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Texas A & M University  http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/propagation/propagation.html   A great propagation web-site which includes all the different types of grafting.  There are “animated gifs” ie clicking on a diagram sets it alive so the transfer of budwood to scion is shown in action. If you want to have all this available at any time, you can save the main file and all the illustrations in a folder on your hard drive and view it at any time by opening the main file with your web browser.                                                                                                                                                                         

Essentials   Essentially the treatment (also called marcotting)  is to girdle a shoot and surround the wound with moist material until roots emerge, when the rooted shoot is severed from the parent and established as a new individual. This is an ancient method well described by many writers as a reliable though somewhat tedious way of propagating very many woody plants, including avocado cashew and mango.

Age of Shoots   Judging by the many results of trials with a wide range of species it would seem that young shoots, with a fast growing potential in a position on the parent tree where there is adequate light, respond best to marcotting. Firm shoots sufficiently lignified to withstand the necessary manipulation, yet young enough to respond to treatment, should be selected. Generally it will be found that one year old shoots with a good supply of leaves and leaf-buds are ideal for rapid root initiation and development, which largely depend on the downward flow of essential substances from developing leaves and shoots growing above the marcot. Thus it is that the phasic development of the actual shoot and not that of the parent tree as a whole is vital. The shoots should always be young, and can be obtained on old trees by heading them back. In mango, shoots of less than two years of age have been shown to give a higher percentage of rooting than older ones. However, with cashew it was found that one—year-old wood was better than current season’s growth.

Girdling and wounding    It has sometimes been suggested that slicing, notching or half-cutting through are alternatives to complete girdling or cincturing, but these partial interruptions of the downward movement of materials are less effective than complete girdling. Where success has followed mere wounding it may have been brought about by extensive tissue damage, and consequently girdling effect, or by excessive use of a highly concentrated growth substance.

As to the best season for the operation, work in various countries has shown that there is no major advantage in choosing a particular month. The condition of the shoot is the important factor; it should be young and active but not too soft, and one or two year old shoots have generally proved the most suitable. A practical consideration of some importance is to time the operation so that the rooted shoot is due for removal for transplanting early in the rainy season so as to facilitate establishment.

The position of the cincture, whether above or below a bud or midway along an internode, is relatively unimportant but it should be placed where it can be conveniently wrapped and be supported either by being tied to a neighbouring branch or to a stick or cane. Another practical consideration is the eventual size of the rooted layer. The rooting of very large branches leads to establishment difficulties. Size reduction by pruning, at the moment of transference, may aid survival but may result in a misshapen plant based on lateral development. Suitable shoot sizes about the cinctured position have varied from 9 to 24 inches (23 to 61 cm) in length and from pencil thickness up to half an inch (1.25 cm) in diameter. A cincture a little above the base of the shoot will be ideally placed with regard to root formation and support.

The cincture itself is made by removing a complete ring of bark. Widths advocated have varied from one-eighth to three inches (0.3 to 7.6 cm). The essential aim is to stop the downward movement of carbohydrates and growth substances so that they accumulate above the cincture and are available for the initiation and development of roots.

This interruption of flow should be as complete as possible without interfering with the upward passage of water and other materials to the shoot above. An eighth—inch (0.3 cm) girdle will heal and form a bridge too quickly, whilst a three-inch (7.6 cm) gap is excessive. An inch (2.5 cm) —wide girdling will generally serve and this can be made by two encircling cuts and the removal of the intermediate rind. The operation can be done with a sharp knife or with a double bladed tool. These cuts should not enter the wood (xylem) of the shoot for this not only checks the upward sap flow but, by weakening the shoot structure, increases the risk of loss by breakage. The vital necessity of preventing the downward flow of materials cannot be overstressed. Some workers have treated the bared wood— surface with disinfectants or other chemicals in an attempt to prevent the formation of a new rind, but with no clear benefit. A somewhat more efficacious treatment is to rub a pad of steel wool, or other abrasive, around the cincture to remove all traces of meristematic tissue. Another method is to pull twine or strong plastic thread very firmly into the wound to prevent bridging by callus:

Synthetic growth substances    It has become customary to apply synthetic growth substances to the upper part of the cincture and to about the first inch (2.5 cm) of the bark immediately above it. This is not essential for readily rooting subjects but has generally proved helpful in speeding root formation and in increasing the number and length of roots. Many substances have been used with success, the most popular being indole acetic acid, indole butyric acid and naphthalene acetic acid, or mixtures thereof. They may be applied diluted in alcohol, in inert dusts or in grease bases s as lanolin.

From a survey of the literature it would seem that the most effective single substance for assisting root formation is indole butyric acid (IBA). To prepare an alcoholic solution of IBA (or other crystalline growth substance) dissolve 1 g in 50 ml of ethyl alcohol, methyl alcohol or methylated spirit and then dilute this with an equal volume of water to make 100 ml of solution containing 10,000 p.p.m. IBA. To dilute the 10,000 p.p.m. to 5,000 p.p.m. add a further 100 ml of 50/50 alcohol/water mixture. Stored in well—stoppered opaque bottles in a refrigerator, the solutions retain their activity indefinitely, and should be strong enough for shy—rooting subjects.

Dusts containing synthetic growth substances ready for use may be purchased or can be made as follows. To make a dust containing 10,000 p.p.m. of growth substance dissolve 1 g of the substance in 40 ml of methylated spirit or 95 per cent alcohol, and stir this into 100 g of pharmaceutical talc to form a smooth paste. This should be done in a darkened room away from strong light (117). Stir the paste while it is drying until it becomes a fine dry powder. This prepared dust remains active for six months or more if stored in a closed opaque container in a refrigerator.

Lanolin pastes, which are particularly convenient for use in marcotting but are now regarded as an obsolete treatment for cuttings (5), are made by stirring the growth substance into the molten lanolin and then allowing it to cool (93). To make a paste containing 5,000 p.p.m. of growth substance melt 200 g of lanolin and thoroughly stir into this molten lanolin 1 g of IBA, or other growth substance required. This prepared paste will keep indefinitely if stored in a well-stoppered opaque glass vessel within a refrigerator.

The alcoholic solution is conveniently applied by means of an artist’s camel—hair brush, the liquid being contained in a small glass bottle held close to the cinctured shoot. The bottle should be stoppered between each individual application. The liquid should wet the lower inch (2.5 cm) or so of the bark close above the cincture as well as the adjacent cut edge. An inadvertent wetting of the exposed wood (xylem) is of little consequence. The solution should be allowed to dry before applying the medium. Dusts can be generously applied by means of a half-inch (1 cm) brush.  If insufficient dust adheres, the bark above the cincture should first be wetted with water or a mixture of 50/50 methylated spirit and water.Lanolin pastes are applied by means of a small pliable serrated spatula, a brush of stiff bristle or by the finger protected by a rubber finger-stall.                                                                                     

Rooting media    The choice of the rooting medium to place around the cincture has been widely studied and the present view is that a wide range of media are satisfactory (see page 15 A good medium should be open in structure to permit air and moisture movement and be able to retain its structure throughout the rooting process. It should therefore not ferment or otherwise breakdown, hence live sphagnum moss has been widely accepted as a basis, but coir fibre and coir dust, wood shaving and sawdust have all proved excellent as basic ingredients.

Work with cashew in Tanzania (89) showed that vermiculite alone was superior to fibre, moss, coir, sawdust or a 50/50 mixture of vermiculite and sand. It is an advantage if the selected material is light in weight and holds together whilst being placed in position during the wrapping procedure. Whilst an open, light—weight medium provides an excellent rooting environment, it should be remembered that the main hazard in marcot propagation occurs during transference and establishment. From general experience it has been learned that transference to soil or mixtures thereof, whether in containers or the open nursery, is more readily accomplished if the marcotting medium contains a modicum of loan or clay soil. A medium of equal parts clay soil and sieved leaf mould has proved superior to moss alone in regard to rooting and survival of mango air layers in India (120) but it should be remembered that heavy additions of soil increase the need for extra support for the marcot.

Wrapping the air layer   The medium should be well moistened. Fibrous material should be thoroughly wetted and squeezed free from excess water at the moment of application. It may be convenient to pack the material round the cinctured part before placing the wrapping over it. Often a better way is to place the medium on the wrapping and so lift it into position. Polyethylene sheet is an ideal wrapping material, being both water-tight and transparent, obviating the need to water the marcot and enabling the new roots to be seen when they come through the rooting medium. As with many other kinds of enveloping material polyethylene may be punctured and torn by birds. Where this occurs the only remedy appears to be an outer cover of really tough, resilient material such as a piece of inner tube from a car tyre. The polyethylene film must be thin enough to be wrapped and folded round the shoot to form an air—tight enclosure. Thicknesses of from 100 to 400 gauge (0.001 to 0.004 in or 0.025 to 0.1 mm) are suitable Thicker films are difficult to fold sufficiently tightly to prevent drying of the enclosed medium. Occasionally it is possible to maneuver a length of polyethylene lay—flat tube, three or four inches (8 or 10 cm) wide, over the top of a shoot bearing only small leaves and to fix this below the cincture and then to fill it with rooting medium before closing it tightly above. Mostly a Square of sheeting must be used, the size varying with the situation. Pieces measuring about 7 x 10 inches (18 x 25 cm) are normally large enough to contain a ball of medium some three inches (8 cm) long and 2½ inches (6.5 cm) in diameter, leaving two inches (5 cm) for a double-fold lengthwise and two inches (5 cm) at either end for closely wrapping round the shoot.

Having made the cincture and applied the growth substance, a handful or so of moist medium is placed in the middle of the wrapping and immediately lifted into position round the shoot, the two edges of the wrapping are matched together and folded over twice to hold the medium quite firmly. The lower open end is closed by a twisting motion very firmly round the shoot and there tied or taped with plastic strip or strong adhesive tape. The medium is firmed below the open top, using the fingers, before tightly taping. The wrapping and tying must be done in such a way that no opening is left for evaporation from the medium. The tie at the top end should always begin on the bare shoot and be spiralled down on to the wrapping to prevent excessive rain seeping down into the marcot. Sometimes, in spite of all wrapping precautions, marcots become waterlogged. This appears to be due to overheating of plastic wrapped marcots by direct sunshine followed by heavy rain which, flowing down the shoot, rapidly cools the marcot, setting up a strong suction press which draws water into the marcot through even the smallest opening. An outer loose covering such as that SUgge5 as a protection against birds, or a white paper Covering, Will reduce excessive water intake. In the absence of plastic materials or rubber sheeting a great variety of wrapping materials have been used such as hessian cloth, various fibres, barks or leaves, or even old boots, but the distinct advantage in efficiency of using transparent, foldable plastic sheet, not least the absence of the need to water a plastic-covered marcot, ensures its present and future popularity.                                                                                                                           

Transference of the rooted air layer   When the marcot has rooted sufficiently to ensure successful transplantation (the period may vary from as little as 30 to more than 100 days) the procedure of separation should begin. Ideally this is done in stages, the branch is half nicked close below the wrapping and completely severed one or two weeks later. At this moment of separation the rooted marcot is vulnerable to adverse weather conditions and it is advisable to place it in a container and to take it through the full nursery procedure as described for young seedlings or newly rooted cuttings, including adequate nutritional treatment to build a fully self-contained plant for transference to the plantation.

Ref: Oscar – Hawaii   Choice of wrapping for air layers depends on climate and personal preference. In the tropics I find that transparent wrap is not so good because if the sun hits it can bake the roots. I like to use two layers of aluminium foil, very easy to apply and no ties necessary. The reason I use two layers of foil is I found if I use only one layer sometimes the birds will peck a hole, but no problem with two. I don’t use any tape or any other tie. Just counter twist the foil on top and bottom. Some birds are definitely more bothersome than others. We don’t have crows here, which I remember do seem to get into everything. Only 3 main types of birds here: mynah, cardinals, and japanese white eye. Another option if you can’t get foil is to use one layer transparent plastic and another layer opaque, or if you can get very thick poly just use one layer opaque. Sapodilla can be grafted when about 30cms or more, but is easiest to graft when they are almost pencil thickness. Chikoo is the Indian name for chico (probably a transliteration), or sapodilla. It is possible to air layer them, but they take a very long time, up to one year, and have low rate of success.     

Ref: Joe Real   Citrus info from the Philippines   Marcotted trees tend to remain dwarf but weakly anchored, but it depends on the type of cultivar. For example, the marcotted rough lemons and lisbon lemons could develop extensive root system as strong as grafted trees. This I know because I marcotted and grafted them and they performed the same, but not true with mandarins and oranges, the marcotted ones are poorly anchored. With Calamansi, the marcotted ones are not as good as the grafted ones, but they remain smaller. If smaller trees are good for you in wind-sheltered areas, marcotted trees could suit your needs. If you want bigger trees that are well   anchored, marcotted trees are not generally for you. One big advantage of marcotted citrus trees is that they bear quality fruits much earlier than grafted ones. Those citruses grafted unto seedling rootstocks would develop quality fruits 3 to 7 years after planting. They could produce fruits right away, but the quality won’t   be as good until the tree reaches proper size. The marcotted trees will have good quality fruits right away. This is because with grafted trees, some of the juvenility in the rootstock is passed on to the grafted cultivar. If the rootstock is very old, like a mature tree, then you get quality fruits right away, but if the rootstock is a young seedling, expect 3 years at the fastest for a nice quality fruits.   

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Nematodes are microscopic animals found in the soil, within plant tissue and within water.  Some nematodes are damaging to plants, but there are also beneficial nematodes found within organic matter that parasitise destructive nematodes. Nematodes that attack plant roots are the most common. They cause root galls and excessive root branching.  This affects the plant’s ability to take in water and nutrients, wilting and stunted growth. Sandy soils are particularly prone to nematode infestation. Control can be achieved by incorporating organic material into the soil, growing nematode resistant varieties, crop rotation and paying attention to hygiene procedures. For severe infestations you can treat vegetable growing areas with a mix of molasses (2 tablespoons per litre of water). This should only be used on areas that will grow nematode susceptible crops (tomatoes, potatoes and capsicum). Do not use across the entire vegetable garden as this mix has the potential to kill worms.

Sooty Mould

Scale insects and their associated sooty mould are common pests of many plants including citrus, gardenias, lillypilly hedges and other native plants.  Conventional oil based controls, see [Do It Yourself Controls – Oil Spray] can be used, but should be diluted to half strength on fine leaf natives or plants with hairs on the leaves.  Avoid using oil based products on plants with grey foliage. Commercial oil sprays include Eco-Oil. Soap sprays are also effective, but must be used on a regular basis. Pyrethrum based products can also be used.

Stylar End Rot

This disease affects Tahitian limes and occurs where fruit is left to over ripen on the tree. The base of the fruit develops a soft rot and fruit fall to the ground. The internal flesh also shows deterioration when cut. Fruit should be harvested while still green in colour prevent this occurring.

Sourced from: 

Sub-Tropical Fruit Club of Qld. Inc Newsletter February – March 2007

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Recently Fruit Gardener, the magazine of the California Rare Fruit Growers, has featured articles on Dragonfruit and Peruvian Apple Cactus. While these and the Indian Fig Cactus are certainly the most well known and most utilized fruiting cactus, the cactus family includes many more examples of cactus bearing edible fruits of local and regional significance. Arizona (and much of California) is an arid region, unsuitable for many of the commonly grown temperate and subtropical fruits. Population growth has strained water resources, raising the specter of future restrictions on water use. Future fruit gardeners in the Southwest may want to learn more about growing cactus as a way to adapt to these changing conditions. Gardeners in less arid regions may find cactus virtually maintenance free, productive and even good to eat! Because past articles have focused on the triad of fruiting cactus mentioned above, this article will be discussing only those other species of cactus utilized on a regular basis for their fruit. The Table Cacti as Food lists them along with information on hardiness. For reasons of limited frost tolerance, time to maturity and fruit production and even eventual size, not all of these plants are suitable for cultivation in our area. However, the essence of a rare fruit gardener is to push the limits and to try what the pundits would call the impossible.

Cactus fruit can generally be divided into those that are dry at maturity and those that are moist. In the latter group, all cactus fruit are technically edible, that is nontoxic, but not necessarily palatable. Further complicating their consumption are the numerous seeds embedded in the pulp, which makes many unsuitable for out of hand eating. The seeds are, however, a food resource themselves, being high in protein. Many traditional utilizers separate and process the seeds by roasting or grinding as an additional food item. This is possible even for cactus whose pulp is unpalatable otherwise. The term Pitaya or Pitahaya is a Spanish term, which is generically applied to all cacti with edible fruit and some without. The ubiquity of this use underlines the importance of knowing the scientific name as well as the common name for our plants.

As the table accompanying this article illustrates, there are too many varieties of cactus to do a detailed discussion of all of them. That would be more suitable for a book than an article in Fruit Gardener. I would like to discuss primarily some of the more important groups, skipping those that have already received attention as well as those that would be impractical to grow by reason of size and/or time to maturity. These are mostly slow growing columnar cacti from consistently warm regions that must obtain a large size in order to fruit. A classic example of this type of cactus is the Saguaro of the American Southwest, which must be about 75 years old before it even begins to branch and bloom.

Surprisingly, not all columnar cacti follow this pattern. Quite a few are rapid growing and will begin blooming at a moderate level of development. Good examples of this pattern are the Stenocerei of Mexico – alamosensis, fricii, griseus, gummosus, montanus, pruinosus, queretaroensis, stellatus and thurberi. The unrelated columnar cactus Escontria chiotilla could also be included in this group. These plants have for many years been grown on a small scale for their fruit in rural Mexico and sold in local markets but are now under development on a larger scale for commercial fruit production.

One of the aspects of the Stenocerei or Pitayos is that they naturally succeed each other in the times that the fruit reach maturity. This succession is reflected in their common names. Thus, S. griseus is Pitayo de Mayo (May), S. fricii Pitayo de Aguas (season of rains – probably late summer) and S. pruinosus Pitayo de Octubre (October). Other varieties fill in the gaps, providing a near continuous supply of fruit.

Most Stenocerei are not frost hardy but may be able to grow in areas like Southern California or Phoenix with occasional frost protection. With supplemental water and fertilizer, they grow quite rapidly and may reach blooming size in 5-7 years from cuttings. I once purchased a  3 inch Stenocereus griseus seedling in a supermarket in El Paso, planted it in the ground inside my greenhouse here in Tucson and had it grow to a branched plant 8 feet tall in about 5 years with no special attention. It has been moved twice since then and has not yet bloomed but similar plants in Phoenix apparently bloom regularly.

Another Mexican cactus significantly utilized for its fruit is Myrtillocactus geometrizans, known as Garambullo. Garambullo can be best described as a candelabra cactus, branching early and frequently to attain stems and begins flowering and fruiting at an early stage. The fruit are small, juicy and brown and are quite comparable to raisins. The flavor is pleasant and the seeds are so small as to be unobjectionable. Most large nurseries with a cactus section will carry M. geometrizans for sale. The related species Myrtillocactus cochal and eichlamii are similar in flower and fruit but less hardy than M. geometrizans.

The final group of cactus I would like to touch upon are the Opuntias or Prickly Pears other than O. ficus-indica, the Indian Fig. The genus Opuntia is the most widespread and common in the cactus family, extending from Canada to Tierra del Fuego. The list of fruiting species in the table Cacti as Food is only a partial one, the actual list probably including many more species. Very little information is available, for example, on fruit use in the South American species. In Mexico, one can find the fruits of many more species than O. ficus-indica. Some of these varieties have already undergone significant selection for superior fruit production and are cultivated on a major scale. O. amyclaea, O.hyptiacantha, O. joconostle and O. streptacantha are all significant regional crops. Tunas vary considerably in size, color and flavor. Use, however, tends to be similar. Because of the large hard seeds, most tunas are processed to pulp or juice for use as syrups or candies. Mexican consumers reportedly prefer white fleshed varieties whereas Americans prefer red fruit with red flesh. Current breeding efforts are directed at encouraging parthenocarpy or the production of infertile soft seeds which would be less of an impediment to fresh consumption. Many Opuntias are frost hardy, especially in the mild winters of the Southwest.

This has been a brief introduction to cactus as fruiting plants. Cacti have a lot to recommend them as fruit, particularly their minimal water needs. Additionally, most cacti are not subject to pests and diseases in our region. They can be ornamental as well as useful, cactus blossoms being among the most beautiful nature have to offer. It is my hope that this article will inspire more fruit gardeners to devote some of that precious space to growing cactus for fruit.

Cacti as Food

Scientific Name	Common Name	Hardiness	Comments on Food Use
Acanthocereus tetragonus	Barbed-Wire Cactus, Chaco, Órgano	Probably hardy to upper 20’s. Plants from Florida or Texas more reliably hardy	No information beyond that it’s edible
Browningia candelaris		Frost sensitive	Locally important fruit source. Very slow growing columnar cactus
Carnegia gigantea	Saguaro	Low 20’s	Trademark cactus of Arizona. Fruit traditionally harvested by natives
Cereus hildemannianus, repandus	Peruvian Apple Cactus	Low to mid 20’s	Easy, fast, productive and taste good
Corryocactus pulquiensis		Frost sensitive	Locally important fruit source
Echinocereus engelmannii, enneacanthus, fendleri and stramineus	Strawberry pitaya or hedgehog	Upper teens to low 20’s	Beautiful flowers but fruit not particularly tasty
Echinopsis atacamensis	Cardón	May tolerate brief light frosts	Columnar cactus from Chile, Bolivia and Argentina
Echinopsis coquimbana	Quisco Coquimbano	May tolerate brief light frosts
Echinopsis schickendantzii		May tolerate brief frost	Locally important fruit source
Epiphyllum anguliger	Moon Cactus	Not frost hardy, Needs shade	Epiphytic cactus, beautiful white flowers
Escontria chiotilla	Chiotilla, Jiotilla	Not frost hardy	Important fruit in Mexico, sold in markets
Ferocactus pottsii	Visnaga	Probably hardy low to mid 20’s	Fruit made into cactus candy
Harrisia eriophora		Not frost hardy	Vining cactus from the Caribbean
Hylocereus costaricensis, guatemalensis, ocamponis, polyrhizus, triangularis and undatus	Dragonfruit	Not frost hardy	Vary in fruit and pulp colour as well as quality between species, hybrids exist as well
Mammillaria species	Pincushions, chilitos	Varies by species. Many are hardy	Fruit resemble small peppers. Too small for major use but good tasting
Myrtillocactus cochal, eichlamii and geometrizans	Garambullo	M. cochal and geometrizans hardy to mid 20’s	Small brown fruit look and taste like raisins. Very good. Market fruit in Mexico
Neoraimondia herzogiana	Caripari	Not frost hardy	Columnar from Peru. Important fruit locally
Opuntia ficus-indica	Indian Fig, Tuna	Low to mid 20’s	Most important fruiting cactus. Grown in warm regions worldwide
Other Opuntia species – amyclaea, azurea, bensonii, dillenii, engelmannii, hyptiacantha, joconostle, lasiacantha, pilifera and streptacantha	Tuna, xoconostle	Varies by species but many are at least somewhat hardy	Locally and regionally important fruits. Some grown commercially in Mexico such as amyclaea and joconostle
Pachycereus grandis		Not hardy	Mexican columnar cactus
Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum	Hecho	Not hardy	Red pulp, important local food
Pachycereus pringlei	Cardon	Not hardy	Seed utilized, rather than fruit
Pachycereus schottii	Senita	Upper 20’s
Peniocereus johnstonii and serpentinus	Queen of the Night	Upper 20’s	Fragrant night blooming flowers
Pereskia aculeate	Barbados Gooseberry	Upper 20’s	Flowers like single pink roses, fruit very acid
Pereskia guamacho		Not hardy	Similar to above
Pereskiopsis aquosa		Not hardy
Pilosocereus alensis	Pitahaya barbona	Not hardy	Local use northwest Mexico
Polaskia chichipe		Not hardy	Another Mexican columnar with edible fruit
Selenicereus megalanthus and setaceus	Yellow pitaya	Not reliably hardy	S. megalanthus already being grown for fruit
Stenocereus alamosensis	Sina	Hardy to mid 20’s	Northwest Mexico, bonus red tubular flowers
Stenocereus fricii	Pitayo de Aguas	Not hardy	Market fruit in Mexico, commercial potential
Stenocereus griseus	Pitayo de Mayo	Not hardy	As above
Stenocereus gummosus	Pitaya agria	Upper 20’s	‘agria’ means bitter but fruit is just not as sweet as others
Stenocereus montanus	Pitahaya colourado, Sahuira	Not hardy	Local use in Sonora, Mexico
Stenocereus pruinosus	Pitayo de Octubre	Not hardy	Local use
Stenocereus queretaroensis	Pitayo de Querétaro	Not hardy	Cultivated for its fruits
Stenocereus stellatus	Pitayo, Xoconostle	Not hardy	As above
Stenocereus thurberi	Pitahaya, Organ Pipe	Upper 20’s	Harvested by locals
Stetsonia coryne	Toothpick cactus	Low 20’s	Locally harvested and eaten

Note from Sheryl:  I asked Chris to comment on what we call here Cereus peruvianus:                               

Chris:  Cereus peruvianus is not a valid scientific name. The plants grown as Cereus peruvianus are either hildemannianus or repandus, usually hildemannianus. The name ‘peruvianus‘, nevertheless, is very commonly used. Fruit is variable in quality but if you get a good one, very good flavour I like them much better than pitayas”. I use as my reference these days The Cactus Family by Edward Anderson. His taxonomy is controversial among cactophiles but it is the most up-to-date and comprehensive treatment of the family in many years. Cereus hildemannianus has 4-5 ribs, repandus 9-10. The flowers on repandus have more pink in them. C. hildemannianus is by far more common. 

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We have had this place for about 12 years and have 1000 olive trees of varying ages and of four types (Frantoio, Manzanillo, Nevadillo Blanco and Paragon).  These are predominantly Tuscan varieties and are what we call dual purpose (table or oil) fruits. We irrigate the trees but aside from organic chook manure, no chemicals are used.  Picking season, depending on variety, usually starts in Feb and goes to early May. Our  intention this year is to delay harvest until Easter, hoping for a higher oil content.  Unfortunately, there are no simple or quick and easy tests for oil content, polyphenols etc (unlike grapes or cane) so it really comes down to an educated guess. I (Steve) am the main representative for the Burnett Valley Olive Growers Association and we work closely with the Queensland president of the Australian Olives Association, Mr Dan Burnett, whom you would probably recall from the EKKA.  We have about 2 dozen members stretching from Esk out to Dalby and up to Goomeri, with the majority of the members also belonging to both the Queensland Olive Council and the Australian Olives Association.  A number of our members have market exposure through the local IGAs and one, Clovelly Wines, has a large oil concern internationally. We will provide some of the brochures about Olive Oil and look forward to dispelling some of the myths about Olives/Oil in general.
 

From Kingaroy (via Nanango) head north on the Bunya Hwy (follow the signs through Kingaroy that point towards Wondai). You go through Memerambi then Wooroolin and you come to the Tingoora Hotel on the left. Turn left at the Tinny, follow this road to the stop sign on the Hivesville/Wondai Rd, turn left. Follow this road through Hivesville (the Pub is on the right with some accommodation) continue to Proston. DO NOT turn off to Boondooma Dam. Keep going west and 15.5ks from the Ambulance Station, on the right hand side, is our place, 1556, with a green letter box. If you are using a GPS the actual address is 1556 Proston-Boondooma Rd, Coverty but it’s not the road to the dam. We don’t have a sign up but there is a tree opposite with a green arrow and the word Jim on it. Our driveway is on the right just past it.

Accommodation  We have ample room for caravans/tents etc. so you are very welcome to camp the night here. Plenty of parking with good access unless we get LOTS of rain, in which case parking may be a little more restricted (to higher ground).  We have three caravans available for accommodation, 2 under a shed, one in the open, all needing only linen.  There is one fridge in a van in the shed along with both BBQ and fireplace facilities.  We have a septic system, but showering MAY be a problem as we’re still building the shower/laundry.  There is plenty of really nice, scenic camping places as well. We run on solar power.
Proston Hotel 4168 9272 Hivesville Hotel  4168 9876  approx. 20km from Proston.  Lake Boondooma Dam  4168 9694  10 minutes to Proston. .  http://www.southburnett.qld.gov.au/tourism/Lake%20Boondooma.shtml

Sheryl: I met Steve & Jenny at the RNA last year when I was on the Custard Apple stand & the Olive stand was right next to us.
 

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We came here in ’84 and it was just a bush block – just scrub and we never set out to become farmers or orchardists – we just bought it as a bit of a knock-around paddock and maybe as an investment and somewhere where my father could spend some time. We started out with just a few Stonefruit and one thing led to another and now I’m doing it full-time! We have 140 acres and another 35 acres with a dam in between which belongs to the neighbour. We have about 14,000 Stonefruit, 1,000 mature Persimmons and another 4,500 young Persimmons and we started doing Figs on a patch of dirt we didn’t know what to do with and although we thought it was our best bit of dirt, it took us 20 years to plant something on it. It’s turned out quite good with the figs. We send to market as well as direct dealing with retail outlets.  

Sheryl What does the central market charge as commission?   

Ross Whatever they like! There is no set price. You might hear on the news – usually coming up to the election, there’ll be a piece for the farmers that they were going to straighten out the market system and have a code of conduct for merchants. If they are an agent, they would sell your produce on a commission basis. You could go in anytime and ask to see where your produce was sold and how much it was sold for. They then changed their name to Merchants which meant they could sell your produce for whatever they liked and give you back what they claimed to be the sale so technically they bought the fruit from you. They generally charge between 12 -15% but I had a good deal recently on Persimmons size 18 – 20. They sold them for $14.00 and gave me $11.00 back so he was charging over 20%!  Producers of fruit and vegetables will be struggling for a long time until they can get on top of it and deal direct but in the long run, the retail outlets say that this is the price we’re willing to pay you. A group got together of the main grower/packers and formed the Lockyer Valley Alliance whose objectives were just to promote the Lockyer Valley. In the 50’s the onion growers in Lockyer were the only onion growers in Australia at that time and they had the whole Australian supply at that time so they stuck together and wouldn’t accept an unfair price and all was going well for them but the wholesale buyers were wanting to pay less and less so they hung out until one bloke saw a train load of onions heading down the railway line and it turns out that it was one of their members so that was the finish of it. The problem now is that imports are so easy that they just bring in enough supply especially with vegetables. If there’s a free trade agreement with China, our vegetable growers are going to get hammered and they’ll become a vanishing breed because China can produce them so much cheaper than we can and you won’t know the country of origin.

Sheryl I believe that’s what a free trade agreement means ie when you buy produce currently, it states country of origin, but once an agreement is in place, it won’t show this information.

Member  Because we have opposite seasons to the northern hemisphere, you’re still going to be able to sell. In fact you’ll be able to sell all over the world.

Ross To a degree and for a price. We can currently sell all over the world for a price and the price just isn’t sustainable especially when our dollar has gone to US70¢.

Sheryl Do you do the farmers markets at all?

Ross They’re very good but we’re too big for farmers markets. The industry is generally heading two ways: You have the really big suppliers of which we’re not one or you’ve got Mum and Dad operations as we call them where husband & wife might do all the picking and packing and you can make a living from farmers markets provided you haven’t got too much debt and a lot of the farmers markets you’ll buy the same quality for a lot less price because you haven’t got all those other add-ons.

Sheryl Where do you buy your trees from?

Ross I get most of it from Birdwood Nursery.

In this area tree crops aren’t popular – it’s more concentrated on vegetables. They thought we were mad trying to grow trees on this goanna country and they’re right because without water you can’t grow diddlysquat so to solve our water problems we started drilling bores and they’re OK. The bores near the highway serving the vegetable growers are dropping and they have a major problem but our underground water is found in a different place. Their water is nearly all above the sandstone and we’re into sandstone after about 20 feet here and we’re on the edge of the Helidon Hills which is a sandstone area right back up to Ravensbourne – about 30 miles of it and so now they’ve protected that area through vegetation management so none of this will be able to be cleared and now we can’t clear any more on our property whether we want to or not even if we want to replace it with fruit trees, it has to stay the way it is so our water is found in the sandstone 300 feet down and on the black soil they find water at 100 feet roughly but they find far bigger volumes. We only get 2000 gallons an hour whereas they’re talking 10,000 gallons an hour but now a lot of them are down to 2,000 an hour where they were getting 10,000 previously so as they’re not use to working with such a low quantity, they’re struggling. Apart from the bores, we needed more water than the bores would supply. We pumped them into a dam so as we still needed more, 4 growers around here put a bank across the creek and put in a weir which was approved over 10 years ago and that worked well for a while until it didn’t rain and it ran out. We knew the Council was trying to do something with their sewerage water so we managed to get a farm innovation grant through the Federal Govt. to use the recycled water on tree crops. They’ve done vegetable crops north of Adelaide but never used this recycled water on tree crops. 2 of us put in a proposal, got the funding, we had to match it dollar for dollar so we brought the water out 7kms from town and we pump it into our dam.

Sheryl What size pipe did you use?

Ross  4 inch. We don’t get a lot of water at a time but we get about 100 megalitres over a year and it’s pumped in off-peak rates. Sewerage water usually has 3 stages of treatment. The first stage takes out the solids, then it goes to the secondary stage and it goes into holding dams and sunlight is one of the greatest treatments and we then get it at this second stage. The 3^rd stage is very expensive where they treat it to potable standard and I believe they do this in France. It’s only a mindset. Have you heard about the scheme for recycled water from Brisbane up to the Downs?  The quality of the recycled water we are getting is probably a lot better than what farmers in South Australia are using out of the Murray River. It’s more saltier and has more nutrient in it. Our water is held for about 20 days before we get it. The only problem we’ve found with it is if we get say 3-4 days of around 40º we find it can have an algal bloom – blue/green flush but it just takes a couple of good days then it settles right down. There’s not a lot of difference between sewage and grey water because all the grey water from town goes into the sewerage.

Ross No they don’t like salts. 

George Borewater is recycled! 

Sheryl Have you tried barley grass?

Ross No, we haven’t done it because what we’ve been led to believe is when you put it in that’s fine but the biggest hassle is that when it collects on it, it’s getting it back out of the dam that’s the major problem because the barley starts to decompose and it falls apart so you haven’t achieved anything. We just don’t pump on those days. Our pH goes through the roof when that happens. We just move to our other storage water. When the heat drops down, everything goes back to normal. Only some of the fruit is growing on the recycled water. We took virgin country and we started with recycled water so we’ll be able to monitor it to see what happens. We grow Figs and Stonefruit on the recycled water – not the Persimmons. I’m still looking for more water from the Council as they promised but it just hasn’t happened yet! We get the water free of charge from the Council. They put some water up for tender recently and the lady is paying $140 per megalitre and she has to do all the pumping.

Pruning Stonefruit  Our year starts off with pruning our Stonefruit in December/January and making sure plenty of light is getting into the tree to develop buds for the following season. We’re looking for buds to replace wood that will shoot out in the following spring and that will give us fruit for the year after. This is the time of bud initiation and because they grow vigorously they can shade everything out.

Figs   At the end of January we start picking Figs until the beginning of June and by then we usually have a frost so that knocks any quality out of the fruit. They’re a pain to pick because you virtually have to pick them every day but we’re trying to pick only every second day because of the cost of labour. Two people to pick and pack 20 trays takes just over four hours. We sell them for $24.00 per tray which is fair money.

Sheryl Have you tried trellising?

Ross  I was going to.

Persimmons  We start picking in March and go through to beginning of May. I only have non-astringent. There is a small market for astringent and Israel grows a lot – they call them Sharon fruit and I think they’ve just got approval to bring them into Australia. They’re our biggest competitor in Asia when our Persimmons start. We have to wait until they have cleared because they are selling them for $5-$6 per tray and it costs us $5.00 per tray for us to get ours there.

George I always thought the Israelis got good prices for their fruit?

Ross I haven’t seen the pricing but this is what I am told. They treat them with gas to take out the astringency and it’s quite well liked.

Sheryl Is there any way we can take out the astringency in our astringent Persimmons?

Ross There is but I can’t recall just now.  If you want to ripen any piece of fruit especially a Persimmon, put them beside Bananas or Tomatoes. We can’t send our Persimmons out in the truck with them as they would arrive very spongy. They’re very ethelene sensitive so if you ripen a couple, then it’s like ripening an Avocado – put them in a brown bag with a Banana etc. inside. Usually they’re picked green and gas ripened but as most fruits ripen, they give off more ethelene. 

George Persimmons don’t like chlorides. 

Judy How soon before you get a decent crop?

Ross  Fuyu and Ichikikei Jiro are the 2 main commercial crops. It’s a square fruit. Jiro take an extra year than Fuyu because it doesn’t grow as vigourously. It grows for a short period in spring and you’re !!! if you can keep it going. You just try to keep fertiliser and water to them. Jiro is a much bigger fruit.

Sheryl Do you deflower?

Ross We just call it thinning. We don’t with our Persimmons. We try to prune to a level that gives us less fruit then we just go through and knock off the deformed ones. With Stonefruit, we’ll knock off 80%-90% of the flowers. The sequence of fruiting is Isu which is very susceptible to fruit fly – we use it as our monitor tree – we’re lucky to pick any fruit off them, then one week later is Jiro. We need to pick most of our fruit when there is only a touch of orange. The reason being is that on the coast until you get much further down south, we get a problem with fruit softening. You’ll pick the fruit and two days later, it will be too ripe and they can’t work out why it happens. They call them bombers as they blow up! After Jiro, you go to Pomello which is a Sth. American variety then it’s Oshu Gosho and quite characteristic of this type are splits in the fruit. It’s a smaller fruit – tastes the same as a Fuyu but crops heavier. Then Fuyu then Suruga. Suruga has some odd shapes which children really like so you might consider this for the home garden. We had a perfect Easter bunny this year but you also get perfectly formed fruit too. One way of telling Suruga is slightly square and pointy and around the base, it gets all these creases and that’s why it’s not liked in the market place. There’s a few different strains with Jiro and Fuyu.

Jo Which would be the best for the home garden?

Ross The easiest one to manage is Jiro. It crops well, you can let it hang for over a month. Apparently you can get bags now with little windows in them so you can watch development! In Japan and China they bag a lot of fruit.

Olga Have you ever dried them?

Ross The problem with this is that if you go commercial, they have to be seedless.

Sheryl So which ones are seedless?

Ross It will depend on whether you have pollinators in your orchard.

Sheryl I thought you always had to have pollinators in a commercial orchard.

Ross No, that was the original thinking but you don’t have to.

Sheryl Have you cut out all your pollinators? 

Ross Yes. We do have a couple left but it’s only because we haven’t finished grafting them over.

Fertiliser We fertigate as well as using normal fertiliser. Persimmons love Potassium and Calcium. Don’t put Nitrogen on when they are cropping as it softens the fruit and gives less shelf life. Give them a complete fertiliser when they come out of dormancy and start to shoot which is about 3 weeks before flowering. 3 handfuls per mature tree at springtime.  Then a little at Christmas and then one handful of Sulphate of Potassium and Calcium/Gypsum in February & mid March. The unusual thing with Persimmons is that their roots become active following leaf flush so if your leaves start to flush, then your roots aren’t active as yet so you get the opportunity when you see the leaves start to go to put the fertiliser on then the roots will start happening. It’s back to front with Persimmons compared with other fruit trees.

Pests  

Sheryl Do you get much Fruit Spotting Bug or Fruit Piercing Moth?

Ross We have most of our Persimmons netted. You would have a lot more pressure in Brisbane from them because they have more to eat there. Fruit Fly is the biggest problem. You get a black spot where the fruit fly sting and whether you have a product called Lebayacid on there that will kill the eggs or not, it will still get this black mark and it’s 2^nd class fruit straight away and we can’t sell if it’s got too many stings on it. It’s no big deal from a home point of view providing you don’t have the maggots developing. Lebaycid is an excellent product. You spray it on a regular basis and it keeps a small amount of chemical in the surface of the skin so when the female stings it, it kills the eggs straight away. Once you see the first black mark on the surface of the fruit, you have to spray every 7-10 days. I only spray every fortnight. We don’t blanket spray as they did in California to get rid of Mediterranean Fruit Fly. That gave the growers access to market all over the world. We can’t get access to more than half the world. Singapore is the only country where we don’t have to worry about the Qld. fruit fly.

George Have you tried bait spray?

Ross Yes, it keeps our population down but it’s not 100% effective.

George I believe bait sprays don’t work with Stonefruit at all but they should on Persimmon.

Ross  It’s the same with all the fruit. You mix a chemical with the bait, the bait attracts the fruit fly and the fly lands on it and she eats some of the yeast and falls over dead and that’s good because you don’t have to spray your fruit with the bait but any that don’t go there, you’re still going to have the fruit fly problem and if we do this, then we lose too much of a commercial quantity. They are trialing a fruit fly net on a commercial basis however it changes the atmosphere inside the net completely, a bit more humid, a bit more shade, fungal problems but it’s not bad but I’m just not rushing into it. Bob Nissen and Alan George at Nambour Research Station.

George Dick Drew was using shadecloth about 6 weeks before  fruit set and was able to see his sugar levels were higher when he netted.

Sheryl  So you just monitor with bait sprays and then use Leybaycid? 

Ross For the Persimmons but you can’t let it go too long. If we weren’t bait spraying with protein hydrolosate mixed with maldason or clorferafos or some are using diptarix, we’d have to spray every 7 days with Lebaycid and we’d still have black fruit. George Dick Drew developed it and said that chlorafos was much better than maldason but it lasted about the same time.

Ross I get mine through Bugs for Bugs at Mundubbera.

Olga  So your nets are predominently against birds? Ross Yes, with a little bit of hail protection as well. I had hail insurance for 10 years and the first year I didn’t take it, we had hail. I don’t take it out anymore because I don’t think it’s worthwhile. It costs about $30,000 for a half million crop and they have a 20% excess so if you were halfway through your crop, that’s 70% gone so it’s only if you got wiped out right at the start would it be worth it and your profit out of a half million crop wouldn’t be 10%. Hail netting costs around $30,000 per hectare. You could get away with a $20,000 net which is a simple birdnet, but a decent hail storm will demolish it. A net will last around 10 years and is UV protected – comes from New Zealand.

Olga Can you get a net that rolls away? 

Ross  Yes, someone has it up Nth Qld. but the problem is that everytime you roll it, you’ll damage it to some degree. Lorikeets just love the Persimmons. My neighbour just gave up. He had the scare gun but it was hopeless.

Sheryl  Have you got a permit to kill any birds?

Ross Yes, a guy from the department came out and said that I appeared to have a problem and said to me that he’d try really hard to see if he could get a permit for 15 but in the end he could only get me 12 for the season!!!!!!! Then I had to collect them and put them in the freezer!  And that’s for thousands of trees!!!

Figs I only have the one variety – Black Genoa. There’s a White Genoa. There’s a block in America that has 14,000 different varieties so just go on the net and you’ll find him. Commercially the 2 main ones are Black Genoa and Arctic White. Brown Turkey would be the one you would be familiar with because it’s large and it’s grown a lot down south but it doesn’t tolerate the humid conditions here. Figs are desert plants that originate in the Middle East unlike most of our fruit which came out of Asia – China especially but I just think that the Chinese kept records whereas others didn’t.

Sheryl Why did you choose Black Genoa?

Ross It can handle the humidity a bit better and it grows to a reasonable size. Size seems to be everything when you’re trying to sell fruit from our point of view but we have to get a balance between tonnage per hectare and size of fruit. If we go and thin everything out and have all big fruit, we mightn’t get the tonnage and you haven’t got the fruit left to get the weight up so it’s a balancing act for us. Also, with Black Genoa, the little hole at the end of the fruit isn’t as big as others and insects like to live in that hole so it doesn’t happen as much with Black Genoa. It’s worked out well for us. We water them every day for about an hour. We start watering when they are very small but they’ll crop more if you feed and water them more and if you’re not in a frost prone area, you can crop them into July. I get a bit of frost here. 

Pruning We got Peter Young to come and show us how to prune them in winter as he wanted the cuttings. He came in with a chainsaw. Let the trunk grow to knee height then crop them and let 3 or 4 leaders shoot sideways or whatever comes, it’s a vase shape – open in the centre. The second year you cut these to about a foot long when they’re dormant in winter and break all the others off bar two and the third year we’ll trim all those and just leave them with one. You also take off all the side shoots. They can get a bit of leaf rust so we put a bit of Mancozeb on them every three weeks when the leaves are coming through at the start and use it as a foliar spray on all the new leaves as they come through then keep using it until the withholding period when we start to pick.

George It acts as a trace element with Zinc & Manganese.

Ross Don’t worry about the length of the branch as you just bend them down to pick the fruit. You only get figs on new wood. Figs are grown just from cuttings. I think they strip the bark off the first 3 or 4 inches, roll it in rooting hormone and put it into heated beds with sterilized soil.

Sheryl At the cement works at Darra there’s apparently a really large Fig tree – they must like lime.

Ross We use Gypsum on them in winter

Member I think they’ve demolished it.

George Maybe it’s not lime they like as Calcium. If you put Gypsum on which doesn’t change the pH then they’re going to be healthy.

Irrigation  We use anti ant Nan Dan sprinklers – Nan bought Dan out! True!

George Why didn’t you use drippers?

Ross Because of our sandy soil. There are two issues with it. You have maximum crop with maximum demand and you have a hot north-westerly come through with 42º, the tree hasn’t got enough root area to draw the moisture in.

Sheryl I notice you don’t bury your irrigation pipe and you use 19ml.

Ross I buried my first lot and after that I became a quick learner! Only made that mistake once! The irrigation was designed by Hardies.

Sheryl I notice you have your irrigation heads quite close to the trunk – about 60cms out. The water doesn’t damage the trunk?

Ross It doesn’t seem to damage it nor on any of the other crops. Every time we switch the irrigation on, we come round and check. If we don’t, we’ll get blockages and it doesn’t matter how good your filtration is. There’ll either be a bit of algae or ants or something else. We use mig welding wire to unblock it. They’re also pressure compensated and what that means is that when they’re going up or down a hill, they’ll balance themselves out to a certain degree and all that  pressure compensating is that little black rubber disk at the base of the sprinkler. We have a main going down the middle with tributaries going off. Just put it in a pressure gauge to test out your pipe. Cobwebs tend to be a problem.

Sheryl What time of the day do you put your water on?

Ross When Merv wakes up!

Sheryl So you don’t do it at night?

Ross No, but where the Kiwifruit and Avocadoes will be going we’ll do it there. Spacing is 4.5 by 3 mtrs. Most of the trees I’ll put in now will be at 4.5 mtr spacings. I bought a new slasher that when we weed spray our strips my slasher will just fit across that. We leave the grass clippings under the trees.

Pests At the start of the year Fruit Fly are a bit of a hassle around January but these are easy to manage as we bait spray but it’s not a big problem here. The birds haven’t been a major problem either. Currawongs and Crows are the main problem but with Avocadoes we’ve found that they’ll knock a few green ones off and it’ll take them a week to ripen, then they’ll go along every day and knock off enough for the next week’s feed and they’ll keep doing this. This year we’ve had the least pressure from fruit fly that we’ve had in 10 years and we also don’t have a big problem either with the Fruit Piercing Moth either.

Fruit Development  All the fruit crops basically have a large need for water in the 2-3 weeks leading up to harvest. That’s when the fruit are filling out. If you simplify the theory the way I’m lead to understand, in the first few weeks of the fruit forming they produce the number of cells you’re pretty well going to have in your fruit for the rest of the period of the fruit’s life so if you can get the maximum number of cells develop at the start through having your nutrient balance right and enough moisture there and have everything in balance, that will give you a chance of getting the biggest and most quantity of fruit. Then you go through a stage when the fruit just slowly develops by the cells getting larger then the last couple of weeks you usually find in most crops that those number of cells can fill up with water, starches and other nutrients and the cells expand.

Sheryl Do you put the same of water on at flowering as in the last two weeks before harvest and what quantity?

Ross  Similar. I’d water the Persimmons twice a week for about two hours because we’re on sandy soil and the water moves through quickly if it’s moist but longer if it’s dry. We use 50 litre an hour sprinklers per tree so we’re putting on 100 litres a week and that happens for about 3-4 weeks at flowering then about the same prior to harvest. In the middle, you’d half that to about once a week for 2 hours as a rule of thumb. I have water monitoring equipment that measures the water every 30 minutes and it sends out an impulse and measures the water in the soil and we download that into a computer so we have an idea of how it’s going. So if it’s hot weather and they really have a need for water, we can pick it up quickly.

Note from Sheryl   I put up this query on removing astringency for the home user on the internet as all of my books only had notes for the commercial grower which weren’t suitable and this was the reply. Perhaps one of you could test it out to confirm:

You can remove the astringency in astringent persimmons by waiting until they have completely changed colour. Pick them and check for any soft spots then place the firm ones in a pot or bucket and cover with water. They will try to float so you will have to place something on top of them to keep them submerged. Soak for 5 days changing the water each day. After 5 days remove from the water, dry, then peel and eat or refrigerate and eat later. You can also pick them after they have completely changed colour and are still firm, peel, slice crosswise 1/4” to 3/8” thick and dehydrate. When they are dry the astringency is removed.

Article compiled by Sheryl Backhouse
                                                                                 

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Scion: The part of a plant used for grafting upon the rootstock.
Rootstock: The root-bearing plant on which the Scion will be grafted.
Parafilm M: A stretchable, wax like tape.  The product has been widely used for routine laboratory work for many years.

Why Graft? • Some varieties of plants do not come true from seeds. • Difficult or impossible to reproduce from cuttings or other propagation techniques. • Using a rootstock better adapted to the prevailing soil and climate than scion produced naturally. • Dwarfing rootstock can be used to greatly reduce the size of the tree. • To increase the supply of new varieties rapidly. • Change a tree from an old to a new variety. • Grafted fruit trees have earlier fruit productions. • Multiple grafts to produce a tree with several varieties or flowering plant with several different colors of flowers

• Rootstock can be selected for characteristics that the scion may not have, such as resistance to root rot or is tolerance to parasitic organisms; such as nematodes, insect larvae or other subterranean pests.

What is Grafting?
Grafting is the process of joining two or more different plants and enabling them to grow as one.  The upper part of the graft (the scion) becomes the top of the plant; the lower portion (the rootstock) becomes the root system or part of the trunk.  Although grafting usually refers to joining only two plants, it may be a combination of several.

What are the limitations?
Not all plants can be grafted.  Plants of the same botanical genus and species can usually be grafted even though they are not the same variety.  Plants with the same genus but of a different species may often be grafted.

For the most successful grafting only chose closely related plants to form a compatible union.  Generally, this means apple-to-apple, rose-to-rose.

Incompatible grafts may not form a union, or the union may be weak.  A poor union results in plants that grow poorly, break off or eventually die.  Trial is the only way to determine plants’ compatibility.  Some rootstock and scion materials are difficult to get and some plants are not as easily grafted.  This can often result in a quite high percentage of loss.  This explains why some grafted trees are more expensive.

How to Collect and Store Scions?
Scion wood can collected when available.  It should have a diameter of 1/4 to 3/8 inch. Length of scion can be from a few inches to more than 2 feet.  Defoliate the scion and wrap the entire scion   cuts, buds, and stem   in stretched Parafilm M.  Wrapping scion with Parafilm M beneficially conserves the internal moisture of the plant tissue.  Parafilm M stretches; therefore, a little goes a long way.  Cut the Parafilm M into two one inches strips.

If the scion cannot be grafted when obtained, store the scion in a plastic bag in the refrigerator with moist paper towels until performing the graft.  If wrapped in Parafilm M the scion can be stored for many weeks.  Do not store in a freezer.

When to Graft?

It is best to graft in the spring, from the time the buds of rootstock trees are beginning to open, until blossom time but this should not limit you from grafting at anytime of the year. Graft when scions become available.

What Tools and Materials are Needed? • Knife. A good quality knife, able to hold a sharp edge, is the key to good grafting. Special grafting and budding knives are desirable. Keep material to sharpen  the knife handy. • Pruning Shears. • Grafting tape. • Parafilm M. • Fungicide – Spray bottle of Alcohol.  Label spray bottle. • Clothes pins.

• Label for identifying the rootstock and scion  (Name, variety, and date of the graft).

Grafting Techniques Defoliate the scion and wrap the entire scion cuts, buds, and stem in Parafilm M; (remember to stretch the Parafilm M) the buds will grow through the Parafilm M without damage or restriction.  (Note: Parafilm M is heat  and photosensitive and decomposes when exposed to direct sunlight for longer than a few minutes.)  Store in a cool location.

There are many different types of grafting techniques.  The cleft graft is one of the most commonly used and the simplest type of graft to perform. 

1. Fungicide tools and hands – spray hands, grafting knife and pruning shears with alcohol. 2. Match the scion and rootstock diameters precisely; this maximizes the chance of matching the cambiums. 3. The defoliated scion from a healthy plant should contain at least one completely dormant node on second-year wood which has had all soft, active growth removed. 4. The stock should be an actively growing seedling (do the grafting during the warmer months – in Florida grafting can be done year round). 5. (See diagram below) Cut the scion (A) and fashion its base into a thin, narrow wedge.  A large contact surface area will increase the rate of healing. (Hardness part of a cleft graft)  Do not touch the cut surfaces, or allow them to dry out. 6. Cut the rootstock at right angles to the stem in mature wood preferably close to a node.  Make (B) a single vertical cut down the middle of the stem.  The cut should be the same length as the wedge of the scion. Make sure that all cuts are straight and precise; use a very sharp grafting knife (Rock the knife back and forth – use care not to cut yourself).  Do not touch the cut surfaces, or allow them to dry out. 6. Force (C) the wedge into the slit which was made in the rootstock; no gaps should be apparent.  Always match the cambium layers on one side during the tying process; don’t worry if both sides are not matching 7. Wrap the graft with stretched Parafilm M.  Ensure that all points are covered with Parafilm M. Air and water must be excluded from the graft-point if a successful union is to occur.

8. Wrap the (D) graft firmly with Grafting tape, tying from just below the graft and working up.  Care should be taken not to force the scion from the stock when traversing the join.  Clothespins can help hold the graft together while wrapping with grafting tape.

9. Label graft with name, variety, rootstock and date of the graft. 10. Place the plant in a stress-free environment such as a shaded (50-90%) area. 11. Examine regularly.  The dormant nodes should burst in about 3 to 4 weeks. Remove any buds that develop below the graft point.

12. Remove the grafting tape at a later date.

Some reasons for Graft Failure

• Rootstock and scion were not compatible.
• The cambiums were not meeting properly.

• Scions were upside down (Some plants can be successful grafted upside down). • Grafting was done at the wrong time of the year (Most plants can be grafted year around). • Rootstock or scion were not healthy • Scions were dried out or injured by cold. • The scion was displaced by storm, birds, or other means. • Insects or disease attacked the graft.

• The graft union was girdled because tape was not cut or released in time.

But the main reason for failure is not trying!

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Two methods of propagating Figs.

First Method: Take dormant cuttings approx 200mm long and wrap in very slightly damp paper towel or newspaper, covering the entire cutting except the bottom half-inch. This allows the bottom end to “callus” which helps to prevent rot when rooting. If you are doing several cuttings, roll the first one in the damp paper, then add one and roll then add and roll until you have five or six cuttings in a bundle. Place the bundle/s in a plastic bag – a zip-loc or other zipper-type will work well. Place the bag in a warm place but not in direct sun with a temperature of 70-80F. Check frequently for signs of mould and if necessary air out the cuttings for a few hours. Remoisten the paper if necessary though this is not usually needed if the bag is tightly sealed. Under the conditions of warmth and humidity, roots will develop starting as small white bumps called initials and gradually elongating into recognizable roots. When there is good development of roots and/or initials, unwrap the cuttings carefully and pot them up as follows: Use clear plastic picnic glasses of about 45 once capacity. Temporarily stack 3 or 4 cups together for firmness and drill 4-5 holes in their bottoms. Take one cup and place course, well wetted vermiculite in bottom half, prepare a hole in your medium and carefully insert the cutting into it, then finish filling the cup with more of the same vermiculate. Place in a container (I use a plastic storage box) with a wire rack or other suitable arrangement that allows water to drain through the cup while keeping it from standing in water. Return the cuttings to your warm place. To maintain humidity, you may want to partly cover the container to simulate a greenhouse environment. Allow for some air circulation to avoid mould. Water only as necessary. The most important element is providing overall humidity without keeping the root zone overly wet. The courseness of the vermiculite allows air in the root zone while holding moi9sture there. If the vermiculite is too fine or packed down too much, it excludes air and retains too much moisture in the root zone. Generally, if you have placed your container in a warm environment and you see condensation on the inside of the cup, there is sufficient moisture. If not, it is too dry. The clear cup is important because it enables you to monitor root development. Leaf development is not an indicator of root development. Being able to see the roots is the best way to know what is happening.

Second Method: Dormant hardwood cuttings are easiest but it is possible to strike softwood and semi-hardwood cuttings in the growing season. The dormant cutting should have good food reserves to power leaf and root growth. I prefer thick wood; the spindly twigs tend to fail more often for me. Avoid peeling bark (disease) and weak growth on cutting wood. Some texts recommend two year old or more up to broomstick or even wrist thickness; I prefer strong one year old wood. Fig wood is soft with a large pith centre and will rot fairly easily so use a well draining medium such as sharp sand or perlite or a mixture of both with 10% coir. Keep the medium just damp in windfree light shade and buy the majority of the twig. An alternative is to put the twig in water with the majority submerged although you must change the water often. It may be the chlorine in tap water which stops fungus attacking the twig. The advantage is that you will see any rotting twigs (for removal) and developing roots. Pot on when roots are small. Commercial growers use bottom heat, rooting hormone and misting sprays but a fair percentage of fig cuttings will root without these. Direct sun or drying winds dry out the top of the twigs and make survival more difficult. Some growers still have success with outdoor and exposed sand beds however. If you are lucky with the rainfall (light and persistent) and soil (light) you can put cuttings straight into the ground. When leaves appear, do not assume roots have grown. Keep the leaves protected and dampened using a frequent fine spray. The pre rooting leaves are normally small but useful for a little input of food by photosynthesis. Dryness will cause them to fall off. When larger leaves and an elongating stem appear, this is a good sign that roots have developed so check the base of the container to see. Be persistent. I have known cuttings to take six months to root. The problem now is to transfer the cuttings to potting mix or into the ground without root damage. I decant and preliminary repot under water for gentle conditions or wait until winter dormancy. Get young figs growing fast with water and a full range of fertilisers. When they are big enough to fruit, cut back on water and nitrogen but keep the phosphorous and especially potassium levels up.

Authored by: 

Tony Stevens – Rarefruit Society of South Australia

Sourced from: 

STFC newsletter Aug Sept 2008

Date sourced: 

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Harry Fay  –   Centre for Tropical Agriculture Mareeba – Nth Qld.
 

I’ve been researching Fruit Piercing Moth for almost 20 years. We’ve recently developed baits for the moth which while not providing total control do relieve a lot of the damage they cause.

Sheryl : Have you done any studies planting carambola nearby to see if they prefer to go there?
Harry:  No, but we have studied carambolas in orchards and there are some varietal preferences by moths, but fruit ripeness is the most critical factor. The moths seem to prefer the sweeter types like the Fwang Tung. In crops like papaws ripe fruit are much preferred.

Sheryl:   Is it the sugar they go for ie if you put out sugar water, would they go for that?
Harry:  They are after the sugar but fruit odours are critical to the attraction. Our baits contain  synthetic fruit odours which act to decoy the moths from the fruit. However, they tend to work better when the crop isn’t quite ripe as they don’t have to compete with lots of natural fruit odour.

Sheryl:   So after they take the bait, do they die?
Harry:   They’re suppose to, as there is insecticide in the baits!

Sheryl:   So what’s the success rate?
Harry:    That’s been really hard to determine because it’s not simply a matter of counting dead moths or comparing treated with untreated trees. In a couple of cases, in citrus and mangoes, we believe that we have  reduced the damage rate down from 20% to 4 or 5.

Sheryl:   Are you doing field trials in a commercial situation? 
Harry:     We’ve finished them now but we did 3 years of trials in commercial crops.

Sheryl:   What type of orchards? 
Harry:     Mainly citrus, because this industry funded most of the research. A few trials were also conducted in lychees, mangoes and carambolas. The baits appeared least effective in lychees and carambolas, because when they’re ripe they’re producing huge amounts of odour. If you can get the bait into carambolas before they’re fully ripe, you would expect a better job. In citrus, the baits seem to work reasonably well and it’s only when you get large influxes of moths at the end of the crop that the baits find it difficult to compete with the fruit. Citrus and mangoes are rarely protected by netting, so if the fruit is left on the tree to get fully coloured and ripe it’s particularly vulnerable to attack. Combining the baits with getting the fruit off at the right stage will reduce the damage considerably.

Sheryl:  Using the brix test, what percentage do they take the mango off at?
Harry:    I don’t know what it is with mango, but it’s usually around 8 in citrus.  Up here you don’t hear of Kensingtons being attacked by the moth – mainly R2E2, Keitt, Palmer and Brooks. The early mango types in Nth Qld tend to avoid the peak moth populations which occur from early January to early April.

Sheryl:  How many different varieties are there in the moth? 
Harry:    There are dozens of different species that can cause damage to soft fruits  but only 4 or 5 species from the genus Eudocima are considered economically important and capable of piercing harder fruits like lychees.

Sheryl:  Do they all have the orange spot? 
Harry:    No, the main species all have orange hindwings but the patterns vary.

Sheryl:  Do you have any coloured photos I could take back? 
Harry:    No, not of all the species.

Sheryl:   Do you have a CD perhaps?
Harry:     No, but I’ve got one colour page with photos of the 3 most important species. One of our trial sites in south-east Queensland where these 3 species occur was on the Burnett River. This site was adjacent to the Goodnight Scrub where there is believed to be a lot of moth breeding, and the orchard has significant problems each year.

Sheryl:  Do you have a list of what they breed on so we can address this issue?
Harry:   We do have some papers on the host plants but I’m not sure if they list all species (there are 24 or more in Australia). The Eudocima only breed on the Menispermaceae, which is a family of vines, but only a few of the species are really significant. The species mix varies somewhat as you move from north to south, but they do go right down as far as East Gippsland in Victoria and they’re right across northern Australia and into very dry country north of Alice Springs. So the moths can breed over vast areas and are supposed to migrate from these breeding areas into orchards hundreds of kilometres away.  One of the main menisperm species, Tinospora smilacina, is called Snake Vine as it tends to curl up trees – it’s well known in Aboriginal medicinal culture for uses such as snake bite.

Sheryl:  Who makes up the baits?
Harry:    We’ve done it ourselves here through the project. There is now someone interested in the commercial production.

Sheryl:  Who funded your project? 
Harry:    Horticulture Australia, the national citrus levy, GrowCom (formerly QFVG) and Bundaberg and Gin Gin grower groups.

Fruit Spotting Bug

Sheryl:  You’ve now finished the Fruit Piercing Moth project so you’re now on Fruit Spotting Bug? Harry: We do have a new RIRDC project looking at the potential of pyrethrum in organic situations for control of fruit spotting bug, so we’re looking at formulations/rates on various crops but using it very discretely. Because it’s broad spectrum you can’t spray it willy nilly as it knocks out all the beneficial species as well so we’ll also try some of the other potential organic treatments, like kaolin clays. There has been some work with these in Mareeba on mangoes, mainly looking at their sunscreen utility. In these trials kaolin did increase the mango scale populations but I believe the manufacturer has been tackling this problem.

Sheryl:  Any successful outcome from your studies? 
Harry:    We’ve only just started the pyrethrum trials which will run over 3 years. However, we’ve just finished a study of spotting bugs in papaws which indicated that small plants in the ground between  January and May are very prone to damage.

Sheryl:  What part do they attack?
Harry:    The growing tip is where they do the main damage in papaws but they also feed on the petioles. The growing tip gets very distorted due to the damage and a plant can actually die if it’s still small.

Sheryl:  Have you ever done any work with Guinea Fowl as they really get into leeches etc.
Harry:    I don’t think they would impact on spotting bugs. I worked in Africa for 4 years and where there are large concentrations of insects such as in rhino middens guinea fowl feed prolifically. Bugs tend to be distasteful because of defensive secretions, so birds don’t tend to go for them as much as some other insects. I suspect for spotting bugs it would have to be an arboreal type of bird in any case.