The Tropical Fruit Forum

They grow well for me in my mix of clay loam with manures and coco fiber.
Peter

In CR you can get certified rock dust, even imported stuff like azomite but we went for the basic and use it along with potassium sulphate.
You’ve complained about your soil being out of balance before and I think a good amount of basic rock dust can help. Our issue is the stuff is so damn heavy to be hauling up hill on the farm. I’ve seen durian do very well in a soil with grit and so I’m inspired. The applications of potassium and phosphate are light applications.

I think rock dust is a great idea and we use it. I wouldn’t compare it in any way with rock phosphate or potassium sulfate. The rock dust to me is more of a long term project that can help a lot with texture and balancing out a soil that is almost all clay. Eventually small amounts of minerals should become available but that’s not going to be like the phosphate or potassium which are amendments that you might apply in more frequent cycles like every 6 months perhaps.
We see rock dust as more like biochar in that once it’s applied to a spot it doesn’t get applied there again. The biochar is an essential part of our microorganism application program.
Peter

I would cut away the affected parts, leaving only what is healthy. Weakened foliage can be easy for fungus to establish.
Suerte, Peter

For this purpose we work for the most diversity possible. Our farm has ample secondary rainforest with a large native canopy. We rely on these forest corridors to support our soils in the cultivated orchard areas.
Peter

I don’t really like soft Jakfruit very much except dehydration. But champedek is different.  I sell them both and champedek gets the better price.  Champedek has zero latex in the fruit.  That’s a plus.
Peter

Champedek on jackfruit rootstock is standard. If you can get it I prefer to use champejak but the regular jackfruit will work fine. I have some success with cleft graft on young rootstock and better with approach that I leave for about 8 weeks.
I also noticed at a nursery in Malaysia that they were using jackfruit rootstock for champedek grafts.
Peter

I’d start them in any tray or wide pot as a group, then transfer to individual pots as they germinate.  They should be kept moist but I would not keep them submerged in water.  I think it’s best for seeds to begin rooting into a medium similar to what they will eventually be planted in.
Peter

15m is about right. Should be soon.
Peter

As far as the vanilla is concerned, I don’t have production comparisons right now but the growth looks the same in the 3 areas where I have plants. 
One of those areas has good soil underneath.  Another is too wet for my liking and the third has poor soil from a landslide.
But I have seen vanilla grown on cement or gravel in Mexico.  Then they support a medium of composting biomass that measure about70cm across and 30cm high.  That medium gets applications of all kinds of stuff.  The idea with having gravel underneath is to keep out any pathogens that might be in the soil.
Peter

It’s taken awhile but our place is profitable as an organic agroforestry farm.  It works because we grow stuff that gets a good price.  It’s a business.

Nice video, you certainly are putting a lot of effort into this and your approach seems well thought out.
I’ve noticed at my farm that the soil quality varies significantly from area to area as well.  The area has a history of landslides and we had one five years ago that completely changed an area of 5000sq meters.  At first it was a soft, creepy moonscape.  Then some sections burste forth with growth while others to this day barely grow weak looking grass.  I replanted the areas of high weed growth with fruit trees and the result was amazing.  In 3-4 years I had production of sapodilla, canistel, terap, and others.  The areas that seemed unsuitable have been planted with vanilla and pitaya since they don’t really need soil.  Those epiphyts are on living posts with stakes around their base to hold the biomass they want.
Anyway, that’s a small scale solution to a good soil, bad soil solution.
On crops that produce high income we apply rock phosphate and magnesium sulfate.  We also apply manures and we apply laboratory produced lactic acid every two weeks unless it’s too dry.  Everywhere we apply microorganisms has biochar which we produce on the farm with a TLUD adapdted steel drum. 
I don’t think leaf cutter ants help in any way.  The leaves that they bring to the nest are all subsequently removed by them and decompose on top of the sterile hills they produce.
Saludos, Peter

Personally, I would use microorganisms.  An EM type culture of lactic acid micros ot trachederma culture applied as a drench to the root feeding area and perhaps on the foliage as well.
Peter