DWC Rambutan

Started another batch of 8 seedling on July 5. These set had some root by July 13, I waited until the 15th to put six in a dwc hydroponic system that I built mainly from watching youtube video for ideas. The other two was put in a regular soil container.

Some might ask why such a big hole for the air tubing. I originally wanted to do an aeroponic style system, so I made the hole big enough for the tubing and water pump power cord.

I change my mind and went with a dwc for simplicity. Just air pump and air stone, no cutting pvc or water pump heating the water,it's hot enough here in DFW area.

I need a bigger airstone to give me some more bubble action, I'll get some tomorrow on my way home from work. One day is not going to hurt it, since the root is not touching the water yet.

What nutrients am I putting in the water?

I using Foliage-Pro 9-3-6. If all my other plant are doing ok, why not here too. Instruction says 1 tsp per gallon, I have about 4 gallon of water. I only used 3 tsp.

Did I check the water ph?

No, I did not since I been watering my plant from the garden hose and using this as the source of my water. I will check the ph once I get my meter, since rambutan prefer acidic soil or in this case nutrients.

I welcome any dwc expert out there for suggestion on improving this or any of my mistake.

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The experiment continues

I had 6 seed before the July 5th batch, but they did not produce any root in two week period in the ziplock bag. I though maybe I should try putting them in a container. No luck, they justed rotted.

I have a second batch of seed started in July 11th in a ziplock bag. If any root appears, this batch will be use for my soil mix experiment. Until that time, we'll see.

Pine Island Nursery package

My order arrived on Friday,5 days from Florida to Texas. The plants are doing well considering that they have been in the dark for 5 days. I'm extremely glad they made it here in a healthy condition.

When I water them this Sunday morning I notice some leaves are dropping from the longan, I figure stress from the shipping and being in the dark for several days. The mango had no problem.

Sapodilla flowering

Pic taken 6/7/2012

It was raining yesterday, I could not get close enough to taken a pic with my camera. The zoom was not far enough, instead I use the camcorder. It's kind of shaky, I did not use the tripod.

Today June 7, I went outside and saw this. I had to take a picture and vid of it.

The above video is my collection of sapodilla, lychee and guava

Today, I ordered a kohala longan and nam doc mai mango from pine island nursery. They will mailed it out on Monday to avoid the plant sitting in a shipping warehouse over the weekend. I thought about buying some from ebay, but most on ebay are seedling grown, grafted or airlayered variety on ebay are overpriced.

Still Going

New leaves on my 9 month old rambutan.

After two years of waiting, I'm finally seeing sign of fruiting on my silas wood sapodilla.

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.