Yangmei (Myrica Rubra) Group Order - trees all gone

[sc4001992]

Wow Simon, way to go. So huge and healthy.
Nice to hear you will have some available in the future, congrats !

[simon_grow]

Thanks elouicious, Janet and Scott!

Prospects are looking bright for Yangmei as common dooryard fruit trees in the near future.

I know a lot of people are highly discouraged from attempting to grow Yangmei because of high mortality rates with bare root trees and seedlings but I strongly believe that our trees will grow well for most people as long as their climate is suitable.

We are currently testing out some of my grafted trees at random locations without any special fertilizers or hormones and although the rate of growth is slower, they are growing fine and appear to be very healthy. The rate of growth from our grafted trees without special fertilizers and hormones is roughly the same growth rate as native M Californica or M Cerifera. Both of these species grow relatively fast.

Simon

[jtnguyen333]

Put me on the list to buy when you have the trees available Simon

Thanks elouicious, Janet and Scott!

Prospects are looking bright for Yangmei as common dooryard fruit trees in the near future.

I know a lot of people are highly discouraged from attempting to grow Yangmei because of high mortality rates with bare root trees and seedlings but I strongly believe that our trees will grow well for most people as long as their climate is suitable.

We are currently testing out some of my grafted trees at random locations without any special fertilizers or hormones and although the rate of growth is slower, they are growing fine and appear to be very healthy. The rate of growth from our grafted trees without special fertilizers and hormones is roughly the same growth rate as native M Californica or M Cerifera. Both of these species grow relatively fast.

Simon

[simon_grow]

Ok, we can use this thread to track for now but we hope to have the sales through an actual nursery website when we are up and ready.

Simon

[CarolinaZone]

Hey elouicious,

I actually now use a customized fertilizer that I developed for rapid growth. If you use Osmocote slow release, I would use 1/2-1/4 of what they recommend. I previously use Dynagro liquid fertilizer.

I don’t think these trees will do much growing in Winter but I expect them to grow rapidly in Summer.

My soil is a horrible heavy clay with lots of rocks and poor drainage, that is why I plan on planting most my test trees at my parents and in laws. My backyard has better soil so I believe it will grow fine back there.

Simon

Ok,
So what's in the secret sauce? You know we want the recipe

[simon_grow]

Yeah, I’ve been asked by several members but I’m bound by my contract as far as what I can disclose.

My fertilizer isn’t necessary to grow great Yangmei plants, just about any fruit tree fertilizer used appropriately should give you great results.

I believe the secret to growing healthy specimens of Yangmei is to establish a strong root system. The branches and leaves will follow if you can grow out a vigorous and healthy root system.

Simon

[ronke47]

Following your advice to get our plants into the ground as soon as possible, I am planning to put out my sole survivor of last May's group buy.  My soil, however  is in many places pretty crappy and riddled with the roots of the incense cedars that are my block's street tree.  Any feelings about planting yang mei on a mound as is advised for avos and  tropicals?

[simon_grow]

You could also plant inside a large pot with the bottom removed as an alternative to planting on a mound. In my heavy clay soil, I planted most my in ground trees on a mound about 8-9 years ago and over the course of those years gone by, the mound slowly dropped to almost ambient ground level.

Planting on mounds have been very beneficial in my situation. With your invasive root situation, you may consider using a tiller or a large shovel or saw to sever roots along your property line in order to give your trees a fighting chance to establish their roots.

If you just planted on a mound on top of Cedar roots, I would hazard to guess that the Cedar roots will quickly take over the mound.

Take into consideration that severing the Cedar roots could be seen as a type of root pruning and the Cedar trees could branch out more, after you cut them but this may give your trees enough time to send out roots.

You could do an annual root prune at your property line as your annual or semi annual maintenance of your yard.

Simon

[jtnguyen333]

Hi Simon..
On my dong kui from the order this year, I saw a couple really small bud try to push.  Should I start to fertilize it in really small dose?  My potting mix is mostly sand, peat and perlite.  It is kept indoor with no direct sunlight.

You could also plant inside a large pot with the bottom removed as an alternative to planting on a mound. In my heavy clay soil, I planted most my in ground trees on a mound about 8-9 years ago and over the course of those years gone by, the mound slowly dropped to almost ambient ground level.

Planting on mounds have been very beneficial in my situation. With your invasive root situation, you may consider using a tiller or a large shovel or saw to sever roots along your property line in order to give your trees a fighting chance to establish their roots.

If you just planted on a mound on top of Cedar roots, I would hazard to guess that the Cedar roots will quickly take over the mound.

Take into consideration that severing the Cedar roots could be seen as a type of root pruning and the Cedar trees could branch out more, after you cut them but this may give your trees enough time to send out roots.

You could do an annual root prune at your property line as your annual or semi annual maintenance of your yard.

Simon

[simon_grow]

If they’re just small buds, I would be very careful with fertilizer. If your soil had any fertilizer in it at all, you probably don’t need to give it fertilizer yet but if it was inert, I would give it very dilute fertilizer. If you give it fertilizer, just give it a fruit tree fertilizer diluted to about 1/5 of what the package recommends.

Simon

[Reedo]

Thanks elouicious, Janet and Scott!

Prospects are looking bright for Yangmei as common dooryard fruit trees in the near future.

I know a lot of people are highly discouraged from attempting to grow Yangmei because of high mortality rates with bare root trees and seedlings but I strongly believe that our trees will grow well for most people as long as their climate is suitable.

We are currently testing out some of my grafted trees at random locations without any special fertilizers or hormones and although the rate of growth is slower, they are growing fine and appear to be very healthy. The rate of growth from our grafted trees without special fertilizers and hormones is roughly the same growth rate as native M Californica or M Cerifera. Both of these species grow relatively fast.

Simon

Greetings Simon! Have you noticed any trends, in terms of plants favoring full sun, morning sun, afternoon sun, partial shade, etc.? Thanks!

[simon_grow]

Yes, under outdoor conditions, fully rooted plants prefer full sun. If the plants are not fully rooted, you have to be careful and very slowly acclimate the trees.

For bare root trees from China, they are in a state of shock and should be kept in full shade or morning indirect sun until they root/ leaf out a bit. Once they start growing, you can very gradually increase the light levels.

Keep in mind the article I posted somewhere on this thread that showed photo inhibition beyond a specific light level but the average backyard Yangmei grower shouldn’t concern themselves with this. Commercial growers, wether for fruit or nursery stock, should consider this in their business plan because of the huge multiplier effect when growing out thousands of trees.

A bunch of my original graft experiments that were kept outside through Extreme heat and more recently, through 3 nights of frost have shown little to no damage. I do notice minor damage to newly emerging growth when there is extremely low humidity and high winds such as our Santa Anna wind conditions.






These grafts were neglected and not given any special fertilizers and they grew much slower than my plants which were given my fertilizer but the growth rate was still very good and comparable to ungrafted Californica and Cerifera.

Simon

[FV Fruit Freak]

Is anyone ready to have their trees (suckers) sexed from this order? I have a sucker coming from my in ground Biqi I’d like to get sexed, but it’s $200 for 10 samples (leaves) so I’m looking for people to go in with to save some cash. Send me a pm if you’re interested, thanks

[FV Fruit Freak]

Curious how everyone’s trees are doing from this order? I had one Biqi survive that’s in the ground doing well, there’s also a sucker coming from the rootstock I’m hoping is male. Thanks again Ken! You pretty much got the Yangmei hype and excitement going again.

[simon_grow]

My trees are doing pretty good but they haven’t grown much since I put them in the ground in Winter. They are probably growing out their roots right now so hopefully I’ll see signs of growth when it warms up a bit. This is my An Hai and it survived 2-3 nights of light frost with only minor damage to new growth that was trying to emerge. This tree is now about 11 months old.

There are new buds that have swelled on the entire tree so hopefully I don’t get a late frost which may damage the new growth.






Simon