I've been in Thailand for 3 years now. I've tried to collect varieties not normally found growing in Thailand. I'm sure there may be a few others with backyard specimens, but I just don't hear about it very often. More and more rare stuff are becoming available here and that's really good news for collectors. Most stuff that is available range from seeds to very tiny seedlings and rarer still...a grafted specimen. The still more rare, bucket-list type of trees are unfortunately only found in Malaysia/Indonesia. So you need to take a chance in ordering or going there yourself. If that were my only obstacle, it would be no big deal. The biggest hurdle I have here in my area is freaking low humidity most of the year. Yeah...Bangkok is not the tropical paradise I hoped it would be. Low humidity is a killer of most of everything I want to grow. I've learned that while there is no substitute for good, butt crack dripping humidity, daily watering will at least keep things alive and going in the right direction...mostly. It's been a struggle. It's been frustrating. But it keeps me busy and engaged.
This is my grafted Pelangi, or Rainbow durian. The name Pelangi translates from Indonesian to mean “rainbow,” which is a descriptor used to highlight the unique flesh coloring. Pelangi durians were created from natural crosses between three distinct durian species: durio zibethinus, durio gravoelens, and durio kutejensis. This particular mound has not been kind to durians over the past 3 years. Okay...I admit I could have had a hand in their deaths, but let's move on. This is try #3 I believe. The second try with the Rainbow durian. The last one seemed to be a very weak specimen and just couldn't make it out of its slump. This one I approach grafted onto a much larger monthong tree I purchased. It has been decapitated and will now serve as a second root system. So far the tree has been responding very well.
Since I have several different pics on Artocarpus, I wanted to throw out my thoughts on this subject. Leaves. Artocarpus must have the most confusing leaves of all trees. Some juvenile trees can, or seem, to have at least two different sets of juvenile leave shapes/patterns, and not all of them always look exactly the same. These always seem to be way different that what the final, mature leaves look like. This makes identifying young Artocarpus difficult at best. You may never truly know what you are growing until someone can 100% identify the tree by its mature leaves, or by its fruit.
These are my keledangs, Artocarpus lanciefolius. I purchased seeds a while back from a local Thai that travels to Malaysia/Indonesia to bring seeds and such back with him to Thailand. These two seedlings have been growing very well and would/should have been much taller than they currently are. Unfortunately I tried to graft keledang scions onto both trees...scions that I obtained in Indonesia. The grafts failed so spectacularly, it killed the tree from the graft site and up causing me to cut each tree at least by half. They have since recovered and are now flushing new growth consistently...especially the second tree. Both have started sending out compound leaves too. So far, these are looking to truly be keledang, but there is always that little bit of doubt.
This is one of my Prainea limpato seedlings from Indonesia that I approach grafted onto a jackfruit. So far it is doing very well and all that bright green growth on top is new. The graft took and is healing over nicely. Long term?? Who knows? I did the same with keledang, kemando, and bondon. All succeeded as well. Unfortunately, after cutting the seedling part away below the graft, the scions started wilting and I failed to put them under plastic fast enough. The jackfruit the bondon was grafted onto actually died. So will need to start over soon with these. I'm glad the limpato succeeded because my remaining seedlings look very weak. All of these Indonesian seedlings require high humidity and we just can't provide enough of it here and they suffer for it. I didn't take pictures of the rest of my Indonesian collection. It's depressing and just pisses me off. However, the Artocarpus kemando, for some reason, doesn't give a damn about the low humidity and is the one specie that has been growing like crazy. Blows my mind.
This is supposed to be my pedalai, Artocarpus sericicarpus. I say "supposed" because there are some that don't believe it is pedalai due to the pattern of its juvenile leaves. Again with the leaves! I've looked at lots of pics of trees with juvenile leaves and I'd say the patterns match 50% of the time. It's frustrating as hell. The seller swears up and down that the seedlings he brought back from one of his trips is most definitely pedalai. Anyway...I recently pruned it way back to encourage lower branching to spread out rather than grow straight up. Since this tree specie is in doubt, I may end up grafting one of my Indonesian seedling artocarpus to this.
This is my marang, Artocarpus odoratissimus. This was a seedling I grafted onto this huge jackfruit almost two years ago now. I've since been pruning it back to encourage lower branching. I also inadvertently snapped off a large branch when dicking around trying to pull the branches into a more spreading habit. I guess I pulled a little too hard. As with the pedalai above, this marang legitimacy is also in question by a few. These juvenile leaves will drive you nuts. Maybe once the new leaves unfurl fully on both trees, someone can take another poke at an ID.
This is my Butterscotch sapodilla. I grafted a small seedling back in my greenhouse in Ohio prior to coming to Thailand. Brought it with me and then approach grafted that onto a bigger tree I picked up at the market here. It blooms all the time but has yet to set a fruit. When it does set fruit...it had better be damn good. I'm not a huge fan of sapodillas to start and Gary Zill himself got me all hyped up on this tree and so I had to have it. And here we are.
Grafted pink ilama. Bloomed a few times, but never set fruit yet. Just grows wild needing constant pruning.
Ahhh...another durian bordering on disaster. This is a grafted durian Lai. Lai durians are botanically a part of the Durio genus and are believed to be a natural cross between the wild fruit, Durio kutejensis, and the common durian, Durio zibethinus. These are being sold all over Thailand as "Indo Red". All the pictures show a red flesh graveolens. All marketing and all bullshit. The fruit bears no resemblance to a graveolens at all...rind or flesh. Believe it or not, there are two separate trees on this mound and both have multiple rootstocks...which I've come to believe is also a lot of bullshit. Both trees have had a two steps forward, one step back grow history. Seems like soon after there is a nice, positive growth flush and I'm seeing some upward growth, something will happen. Bugs destroying leaves or something else. My conclusion with durians are this: they are a pain in the ass.
Soursop. This has been a long-time frustrating tree. It has a very weak root structure and has fallen over multiple times. Flowers some and even set one fruit a while back. Fucking squirrel ate the very small fruit.
Yeah...another durian. I have four total, so there is one more after this. This is a grafted graveolens. The tree came from a local grower down south and the fruit is supposed to be very very good. The fruit will be yellow and then turns red. This mound has also not been kind to durians. I originally planted out a old Thai variety whose fruit I thought was very good...can't recall variety name. It died. Bought two of these graveolens. Both would grow, but kept dying back. Lost one and if you look real close, there is a little, stunted specimen to the right. Ain't it cute? No...it's a piece of shit and mocks me by staying barely alive! The new one on the left has been approach grafted to a larger monthong, same as the Rainbow. The monthong portion has been decapitated and will now serve as a second root system. This one is doing really well also and I have been very pleased with its perfornance so far.
Cambuca, Plinia edulis. Beautiful tree for sure. I'm sure I'm in for a long wait until this thing flowers. This tree, one below, and the red hybrid are a few examples of some of the trees that are starting to become available here in Thailand to collectors.
Yellow jaboticaba, Myrciaria Glazioviana "Cabeludinha da Cruz". I just thought the tree looked really cool and the fruit did too. It was a very tiny tree and has grown considerably. Hopefully won't have to wait too long for fruit.
This a red hybrid jaboticaba. I got these three just to have different stuff that nobody around here has every seen or tasted before.
My last durian. I promise! This is Thong Limre durian. This is a grafted tree from the one and only parent tree down south. The parent tree is believed to be a seedling from a dulcis seed. The fruit turned out to be unique and tasty...impressing everyone who has gotten to taste it. So yes, I had to have it. This I also grafted with multiple rootstocks. A while back I took scions from this to graft onto seedlings. I took one from the top, leading growth. I had done the same thing with the Lai durians. The results of this have been trees that spread out rather than grow up at all. All of these trees should be 3-5 tall by now, but I truly believe I screwed the pooch by topping their apical growing stems and it has stunted them. Durians are difficult to grow where I am and it doesn't help when I do shit that compromises their proper growth.
Mamay apple, Mammea americana. If ever I purchased a piece of shit tree, this would be it. This has been in the ground well over a year. I think it put out one tiny flush in a year, then completely died back. This growth on top just recently happened. What a dud of a tree. I'll let it stay as it is for now since I don't have anything ready to replace it just yet.
Banganapali mango. This was a small, spindly tree that required lots of pruning back and continuous pinching in order to start getting branches larger than fishing line.
M4 mango. I brought this mango with me from the states. I lost the original tree, but was able to graft it onto an established tree luckily before I lost it. I've been having shit for luck when it comes to grafting mangos here for some reason. So it took me a while to get a scion going on another tree that I could plant out.
Sugarloaf mango. Another mango I brought from the states with me and it fruited for the first time this year. The family was not prepared for this mango. Hell, I've had it before and I wasn't prepared for it! It blew everyone away. They could not believe a mango could taste like this. I'll say it again...Thai mangos are boring and are not even in the same league as most Zill variety mangos are. I almost cried while eating the last one. My plan is to obtain several more varieties on my next trip back to the states. No more scions. A buddy from Florida recently sent me a bunch of nice scions. I normally don't have trouble getting them past customs, but this time...NOPE. Big bummer. Probably best given how terrible my mango grafting has been here.
My largest grafted pulasan. A total of five grafted ones on the mound and this one I think is the only original one left. All the others have been replaced at least once and are much smaller than this one. The young trees really took a beating durian our drought season. Extreme high temps, no rain, terribly low humidity. Shade cloths and watering every single day was the turning point. All making steady process now and I've removed all of the shade cloth except for over the top. I also learned during this extinction period that the roots of these trees were grown in concrete-like clay. It was difficult for water to penetrate and probably equally as hard for the roots to penetrate out. I learned that these clay masses needed to be soaked very well and every day for these trees to not only survive, but thrive. Once the roots got out of that clay, they became more hardy.
Canistel. Flowers all the time, but hasn't set fruit yet. I like canistel. Well, certainly not like I enjoy a Sugarloaf mango, but they are still good and look forward to the tree finally fruiting. Hope it is soon.
Dang Surya jackfruit. The real deal. I say that because too many sellers here are selling an ugly cousin version of the tree and passing it off to be dang surya. It's a tree that barely fruits and when it does, the fruit is not good at all. This ugly cousin tree is what is planted out by my pulasan mounds and what I grafted that marang seedling to. I did NOT want to plant a jackfruit tree. A monk from a temple the folks like to visit...and have donated lots of money to, always brings us fruit from the temple grounds. This monk is a rare-fruiter for sure! Everyone loved the jackfruit, including me, and next thing I know, he's showing up with some grafted trees. Well shit. I'm stuck. I've got other and much better artocarpus I want to plant in the future. Well, if needed, it can become a rootstock for one of my Indonesian trees!
I had forgotten to take pics of my five cherapu, garcinia prainiana, seedlings, as well as a couple other odds and ends.
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