April 2020 – Page 3 – Sub-Tropical Fruit Club of Qld Inc.

Citrus

Brandied Oranges 8 oranges – peel and cut into chunks. Boil 1 cup water and 1 1/2 cups sugar for 2 minutes or until dissolved then cool.

Add 1/4 cup brandy, 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or 2 tablespoons Cointreau liqueur

Citrus Crumble Chop up 3 oranges, mandarins or grapefruit – add to pie dish. Sprinkle with ½ cup dried fruit eg cranberries, craisins or currants & 3 pieces finely chopped glace ginger Crumble Top: ½ cup each of brown sugar, SR flour, coconut, rolled oats, 1 zested orange

Bake 180°C until the top browns – serve with custard, cream or ice-cream.

Semolina Orange Cake 2 oranges (if small use 3) – ¼ & peel oranges – Chop & remove seeds. Place in large jug and add just enough boiling water to almost cover. Microwave uncovered on high for 10 minutes or until tender. Cool. Drain & strain. Blend remainder until smooth. ( just squash it with a spoon in strainer, turn the strainer upside down over a bowl and bump the pulp into bowl). Beat 185gm butter and 1 cup castor sugar Add 3 eggs – one at a time. Stir in 1/2 cup semolina, 1 cup almond meal, 1 teas. baking powder and orange puree. 22cm round cake tin, greased and bottom lined with paper Pour into pan. Bake in slow/mod oven 160 degrees or 150 degrees fan forced for 1 hour. Stand 5 minutes. While cake is standing, make syrup.

Dissolve ½ cup castor sugar in 1/3 cup water on low heat and then bring to boil. Boil for 1 or 2 mins. Turn cake out onto wire rack. Cool for 5-10 minutes then pour over hot syrup. Cool. Sprinkle top with icing sugar just before serving.

Flourless Orange Cake Place 2 oranges in a saucepan and cover with water and boil for as long as it takes to become soft enough to be able to pierce with your finger. Remove and allow to cool then process in a blender until the pulp is smooth (skin and all) Measure 180gms of orange pulp.

Beat 5 eggs and 200gms castor sugar until well combined then mix in orange pulp, 200gms almond meal and ½ tsp baking powder. Bake in a cool oven for one hour.

Citrus marinade for white meat – chicken/pork Mix ¼ cup green Calamansi Cumquat juice with ½ cup soy sauce and garlic and black pepper to taste. Marinate for 2 hours+ before BBQing. This recipe was given to me by a lass from the Philippines and she said they use their cumquats when they are green.

Freezing your lemons Many professionals in restaurants and eateries are using or consuming the entire lemon and nothing is wasted. How can you use the whole lemon without waste? Simple..place the washed lemon in your freezer. Once the lemon is frozen, get your grater and shred the whole lemon (no need to peel it) and sprinkle it on top of your foods. Sprinkle it on your vegetable salad, ice cream, soup, cereals, noodles, spaghetti sauce, rice, sushi, fish dishes, instant noodles – the list is endless. All of the foods will unexpectedly have a wonderful taste, something that you may have never tasted before. Most likely, you only think of lemon juice and vitamin C. What’s the major advantage of using the whole lemon other than preventing waste and adding new taste to your dishes? Lemon peel contains as much as 5 to 10 times more vitamins than the lemon juice itself.

Imbe Tips

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Imbe The fruit is good if you leave it long enough on the tree. Simply picking after it turns yellow is not good enough. The fruits need to be more orange coloured and this takes some patience. Ref: Peter Kring
Luc Vleeracker: My single plant once produced lots of fruit, that was when I bought it (in flower and surrounded by a lot more Imbes). Since then had only one or two fruits all the rest aborted (hundreds and hundreds 5 mm fruits.
Oscar Jaitt: That might be why your lone Imbe produces very acid fruits. You are only getting fruit from occasional hermaphrodite flowers. Usually the fruits are formed through cross pollination, male and female. Not sure if that affects taste, just my guess. Here’s a third, and still different description, somewhere in between the other two: sweet with a bit of tartness. It’s pleasant, but not to die for. I find it has a bit of a strange aftertaste. I have 3 trees about 4 mtrs tall, 2 males and a female. They were extremely slow growing at first, grow a bit faster after about 1¼ mtrs tall. I planted them in the worst part of my land, 100% pure lava rock, and they still grew fine although they tend to fall over very easily so I had to stake them. Very strange looking shaped plant. Also strange that they can handle high rainfall as they come from very dry areas. How to get them to grow faster: either build a time machine, or work on having extreme patience! Fertilizing regularly would of course also help. http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11879&page=291
Jaime: The Imbe I’ve had has not been acid, just a very good, sweet flavour.
Adam Shafran: Fruits vary in flavour; there are even selected varieties in Africa…some are quite sweet…good thing I’ve got a nice diverse batch of plants about to fruit soon!! My lone fruiting specimen as of now, produced a very nice acid/sweet fruit…only problem, very small amount of tasty flesh, big seeds…oh well…fresh garcinia fruit in Florida is a rarity at least Central Florida and it will fetch a high dollar per fruit. In the literature I have read Imbe has been improperly described as male / female only, sometimes but Lorenzi got it right in his book, Brazilian Fruits, they are either male, or androgynous/female…presence of both helps set more fruits but Imbe, Mammea, and Cherapu are all plants with different habits and histories. Don’t think you can make assumptions based on those relatives… if there was a plant capable of producing fruit by itself, it would be cloned and popularized. Also knowing Zill, he probably had a worker who knew very well that grafting branches of male and female would make all five trees fruit and wouldn’t be surprised (being Zill is most likely adept at grafting or employs a bunch of workers who are as well)…it is common knowledge that this has been practiced by many growers.

Jackfruit Tips

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I met Mr. Zahar who works at the Agricultural Park in Kuantan, Malaysia and has a fruit tree nursery. With Jackfruit he prepares the rootstock in the morning and waits 3 hours before he joins the new scion wood to the rootstock. Remove all the leaves off the rootstock. It is wedge grafted when the buds start shooting. One day before they graft, he will make some scars on the trunk of the rootstock. His sharpening tool is a warm stone, quite chalky – it comes off white in your fingers. Ref: Sheryl Backhouse
You can root by cuttings and also by airlayers.
Non fruiting trees I visited one of our member’s properties and although nearly all of the trees looked great and grew well, a lot of them produced very few fruit. Some such as the Black Sapote and Grumichama had heavy crops; I was asked if I knew the solution. I have been told many times that zinc is critical for cell division and flowering, but although it might help I didn’t believe this was the main issue. I did notice that the Jackfruit were malformed which is an indication of poor pollination. I remember that Peter Young had told us all many years ago that boron increased seed set, so I suggested that increasing the amount available to the plants by ground application or by foliar spraying should be effective. Boron is toxic to plants at quite low amounts so its application needs to be carefully controlled. The soil application rate using Borax is about 2 grams per square metre. Custard apples when deficient can be given up to 5 g/m2 , though care must be taken to ensure that the spreading is even. Below are quotes from Plant Nutrient Disorders 2 Tropical Fruit and Nut Crops, which we used to have in the library. “The fruit of boron-deficient Pawpaw are deformed and bumpy due to the irregular fertilisation and development of seeds within the fruit. Ripening is uneven and the developing fruit secrete pinkish white to brown latex. Heavy premature shedding of deficient male tree flowers and impaired pollen tube development can lead to poor set in the fruit-bearing female trees.” “Deficient avocado trees produce small misshapen fruit, usually twisted to one side giving them a dumpy, lop-sided and bulbous shape. An indented blemish sometimes appears on the concave side of these fruit.” Ref: George Allen
I tried propagating cuttings of Arto. species in Fiji and Arto. hetero. in Israel and it works but it takes a long time as the roots break easily so each cutting should be placed in a small pot and not in a rooting bed. I used apical cuttings only of 15-20 cms long leaving a few cut-halved leaves with bottom heat of 30 celsius. Ref: Ariel in Israel
Unfortunately Jackfruit in my experience are as bad as apples for not resembling the parents. I fruited 32 seedlings of a particularly nice red-fleshed one I got in Hawaii and the 31st to fruit was the only red one – but a real winner. Number 32 has its first fruit hanging right now – I’ll know in a couple of months what it is like. So far, out of 32, only 2 are worth propagating. Ref: Stephen Brady
Leaf Shapes – Young jackfruits can have rounded or lobed leaves but when they are mature the leaves are more uniformly elongated.
Guinness Book of Records – A Black Gold grown in Hawaii weighed in at just over 34kgs.
Ross Dickson from the Fraser Coast Sub-Tropical Fruit Club in Maryborough says:
Effort is required to process the seeds and this is what I found to be the best method. Remember the outer husk of the seed has to be removed but NOT the brown inner skin which is edible. I allow the fresh seeds to dry overnight after rinsing and this makes the outer husk clearly visible but mainly so that you can then grip the previously very slippery seed without risk of cutting your fingers when processing. I first cut my seed lengthways and this is more difficult but gives a much better result when peeling. Simply cutting across the seed in the middle makes peeling off the outer skin slow and laborious. Boil in salty water for about 20 to 25 minutes. Take a few out and you will soon learn if they are cooked enough. Allow the nuts to cool and dry and this will clearly show the outer husk as separate and a different colour. A lot of the nuts will have lost their skin when cooking if cut lengthways and the remaining skins are easily removed by using a serrated edged steak knife to improve your grip on the outer skin. It doesn’t matter which side you cut from but you will find one side of the nut fairly flat and much easier to grip when cutting. The other side is very rounded and prone to move around risking a cut finger.
Several members purchased Kwai Muk trees from Kaspar Schnyder. For those unfamiliar with this tree, here’s a few facts. Kwai Muk (Artocarpus lingnanensis or A. hypargyrea) is closely related to Jak Fruit. It is native to Southern China, where it grows above 150 metres altitude. It is a slow-growing, erect tree to 10 metres, with attractive long slender leaves. Its dark green foliage makes it an attractive landscaping tree. Kwai Muk produces small round fruits which have a velvety, yellow-brown skin, and orange to red flesh. The fruit may range from seedless to about 7 small seeds. These fruits are about 2.5 – 5 cm across (golf ball sized) and are acid to subacid and said to be refreshing and of excellent flavor. They can be eaten fresh when fully ripe, or can be dried, or preserved. The trees can be propagated from seed. In Queensland, the fruit ripens from February to April. Tiny yellow male and female flowers are produced on the same tree, the females in globular clusters about 1cm long. Two trees may be needed for good fruit production. It is similar to mango and jak fruit in cold hardiness, with mature trees being able to survive about -4°C. It is relatively wind hardy.

Jicama Tips

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(Pronounced Hicama) The Jicama plant is a vine which grows to a length of 6 mtrs or more. Plant produces tall climbing vines and a white turnip shaped root that tastes like water chestnuts. The large tuberous roots can be eaten raw or cooked and are used as a source of starch. The roots are light brown in colour, and may weigh up to 50 pounds. Most of those on the market will weigh between three to five pounds. Only one root forms per plant. Store in cool dry place after harvest.

Planting Instructions: Soak seeds overnight in warm water (8 to 15 hours). Plant seeds 1″ deep every 2 ½ feet. Requires sunny area in garden and allow room for vines to spread. Requires a well prepared soil. Use general purpose fertilizer when preparing soil. Seeds require warmth to germinate. Germination: 12-18 days at 21°C. Recipes: Terry from Mexico reports: They make a fruit salad using pineapple, jicama and very fresh coconut meat. Nothing else – great taste. Another is “jicama dulce”, jicama boiled in molasses syrup. Very different but very tasty – would have added some spices to the syrup though.

Sheryl: Jicama is worth growing/buying. Look for it at Chinese Supermarkets. I prefer it raw.

Below is some information from http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/ It’s hard to find jicama, even though it’s sometimes available in Asian suburbs. It’s called “yam” by the Vietnamese. However through research I’ve found an Australian substitute – baby boab tubers. No kidding. This is not spam. 1 kg from Astrids Bush Tucker is $16.00. Since jicama can be used for raw mock potato salad, raw mock mashed potatoes, raw fries, and raw “garlic bread rounds”, I’m excited!!! Most of these indigenous herbs, fruits and spices are ancient superfoods in their own right, in addition to being sustainable and wild crafted and hand harvested. Most often by indigenous people in their own communities out in the desert but they only grow with exactly the right conditions.http://astridsbushtucker.com/abtnews…roducts_id=106

For more information about boab tubers: http://www.boabsinthekimberley.com.a…2march2006.pdf Baby boabs are the seedling stage of the large boab trees found in the Kimberley region. The seed of the fruit found in pods attached to the tree is planted and then grown for approximately 16 weeks depending on the season. This produces a tuber up to 30 centimetres long, with fresh, succulent, edible leaves on top. The boab tubers are very versatile and can be used in most dishes both raw and cooked. The texture of the tubers are crisp and crunchy like that of a water chestnut but with a refreshing taste that can adapt to the other flavours of any recipe. The leaves have a nutty flavour unlike that of any other salad vegetable and can be used in salads or a garnish. Nutritionally the boab tubers are high in iron and potassium, with a high level of protein (for a vegetable) and fibre and a relatively low fat content. The boab leaves are high in vitamins A & C. Ref: Carla

Jam

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Strawberry Jam by Inge Harmer This recipe works for all fruit
To sterilize the glass jars, put them through the dishwasher or wash them thoroughly then pour boiling water into them then turn upside down onto a tea towel to drain excess water out of them. Wash the lids then put them in a jug and pour boiling water over them, then tip them out to dry. Metal lids are better as plastic doesn’t seal properly but you can use plastic but it won’t keep as long. If you have a glut of fruit and no jars or time, then cut up your fruit and mix in the sugar then freeze.

Put 1kg strawberries (cleaned, hulled and cut into pieces) into a stainless steel saucepan preferably with a heavy base then add 1kg sugar & mix. Leave overnight or if you want a lighter mix, just leave for a couple of hours. Bring slowly to the boil stirring to dissolve sugar then wait a few minutes before you add 1 tsp citric acid and 1 tsp pectin mixed with a bit of sugar (approx. 1 tbspn) to the pot. You can use the juice of one lemon instead of the citric acid but don’t use the Meyer variety. Saucepan must be less than half full otherwise transfer half of it to another saucepan to do the hard boil stage. It’s best not to have a huge deep heavy pot as it is too heavy to lift once cooking is finished. Hard boil for 10 min then test for setting (have a cold plate in the freezer, put a teaspoon of jam on this plate & pop into freezer for 1 min. To test, push side of jam – if it wrinkles it will set) Stir occasionally during the cooking phase. After cooking has finished, turn off the stove. If you have made the jam in two pots, then transfer back into the one pot and take the scum off the top. You can use the scum as a spread on toast etc. Leave jam for 10 mins before filling the jars so the fruit won’t float to the top. Have 4-8 clean sterilized jars ready but this will depend on size. There is a special wide mouthed funnel available so you can easily ladle the hot mix in otherwise have a glass jug that has a good pouring lip and ladle the hot mix into the jug. You don’t need to fill right to the top but put the lids on immediately.
Wine or Jelly Palm – Butia capatta Jam The jam was very popular with my acquaintances. After some trial and error, I found the easiest way to make it was as follows: Wash the fruit and boil them up in a big pot, adding water to just cover. Let it cool, and pour off the liquid, which can be used later as juice or syrup cordial with sugar to taste. The seeds of the fruit can now be easily squeezed out or otherwise removed. Take as many fruit as you can get into your hands and squeeze the pulp into a weighed pot. There will be quite a bit of almost dry fibre left in your hands to go on the compost. Do handful after handful. Weigh the pulp and put in an equal weight of sugar, boil, and bottle the jam. Pour the juice, which was saved, into the pot and boil it, either with or without sugar, and bottle it by the overflow method. During the mid-eighties I planted seedlings of our Canberra Butia into two Brisbane area gardens. They both did well, the one in full sun better then the one in full shade, and it bore sooner, too. I was surprised that the former had fruit of a more pinky colour with still a little green when they dropped, but the taste was the same. It was then 1 m high. This tree was removed because it was in the way, but the one in the shade is still alive, and as the soil around it is covered in seeds, it must have borne well. I don’t think the new owners know that the fruit is edible. Ref: Helga Christiansen

The author T.R. in Encyclopaedia of Australian Gardening, page 557, writes: “Butia is one of the hardiest of all palms, rivalling the dates (Phoenix). Like all grey-leaved palms, it is completely sun tolerant, even when young, and has a deep, powerful root system capable of penetrating hard clay soil. Climate: Warm to hot moist coast to tropical areas”. I can vouch for the Canberra climate, too.
Apricot & Pumpkin Jam by Russell Reinhardt Combine 250g chopped dried apricots with 1 litre of water in a bowl, cover and stand overnight. Combine in large saucepan: undrained apricots, 375g pumpkin, ¼ cup lemon juice, 2 tbs chopped glace ginger. Bring to boil, simmer, covered for about 20 minutes or till pumpkin is soft. Stir in 4 cups sugar and stir over heat, without boiling till sugar is dissolved. Once sugar is dissolved, bring to boil, boil uncovered without stirring for about 30 minutes or till jam jells when tested. Pour into hot, sterilised jars. Seal when cold.
Sugar free Jam Great for diabetics by Gloria Gibson – Nelson NZ Gloria works in a rest home and makes sugar free jam for diabetic residents. Put 450 gms of fruit (blackberries, strawberries, blueberries or diced plums) in a pot and simmer gently until the fruit is soft but holding its shape. Add 1 tbsp powdered gelatin and stir through until dissolved. The jam will firm up when refrigerated.
Jackfruit Jam by Jenny Scodellaro Boil 1 cup jackfruit puree and ¾ cup sugar with constant stirring until thick and clear. Pack while hot into sterilized jars and seal tightly.
Kiwano Jam – a Carribean recipe Peel 1kg kiwano – cut in half lengthwise then cut into ¼ inch thick slices from golden yellow fruit. Put kiwano slices and all the seeds in a large saucepan. Add 3 cups of brown sugar and juice of 1 lime – let stand for 20minutes – stir occasionally Bring to the boil and cook for 20 – 30 mins on moderate heat. Add 2 tsp star anise a few minutes before the end of cooking. Pour into sterile jars. The seeds in the jam develop an almond flavour after a few weeks.

Celeriac

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In some of our supermarkets recently you may have seen a large knobbly bulbous root about 12cm in diameter called Celeriac and never having tried this vegetable before, I bought one home and studied the books to see the various ways of preparing it. It looks much like a turnip but with a rougher skin. It is a winter vegetable and the fresher it is the paler it will be.

In its raw state it has rather a mild celery taste which I liked. I then cut it into julienne strips and blanched it in hot water with some lemon juice added to retain the colour as it will discolour very easily. Add it to a salad for a different flavour as you would water chestnuts, gingko nuts, capers, anchovies or cornichons. The French grate it or just-blanch it then mix it with mustard mayonnaise to produce celerirave a la remoulade. It can be added to soups or stews and the leaves can also be used in salads. I tried it boiled and steamed, but like turnip, I prefer it to be mashed with a little butter and other condiments added. Try it stir-fried or baked in a cheese sauce.

Celery and Celeriac (members of the Umbelliferae family) come from the same source – Apium graveolens – and both are bred from the original wild plant found in the Mediterranean area with other wild forms of celery found in Europe, Asia Minor and between the Black and Caspian Seas and reaching towards the Himalayas. Although it was mentioned in Chinese writings during the fifth century, it took another 1200 years before the gardeners of Italy, France and England started to tone down it s strong flavour through selective breeding and it was during this time that Celeriac was developed as one of the improved varieties. It was a common vegetable around 1700 and is a standard winter vegetable in Germany and eastern Europe.

Propagation and Growing Conditions:

By seed – have never seen seedlings around. In sandy soil, the bulb won’t develop, so it is best grown in heavy moisture retentive soils. They are gross feeders. Sow seeds in spring 40cm x 40cm apart and harvest in autumn. Like other plants in this family, it has a low and slow germination rate so use a generous amount of seed and hasten things along by placing the seeds on wet paper towels in a shallow plastic covered tray for a few days and keep in a warm spot (not the sun). When they sprout, mix with cornmeal or sand for easier handling and sow immediately just below the surface. Cover with wet hessian and don’t allow to dry out – remove when plants start to grow. Don’t plant deeply as the bulb must sit on the soil and not get buried. Those in warmer climes can also sow in autumn. 120 days to maturity. During the growing period, draw soil away from the swelling bulbs and tear off any side-shoots which may appear at the base of the plants as the crown needs to be exposed. Liquid fertilize weekly at this stage. A fortnight before the roots are to be lifted, the soil can be hoed up to the foliage to cause the upper part of the root to become blanched.

Varieties:

White Alabaster:(this is a newer variety that produces more uniform, larger bulbs than Prague). In overseas catalogues, there are also listed Apple, Claudia, Early Paris, Globus, Jose, Iram, Large Smooth Prague, Marble Ball and Tellus.

Winter Gardening

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In Australia, the winter months are June, July and August.

Never use any oils on your trees in winter as you will kill the tree. Apply Envy or equivalent to trees susceptible to frost. Spray for Bindi before August – use a herbicide or mix a cup of common salt with a cup of vinegar and apply with a paint brush or roller. Prune all deciduous trees and use for cuttings eg. grapes/figs/jujubes/mulberries – late winter is better as they come away much quicker. Bring the cuttings along for the raffle table and put a name tag on them. To prevent the formation of frost under frost sensitive trees, remove the mulch although Mary King has found that when they used dead wattle leaves, it did not attract the frost. Rocks and stones also help to store the sun’s energy especially if covered with black plastic over the rocks. Remove after the last frost. If plants become frost-burned, don’t immediately cut off the affected parts as they give protection. Apply tree paste to trunk but not to green wood.

Peter Sauer uses a Potassium soap spray 3-4 times throughout the winter to control pests – this adds a significant amount of Potassium to the trees. If you’re using microbes on your fruit trees: flower emergence – spray foliar microbes 15mls/L with 2mls/L high calcium + 1ml/L Boron to enhance fruit set. Wait 21 days and repeat 2 more times. Spraying to be done to runoff of leaves.

Abiu	100 gms per sq. mtr Potassium Sulphate per tree.
Black Sapote	Take grafting wood when it’s coming into its spring growth flush – usually 1st or 2nd week of Aug.
Citrus – June and August	Fertilise with 1kg of Dynamic Lifter and a closed hand of Nitrophoska per sq. mtr plus Gypsum and occasionally Dolomite. If you’re on sandy soil, one dressing of Zinc Sulphate 30gms per sq. mtr will do the trick for 4 years or you could fertilise with a handful of Urea and a handful of Nitrophoska or equivalent per m2 around the dripline. (keep clear of the trunk). Remove galls on citrus before wasps emerge in August – slit stem to expose. The Bronze Orange Citrus Bug appear in winter starting as pale green nymphs , their colour changes through orange to bronze as they grow to adults. They can be serious pests in some areas causing flower and fruit drop by sucking on the stalks. Wear goggles
Custard Apples	Peak harvest period during May & June – keep the water up then low water requirements until flowering starts in October. After harvesting has finished (July/August) prune a third off all outer branches and any growth growing towards centre and strip leaves off. Don’t prune too close to a bud – leave around 10mm. Keep the centre top part of your tree open so that sunlight can penetrate. Limbs should be 1mtr off the ground. pH should be around 6. Apply Dolomite to the soil – 20g/ m2 out to the drip line. Defoliate trees about one month before normal budbreak (about August/September in south-east Queensland). Leaves are removed so the buds will come away a lot more quickly, thereby producing an earlier crop. Cut away any deadwood and check for Pinks Disease which is easily identifiable where a whole branch will be dead and you’ll notice that the bark is all lifted and you’ll see pink spores on the branch. Cut away the branch to below the infection. Paint the branch with Copper.
Feijoa	Start watering well to get the tree ready for flowering. Apply 2 handfuls of Nitrophoska to mature trees.
Figs	Prune 2/3rds off July / August. Bring cuttings to the Club meeting for the raffle table and tag them. Fruit produced on new seasons growth.
Granadilla	Hand pollinate – use a different flower to the one you want to pollinate ie don’t use the same flower to pollinate itself. Use a soft chicken/bird feather or a light paint brush. Low water requirements during dormancy,
Grapes	Prune June/July – bring prunings to the meeting for the raffle table. Label them. To propagate: Cuttings to have 3 buds – place sand in hole with a bit of lime.
Lychee/Longan	Apply a little fertilizer in June and, if dry, water to encourage bud activity; this will help flower formation.
Mangoes	(same as for Lychees/Longans) Apply 1-2kgs Gypsum to mature trees which supplies Calcium to the tree. During flowering if the night temperature drops below 10ºC it kills the ovaries in the flower so you never get seed set and the fruit falls off when small – they are called Nubbins and cutting them open will show no seed present so snap off the flowers on half the tree (what you can reach easily) at the end of July to hedge your bets because if we have a warm winter, the primary flowering will set fruit and if we have a cold winter, the secondary flowering will set fruit. The fruit is prone to Anthracnose (a fungus) and Bacterial Spot (fruit spotting, bacterium). To reduce the risk, prune to allow air and sunshine into the tree after fruiting and give supplementary potash during late winter. To prevent disease, spray a copper-based fungicide alternating with sprays of Mancozeb fungicide. During flowering only spray Mancozeb. In WA there is a recommendation for using Ecocarb (Potassium bicarbonate) as an organic disease spray on mangoes. For good canopy management and tree nutrition and soil management Kasper says “You should be able to see the sky through the pruned tree canopy”.
Olives	Fertilize with 500g Dolomite 300g Lime and spray with Boron – likes a high pH so use calcium.
Passionfruit	Fertilise mature vines monthly with Fish & Seaweed Foliar Sprays and for vines nearing the end of cropping also apply 20gms each of Gypsum and Dolomite per m2 out to a diameter of 2 metres.
Pawpaw	Minimal watering. Apply Dolomite – 50g/ m2. Half a teaspoon of Borax per plant/ m2 once a year. Spray with Wettable Sulphur if Powdery Mildew. Foliar fertilise with Fish & Seaweed Emulsion. Use Copper based spray if Black Spot is about.
Pepino	Prune to 5-7cm above ground and then fertilise well.
Persimmon	Minimal watering. Prune one-third off old wood in July. Fertilize with 1kg of Dolomite for a mature tree.
Phalsa	It will not bear the way it should bear unless pruned to 1 meter every year during winter.
Pineapple	If not flowering June/July, put a piece of ice on them.
Pitaya	Prune after fruiting has finished if it is too top heavy. They only fruit on new wood.
Pomegranate	Propagation: Take pencil thick cuttings in winter about 25cm long from 1 year old wood, dig a trench, put river sand in the bottom then put in the cuttings and back fill just leaving them with 2 buds above the ground. They are ready to plant out into a sunny spot about a year later and take one to three years to bear fruit.
Raspberries	Need cutting low to the ground each winter. An easy way is to mow over them. If you hand prune, do bring the cuttings along to the club meeting for the raffle table. Members find they are easier to manage when they are trellised. They will re-shoot in spring. You get big berries on new wood.
Star Apple	Thin out fruit.
Stone Fruit	Late July, prune unwanted laterals, water shoots and some of the fruiting wood to open up the tree.
Strawberries	Fertilise weekly with Fish and Seaweed sprays to prevent fruit rot and mulch well so berries don’t lie on the soil. Try not to overhead water so as to prevent fruit rot.
Vanilla	Hand pollinate the female flowers with a toothpick.

Authored by:

Sheryl Backhouse from various sources and checked with other members

Sourced from:

STFC Newsletter June – July 2006

Date sourced:

Wine Making

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I hope to be able to explain in three easy-to-follow steps, how to make a quality fruit wine you can be proud of. You will then be on your way with a new art form, like when an artist paints his first masterpiece, or when a chef creates his first great meal. As with any art, you may experiment around some basic principles, with some failures, but with time and experience, failures will rarely occur and most of it will be success.

Step One Prepare the fruit. Take over the kitchen. You will need access to a stove, a kettle, a freezer, a blender, a sink, and a good glass of wine (of course to remind you of what you are aiming for). Prepare two kilograms of the fruit (I will not be covering the creation of vegetable, flower, herb, honey or grape wines – let’s learn to crawl before we run). Do not remove the skin unless it is usually inedible – the exception being bananas, as banana skin can be used in wine, but we don’t usually eat it. Remove stones and pips – it is easy to do so. If the fruit has larger stones or seeds that are not easy to remove, that would be broken up by the blender, then the fruit needs to be crushed by the potato masher rather than put through the blender. If the seeds are either very, very small, such in many berry fruits, or have been removed completely, then the two kilograms of fruit is best put through a blender. Then, in 2kg lots, freeze them in the freezer. The ice cream tubs come in very handy for this process. Freezing the fruit brings out the extra flavours and helps break down some cell walls in the fruit. The fruit, now frozen, can be stored until it is convenient to start the wine.

Clean out a twenty-litre esky with some boiling water. It does not need to be completely sterile. However, if you prefer to be absolutely sure, then a small quantity of sodium metabisulphite and warm water wiped around the inside of the esky will do the job. Put the two-kilogram block of fruit in the esky and leave to defrost.

Into a large saucepan, that is able to hold at least ten litres, put one kilogram of sugar (1.5kg for a medium wine, 2kg for a sweet wine), the tea from six teabags or half a teaspoon of red tannin powder, and three litres of boiling water from the kettle (this is quicker than trying to bring the water to the boil on the stove). Bring it all to the boil, then pour over the defrosted fruit in the esky. Stir quickly, then replace the esky lid and leave to cool for twelve to twenty-four hours. The heat from the boiling water will effectively sterilise everything inside the esky without cooking the fruit. Don’t forget to clean out the stockpot and clean up the kitchen. Your future expeditions into wine making may depend on it!

Step Two Your wine / sugar mixture (must) is now ready to start fermenting. Yeast can replicate and grow by breaking down sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO₂). It does not need oxygen (O₂) to complete this process. This is called an anaerobic process. If oxygen or air is allowed to get to the wine, oxidation can occur, whereby, alcohol combines with oxygen to create acetic acid (vinegar). There is a bacterium called acetobacter that carries enzymes that rapidly promote this process. The acetobacter looks like a white scum on the surface of your wine or beer. It requires oxygen to survive.

When wines or beers are fermenting rapidly, a large amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) is produced, which is heavier than air. Therefore, a thick layer of CO₂ is created above the fermenting wine or beer, excluding any oxygen. Therefore, during the rapid fermenting process, at the beginning, oxidation of your wine or beer is very unlikely to occur, and you do not need to have it in an airtight container fitted with an air lock. When the fermentation slows down, this is the danger time, as the layer of CO₂ above the wine or beer is not as dense, oxygen can get to the surface and oxidise the alcohol to vinegar, particularly in the hot Queensland climate. It is therefore important to reduce the amount of air space above your fermenting wine or beer when the fermentation process slows down. This simple understanding of how the fermentation process works will probably get rid of a very large number of people having disasters.

When we add the yeast, we want fermentation to start quite rapidly to create that CO₂ layer. To ensure this rapid start, some people create a yeast starter bottle where they add a small quantity of sugar in a sterile bottle and water with the yeast the day before they are going to add this to the wine. DON’T BOTHER! The wine will still be warm after twenty-four hours in the esky and addition of dry yeast will still create a very rapid fermentation, so, add a small quantity of dried wine yeast, a teaspoon of yeast nutrient (available at local brew shops), and a teaspoon of pectolitic enzyme (pectolase). For most wine, the addition of the yeast nutrient is not absolutely necessary, however, if you embark on vegetable, flower or honey wines, the addition of yeast nutrient is essential. The addition of one tspn of tartaric or citric acid will certainly help the flavour of wines that are based on non-acidic fruit, in particular bananas. The pectolase, in my opinion, is essential for most wines, unless you are absolutely sure that the fruit you are basing your wine on does not contain any pectin. Pectin is required in jam making, making the jam set. If present in wine, it creates a haze that is very difficult to get rid of at a later date. Therefore, the addition of a pectolitic enzyme, that destroys pectin, at the beginning of the fermentation process, ensures you are likely to have a clear wine at the end.

Which yeast? There are approximately ten different wine yeasts, all with different qualities. I will not go into every wine yeast here, but Gervin produce an excellent range and the quality is superb, however, they are difficult to get hold of in Australia. The licensed importer is in WA, however, most of the yeasts can be purchased from your local brew shop, although, not under the Gervin name. Once the yeast nutrient and pectolase are added, stir them twice a day for the next seven days. Note: Use a large wooden or plastic spoon, or alternatively, a stainless steel one that has been sterilised with boiling water or through the microwave. This is quite important.

Step Three For the past seven days, some part of your house has smelled like a brewery. Well, now it’s time to get a bit messy. You need a 10 litre plastic bucket that has been sterilised with some sodium metabisulphite. Over this, drape a large nylon straining bag. You can make this from nylon mesh similar to mosquito netting, or buy it from you local brew shop. Pour your brew into the straining bag, lift up the edges, and gently squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can into the bucket. IMPORTANT: Your hands need to be as clean as possible for this stage, preferably cleaned in a weak sodium metabisulphite solution, or better still, put on some plastic gloves and wash those in a metabisulphite solution. There are probably a hundred different ways that this messy stage can be made slightly less messy, but why should I spoil your fun. Just keep the solid particulate matter inside the nylon bag and the liquid matter in the bucket. When you have squeezed out as much as you can and your hands and arms are aching from the process, put the nylon bag and solid matter aside.

The liquid now needs to go into sterile fermenting vessels, that is, some concentrated metabisulphite should have been in the container, shaken about and left for a short time. 3L fruit juice containers are ideal for this purpose, and the liquid you have should fill two of these almost exactly. If it doesn’t, top up with water to approximately 3cm from the top. Fit a rubber bung and air lock, also sterilised by soaking in metabisulphite. Put a small amount of metabisulphite solution in the air lock and leave to finish fermenting, which will take approximately two to six weeks, depending on the time of the year. After three weeks, whether it has finished fermenting or not, the clearer wine at the top needs to be siphoned off, using a sterile siphon tube, into another sterile fermenting vessel. A 5litre glass demijohn is ideal. Alternatively, another 3litre fruit juice container and a 2litre wine or port flagon is adequate. (Anyone unsure of how to siphon the clear wine from one bottle into another, please give me a call.)

Some wines may now have finished fermenting and be quite clear and therefore are ready for bottling without further ado. Most wines will take a little longer than this to clear and you have to leave them in the fermenting vessels for anywhere up to six months, however, most wines will be clear within two months. There are various reasons why your wine may not clear, and it is probably best to seek advice from your local brew shop about using a clearing agent. For perfectionists who wish to have their wine absolutely crystal clear, a filtering mechanism may be required. However, for most people starting up, a very slight haze on the wine will not change the flavour much at all, and is quite acceptable.

Bottling: How to become very unpopular with the rest of the household in the middle of a summer’s night, (and oh so many people has this happened to), with exploding bottles and popping corks on a hot warm evening because they have lacked that great virtue, patience, and have tried to bottle their wine far too early. I could make this part very high-tech and very complicated. For those who compete at state or national levels it is complicated, especially when trying to make lower alcohol semi-sweet or medium wines. So, invest in a hydrometer and read the instructions. If the specific gravity of the wine is less than 0.995, and the fluid level in the air lock appears level and not popping, the wine is unlikely to ferment any further, and if it is clear, it can be bottled. If you are making a sweet wine and the specificity is as it is meant to be (more than 1.020), invest in a little, tiny capillary action vinometer that gives an approximate alcohol by volume measurement. If the alcohol by volume measurement with this little device is more than 18%, it is not likely to ferment any further and can be bottled if clear. Anything between these perimeters may need a little more thought. Happy brewing and remember, have fun! Experiment in small qualities and even the best chef can burn the toast.

If you’re interested in making fruit wine, consider joining the Western Suburbs Amateur Wine & Beer Makers Guild. Meetings are usually held at the Graceville Croquet Club, Appel St. Graceville 7.30pm 1^st Wednesday of each month. Contact Tony Bilbrough preferably by email: tony@bilbrough.com.au 0415 032 285

Wine Making – Yellow Mangosteen

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How wonderful it is to experiment with some of Queensland’s tropical and exotic fruits. The joy from experiencing some of the fantastic tastes of the fruit itself and then wonder what flavour the wine will have. Recently I have been experimenting with a whole new range of Queensland’s exotic fruits. One of these fruits is the Yellow Mangosteen. People may know of the Purple Mangosteen which does not actually grow in Brisbane, because it is too cold for this truly tropical fruit. Many regard it as the best fruit in the world, and I am sure, those of you who have had the good fortune to taste it would agree.

The Yellow Mangosteen, however, is quite different. The fruit is the size of a tennis ball and is bright yellow with a waxy skin. The yellow pulp inside is made up of two parts. The area under the skin is quite sour – almost as sour as that of a lemon, whereas the fruit pulp around the seed is much sweeter, perhaps comparable to a sweet grapefruit. The fruit was clearly too acidic to attempt to make a dry wine. However, the tanginess of the fruit acids lent itself ideally to make a sweet white wine. My first effort last year did extremely well, winning a gold and a silver medal. The bottle was completely devoured by other members of the club in the general tasting after the competition. It is one of the simplest wines to make.

Simply skin the ripe fruit, remove the pulp from around the seeds until you have approximately two kilograms of Mangosteen pulp. Bring to the boil three litres of water with two kilograms of sugar and four tea bags. Pour this over the fruit pulp in a sterile esky and leave to cool for one day. Then add a teaspoon of peptolitic enzyme, a high alcohol tolerant yeast, and a teaspoon of yeast nutrient. Keep the esky covered apart from when you are stirring. This should be done once a day for seven days. Strain the wine in a nylon bag into two three-litre sterile fruit juice containers and fit air locks. Ferment for another one to two months, then rack off or siphon off the sediment and put the wine into a 5 1itre demijohn, leaving to clear for another two months before bottling.

This wine clears on its own and very rarely needs any clearing or filtering. It should be ready to drink within three months of starting to make it. This is a truly delicious wine, but remember, moderation!

Whitewashing your fruit

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The Agricultural Research magazine in November 2000 reported the findings of some interesting research in the USA, where a special type of kaolin clay (marketed as the product “Surround”), sprayed over apples and pears protected them from sunburn and increased yield dramatically, as well as keeping insect pests away. The research was carried out by D. Michael Glenn, Gary J. Puterka and Michael E. Wisniewski .

Kaolin safe to ingest (in fact, it is often taken as an anti-nausea medication). The idea of spraying trees with kaolin was originally conceived as an organic method that would repel insects and prevent disease organisms from entering fruit, by putting a physical barrier over the fruit. However the research revealed another advantage. Apples harvested from treated trees were an average of 17 percent larger than fruit from trees left untreated. Some types of pear trees yielded twice as many pears with no decrease in fruit size. Other trials revealed that using the kaolin improved the colour and raised the sugar content of Arizona-grown lemons, while grapes reached the desirable sugar content sooner than those left bare.

It seems that the specially processed kaolin coating reflects the heat-producing infrared wavelengths of the sun, as well as the burning ultraviolet rays. Keeping the tree cooler increases fruit yield and helps prevent fungus. Some of the research has also shown that kaolin-coated trees photosynthesized up to 30 percent faster than uncoated trees.

Kaolin also seems to be proving very successful against insects, as it seems they don’t like biting or crawling on a plant or tree covered with the kaolin dust. The researchers reported in their article that the kaolin seems to sticks to insects’ wings, legs, and mouth parts, causing them to leave to find a more favourable place to feed and lay eggs. They state that “In studies around the country, codling moths, apple maggots, plum curculio, leafhoppers, Japanese beetles, rose chafer, thrips, and rust mites—not to mention pear psylla—have fled whitewashed crops in search of greener pastures.” The white leaves also seem to make it harder for insects to recognise their favorite hosts. After several years of research trials, the product is proving effective against many types of insects.

The researchers reported that it is important to get good coverage of the crop with the kaolin product. They have investigated ways to improve kaolin’s ability to mix with water, so that it sticks better. Areas of low rainfall are particularly adaptable to this new technique, because in rainy areas the kaolin will eventually get washed off by rain.

Finally, another feature of the new product is its ability to reduce frost damage, because of the water repelling qualities of the kaolin coating. Leaves that are have less water droplets on them will not suffer as must tissue damage from freezing.

In summary, although the kaolin spray is still in the early days of testing, it appears that it can:

• control fungal diseases • control insect pests • prevent sunburn on fruit and nuts • prevent heat stress • increase yields • increase photosynthesis

• prevent frost damage

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive