Yangmei (Myrica Rubra) Group Order - trees all gone

[jtnguyen333]

anybody knows the nursery's name in San Diego that sell m. californica?  The pictures that kaz posted about that nursery were deleted.

[spaugh]

Its the evergreen nursery in carmel valley. 

[slopat]

The chickens thought it was something tasty for them... but apparently not too much, fortunately for me.. The seedlings survived, just a bit mangled and new stuff growing out. The other two fared much better.

How are people's seedlings doing here? It sounds an awful lot like most people's seedlings have died?

I haven't lost any seedlings since I started selling them and have about 7 or so still in 4" pots that are doing great.
I'd be curious to hear about mortality rates on these.

[Seanny]

You guys are doing great.
My only tree gave up last week.

[roblack]

So here's some potentially useful info from my results here in South Florida.

Posting pics of most recently planted (in ground) Biqi tree. While it looks stressed, upon closer inspection you can see that new growth is abound.









My guess is this tree would have died soon if not planted in ground, due to overwatering.

The other tree that died on me, most likely was due to overwatering.

Biqi on this rootstock seems well suited for my high alkaline, limestone soil. More time is needed, but I am encouraged.

The potted seedlings I have are likely not dead because roots fill the pot up, and not much soil to get soaked.

My deductions:

Yangmei is sensitive to root rot in pots (no surprise, Simon already said it).

Yangmei may be tolerant of alkaline soils.

Yangmei wants to be connected to the Earth, put those puppies in ground while you can!

[simon_grow]

Hello everyone, I just wanted to give everyone a quick update and some clarification on something I brought up earlier in this thread.

Earlier in this thread, I mentioned that multiple people in the Facebook Yangmei group had the experience where they planted out DNA sexed male and female trees and that the males tended to grow more vigorously and the female plants usually died out. Based on that information, I hypothesized that the larger and faster growing seedlings I had were probably male trees.

Well, I sent out leaf samples for DNA testing and (thanks Marta!) and found out that I was completely off on my hypothesis. My two larger seedlings turned out to be females and my two smaller seedlings turned out to be males.

I believe that the initial reports from the Facebook Yangmei group that saw males growing faster and more vigorously can be attributed to the females being in bad condition (they were dying) . Since the females were on their way out, they would grow ( more like dying slowly) much slower compared to the males.

This still doesn’t explain why females were dying at a higher rate than males however.

This just goes to show that you won’t really know if you have a male or female tree until you have your trees tested. Big thanks to Marta for processing the samples the same day she received them and giving me results immediately!

Simon

[simon_grow]

On a positive note, I now have three confirmed males and another friend has two confirmed males. One of my males is the rootstock on my Biqi which is great news because the rootstock appears to be at least several years old. The male rootstock may already be sexually mature enough to produce pollen where as the seedling trees will probably have to go through their juvenile period and reach a specific size/age before they will be able to produce pollen.

My dream of growing Yangmei to fruition is one step closer!

Simon

[sc4001992]

My update. Sad news; 2 potted Biqi plants died, probably my fault, may have sprayed some diluted bleach by mistake. Or maybe over watered them and should have planted in ground sooner as Rob mentioned. Of my 3 seedling plants, only 1 survived so far. Not having much luck on these plants for me. Maybe next time I will learn from my mistakes.

But the good news; I'm thankful that my loquats (70) and white sapotes (28) are doing great, many flowers and should have fruits from the majority of the loquat and white sapote varieties next year.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

[FV Fruit Freak]

Hey Simon! Now that is something to be “Thankful” for! I don’t need to say this but...AWESOME work on the yangmei trials!!! Some really cool stuff you’re doing man and I congratulate you!!! Please keep the updates coming, learning a lot from you, thank you.

Update on my trees:

Grafted Biqi from the group order is doing great but has kinda slowed down on the growth, probably because of the colder weather, planning to plant it in the ground next week.

My first three seedlings all died after attempting to transplant into bigger pots, I believe I used too much mycorrhizae on the roots when transplanting, I mean they were dead by that evening, very sensitive, I’ve never had seedlings die after transplant and mycorrhizae, at least not that fast.

After the loss I got a couple more and Nate (Wildlands plants) was super kind in hooking up a nice size seedling, and now all three of those are thriving inside an unheated hoop house that’s under the patio cover, and up against the house. I also have a bowl of water in there for some humidity. I up potted them all to one gallons, without mycorrhizae, and they didn’t skip a beat.

Slow and steady is the way to go with these guys...

Ps nice meeting you at the fruit tasting party Simon! It was nice talking with you.

[roblack]

Happy Thanksgiving yangmei lovers!

Sorry to hear of your losses Kaz. You must try again! Hopefully the m. cerifeira grafts go well, happy to send you one in the future if successful.

Simon continues to blaze the trail. The yangmei code is being cracked.

Updated pic of Biqi in ground (not same tree as post #704, this was first one planted in ground):

[spaugh]

Looks like its growing nicely now Rob.  Mines looking about the same.  But its getting hammered in a really strong santa ana wind today.      could hardly sleep last night, it felt like my house was going to blow away. 

[FV Fruit Freak]

Nice looking tree Rob! That thing is nice and green

What’s up Brad, please give an update in a week or so, I’m really curious to see how your tree handled these stupid winds

[sc4001992]

Rob, your biqi plant looks really nice, good job. The santa ana winds are very strong here the last few days. It blew my alumimum 6 ft A-frame ladder down and also blew off my American flag (5 ft) off the holder and was in my yard.

[FV Fruit Freak]

Simon did you get the trees from the group order sexed as well?

[simon_grow]

Thanks everyone,
Nate, the grafted portions of the group buy trees are female but I do have one rootstock coming out of my Biqi tree and it is at least 3 feet long and yes, I got it DNA tested and it is a male.

If I plant this tree into the ground, I could potentially get fruit in a couple years, maybe sooner.

Simon

[simon_grow]

Happy Thanksgiving yangmei lovers!

Sorry to hear of your losses Kaz. You must try again! Hopefully the m. cerifeira grafts go well, happy to send you one in the future if successful.

Simon continues to blaze the trail. The yangmei code is being cracked.

Updated pic of Biqi in ground (not same tree as post #704, this was first one planted in ground):

Rob, your in ground Biqi looks great, it appears it’s establishing well and the new growth looks healthy.

Simon

[bill_bayarea]

Here is a new thread for the new Yangmei(Myrica Rubra) group order
https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=45912.0

If anybody who missed the previous group order or wants to add more Yangmei trees, you are welcome to add your orders there.

Thank you.

[simon_grow]

Here’s a quick update of my Biqi Yangmei which has three rootstock branches that have been confirmed male through DNA analysis. First, here is the only zoomed out picture I have of one of the Yangmei trees ( not sure which variety) that we received in April of 2021. Most the varieties looked like this when we received them with the exception of Biqi which looked the best with some leaves intact.




Approximately 10 months later, the Biqi is 6 feet wide and 4 feet tall. The actual size should be considered 4 feet wide and 4 feet tall. There is one extremely long branch that grew very tall and started leaning over and this branch sticks out an additional 2 feet from the rest of the tree. Here’s the Biqi. This tree has been planted into the ground at my mother in laws house.




And here is the An Hai which will be planted into my backyard this week.





This An Hai is 4 feet wide and approximately 2.5-3 feet tall. I’m hopeful that I will get fruit within two years.

Simon

[elouicious]

Fabulous work Simon!

That is an insane rate of growth- whatever you are doing with them in pots they seem to be very happy and I will be interested to know what happens when you put them in the ground-

Forgive my naivety but what is your native soil like?

Also how much osmocote are you adding every two weeks? I have the extended release stuff

[simon_grow]

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

[elouicious]

Perfect and prompt response!

Thanks as always Simon

Don't suppose I could get you to spill the secret fertilizer recipe? 

[simon_grow]

Sorry elouicious,

I’m in a contract with a company that I’m partnering up with to graft and produce trees for sale to the general public in the future. Many of the bare root trees from China did not survive but we should be able to provide multiple varieties of Yangmei with a healthy grown out root system that will make it significantly easier to grow in the USA.

Simon

[elouicious]

Totally understand-

I'll buy some trees from you when you are off the ground

[JCorte]

Congratulations Simon!  What an amazing contribution to bring this rare fruit into production for more people to try.  Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge on how to grow these trees and making it accessible to the fruit growing community.  I take comfort in knowing that if I fail with this second batch, there’s still hope I can grow it in the future.  Wish you great success in your partnership!

Janet

[ScottR]

You go Simon, wishing great success