I were to place a very large order from Thailand, I would most likely try and set this up.

The following quote below are little tidbits of experience and science I've received from a few folks a lot smarter than me in this game.  You can take it as you will or not at all, but it makes sense to me...
Whether bare root roses or bare root fruit trees, from the tiny to 15' tall, 3" caliper trees...the key is to address the shock of the bare root process- the root hairs are mostly blown off or dead from exposure to the air and they are how water and nutrients primarily enter.  The only way to minimize the chance that the non-functioning roots start to rot (besides fungicide) is to control soil moisture and you cannot do that in a oversized container.  The smaller container is a temporary one to have better control over soil moisture until new roots and root hairs have flushed out.  Can you go straight into the larger container? Of course, but then how it is watered is more critical and if it is a cool time of the year, the days are short, or the humidity is not reliably high, then you have made your life a bit harder.  Well drained soilless mixes to get a plant established enable you to take advantage of better oxygenation in the beginning and then move it after reestablished into its final mix.  Raising humidity helps to then maintain soil moisture at a lower level to again reduce the chance that a bacterial/fungal/viral infection will opportunistically appear due to favorable conditions (for the pathogen).  Dead air in a plastic bag will accelerate the chance of rot, so it must be ventilated to a degree to allow for the exchange of fresh air.

So over the years I've gotten to a point where I've achieved a very good keep alive rate...nearly 100%.  Keep in mind that you will receive plants that only have a chance with divine intervention.  Some of the ones I received from Thailand were beyond even that!     Sad but true.  The following works for me.  I hope it helps or at least opens the eyes of those thinking about ordering a bare root plant for the first time.

First things first...don't assume that the person sending you the plant knows what the hell they are doing.  Don't be afraid to ask questions.  You're paying a lot of money for something you obviously cannot get locally so make sure you get what you are paying for!  Make sure the roots are wrapped in damp moss and wrapped in plastic.  Never assume.  Ask about the box.  That guy in Thailand was using the cheapest and flimsiest boxes found on the planet...only one other person shipped worse than he did and this guy is from Hawaii but I will not mention any names...not Oscar and not Frankies.  After pestering the guy in Thailand, he started sending my plants in sturdy boxes that have the full lid.

I always have proper soil mixes made up well in advance of the plants arriving.  I make sure the mix has lots of perlite to help aerate the roots and allow water to drain well.  I also have several different sizes of containers handy also to accommodate root ball sizes.  After carefully removing the plants from the package and any plastic and ties, I immediately place the plants into a 5 gallon bucket of water with something like Thrive Alive and soak for about 15 minutes in the shade...all the while continuously spraying the plants with a hose.  Does any of this help?  It's all a part of my ritual now and it makes me feel better.     Next it's into the containers and a good watering.

I usually have a structure erected and covered in plastic with screening material over that to provide shade.  I make sure some air can circulate.  I will always try and keep the gravel/ground around the plants wet and even spray the inside of the plastic.  I try and boost that humidity as much as possible.  I used to put one of those ultra-sonic humidifiers inside and they really pump out the humidity.  Unfortunately I've not come across one that lasts very long in my greenhouse environment.  I will keep my plants under plastic for at least 2-3 weeks and usually until I start to see them flush new growth.  I try very hard to water the plants only when I know for sure they really need watering...otherwise I let the humidity do its job.  Don't rush to get the plants into full sun either.  I will not attempt to transplant anything until well after a good flush and I'm confident the plant is doing well.

Here's something I learned the hard way and by doing it myself...I will no longer bitch about a shipper charging me $5 to bare root a plant.  I've done it.  Hate it.  It's a pain in the butt.  And if someone has a bunch of plants to get out in one day, then my hat's off to him or her.  It's a lot of work to bare root, get it ready, and box up.

Well...that's it.  Like I said, this works for me.  There are a lot of good resources on this forum.  We just have to ask for help.  Don't lose a plant due to pride or being stubborn.

Interesting and informative video on breadfruit in Hawaii.

Breadfruit-A Tree of Importance to Hawaii

I wanted to share a project of mine with everyone.  Many of you from GW may remember some of this but thought I would post again since we have a much wider pool of resources now.  Everyone loves a success story and no one likes sharing failures and I'm certainly not proud of this, but we must learn from both.  Expensive and frustrating of course...but...yeah...butt.

Trying to grow all these wonderful plants in a greenhouse up here in Ohio has caused a fascination/obsession/pipedream of getting my plants to grow faster and fruit sooner.  After traveling to Thailand and scouring the web...especially Bernie Dizon's website, I was convinced that the way to do this was by multiple rootstock grafting of some of my plants...most noteably the more rare, slowest growing, and unfortunately some of the most difficult to grow...and replace!

Dizon's website swears by this method and if one believes all the articles put out in the Philippines concerning this method, then there must be something to it.  It is nothing new, many folks do it here in the states with apples and other fruit.  Joe Real, probably one of the best grafters known, does this technique with a lot of his fruit trees.

Anyways...I decided to try my hand at this method of grafting hoping to speed things along.  This was back in 2007, early in my hobby and more grafting experience would probably have been in my better interest...patience never being one of my strong points!  Again...early enough where I had lost more plants than good sense should permit.

I had a grafted mangosteen that a member from GW was kind enough to purchase from Excalibur and ship to me here.  These were rough plants.  Stunted and oddly shaped.  Slower growing than most of the seedlings I had.  I later purchased two very aggressive growing seedlings from Ong's Nursery in CA and planted them with the grafted plant.

The next candidate was a grafted mayong chid maprang obtained from Frankies.  This was my second attempt at this plant having killed the first not knowing how to recover bare rooted plants.  Unfortunately, that knowledge took more than a few attempts to kick into gear!  I purchased a few seedlings plants at Excalibur while visiting Sheehan...and later Warren.  These too were planted with the grafted plant.

The final object of my mad scientist experiment was a grafted longkong I purchased from either Sadhu or Bryan.  The plant was very tall and pretty much only had leaves up top.  Lots of room for grafting on that long, straight trunk.  Think my mangosteen was freaking slow to flush out any growth?  It was fast compared to this!  I picked up a few seedlings again from either Sadhu or Bryan and planted with the grafted longkong.

The three plants chosen for this experiment are clearly an example of fascination/obsession overriding knowledge and good sense.  I think my only grafting successes to date have been a few citrus grafts!  After several months of allowing the plants to settle in, I began.  I'd like to add here that I'm also a slow grafter.  I believe I take too long trying to make the cuts perfect perfect perfect.  Tedious really.  So armed with internet know-how and watching my Philippine DVD several times, I was ready!

The shape of the mangosteen  presented a real pain in the ass finding and preparing the graft sites.  Due to a low branch...and one of the very few the damn thing had, I opted to do one seedling at a time only doing the second one after the first graft took and healed.  This worked out well.  Both grafts eventually took and seemed to be doing well.  As time went on and after decapitating the seedlings, both continued to try and put forth new growth below the graft.  Six months or so later, one of the grafts died.  The last graft lasted about another year and it too finally died off.  While both grafts seemed to have fused with the main plant, I don't believe they ever really came together as one plant.


The maprangs.  I was able to graft both seedlings to the main plant at the same time here.  The seedlings may have been a tad small but both took fine.  After several months and a good fuse, I decapitated the seedlings.  Like the mangosteen, the grafts lasted several months or more but eventually both died off.


Longkong.  Lots of trunk room here and I used it all too!  The folks from the Philippines prepared a cut several inches in length for their approach grafts.  Well hell...if it works for them, it has to work for me!  And I'd like to point out here, and not tooting my own horn, on every single one of these grafts, I eventually had some damn good cuts and matched up the cambiums very well.  The cuts on these longkong looked like they were made for each other.  I wrapped the hell out of them, stood back, and admired my work beaming with the belief that I would soon be eating fresh longkong from my very own multiple rootstocked plant!

Unfortunately, this turned out to be an immediate failure.  No months down the road for this.  After several months of waiting, I removed the wraps only to find that neither freaking graft took.  In fact, you could see where the plant swelled between the rubber band!  Worse yet...it wasn't long after that I lost all three plants.  This was really a kick down below.


I have no idea why the grafts that looked successful ended up failing.  Nor do I understand why the longkong grafts failed altogether.  Maybe I dicked around too long with the cuts and getting them put together?  I have learned that just because the graft looks like it has taken, there is no guarantee that the two plants will become one.  I really would like to try my hand at this again.  I've done a lot of grafting since 2007 and maybe, just maybe, I've learned something.

There are more pictures that go with this fiasco if you are interested.  See the link.
http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b358/ohiojay/T%20-%20November%202007%20Multiple%20rootstock%20grafting/?start=all

I know this has already been lengthy but I found a good write-up by Joe Real on this subject and wanted to included it as well.  See below.

Not only can we multigraft several cultivars unto one rootstock, but we can certainly graft one scion cultivar and have it supported by multiple rootstocks. Skeptics call it fancy grafting without added benefits at all, while people doing this with their mango trees in the Philippines have realized benefits in some areas of the country.

Setting aside the costs of doing so, meaning, not really doing economics and commercial applications, just from the point of view of learning something new for citruses, there could be sound ecological theories as to how it could be beneficial. And this is my speculations gathered from an earlier thread that I have posted earlier and you can revisit it here, now that this rootstock forum is a good place to discuss such ideas, useful or otherwise:
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If you don't have time to look through it, this is how my speculation goes:
If you use more than one of the same clonal rootstocks for a single cultivar, that is a wasted effort. But if you use non-sibling rootstock, it would dramatically improve the whole tree's vigor and productivity due to a more aggressive root interactions and hence more efficient nutrient acquisition.

Other advantages that have been mentioned by proponents of multiple rootstocks is that you would have a wider swath of adaptability with two different rootstock types. If one doesn't perform well, the others will simply take over, increasing chances of survival or adaptation. It also minimizes chances of decline from long term graft incompatibility as the others will simply dominate the non-adapted ones.


But it is important to note that in some plants, it has been proven that plants can recognize when they are potted with their siblings or with strangers. Quote:
When strangers share a pot, they develop a competitive streak, but siblings are more considerate of each other. "The ability to recognize and favor kin is common in animals, but this is the first time it has been shown in plants," said Susan Dudley of McMaster University in Canada. After plants are potted, roots branch out to [CENSORED] up water and nutrients. But when several plants of the same species are potted together, things get a little nasty: Each plant flexes its muscles, so to speak, by extending its root growth to try and snatch up valuable resources. Unless, that is, the plants are siblings—each having come from the same mother plant—in which case they become very accommodating, allowing each other ample root space. Because the interactions between related and unrelated plants only happened when plants were in the same pot, where root space is limited, root interactions are likely what gives plants the cue that their neighbor is related. The findings, detailed in the June 12 issue of Biology Letters, may not come as a surprise to seasoned gardeners. 


When two non-sibling plants are planted together in one hole so that their roots come in contact, they would try to flex their resources to reach out the prime space within the same soil, so that whoever will dominate first, will be assured of long term success in the same piece of soil. Then this is reflected back into their above ground growth. Whoever has more established roots occupying the prime spot will be able to invest more in reaching out for the sun dominating the space. So the other one will be out-competed with another.

Now what happens if those two non-sibling plants are grafted unto one scionwood. Of course, they would still flex to out-compete each other in terms of soil space acquisition, but something here is different in that now they support only one plant which in turn support them. What happens here is that we have much more vigorous root system when two non-sibling rootstocks are used, and thus are more likely to have better supply of nutrients to the same scionwood. This is in addition to the perceived advantages of having wider adaptability and hence reliability if rootstocks of different parents are used. Thus it wouldn't make sense to do multiple rootstocks if the rootstocks are either clonal or siblings (coming from the same parents). So if ever multiple rootstocks are used, it would be preferable that the rootstocks be not of the same parents and obviously, different cultivar rootstocks are by default, not from the same parents.

This very same observation can be taken advantage of in another way, and would lend support to the practice of planting multiple trees in one hole if they have clonal or sibling rootstocks. Thus with clonal rootstocks application you can achieve high density plantings even in one hole, or closer together. For those using clonal rootstocks with different cultivars grafted over them, it is recommended practice for home gardeners to plant them together into one hole if you don't know how to graft. The Clonal rootstocks won't compete with each other even if they have different cultivars grafted over them. I have done multiple cultivar planting into one hole and have proven that it works and the trees are now big in my yard. The reason why it worked is because the rootstocks are either siblings or clonal and were fully cooperating with each other, and the one hole with several trees behaved exactly like the size of one regular tree. Of course you would have to know the stature of the cultivar when grafted unto particular rootstock. You would then position the more vigorous grafts towards the north, the less vigorous towards the south, and those of medium and equal vigor to the east and west.

But if the rootstocks are non clonal nor are siblings from the same mother, when you plant them into one hole, then it would be the survival of the most competitive in that one hole.

There is also a chance with specific combo that it will not necessarily work, as there is that scionwood interaction where perhaps the same plant signals, ie, hormones, are passed to the roots so that the different rootstocks in turn would be cooperative rather than competitive. But it is nonetheless exciting to find out.

Joe comments on Bernie Dizon:  Bernie Dizon is cool. He has received many achievement awards in the field of tropical fruit trees. He promotes multiple rootstock. I have also suggested to Bernie Dizon to use rootstocks that are non-siblings. Apparently, they have used any compatible rootstock they can get hold of and do multiple of them.

More from Joe:
For sure, the double rootstocks should result in vigorous scionwood growth, now that you have two nutrient suppliers, even if they are siblings. The one scionwood has to balance with the added root system, and so would grow more or balance.

The use of non-siblings would just be better if you can get them. Most likely, you need to get seeds from two sources that don't have the same seed supplier. Then when you do multiple rootstock, combine the various sources into one tree.

In what you did is never a screw up, it would help your tree, as already proven by Bernie Dizon in some of his trials, and they were not aware of the sibling status of rootstocks. Now that we have proof about more stability and vigor of non-sibling rootstocks, I would prefer that approach.

And it is never too late to add more rootstocks later on, so if you can source some seeds that you know are from a different geographic region, you can use those to add rootstocks later on.