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Messages - fruit nerd

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1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interest in Jackfruit on TFF
« on: March 27, 2024, 03:59:34 AM »
I'm expecting a good year. My J33 seedling produced its first fruit a couple of months ago. I gave it a very hard prune before a cyclone in Dec last year. It's bounced back quickly and think it ready to hold more fruit this year. Another jackfruit flowered last year but failed to set fruit, hoping that changes this year. Also have a chempedak which I think could flower this year for the first time. Exciting stuff.

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Aggressive rambutan pruning
« on: March 23, 2024, 08:07:56 PM »
Thanks for the information. Yeah, that's what I'm planning on doing. Regular maintenance pruning is MUCH easier than hard pruning where you are cutting through thick mature wood. I wonder what the best time of year to do the drastic pruning is? I was thinking about May but I wonder if cold weather could be a problem after such a heavy prune.

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Aggressive rambutan pruning
« on: March 23, 2024, 07:39:03 AM »
Thanks for the information Peter. It'll be a pretty big job but I think it should be worth it.

4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Aggressive rambutan pruning
« on: March 23, 2024, 05:26:10 AM »
We have 3 very large rambutans, 2 red and 1 yellow. Fruit quality is excellent and the flesh comes of the seed easily. The problem is though, the trees are absolutely massive. This means I can only harvest fruit is the lowest ~4m and the rest goes to the local wild life. At the moment, I've lost most of our fruit to lorikeets (native bird) and fruit piercing moths. They also take up a lot of space and I want to plant more trees.

Now to my question, what's the best way to tackle this? I want to bring the trees back to a manageable size. You can see they have been pruned back very hard years ago. In my opinion though, the height wasn't brought down enough. I'm thinking of pruning back to ~ 2m. Would it be best to cut back to the stump or cut at the branches? Also, one rambutan tree has a fair wound on it. Not sure if that's something to worry about.

Thanks!







5
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Top working rambutan
« on: March 21, 2024, 07:49:02 AM »
At least your fruit wasn't rotten or eaten by parrots. Seriously don't understand how your place is flying under the radar at the moment. Interested here about top working rambutan. Mine will be getting an aggressive chain saw prune. Happy with all my trees, just too big :).

6
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Petai beans
« on: March 21, 2024, 12:31:27 AM »
I have a couple of young tree in FNQ, Australia. So far, very easy to grow. I don't water or fertilise ours and they grow very quickly.

7
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interest in Jackfruit on TFF
« on: February 10, 2024, 05:04:07 AM »
Interesting, those strong downslope winds were very localised. Heard of damage around Babinda and Redlynch, and now Gordonvale. The winds from Jasper were much stronger near Mossman. My durians took a good month to recover though my jackfruit had no damage. Did your friend do any pruning before Cyclone Kirrily? I guess not since I don't think most people were expecting strong winds.

8
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Not enough Durian Discussion
« on: February 06, 2024, 07:06:55 PM »
I use deep pots and will cut the tap root where they hit the bottom of the pot. I've pulled a few durian out with root problems (bought, not grown myself). Planting durian with a curled up tap root is a bad idea I think. I wonder sometimes if people up pot durian which are root bound which masks the problem.

9
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interest in Jackfruit on TFF
« on: February 05, 2024, 03:15:13 AM »
I’ve seen that experiments going on with trelesing in Australia to make them hold up better.

Have you seen the research on growing jackfruit from cuttings? Pretty interesting stuff.

10
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interest in Jackfruit on TFF
« on: February 05, 2024, 03:13:48 AM »
Is Meadowcroft Farms in a cyclone prone area?

Yes, they are very much in a cyclone prone area. I think you are right about the vase shape, but keeping the trees short helps counteracts that I suppose. We were hit by a cyclone last year and our jackfruits were fine. I did give them a heavy prune beforehand and we have a good windbreak. It was only a Category 2 though, any stronger and it might have been a different story.

11
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interest in Jackfruit on TFF
« on: February 05, 2024, 12:19:48 AM »
Not doubting Dr. Campbell's tips but I suspect that pruning during the warm, wet time of the year is more applicable in subtropical climates. Where I am, jackfruit trees grow vigorously all year.

12
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interest in Jackfruit on TFF
« on: February 04, 2024, 12:21:33 AM »
Yes, I know what you mean. The tree I didn't shape early is basically a thick trunk with small lateral branches. It has flowered but not set fruit. The modification that I did on the second was to have two levels of branches. I has already fruited off one of the lower branches.

13
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interest in Jackfruit on TFF
« on: February 03, 2024, 08:35:38 PM »
I think this is a great video on jackfruit pruning by commercial jackfruit grower in North Queensland, Australia - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncTZPb-FjCw. I started shaping one of our jackfruits early and now it has a nice shape (following the approach shown in the video, with a slight modification). Another jackfruit of the same age was only topped and does not have a great shape. Trying to get a misshaped tree into the shape you want it seems like more work so I'll be aggressively shaping my trees early from now on.

14
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Not enough Durian Discussion
« on: January 30, 2024, 03:29:37 PM »
No experience planting trees anywhere near that size for me. They are huge :). What you say makes sense to me but I'd be interested if anyone has experience planting something like these.

15
I'd just pop them in a tray with some water. They'll be fine for a while and will germinate in the water if left long enough. Waiting till Friday shouldn't be a problem.

16
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Not enough Durian Discussion
« on: January 25, 2024, 08:28:10 PM »
Yes, at the local Agricultural store. Good news about the flower, but shame about the lack of fruit set. I bought a sunan a couple of months ago which is growing well.

We had some strong winds where this morning. Offshore from here had gusts to around 60km/h. A few of my durians were getting bashed around a bit but I'm sure they'll be fine. My stakes have done a good job at keeping most of them upright.

17
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: ?!!!
« on: January 24, 2024, 06:09:11 AM »
Yes, they are a very good fruit, could be in my top 5. Wish they grew a bit quicker though :). As someone with a strong dislike of mandarins, I think they taste totally different.

18
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Not enough Durian Discussion
« on: January 22, 2024, 05:54:45 PM »
Thanks guys. Yes, sure going to be hot over the next week :).

The fertiiser I have used is this one - https://tff.com.au/our-product-range/organic-life.

19
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Not enough Durian Discussion
« on: January 22, 2024, 02:38:31 AM »
A more positive post for a change from me. The photo below is a red prawn seedling. After the recent heavy rain, the top was flopping over. I have used a plastic stake fastened to trunk to straighten it up. Works well, thanks Peter.



Also, here's another durian planted next to the red prawn seedling. No idea what it was but tasted quite different to typical durian so we planted it. I'd say it has generally grown a bit slower than most of my other seedlings. After cyclone Jasper though, I piled up small branches, wood chips and bigger chunks of wood and also chucked on some organic fertiliser. Seems to be really taking off now.



20
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Interest in Jackfruit on TFF
« on: January 20, 2024, 04:31:07 AM »
I love jackfruit, one of the best fruits out there I think. I have 6 trees, though 3 were only just recently planted. Two have flowered but only one set a fruit. They are so easy to grow here. The main problem is keeping on top of pruning since they really take off. One is 2.5 years old from seed and has a ~10cm trunk diameter after little watering and no fertilizering other than some chop and drop.

21
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Not enough Durian Discussion
« on: January 19, 2024, 05:01:37 PM »
Sounds good. Thanks for the advice Peter. Still raining at now but will get a bit of a window tomorrow and early next week to try and fix these problems.

22
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Not enough Durian Discussion
« on: January 19, 2024, 02:15:27 AM »
A lateral branch on my PK durian isn't looking too good. Been a month since the cyclone and it wouldn't surprise me if the branch was damaged. In addition, it's been very wet here recently with rain everyday. Any ideas on what caused this? The tree looks quite healthy otherwise. Also, is it worth pruning off the dead wood? Hesitant to prune with this wet weather but also don't want fungus growing on the dead branch. Finally, the top of the tree has flopped over. This occurred after very heavy rain last week. Since it's getting higher now, I can't stake it up. Should it sort itself out in time?



23
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Abiu cross polination for more fruit
« on: January 06, 2024, 04:39:44 AM »
not to hijack the thread but anyone selling any gray seeds or Z line abiu seeds?

I'm in the wrong country unfortunately. Good luck.

24
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Abiu cross polination for more fruit
« on: January 06, 2024, 04:38:59 AM »
Ours do not get effected by fruit fly, fruit spotting bug or cockatoos. The only problem we have are flying foxes.

I'm going to have to give a correction. Our abiu have been getting effected by fruit fly at the moment. We have picked thousands of fruits and never had a problem before, though have had issue with bananas. Hopefully the local cockatoos don't learn about abiu too :).

25
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Not enough Durian Discussion
« on: January 01, 2024, 06:06:39 AM »
I have a few 3 year old seedling rambutan trees that flowered heavily one set no fruit probably male one is loaded with fruit very excited to try them and pretty happy to have fruit growing from seedling in 3 years.

Did you lose a lot of fruit in the cyclone? Two of our trees were loaded with fruit and I guess we lost at least half the crop. Interestingly, they have both flowered again and setting more fruit so not too bad.

Most of our durian are bouncing back quickly after the cyclone. I have gone through and pruned off dead lead leaves and branches as well as mulched heavily around quite a few trees. Pulled out one since it had several branches with no leaves and we have other durian to plant in it's place.

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