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Note from Colin Westwood in Malaysia 2013:   Not much news on the Durian front here in SE Asia, as sadly the changing climate has trebled the prices of last year and they are quite scarce. In Thailand, only found Montong and Baan and 60 THB/ kg was the cheapest price to be found. Here in Penang, Malaysia the choices are greater, but it just cost me 22 MYR for a 1.3kg Durian Horlow. Found a D 88 the other day too, at a similar price. The vendor, in Georgetown Penang, located on the corner of Chulia and Love Lane, opposite the 7/11 store, operates between June and August every year during the peak Durian season. He currently also has available D 24, D 600, D 15 also known as ‘green skin’ and one he called ‘red prawn’ but maybe the correct name was lost in translation as his thick Malay accent was hard to penetrate.

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• Figs – Cut through from the top into six sections but not right through to the bottom then open it out into a star. (ABC Garden Show)
   
• Jackfruit – George and Judy’s Recipe for Freezing & Drying
  Use lemon syrup for drying the fruit but drain off the juice before drying – about 5 minutes is all you need. The syrup soon takes on the colour and flavour of the fruit so must pull out a lot of juice from the fruit. This mixture freezes nicely with no discolouring. The recipe is very much off the cuff: about a cup of sugar, juice of 5 lemons, a 6kg+ Jakfruit and do use the rags – just cut them with scissors.

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An effective solution for fungal problems is to change the pH on the surface of the leaf. This is done by spraying one day with bi carb soda and the next with apple cider vinegar – diluted of course. This has the effect of changing the pH rapidly and fungus finds it hard to handle.    Ref:   www.

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• How can you tell a female date seed from a male one? 
  Unfortunately, you have to wait till flowering to know if you have a male or female if you grow the palm from seed.  However, babies which spring from the base or near the base of the date palm can be easily removed and grown as separate palms and will be clones of the palm from which they are taken.  Ref: Thurston

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• “Island Gem” Custard Apple by Ray Johnson of Gin Gin   Why do you want to graft an African Pride asked the local orchardist near Gin Gin. “I’ve got a tree of Island Gem and it’s better than African Pride,” he said. I was looking for another variety to graft on to my Pink’s Mammoth and this sounded like an interesting option. I hadn’t heard of Island Gem before but found a snippet in one of our library books, (“Growing Fruit in Warm Climates: by Brian Cull). He states: “Island Gem is a tree to 12 metres in diameter (that tree needs a prune!) with medium vigour. It begins fruiting in about year 4, producing heavy crops. The fruit are small, thin skinned with a high susceptibility to splitting. The flesh is of good texture, and excellent flavour with a moderate number of seeds. It is the earliest variety in the year. The local orchardist that I mentioned earlier, Barry, says it’s self-pollinating and basically trouble free. His wife calls it their $100 tree because they make that much and more at the local farmers market from this one tree. Besides doing 3 grafts on my Pink’s Mammoth. I’ve started 5 air-layers. Hopefully, they will all take, and I’ll have some to share around.
   
• A problem with cherimoya is inadequate natural pollination because the male and female structures of each flower do not mature simultaneously. Few insects visit the flowers. Therefore hand-pollination is highly desirable and must be done in a 6 to 8 hour period when the stigmas are white and sticky. Pollination is done by hand to ensure an abundant crop. This is best done in mid-season of bloom. In early evening, collect in a small bottle the anthers and pollen from the interior of fully open male flowers with a #2 or #3 artists brush. Anthers will be tan coloured and the white pollen falling from them will be obvious. The pollen has its highest viability at the time it is shed and declines significantly with time. Immediately apply freshly collected pollen with a small brush to the flowers in partially open, female stage. If no female stage flowers are available, pollen may be saved in the sealed container under refrigeration overnight. Pollen may then be applied to female stage flowers in the morning. In large-scale operations the pollen may be mixed with inert Lycopodium spores, PVC, starch or talc powder and applied with aspirator-type Japanese apple-pollinators, to save time and pollen. Pollinate every two or three days, and only flowers easily reached inside the tree, to avoid sunburned and wind-damaged fruit. If pollination efforts are quite successful, it may be necessary to thin the fruit. Too much fruit may result in small size and adversely effect future yields.    Ref: © from the NewCROP the New Crop™ Resource Online Program. Published here under Fair Use Analysis
   
• Met a grower from Mapleton at Terry Little’s talk who has 10 Pinks Mammoth & 20 Cherimoya and doesn’t have to hand pollinate. There are no pineapple farms nearby to attract the Nitidulae Beetle which is the usual pollinator of the Pink’s Mammoth but Terry was telling me that the beetle is attracted more to the African Pride than the Pinks. A neighbour keeps bees. Ref: Sheryl Backhouse
   
• 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.
   
• Patti Stacey from the Custard Apple Growers Association has advised that the new variety Tropic Sun on squamosa rootstock has been released. As stock is limited, trees are being supplied to retail nurseries on order from Fitzroy Nursery. Ask your retail nursery to order from Fitzroy. It is self pollinating on dwarfing rootstock. Seed count is a few more than Pinks Mammoth but much less than African Pride.
   
• Apply fertiliser high in Potassium in March (autumn). Mix 1gm Boron with 1gm Urea per litre water and foliar spray. Thin African Pride fruit if needed.
   
• Daley’s forum:  Hand pollination was pretty much hopeless. A few buckets of water and some liquid Potash and Silica thrown at it seemed to do the trick.
   
• Annona – very common for annona seeds not to fill out, especially true with Atemoya. I think with hand pollination you would get more good seeds and rounder more filled out fruit. Ref: Oscar 
• Branch Dieback in Custard Apples.  Several custard apple orchards have recently reported cases of branch and tree dieback. Disease isolations carried out by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries have identified two different pathogens with a possible third pathogen currently being identified. The pathogen Lasiodiplodia was identified to be causing branch dieback and trunk cankers in one orchard in Queensland in 2015. More recently Neofusi coccum parvum was identified in the Northern Rivers causing branch dieback in one orchard. Dark necrotic lesions were found under the bark surface. A clear definition of the lesion and healthy tissue can be seen Neofusicoccum parvum is a fungi in the Bot ryosphaeriaceae family. It has a wide host range that affects a range of horticultural crops and native vegetation. Neofusicoccum parvum is described as an opportunistic pathogen that often infects stressed or damaged trees. It also has the potential to spread through pruning cuts. Neofusicoccum parvum is a relatively weak pathogen that generally only becomes a problem when trees are under environmental stress. Fungicide sprays used to control other diseases in custard apple orchards will usually keep this disease under control. The spread of Neofusicoccum parvum can be limited by sterilising pruners that have come in contact with the diseased limbs while pruning and removing affected prunings from the orchard. In severe cases of Neofusicoccum parvum, or any other pathogens causing dieback, remove affected branches by cutting back the branch until clean wood can be seen. This is sometimes called “eradicative pruning” and can greatly reduce the potential spread of pathogens causing branch dieback. Healthy shoo ts should develop behind the pruning cut.    Ref:  Grant Bignall – Dept Agriculture and Fisheries
   
• Peter Trebbin – Wide Bay area. In my last report I said I was having a few problems with Lychees dying. Well, a few custard apples have gone into decline also. There appears to be no difference between the three root stocks (squamosa, A/P or cherimoya). All trees came away well but when growth was about 100mm long they started turning yellow. I was talking to another tree grower from Bundy and he told me about trunk spraying with Phos Acid they are doing on other crops. I have trailed this on a few of the sick trees and some of the yellow trees have turned green again with new growth moving slowly. Time will tell if it is ok for custard apples.
   
• Paul Thorne – Brisbane South Currently I have been noticing a few of my most hated pests in the mealy bugs. I have battled these pests to little avail at times as I personally believe that they cause the most economic damage on my farm out of any pest (maybe because my old trees are 30 plus years). Biological control is great but conflicts with the spotting bug controls, (Supracide, Lepterdex and for those who still have some Endosulfan). Oils may help but with the high temperatures of late one worries about phototoxic burning, I have noticed that the fruit closest to the sprayer that must receive the most spray seem to have a stained look about them. Then there is Applaud which has to be timed well to get the best use of. So the last mentioned should be your first line of defence that is ant control. Well at the prickle farm I have only ever seen ant activity on one or two trees. It has been told to me that these bastards can crawl upwards of 2 metres. Anyway I wish you well in your efforts to combat the many and varied attacks that the general public have no idea about except to want the cheapest and cleanest fruit on display. I had better stop here before climbing aloft onto my soapbox. I hope and wish all a happy New Year season.
   
• Patti Stacey – Northern NSW  It’s a bit early to predict what the NSW custard apple crop will be like this season. Most have just finished pruning their trees and flowering has commenced. The odd fruit has appeared. The flowers are giving off a strong aroma indicating the pollen is viable so all fingers are crossed. The high temperatures last week – 33 degrees – have caused a bit of burning on new leaves. Craig Maddox gave an excellent presentation on integrated pest management techniques and updated us on the Fruit Spotting Bug R&D project. In the orchard he demonstrated the effectiveness of “trap trees” as a monitoring tool for FSB.
• Sooty Mould in Custard Apples by Alan George
  Symptoms    The mould is superficial and may grow on leaves, twigs and fruit. Sooty Mould is the common name applied to several species of fungi that grow on honeydew secretions on plant parts and other surfaces. The fungi’s dark mycelium gives plants or other substrates the appearance of being covered with a layer of soot. Sooty moulds do not infect plants but grow on surfaces where honeydew deposits accumulate. Honeydew is a sweet, sticky liquid that is excreted by plant-sucking insects as they ingest large quantities of sap from the plant. Because the insect cannot completely utilize all the nutrients in this large volume of fluid (which is a dilute solution of carbohydrates, amino acids, minerals, and other substances), it assimilates what it needs and excretes the rest as “honeydew.” Wherever honeydew lands (e.g., leaves, twigs, fruit) sooty moulds can become established. Although sooty moulds do not infect plants, they can indirectly damage the plant by coating the leaves to the point that sunlight penetration is reduced or inhibited. Without adequate sunlight, the plant’s ability to carry on photosynthesis is reduced, which may stunt plant growth. Coated leaves may also prematurely senesce and die, causing premature leaf drop. Fruits or vegetables covered with sooty moulds are edible.
• Causal organism
  Fungi that most commonly cause sooty moulds are in the genera Capnodium, Fumago, and Scorias. Less common genera include Antennariella, Aureobasidium, and Limacinula. The species of sooty moulds present are determined by a combination of the environment, the host, and the insect species present. Some sooty mould species are specific to a particular plant or insects while others may colonize many types of surfaces and use honeydew produced by several kinds of insects.
  Occurrence and distribution
  A number of insects can produce the honeydew needed by sooty moulds to grow. Most of these are plant-sucking insects in the order Homoptera which includes aphids, mealybugs, soft scales, whiteflies, leafhoppers, and psyllids. Immature and adult stages of these insects feed by sucking sap from plants, producing honeydew. If these pests are controlled, then usually sooty mould is controlled.
  Chemical control
  Treat the scale or mealybug infestation and control ants. Use appropriate registered chemicals to control the pests causing the sooty mould.
  Orchard management strategies
  The most important control measure is to restrict the movement of ants into the tree canopy through the use of sticky bands placed around the trunk of the tree in spring. If the fruit does become covered with sooty mould it will need to be cleaned with water containing detergent and lightly brushed. Various methods have been used to clean the fruit. One grower has developed a semi-automated system with the fruit being sprayed with pressurised water to remove mould.

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Can be phytophthora, sunburn or uneven watering. Cut away bark and paint with bordeaux mixture.

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Coriander needs to be grown in a really cool part of the garden where it will not be as prone to go to seed with the heat. “Cilantro” is a form of coriander that has been developed to tolerate more heat and to stay leafy for longer. Keep some seed for future propagation and sow frequently to ensure an even supply if it keeps going to seed. If you remove any flower stalks that appear, this will help to keep it leafy. In the Tropics & Sub-Tropics, plant in autumn and treat as an annual.  The books say not to buy seedlings as the shock of transplanting them makes them bolt to seed but the slow bolting Vietnamese type grows very differently to the normal Coriander I’ve been told. 

Below are the notes that were given to me in Vietnam from the Trang Nong Seed Co.

To prepare seed before planting out:
1.   Take the required amount of seed and press it down on a flat surface with the palm of your hand to break it into pieces.
2.   Put the seed into a muslin or equivalent cloth and soak overnight in water.
3.    The next day, take it out of the water and leave to dry.
4.    Put it into a polyethylene bag and tie the mouth of the bag tightly to prevent water.
5.    Put it into the bottom of the refrigerator – temperature should be 15-16c.
6.   After incubating for 72-80 hours, the seed will have germinated and you can sow.
7.   Plant out leaving 20cm between rows.

Further to this, here are some added notes:

Sow seed where you want to grow it. Coriander will bolt to seed in the heat so sow it in autumn and don’t try to grow it over summer. It does like a bit of shade particularly in the afternoon. If you find that it’s still too hot for it, then grow it in the shade. Leafy greens should be grown fast so enrich your soil well, apply liquid fertiliser fortnightly and never let it dry out. Sow every two weeks for a constant supply and if you let a couple go to seed, it should self-sow if conditions are right.  Ref:  Sheryl Backhouse

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Compost Thermometer by Terry Gordon
This is my method of checking the temperature of my compost. I have a digital non-contact thermometer which you can buy from automotive shops like Repco for around $90.00. I made a probe using a piece of aluminium about 4 inches by 2 inches which is attached to about one metre of old broom handle by two screws. A piece of aluminium from an old cooking pot is good, thick, won’t rust and a good conductor of heat. I leave the probe pushed into the pile, a different spot each time to ensure good contact between the aluminium and the compost and whenever I wish to check the temperature, it’s simply a matter of pulling out the probe and measuring the temperature of the aluminium. This method would most likely be frowned upon in scientific circles, but it’s cheap and it works and you can easily make several probes if you need them. Also you can use the thermometer to check the temperature of your plants.  Hope you find this helpful.

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• We have an interesting animal at Dayboro which actually de-husks the coffee berries and leaves the beans in a neat pile at the base of the tree.  We consequently don’t have to worry about de-husking which is the most time consuming part.  I just roast mine in the oven in a baking dish, flat chat for ages and it seems to work very well.   Ref: Jennifer Vickers
   
• Bev Alfeld was visiting a farm in Puerto Rico and says “while walking the cultivated hillsides among the coffee trees, we broke open the ripe red coffee berries, sucking and nibbling on them. We had no idea that their outer flesh was edible; it was surprisingly sweet and delicious with overtones of flowers and spices.”  I tried it myself recently & enjoyed the taste.
   
• In a California Rare Fruit Growers magazine, Bev Alfeld was visiting a farm in Puerto Rico and says “while walking the cultivated hillsides among the coffee trees, we broke open the ripe red coffee berries, sucking and nibbling on them. We had no idea that their outer flesh was edible; it was surprisingly sweet and delicious with overtones of flowers and spices.”
   
• Grafting Coffee   https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/F_N-54.pdf