Manggoes, Field Planting.

Did a field planting of our own grafted mangoes, mostly Manila Sweet and a couples of Apple Mangoes (MA 194), totaling about 24. About 4 Durians.

Check on them again. Most of them are growing. Had only 2 fatality.

We removed the grafting tapes so as it shall grow better. The fusion would had healed by now. Since we were at it, we put in some organic fertilizer. Arranging to manage the weeds.

This trip to Sabah, shall be adding another variety Nam Doc Mai aka Water Lily (MA 223).
 The Nam Doc Mai mango variety originated in Thailand and was registered in Malaysia as MA 223 in October 1990.  Nam Doc Mai is a popular mango variety and generally eaten when soft ripe. It is a major variety of commerce in Asia.

Mango, Mangifera indica.

Mango, we already have Manila Super Sweet and Apple Mango. Had some very tasty mango while in Koh Lanta, Thailand, bought at their local farmers' market. Inspiration came after eating these super sweet mangoes. Decided to strengthen our varieties,

Black Gold, Tong Dam.

Tong Dam, meaning Black Gold. In Malay it's called Emas Hitam.
The fruit is medium size, oval, stays green even when ripe, inside orange, early season. 
They are reports that Tong Dam taste as good as Harumanis, except that fruit is lighter.By staying green, I guess it should be less prone to pest attack.

Tong Dam are Bud grafted.

Chok Anan / Langkawi Mango (MA 224)
 Chok Anan mango is one of the most popular varieties grown in Malaysia & Thailand for local and export market. it is one of the sweetest mango with an average weight is 0.25 to 0.35 kilo per fruit. Another good characteristic is that it has thick skin, long shelf life and is resistant to attack of fruit fly. Having a thick skin also helps to reduce post harvest handling issues. Chok Anan mango can tolerate adverse weather conditions, even without spraying insecticide and fungicide the flowers will develop into quality fruits that is sweet that taste like honey. Another desirable characteristic of the Chok Anan is that it will bear fruit even during the rainy season.

Chok Anan / Langkawi Mango.

 Fruit is oblong, slightly fibrous, thin seed, thick flesh, sweet (16 ~ 17% brix), firm aromatic and a distinct coconut flavor.Skin is golden yellow when ripe.
 

Chok Anan leafs are broad, light yellowish green.

Honey Mango, Mangga Madu.

Honey Mango / Madu Anggur.

Leafs are narrow, dark green.

This is an Indonesian variety. 
Fruit is oblong, thick flesh, sweet and delicious. Average fruit weights 0.200 kg and 70 cm. Seeds is a good source of rootstock. Couldn't find much information on these.

Mangoes prepared for relocation.

 

Arrived at destination. Transferring to poly bags soon.

Approach Grafting & Stone Grafting.

Distinguishing feature of approach grafting is that two independently growing, self-sustaining plants are grafted together. This self-sustaining characteristic of both plants which are to be grafted insures survival of both even if the grafting attempt is not successful. However odds of being successful are greatly enhanced because of the active growing condition of both plants involved and absence of a time limitation required for the healing of the graft union to occur before the dependent scion dies from lack of sustenance.

This grafting technique could be useful for me as the weather recently is extremely hot & relatively dry. I took interest into this technique as the previous Jackfruitthat I purchased is from Thailand and comes with Approach graft.

SongSang Red from Thailand.

I had also seen Durian being Approach grafted during my trip to The Philippines.

Note the raffles strings.

My Thai friend is also doing Approach graft for Avocado.
My initial though is that I need to sort out how to secure the rootstock to the mother tree. Next, I shall need to have watering source nearby. It also preferably be shaded. Accessibility to the mother tree (not too tall). Am trying to figure how to overcome these problems.

In the mean time, I did some Approach Graft on the small plant-let of the Jackfruit. Just for the feel of it.

Stone Grafting (Epicotyl).
Stone grafting is popularly used in Mango grafting. Am looking into it to see if this is applicable for Avocado. Shall do some reading first and may try some when I get back to the Farm 1st May.

Progress Of Avocado & Jackfruit February 2014.

February, being the shortest month, leave much to be done. I had only about 16 days in our farm for this month. The weather is also bringing heavy rain with super hot afternoon and very cold nights, which disrupted our schedule.

Bagged all the previously germinated seeds from December / January.

Prepared Avocado seedling and transfer all of them into poly bags. Managed to collect more quality seeds. Preparing to germinate them to create more rootstock.

Managed to collect these seeds when I was about to give up. The scions are for grafting the 10 plants.

 Organize the grafted Avocados. Shutting down my ICU as shall be away for a month. Shifting back all my patients to the nursery for logistic reason. Shall have to make more drainage holes on the bags.

"Amulance" awaiting.

These grafts had 'taken' but the scions are dying from the top.

Snipped off the died parts and re-seal with wax.

Didn't do a good job, a small edge was not sealed properly, causing the scion to dry further. It's a goner.

Thank you, at least I got 1.

Was thinking there may be other methods of cloning. Considering air layering and cuttings. As the fruiting trees is large, I feel that it's rather difficult to do air layering. Also my previous experience wasn't good. Fear of heights and falling (ladder on soft ground) is also another factor. Only found a handful of article on propagation Avocado through cuttings. Successful rate are pretty low, but I think may be worthwhile to try. As at the moment after grafting 10 plants, I don't have anymore graft-able rootstock. Shall try to slot in after all my schedule, if not then on April.

Harvested a Jackfruit from our mother tree of J31, estimated to be about 10 ~ 12 kg. Feed back is that the fruit doesn't taste good. Fibrous, not crunchy and not sweet enough. Even though am using it to practice, am deciding to stop cloning it. Have about 50 trees of J31 and J29.

The 4 J33 Tekam Yellow is still too young to contribute scion. So far only managed to clone 2. I feel the scion is too young and do not process the reserve to 'take'. Shall let them grow for the time being and access them again in April. The surviving CJ3 and  J35 Mastura (made a mistake of labeling this as J37) is struggling but after patience care I think they shall survive.

CJ3 and Mastura, shall be transferring back to the nursery.

Manage to graft some Jackfruit using scions from a neighbor's tree.

Grafted Artocarpus.

On the Mango, there was this plant that refuse to bud even though it had 'took'. Gave it a bend to force it to bud. Yes, it bud 3 days later.

Force a bend, to force a bud.

Bud begin to grow 3 days later. New leafs has appeared by now.

Another 7 days latter.

Mango, scions were taken from our plantation, We have 2 fruiting trees, 1 Apple Mango and a Philippine Mango, Manila Super Sweet.

Manila Super Sweet, size of this unripe fruit is about 7 ~ 8 inches. 

Sent in 50 Soursop, 13 Mango, 9 Avocado and 12 non grafted Jackfruit from CML and 18 grafted Jackfruit for field planting.

On Transit, awaiting field planting.

Managed to organize the nursery before I go. My prized procession, Jackfruit.

Artocarpus Cultivar CJ3, Mastura & Tekam Yellow.

I had left the best spot in the nursery for the Pomegranate, and S. Avocados. This spot has 70% shaded morning sun and 90% shaded afternoon sun.

Pomegranate, #Avocado Anna, Betty & Cat.

 Prepared some seedling of Soursop.

Soursop Seedlings.

Rootstock for Mango & Jackfruit.

 More seeds to germinate #Avocado.

Avocado rootstock, waiting for it to grow to graft-able size.

It's a pretty exhaustive trip, as after the long Chinese New Year holodays, I came back and started on a relax pace. As my leaving date draw nearer, I need to do more to complete my nursery. Did all I could for this trip and thank you for the progress made. Leaving for home in the morning, then off to vacation in Turkey with my lovely wife.