Rambutan in December

Well, I guess it's time for an update. It's been awhile. My quest to see if growing rambutan in North Texas is possible continues...

Yes, it can be done, well for seedling anyway. Out of the twenty seed that I try to germinate.Only three survive, why three??? I figure in my eagnerest, I put out the seedling tray in the super hot 3 months of 100+ degree with humidity average around 30%.

Bad idea, but I was just testing the limit of it. Rambutan grown from seed are not ideal. You never know if it's a male, female or hemaphrodite.

Ok back to the three survivor. All three are about six inches tall now.
I'm trying to figure out why the leaves on one is drying up, sample r1. Could it be that I'm not watering enough? Is the soil not acidic enough?


Sample r2, I'm using tea water to water it to see if it help. Not compost tea, but the regular tea you would drink yourself. I'm using the Lipton tea bag, one bag last me about a week.

I'll update with more better picture next time, when I have more time to better format this.

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Rambutan Texas

My attempt to grow rambutan in hot and dry north Texas. Humidity here is not as ideal as it would need to be for optimium growing condition. Tropical humidity for growing rambutan is 60%-80%. Here, I'm getting from 20-60, average 35. So letting them grow outside is not the way to go.

I got some rambutan from a big asian grocery store, enjoy eating it. Though to myself should I attempt to grow this sucker? My quest beginning by immediately wrapping those seed in three layer damp tissue paper for group one. Second group is wrapped with two damp tissue paper and a paper towel on the outer layer.

Group one seem to be doing better. Lots of long tap roots. No special liquid was used,
just plain old bottle water, not tap water. I figure that the tissue paper hold more moisture then the rough grain from the paper towel. Just my thought, no science to back it up, so don't take my word for it.

Both group of wrapped seed are placed inside a plastic bag.



Group One with impressive tap root, this is about less than 2 weeks,
can't be exact because didn't keep an accurate record when I started this.



Group two with paper towel on the outer layer, not many long tap roots.



Both wrap inside the plastic bag. You could see the moisture droplet stick to the plastic.

Tomorrow, time to put them in a rootmaker 4in pot.