Avocado, Field Grafting Part 2

From the previous episode, Avocado Field Grafting.

It seems that bud grafting works well for semi-matured Avocado trees. Other grafts didn't work out, due to various reasons, in the field. I had extended the grafting to more trees. Some trees that doesn't looks like a grafted tree have been re-grafted.

Tree had been pruned.

Buds grafted in September.

Most of the buds are surviving, but still encountering resistance from the tree. There is no flush yet. May have to wait till the next flushing season for the required push.

No growth since then.

The only growing bud.

Showing very good growth. The join is also healing well and strong.

There is only 1 bud graft that had taken off with good growth. More updates in the next couple of months.

Project Rubber Trees.

Started on this project back in July, 2010. Very excited to be moving to a new phase in our project. Was running around arranging for this 'shift' for the last couple of months.

Experimenting for a faster & easier way to tap rubber.

Just last week, we went to Rubber Board (Lembah Getah) to check out the requirement and procedure to deliver rubber to them. Present regulation, 5 X 2 feet X 1/2 inch thick is the acceptable measurement to be considered for rubber sheet. Fully dried, clean sheet to be considered for grade 1, any others maybe considered as grade 2 and or scraps. Daily prices are announce each morning (working days).

Made arrangement to start off the tapping.

It had been a very challenging experience to have reached this stage of our  project and I must register my deep gratitude to all our Ex / Present Partners & Helpers, whom had brought us to this stage. Holding on to an unwavering faith, trust and belief in me. I've learned so many new things from this project. Thank you to the ONE above, whom had been always blessing and helping me.

Started to tap.

Our new stage shall be on managing and fine tuning, on soil, trees, production, logistic and controls. We shall need to optimize all of these, which are within our control.

Soil erosion caused tree to topple over.

Revenue = Rubber Price X Production level.
Production level is within our control, hence by increasing this variable, revenue increases.

Angle of the initial tap was too steep. Should had bought the bigger sized cup.

 We shall need to improve our make shift  molding facility. Also had spoken with our tapper on the new measurement (thickness). We need to find out how thick to mold so that with it dries off to be 1/2 inches thick.

Dirt are dropping in. Got to keep it clean.

Our 1st Rubber Sheet.

Rubber Scraps.

Rubber Tapping Knife.

Some of the tapping knives in our procession.

We started off our tapping by requesting help from a helper, which in turns tries to teach another helper. Our intention at that moment is to  access how many trees at Parcel 1 can be tapped. With lots of trees qualifying for tapping, we decided to engage a full time tapper.

Knives with different shapes, width, length, weight & etc.

We had be receiving feedback that the tapping knife is not suitable. We in turn had purchase 7 knives, still feedback was unsatisfactory. Sat down with our full time tapper and understand more on the tapping knife. There are many factors affecting the cut.

At this moment, as ours are new trees, we need a more acute angle blade. Since it's a raining day, went tapping knives shopping. Tried a couple of shops, couldn't find what we wanted. Finally found a seller operating from a stall. Spoke with him and was told that can be custom made. He has 1 custom for new tree, the person who ordered had not come to collect. Just nice, bought it and shall pass it to our tapper next week.

Avocado, Field Grafting.

Tried grafting Avocado trees in the field. I only managed to bud graft successfully. These trial was on above 2 years old tree planted from seeds.

Approximately 2 year old Avocado tree from seed.

 My purpose of field grafting is to convert these trees from seed to grafted trees, so that it can fruit earlier. Did some cleft, splice, whip, side and bud grafting.

I select branch that are good and non water shoot.

I initially prefer non bud grafting as it's growth rate are slow.

Most of the grafting failed. Was lucky on the bud graft. The main advantage of bud graft over the others is lesser prone to damage.

Avocado grafts damaged by me while inspection.

Some of these are damaged by clumsy me.

The initial Avocado bud graft.

Did more bud grafts as it seems that these looks promising.

Subsequent Avocado Bud graft. I simplified it.

Decided to have about 5 (promising) grafts per tree. If 2 were to take, then that should be good to go.

Initially used sealant as thinking that it's field work and exposure to the weather.

I simplified the bud grafting by grafting slightly off top most position.

I then grafted on a about 5 years non fruiting tree.

Advantage of grafting off center top, are water run off and lesser exposure to direct sun light.

Vertical branch are good too.

Seems that the older tree is responding faster. Started to remove the top.

Avocado bud responding.

Avocado tree before topping off.

Decided to top off the trees so as to concentrate on the new buds. Top off the grafted Avocado trees.

Avocado tree after topping off.

Just arrived BioJadi.

Shall check on them regularly and start applying fertilization as soon as it starts growing. Maybe I shall try the recently received BioJadi fertilizer on them.

Buds are growing.

Bud had took.

#Avocado field bud grafting.

In the meantime, I shall find opportunity to try cleft / side / splice grafting on field as I think these should response & grow faster.

Durian, Black Thorn, Duri Hitam, Ochee, 黑刺.

Our prized collection of Black Thorn.

Oooh, Durian, my favorite.

Black Thorn, runner up in 2011 and was awarded Durian Champion in 2012.  Taste is described as sweet with a bitter trialing taste. Texture is creamy, sticky & orange in flesh. Fruit is roundish, about 2.5 to 3.0 kg in weight.

Market  price is higher than Musang King. Let's hope ours grow well.

Also brought in more Musang King, my favorite. These shall be for me to learn durian grafting. All of these are rather small and shall take a while

Figs, Six Month Down The Road.

It had been six months since I started on Figs. After killing some (quite a lot) fig cuttings, am making some progress. I belief that planting Figs should be fun & affordable.

Postmortem of one of the death cutting, magnified 20X.

Rooting of Fig cuttings is totally new to me and I've learned a lot since then. Some of these experience are good for other plants as well. I had wiped out some of the variety that I sourced during my learning stage. Varieties like LSU Gold, Black Jack, Red Kurthmani, Bo Ji Hong, Fung Chen Huang, Turkish figs and some Portugal figs. Thank goodness I still have some figs left.

Fig fruiting.

Moving forward to the next stage is to grow and keep them healthy so that I can start to propagate them.

Figs fruiting and getting bigger by the days.

Initially was thinking of aborting the fruits, but then I need to know if it can fruit.

Bigger & bigger fig.

More fig plants fruiting.

Fig.

Also how's the taste, size etc. Need some photographs of the fruits too. This shall give me a chance to learn about fig pest management too. More updates when the fruit ripens.

Pomegranate, Punica granatum L., Buah Delima, 石榴. Part 2

I tried germinating Pomegranate from seeds from the fruits that we ate last December. Click here for link. I waited for days, weeks & months, non germinated. I dare not weed the raised bed as I've not see baby pomegranate plants before. Afraid that I may pulled off the baby Pomegranate.

Brought in just before Christmas 2013.

Lucky for me I brought back a Israeli Pomegranate plant (propagated via marcotting). This plant had been growing very slowly. Had been toying with it, hoping to propagate more from it. Trying to ID this plant and I think it could be Israeli Ruby.

Initially I tried shoring up the earth and this managed to induce rooting on the smaller lower branches. Managed to get 4 small plants. Unfortunately 1 didn't survived. At least I got 3 new plants.

Shoring up to earth to make the smaller branches root.

I then tried propagating via cuttings. It failed as the stem taken may be too young & small. I shall try cuttings again when I have mature stems of sufficient size.

2 of the new Pomegranate.

Am trying marcotting at the moment. Did a couple on the Mother plant. I think it is rooting. I damaged 1 as I was taking it out for inspection. I potted it anyway, hopefully it shall survive. Another 1 has a tiny little root. Hopefully shall have 2 more plants.

Another marcotting under way on the new Pomegranate plant.

Have 2 more air layering which I think should root early October. 1 from the mother plant & 1 from the new plant.

Another marcotting under way on the mother Pomegranate plant.

We now have 4 plants & am targeting 10 plants before I transfer them to field planting. Pomegranate also falls in line with one of our objective of planting health beneficial fruits, but most importantly, my wife loves it.


Pomegranate

A compound found only in pomegranates called punicalagin is shown to benefit the heart and blood vessels. Punicalagin is the major component responsible for pomegranate's antioxidant and health benefits. It not only lowers cholesterol, but also lowers blood pressure and increases the speed at which heart blockages (atherosclerosis) melt away.

Health Benefits of the Pomegranate

• Most powerful anti-oxidant of all fruits
• Potent anti-cancer and immune supporting effects
• Inhibits abnormal platelet aggregation that could cause heart attacks, strokes and embolic disease
• Lowers cholesterol and other cardiac risk factors
• Lowers blood pressure
• Shown to promote reversal of atherosclerotic plaque in human studies
• May have benefits to relieve or protect against depression and osteoporosis

Many studies show that the pomegranate is one of the most powerful, nutrient dense foods for overall good health. These clinical findings clearly show a correlation between pomegranate compounds and their positive effect on both human and animal cardiovascular, nervous, and skeletal health. This is one fruit that you can't afford to exclude from your diet! So, let's plant more Pomegranate.

Lime.

Starting to re-access Lime in our farm. Had started a couple of lime previously, but did not develop much on it. We have a fruiting Limau Kapas / Nipis, Key lime in our farm. It is being over shadowed by rubber trees now. I had planted 3 Key lime from seeds in our nursery for almost 3 years. It's growing, but still no fruit. Have a local Lemon, grown from cutting, which had started to fruit early this year. All of them were not carefully cared for.

Local Lemon, started fruiting in December 2013.

Planning to re-access Lime as I feel am better equipped (knowledge) to deal with it.

Key Lime graft from a fruiting tree to a non fruiting tree.

Key Lime graft from a fruiting tree to a non fruiting tree. Another graft that 'took'.

Key Lime graft from a fruiting tree to a fruiting local Lemon tree.

Had recently acquired a marcotted Limau Kasturi, Calamondin Lime. Also some cuttings of unknown Lime/Orange from Thailand. Preparing these for propagation in our nursery. Tried some cuttings & grafting on the Kasturi.

Calamondin Lime grafted on to a non fruiting Key Lime rootstock. Already took & starting to flower.

Re-sprouting again. I used to plant a Key Lime from seed at this spot about 2 years back and I though it had died. Maybe it's my calling.

Had started to top- work via grafting, 1 Key Lime tree & the local Lemon tree to Key Lime. With their established roots, I hope that the Key Lime shall grow fast & I can propagate more of them at the nursery. A couple of the graft were successful. I shall get more scion from our farm and do more graft into these 2 trees.

Pruned off most of the tree, leaving those that were grafted and a bit more for more grafting.

The other 2 trees I shall reserve for the Calamondin Lime / Limau Kasturi. This shall takes a while as I only have a small 1 1/2 feet plant. As for the unknown cuttings, if these root, then shall have to wait till they fruit and figure out what are these.

Lime is a power house in terms of Vitamin C, one of the most important antioxidants in nature. For more health benefits of lime, click here.

There are plenty uses of lime in our country, hence I guess market is readily available, just that we need to be efficient in our production.