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• Wallabies eating Mulberry Leaves.   Brian Lowry from Crystal Waters reports:  I had always accepted the generalization that the large macropods are grazers rather than browsers, the big marsupial browsers being not-so-long gone in the extinct megafauna of Australia. Observations on our lot make it make it not so simple. Among the abundant wildlife are large numbers of pretty-face wallabies and grey kangaroos that, as might be expected, have an impact on any small plant that one is nurturing. Not in this category are a number of mulberry trees with such vigorous growth that the outer limbs are weighed down almost to the ground by thick foliage. It is notable that the prettyface wallabies actively browse mulberry leaves. They seek out cut limbs on the ground to defoliate, even consuming dry leaves and browse accessible foliage on the tree leaving a distinct “browse line” of bare stems on the lower part. The height of this – about 1.8mtr was a puzzle because it seemed well out of reach of the wallabies. It seemed plausible for the much larger grey kangaroos to be responsible but they properly stuck to their reputation as grazers and showed no interest in the tree leaves. The answer came one day when I had a perfect profile view of a wallaby sitting upright under the tree and saw it take a small vertical leap, clasp the leafy branch with its forepaws, drag it down and hold it while it ate the leaf. If only I had it on video! It seems an obvious feeding strategy but do we know of macropods performing purely vertical leaps?
   
• Propagation  We break dormancy prior to ‘cutting’ by stripping [by hand] the branch to be cut of all its leaves, some people use urea.  We spray it with a Miracle Gro or its equivalent. Then when new buds begin to appear we make the cutting, spray with fungicide and insecticide and if you can get it bactericide and virucide, dip in rooting compound, shake off the excess rooting compound, put in moist coarse river sand and enclosed in an air tight bag where there is no direct sunlight or wind.  Oscar is correct – different mulberries require different preparations.  Please try just a handful as an experiment.   Ref: Bob Bishop
   
• Shahtoot Mulberry As Oscar said, we also find most mulberries very easy to propagate as cuttings but we’ve found Pakistani Mulberry (the Shahtoot) only worked for us when we did Patch Budding (using a much larger piece than used when doing citrus propagation by Budding). Approach grafting also worked 50% of the time, but Patch Budding has given over 90% takes. In our climate nothing ever goes into dormancy, so our results might not match up with a temperate climate. Our Pakistani Mulberry never goes dormant but produces profusely and has the best tasting mulberry I’ve ever eaten. Super sweet and long like a rats tail. In Urdu/Hindi “Shah Tut” is the name used for all Mulberries. Written as one word, Shahtoot.   Ref: Samar Gupta. Mumbai.

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Lemon and Clove Mould Buster   from the Mudbrick Cottage, Tamborine   www.herbcottage.com.au 

The moisture in the air from our continual very wet weather has left a film of mould on nearly every surface. To remedy this I have made some herbal vinegar sprays to clean up with. Vinegar is a cheap and safe way to clean surfaces around your home. It is free of toxic chemicals that many of the store bought cleaners contain.
Vinegar kills 99% of bacteria, 82% of moulds, and 80% of viruses, and when you add some herbs, spices or essential oils the effect is multiplied.
• 1 litre of white vinegar
• ¼ cup of clove buds
• The peel of 1 lemon
Mix together and let soak for at least 24 hours. This mix can be used straight for heavily moulded surfaces or diluted 50/50 with water in a spray bottle for lighter cleaning. The lemon and cloves in this vinegar really improve the smell of the vinegar and add their own mould busting properties. Clove is known for its antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal and antiseptic properties. Lemons not only smell fresh and clean they have antibacterial and antiseptic properties as well as mild bleaching power.

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Using leaves of Moringa as a fungicide  Choose leaves that are free from disease. Wash and clean the leaves, chop up finely and mix in water, 1kg leaf to 3 ltrs water; let it stand overnight, strain then spray early morning on infested plant parts. For Anthracnose, Early blight, Fruit rot, Leaf spot. Always test the plant extract formulation on a few infested plants first before going into large scale spraying. When adding soap as an emulsifier, use a potash-based one.  Wear protective clothing while applying the extract. Wash your hands after handling the plant extract. References  * Sangatan, P.; Sangatanan, R. (2000): Organic fungicide. How to process/prepare organic fungicides. Practical guide to organic pesticides.  Technology and Livelihood Series. Busy Book Distributors, Quezon City.  

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• Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) Grow in semi-shade. Ref:  Bob Brinsmead
   
• If you’re not getting lots of fruit, then either the flowers are not getting pollinated or the flowers are dropping off due to stress. Make sure they are getting plenty of water when flowering and tap the plants with your hand to help spread pollen. I’ve seen some insects here pollinate the flowers also. An extra bit of fertiliser during flowering would also help.   Ref: Oscar – Hawaii
   
• There are large leafed and small leafed miracle fruit trees. Here in Hawaii we have the large leafed miracle fruits but they are not nearly as large leafed as some types I saw in Florida at Hopkin’s Nursery. The ones at Hopkins were huge leafs and the fruits were also larger than normal. How large? I didn’t have my ruler with me but I think the ones I have are twice the size of the small leaf type and the ones at Hopkins were about three times. I think there must be many different types of miracle fruits. There are 2 other different genus plants in Africa which also contain miraculin.     Ref: Oscar – Hawaii
   
• For faster fruiting, it is good to have an acidic potting mix, low pH, so add lots of peat moss or other organic matter, at least 50% or more into your mix. If your soil is alkaline it is best to just grow it in a pot. It’s a very bonsai plant anyway. Also put the plant over a saucer with water so the mix stays moist all the time. Continuous feeding with slow release or other fertilizer and foliar feed is also very important. Ref:  Oscar – Hawaii
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_fruit
  http://www.instructables.com/id/Growing-Your-Own-Miracle-Fruit/
  http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/miraclefruit.html

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• There are a lot of companies putting out microbes. I was down visiting Agrobest at Nerang who put out an extensive range of products including fertilisers, trace minerals, soil conditioners, crop protection & nutrition etc. and I asked them what conditions were needed for microbes to work successfully. There are 3 components: moisture, temperature and composted soil. The warmer the soil temperature, the faster the microbial population will expand with growth being very slow under 12ºC. Ideally apply in spring or later. To achieve optimum growth, a readily available food source for the microbes is required. This may be plant material in the form of humus on the top of the ground or incorporated and organic carbon in the soil. It is suggested that if the soil has very low organic carbon levels below 0.9% and lack of humus, that a good food source is added when applied. Molasses or fish emulsion is suitable for this. Another point that is relevant is that some microbes will eat other microbes!
• Richard Poli our last guest speaker says that some microbes require dry conditions to populate; some require warmer temps and some like it cool, some like it dry and cool but must have morning dews to enable increases.
• Row crops need bacterial microbes but tree crops need fungal microbes in the form of kelp, fish, and humates.

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The trick to getting marula seeds to sprout fast is to open the seed. The marula seeds have eyes, similar to coconuts. You gouge one of the eyes out with an ice pick. They are also easy to start from cuttings. I think it is too rainy here for them.  Ref:  Oscar  – Hawaii   (Sheryl:  Not suited to suburbia – it’s a huge tree).

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• There are 2 problems with growing Marang 1) insufficient or no pollination, as sometimes you can get fruits totally empty of pulp inside    2) good pollination but very few fruits on the tree.  I have the second problem. I think this is probably due to seedling variation. There might also be a problem with self incompatibility in some cases so plant at least two trees side by side. I have a friend that has Marangs which are consistent bearers, good pollination and often have 2 crops. The thing to do would be to graft from those trees. If you don’t have good marang scion wood available in your area suggest planting as many seeds as possible and culling the bad ones out. As far as I know only in the Phillippines do grafted Marangs exist and even there I think grafting of this fruit is very limited. This is a really excellent fruits, but obviously it needs some more development.   Ref:  Oscar – Hawaii Sheryl:  One of our members is growing Marang down the Gold Coast – has flowers but doesn’t set.
• Marang and a lot of the tropicals like a deep well drained soil is the most important. In the beginning I just made the planting holes about 50 cm deep and a lot of my plants stay small. Now I make the holes more than 1 metre deep and there’s a big difference in growth. I was almost considering growing it on a mounded pile of dirt here – again, problems with soil stagnation. Ref: Luc in Mexico
• I visited several commercial Marang farms in Mindanao and the taste has not much to do with the kind of seedling in my opinion but much more with fertilizing. Those farms who fertilize copiously with Muriate of Potash after fruit setting seems to produce much sweeter Marang with bigger pulp portions then those who are not well fertilized. Ref:  Will

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• Whilst visiting Malaysia on my way home from India, I spent a week as the guest of one of the rarefruit members on line Aishah and she laughed when I asked for a knife to cut the fruit in half. Apparently you just put the fruit between both your palms and squeeze. The fruit will split then you just break it open. She was telling me that Mangosteen are barred from hotels as the staff cannot get the stain out of towels/sheets etc. so be warned when eating them if you are in your best clothes! More on India and Malaysia when time permits!  Ref:  Sheryl
• How to pick a good Mangosteen.   Hold the fruit in your hand, press your thumb on the skin and if the skin gives, then the fruit is OK. Sometimes you may see a bright yellow sap coming out of the skin – do not buy this fruit as it’s no good. Don’t buy fruit which is really hard.

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To tell when it is ripe to pick, you scratch the base of the fruit and they should be going brown but if they’re still green then leave them alone. There are 2 varieties Pontin and Gray. There’s also the Magana which is a big one and it has a courser flavour – they’re great in milk shakes and this variety has a pointy end. The round one is Pontin. In Spanish it’s the Mother.   Ref:  Bob Brinsmead – Tropical Fruit World.