Jackfruit, Acquiring More Varieties (Transporting Jackfruit Sapling) Part 2.

Previously from Jackfruit, Acquiring More Varieties.

The transported Jackfruit saplings, from Temerloh, Pahang to Keningau, Sabah, day 1. They look ok.

Jacfruits sapling, Day 1 after transporting.

 Day 2, things don't look well. The leafs and stems start to dry up.

Jackfruit Day 2, drying up.

Jackfruit sapling drying up.

Jackfruit sapling drying up.

Bag up Jackfruit saplings.

I immediately bag up all the Jackfruit saplings.
Day 9, some Jackfruit show signs of budding. I removed the bags of those.

Some bags removed.

 Day 12, I figure that after 12 days, things are stabilized now. I then decided to remove all the bags.

All bags removed.

Day 17, Those that are not well are turning worst. Decided to re-bag again.

Re-bag the Jackfruit saplings.

Did a stock count.
SongSang Red Transported 5, 1 budding.
CJ 3 Transported 10, 3 budding.
Mastura J 37  Transported 10, 4 budding.
Leaving them as they are as I'm on leave from 20th Nov. Shall be back on December to check on them. Hopefully more can recover.

Summarizing for a better transport
Sapling has to be very healthy, with lots of established roots.
Soil removal has to be done with care, without damaging the roots.
Maintain high humidity at all times, in a cool dark environment.
'Pot' it as soon as possible. Water thoroughly and regularly. Keep under shade.
Remove all new leafs, leaving maybe 2 ~ 3 matured green leafs. Bag up the plant, to keep humidity high for a week then slowly reduce humidity.
Then 'harden' it.
Ready for field planting.
Good luck.
Happy transporting.

Micro Propagating Banana, Pisang Berangan, Musa cv Berangan.

Micro propagating Banana Berangan, lazy man's version.

Was chatting with my helper to request him to transfer out those Berangan banana to replaced those unwanted cultivars, especially the Cavendish. I couldn't find market for the Cavendish as our buyers refuse to accept those. They call it Pisang Hijau, Green Banana. These Cavendish don't turn yellow  until way over ripe. Nobody want to buy, except a few who use it to make cakes. The last batch of 10 bunches which I send to our Free Range Chicken were left untouched cause I thin that the chicken may not know that it had ripe.

I was then told that there are a couple of Berangan that is bigger, both trees & fruits. We have 3 groups of it only and the sucklings are only a hand full. Other Berangan is smaller, trees & fruits but we have quite a number of these. I then remember we can do micro propagating. I read through there instruction and find it quite bothersome and plenty work especially the sterilizing part. I then came out with a short cut, lazy man's version.

Berangan.The tree next to the wheel barrow.

I requested my helper to identify the Berangan that he wanted. I then choose a medium plant of above 6 months ( I guess). 1 fine morning, after it rained the previous night (thank god), I started out to dig out the plant. It turned out to be quite a tough challenge even with wet soil. I can't imagine if the soil is dry and hard. It was hard work (for me). I had with me a machete, a crowbar, a cangkor and a wheelbarrow. It too me almost 2 hours to dig out the whole corm undamaged.

A heavy fellow. Berangan corm.

The corm was pretty heavy, unlike the big trunk which was light comparatively. I cut it down further hoping to reduce it's weight but it didn't help. Wheel it to our water tank to have the soil removed, clean and cut off the roots.

While cleaning, found another 3 suckers with corms. It's a small ones. I then core up the middle all the way to the corm. This is pretty easy as it is very soft. Once it reached the corm, it feels slightly harder. Had the corm divided into 8 section, without cutting through. For the smaller pieces, 4 sections.

 Dug up a hole and had it planted back to the same level.

The same were done for the smaller pieces. Covered back with soil and watered.

I then cover them up with some banana leafs. Let's leave them for 3 weeks.