The Tropical Fruit Forum

I've had a ton of grafts fail because of moisture inside the wrap.

Everything looks great.  Excellent job on all the grafting.

Brian...golden nugget is what I fruited in my greenhouse.  Flavor was outstanding, but the soft texture was off-putting.  However...to be fair...I was not expecting the soft texture so was not prepared for it.  I don't think my wife was either.  Now after having soft fruits like this such as marang, keledang, and such, maybe it would be a better experience?  It is certainly a difference eating experience when compared to the drier, crispier fleshed varieties.  Since you are ready for the texture, I believe you will have a better go at it than I first did. 

There are little "nurseries" here and there along the southern route and on west end is Jardines Enadas.  Brian is correct about the Ag inspections...and they definitely take it serious.  The best way is to just Priority mail the trees back yourself.  Bringing something from Florida shouldn't be an issue.

Of all the artocarpus species I brought back from Borneo, mutabilis and brevipedunculatus have had the least amount of germination...and couldn't get fresher than this.  So be very patient with them.  They may very well take much longer to germinate.  Good luck and hope they all germinate.

Brian...it's not that the maprangs were bad.  They were good.  I just don't believe they lived up to all of the hype and expectation I had.  I don't consider them any better than a decent mango, and certainly nowhere near top-tier.

The only time I've seen anything positive about this tool was from someone trying to sell them.  Invest in a good grafting knife.

Nice looking trees and the fruit is not bad.  Just let them get real red and soft.

When deep in the forest, mosquitoes were massing around Peter but he seemed to never get bitten!  I sprayed down with Deet and that kept them at bay...they did continue to find holes in my defense.  I believe Yuki was having a tough time with them.  The hotel rooms were more issues for me than the forests.

The screen mesh on the vents in the hotel rooms were large enough for any mosquito in the country to easily fit thru.  Second floor didn't seem to have them as bad as the first floor.  My first, first floor room must have been located near a breeding farm.  I could not keep up with the number I had in the room.  I must have killed two dozen and yet they continued to appear.  Sinyo blocked off the vent and that helped.  About the time I had the mosquitoes under control, the toilet stopped working.  So I had to move a 3rd time...just two doors down.  I immediately taped off the vent, but I think they were coming in from the floor drain as well, just not as concentrated...so not as bad as previous room, but they kept me on my toes! 

Every now and then we would see a large ant...about an inch long.  I asked Sinyo about them and he just said..."yeah, they hurt".  Aside from a good sized, but very dead, cobra in the road, we didn't see any other snakes.  I did see a large hornet or two and stayed way the hell away from that.  I don't think it was the giant Asian hornet.  As far as critters go, that was about it.  We did a lot of walking around the forest looking for fruit and seeds moving plants and crap on the forest floor out of the way.  Only now and then did we remind each other by saying "hope there's no cobras around".  That was when you were like "Oh shit!  Forgot about that!". 

Peter and I met up in Jakarta and flew together to Central Kalimanton(Muara Teweh).  Eddie has been with Sinyo since the last part of December and is not going back home until the end of March.  Hardcore.  I've know people who can eat a lot of durian, but I am now convinced there is nobody who can gobble it up like this guy!  It was a great group of guys and having Peter and Eddie along sure made it easier on me.  Not only are they super knowledgeable, but it was great to be able to speak and hear so much English...if you can call Eddie's English!  LOL!

I had five days of fruit hunting.  The first three were incredible and these three alone made the entire trip worth every bit.  The last two days was more desperation and hoping to pull a rabbit out of their hats, but it was a miss with many fruits due to bad timing.  But no big deal.  I won't go into hotel issues here.  The city was much bigger and nicer than my believed we would find.  The people from the city to the ones in the far rural areas were all incredibly nice and welcoming.  Never once did I feel any fear of the area.  Most folks wanted pictures with us and/or waving and smiling.

Takeaways/conclusions:  First off...the artocarpus fruits are amazing.  If you are planning for a future trip, if possible, wait until the last minute to book your flights.  This will give you the best timing to hit as many fruits in season as possible.  Sinyo will send you a list of trees/fruit in each area and the general time frame.  Just keep in mind that the timing can shift either way.  Patience.  Their way of life is uncomplicated by timing restraints.  However, you must insist that the day's tour start early at a given time.  Be firm.  Afterall, you are the one paying for the service.  So early starts and late endings.  Try to keep everyone on track or things can get derailed for a time.  Also insist that there is no smoking in the vehicle.  Probably every male over the age of 14 smokes...non-stop...everywhere.  Sinyo is very very good at finding trees and fruit in these areas.  He has spent lots of time with the locals searching them out.  You could drive or even walk by an area and not have a hint that the trees were nearby.  Many are single trees in a family's yard.  Some are a bit more off the grid.  The first three days of fruit crossed many off of my bucket list.  My pitiful descriptions fall far short of how good some of these really were.   

The group from left to right:  Yuki Kanie from Japan.  Peter Kring from Costa Rica.  Eddie Ahahametoglu from Melbourne, Australia.  Sinyo...local and our guide.  Iplik...local and our driver.  Me.


The boys already had a car full of durio dulcis


Durio dulcis.  Good durian.  A creamy, kind of menthol-like flavor.


Walking the streets.  Baccaurea edulis.  This was excellent.  Flesh still clung to the seed, but not as bad as most others.


A wild nephelium.  Very tasty, but flesh really clung hard to seed.  And tiny.


Durio kutejensis.  Probably the most grown and most sold on streets and elsewhere.  They really love it.  These were not good.  Picked too soon.  We had better later in the week.  Lindsay
remarked that tree-dropped kutejensis was really good.  The riper they were, the better tasting for sure.


Another kutejensis.  Definitely cool looking.  Has the consistency of peanut butter.


Rambutan


Artocarpus lanceifolius (keledang).


Keledang fruit.  Sinyo was 20+ feet up in the tree getting fruit.  Can't stress enough just how good this fruit is.  Very sweet with a little apricot/mandarin orange, hint of acidity.  Almost like the drink mix Tang.  This sky rocketed to a top fruit.  Couldn't get enough of it.





Eddie and Peter checking out some roadside durian.




Artocarpus brevipedunculatus (bondon).  More climbing for Sinyo.  Very similar to keledang in all respects...much smaller.  Flavor may have been even more pronounced.  Crazy good.  Wasn't too many from the tree. 






The family who owned the tree wanted a pic with us.


Mangifera pajang. Mango relative. Strong, not exactly pleasant odor or flavor. Very juicy and as you can see, fibrous as can be. Thick strands too. Felt like fiberglass splinters in my mouth.


More roadside dulcis.


Going a bit off grid here in search of something special.


Prainea limpato.  Not only does it look something from a psychedelic acid trip, it tastes like it too cause nothing this crazy looking should taste this damn good.  Like pulling out giant candy corn.  This fruit is the holy grail of many in the hobby and I am really happy to finally get to try it.  I have read varying reviews about it, but I can tell you that it was quite amazing. 



Durio Graffithii


Baccaurea Laceolata


Willughbeias.  Another group on my bucket list.  Round one is angustifolia and elongated one is sarawacensis.  Yes...flavor brings to mind orange sherbet.  Both delicious.  Angustifolia may be just a tad better, but too close to really call it.  Flesh does cling to the seed, but they are so damn good, you just don't care.




Sinyo way up in a tree looking for willughbeias.


Willughbeia sp. (tampirik).  Again...very similar to other two.  This one has black seeds.


Artocarpus Teysmannii. Big sucker.  This is what was left after dropping three miles! Very similar to marang but much better. Like mashed bananas with a hint of honey. Very delicious. Would loved to have had more.




Artocarpus Kemando.  Looks like brevipedunculatus and about same size too.  But so different.  The shell was very leathery and didn’t want to split open by hand so out comes the knife. Another home run. Sweet with tones of honey and citrus…to me at least. Damn good fruit. Definitely wish we had dozens more.




Durio oxleyanus and dulcis. 


Cleaning seeds with burnt rice hull ash wetted down some.  Makes short work of it.  The willughbeias were the worst to clean.


Durio oxleyanus.  This is a very good durian and we ate all we could purchase.


Went to another limpato tree.  Still delicious.


Artocarpus anisophilus. Fruit looks ready but was really hard. I didn’t try any. Pretty cool color though.


Various selections for consumption.


A deconstructed keledang.  So good.


Must purchase more durian!

Hey all, if you are interested in seeing some pics and such of our in progress Borneo tour, go to my Facebook page “tropical fruit hunters”.  Unfortunately, I am having issues uploading pics ro the post.  I will do so when I get back.  In meantime, all I can offer is Facebook. 

This roadside mango is down south in Surin, Thailand.  Everyone amazed at how many and thick the flowers are and say the leaves are not visible.  Even made the news.  Must not be a lot going on in the country...besides the lung crushing pollution.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?extid=MSG-UNK-UNK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C&v=625347890027112