The Tropical Fruit Forum

Anybody familiar with this Zill selection?  A buddy has this, but I cannot find any info on this.

Believe it or not, it has been terribly dry here with humidity steadily under 50%.  My durians and pulasan have not been happy at all.  Lots of crisp edges on the leaves.  I upped the spraying and watering, even soaking the grass and ground around the trees hoping to raise the humidity around them.  Seemed to have helped along with some rains finally settling in.  The trees were always putting out some new growth, but not like this.  Hoping to get them into the mounds next month sometime. 

So here I am living in Thailand with no access to Zill mangos besides the ones I came here with.  There are some folks here selling trees from Myanmar, Taiwan, India/Pakistan, Israel, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Philippines.  I'm looking for a couple that has the flavors/complexities of some of the upper tier Zill mangos or at least could compete with them.  Anyone familiar with the following?  Keep in mind that the spelling might be off and probably is on some, but these are the names I've pulled.  Thanks!

Sein ta lone/diamond/guava - myanmar
ah ping - taiwan
harum manis - taiwan?
chaunsa/chonza - pakistan
Anwar Ratol -pakistan
Sai-Ci Mango or Si-Ci - taiwan
Bangana palli - india
Hong Mi Huang - Taiwan
Sanlin/salin/sallin - Taiwan I believe
Guimaras - philippines
Sai-Ci Mango or Si-Ci Mango - Taiwan
Ping Guo Wen or Phing Ku Win - Taiwan
Maya - Israel

Roadtrip this past Friday for a few days of tropical fruit hunting...and some relaxing.  Brutal heat.  Hovered around 100 degrees each day.  Heat index in some areas reached 130.  It is so dry throughout, it was like walking thru a furnace.

Durian orchards/farms were everywhere.  It seemed like nearly everyone's yard, field, and farm had durian trees.  So many new plantings too.  Huge areas cleared with big retention ponds being dug for irrigation.  Lindsay says some farmers are removing other fruit trees in favor of durian.  Most are planted on mounds, at least the younger groves and newer plantings.  Lots are doing the two trees per mound as well for insurance.  The slower/weaker tree will be removed in a few years.  Many are also jumping on the pruning wagon.  Even older trees are being topped while younger trees are kept at a much shorter height.  Another thing I noticed was that older trees on some of the farms looked horrible.  Not sure if due to Roundup spraying around the trees or maybe phytopthera catching up to them.

Durian Land.  I believe they said that this is the largest commercial durian farm in Thailand.  It was massive for sure.  Mostly mongthong, but have 40 other varieties.  The Chanthaburi #1 was pretty good.  This is a cross between mongthong and chanee.  They also have a zip line adventure where you can speed right thru big durian trees.  Pretty fun.  There is a nice cafe at the top serving all kinds of cool fruit drinks and a big menu of food...and durian!





Suriya Cacao Farm.  Yeah...Thailand is growing cacao on several farms now.  This farm was the first to successfully grow and export their beans.  About 7 years now.  Their beans are not only used for chocolate here in Thailand, but get exported to Belgium and California.  They grow durian, mangosteen, and some others as well.  The durian I'm holding is a 9kg beast of a mongthong.










Auntie Eat durian farm and cafe...I believe this is how it translates to.  Can sit down and stuff yourself with durian varieties and/or walk their farm.




Lindsay and Richard from Year Of The Durian.  Anyone who knows even a little bit about durian probably knows who Lindsay is.  We hooked up with them late afternoon and spent the evening catching up and talking durian.  Dang...but she is a busy busy lady!  She has several tours coming up starting next week here in Thailand and will continue as durian ripen in neighboring countries.  Always on the move.  It was good seeing her.  The last time we were all together was back in 2013 for our annual trip to Puerto Rico.

Received my latest...Indo Red or Durian Lai.  Deep yellow/tumeric colored flesh.  Lindsay says this is a hybrid of kutejensis.


I did multi-rootstock grafting on my first two durians.  Couldn't find any seedlings at the time and ended up using monthong trees.  This first tree did great.  All three seedling grafts healed up nicely.




Durian #2.  Unfortunately, two of the three grafts failed.  You can see the site in the middle of the pic.  A real bummer after seeing the slam dunk success on the first one.


Durian #2.  Luckily, the two seedlings were still viable after cutting down quite a ways.  I was able to regraft them lower down on the trunk and so far, it looks like they are both healing up well.


I'm enjoying the grafting.  Not only useful/beneficial for the tree, it keeps me busy over here!

This is my fourth week at my new home here in Thailand.  Got to keep the tropical fruit tree hobby going to keep me sane!  Picked up this little guy at a flea market today.  Hopefully it will be a sweet version.

A friend from PR just forwarded me the link below.  I believe this is our forum member PuertoRicoFoodForest.  He purchased the incredible farm of Felipe Osborne Shea, that our group always visited when in PR.  Don't like to speak ill of the dead, but...my friend had repeatedly warned me to stay away from this guy saying what a scammer he was.  There is obviously some truth to this since I'm seeing several folks in one of the Facebook groups say the same thing.  Damn!  We've been trying to secure a visit to his farm too.  Glad we didn't now.
https://www.telemundopr.com/noticias/puerto-rico/hombre-ultima-con-un-disparo-a-su-hijastro-en-las-marias/2286715/?fbclid=IwAR2mIQwf4hJpTMKSBLd5Twa1LVaFTNgWFz5oFnRNJQ4MfsG30_HiHbMEwxg

If interested, here is my latest blog on our recent trip to Puerto Rico.  https://www.tropicalfruithunters.com/blog/back-to-puerto-rico-at-last

So after nearly 15 years of divine patience, I finally got to try my first achachairu from my tree.  Very very tasty...just wish I had about 100 more to follow up with.  I also grabbed the last 3 madronos.  They may have benefitted some more days on the tree, but I'm going out of town and did not want them to split, rot, or drop while I'm gone.  They too tasted very nice.  They were much larger, better filled out, and better shaped than the first one.  In case you are wondering, the white fruit on the plate for comparison is garcinia chickeneggulis.

First blooms and first fruit for Achachairu.  A total of three blooms that developed into 3 fruit...although I believe one may have dropped or got knocked off.  A fourth bloom just appeared on the other side of the fruit and this one was clearly a male.  But that was it unfortunately. 


Second year blooming for madrono.  Most of the the flowers appear to be hermaphrodite, but there has been a few clusters of male only.  I've seen ants on the flowers and while there are several smaller fruit developing, this one looks like it may go the distance...so far anyway.  All trees are around 13 years old.  Greenhouses are nice, but they are a slow alternative to the natural environment.

Luc's garcinia scions/cuttings available for sale. Each cutting is $6 and you must purchase at least 2. Shipping will be approx. $10. SUPPLY IS LIMITED! Diameter of cuttings range from just under 1/4" to 1/2" or greater. Specify your preference and I will do my best to accommodate.
The picture is my tree and it is on the left.
It is grafted onto Imbe...g. livingstonei. This was done on June 2017 and is currently around 10+' tall and probably about 7' wide. My scions came from Flying Fox Fruits and was from an approx. 8 year old tree that has not bloomed yet. Mine looks like one of the branches may put out a few soon...hopefully.

It's been a long wait, but it's finally happening.  Spotted many more of these buds on several branches.  Pretty excited!

This is one of the largest trees in the greenhouse and has certainly become a project.  Probably around 8 years old or more.  4 varieties grafted onto it...Pierce, Honey Hart, Mcpherson, Behl.  The tree is a poster child for fertilizing with too much nitrogen...crazy non-stop growth, very little fruiting, usually small fruit that drop early.  Was a real challenge getting to blooms in the upper canopy when I could find them in all of the foliage.  So I decided to knock it back to a more manageable height.  This will allow more sun to hit other plants as well.  I started off with close to 30 fruit developing and ended with a dismal 6...2 small ones have already dropped.  In my zeal to lop off branches, I unfortunately cut one that still had a big Honey Hart hanging on.  These last 4 have been the biggest fruit to date.  Still 3 on the tree.  Any further nitrogen given will be in ultra low amounts.  Hopefully will make a difference next year.