FRUIT TREES WITH PLEASURE

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Nephelium lappaceum
FAMILY: Sapindaceae

"The greatest service that can be rendered to any country is to add a useful plant to its culture."
These words from Thomas Jefferson has found a staunch and inspired advocate in Edwin Belen, a young and expert propagator of fruit trees. Countless plant lovers and gardeners, both experienced and beginners, in various parts of the country, are flowing with gratitude for Edwin, who has given them the many delightful and thrilling moments in their own backyards nurturing - and, eventually, harvesting - fruit trees such as rambutan, lychees, mangosteen, seedless atis (Annona squamosa) , durian, duhat (Syzygium cumini), citrus, and others. Edwin manages an outstanding nursery, the Pride of Laguna, in Alaminos, Philippines, and continues to motivate people to plant a useful tree. To Edwin, a specialist of rare fruit propagation, the country's goals of reforestation and increased food production could be pursued with pleasure and a "touch of class" if the extensive cultivation of trees with edible fruits were strongly encouraged in the national program.

Edwin produces, among others, some of the most delicious rambutan fruits in town. He has a collection of several varieties, with the Maharlika being the best. Edwin sees a lot of promise for rambutan. His belief is easily supported by the demand and market price figures for this expensive fruit. (He has, in fact, been exporting rambutan seeds.)

Around two years ago, Exotic Groves, a fruit plantation in Australia, hired the services of Edwin to propagate asexually on a commercial scale rambutan and other Oriental fruit trees. Australia considers rambutan an exotic fruit, and when Edwin returned to the Philippines, his efforts had already made Exotic Groves the largest producer of rambutan seedlings in Australia.

The rambutan fruit is large, oblong or nearly round, and measures up to 5-6 cm long by 5 cm wide. It is green at the beginning but ripens to various shades of red and yellow. It has a large seed surrounded by a white or yellowish pulp (flesh) of varying thickness. The flesh is translucent, firm, and juicy. In the best varieties, like the Maharlika that is cultivated in the Pride of Laguna Nursery, the fruit is sweet with an extremely pleasant, mild, subacid flavor. The thick flesh comes away easily from the seed.

Harvesting the fruit is usually done during the months of August and September. Rambutan is indigenous to Malaysia. In the Philippines, most rambutan fruits come from Oriental Mindoro and Davao. But because of propagators like Edwin Belen, rambutan cultivation could fast become popular in Luzon where the price of the fruit is very high because of limited supply.

Rambutan can be propagated sexually or asexually. Sexual propagation means reproduction by seed. A seed is the result of the union of a sperm cell and an egg cell after pollination. It may originate from one plant or more often, from two parent plants. Because of their mixed ancestry, seeds may produce plants that are not only different from their parents, but also from each other, especially in shape, size, and quality of fruit. Trees propagated by seed also take longer to bear fruit. In rambutan, it takes around six years. If the tree, however, turns out to be a male, it will not bear fruit. Thus, propagating fruit plants by seed is not always satisfactory.

On the other hand, asexual (also known as vegetative) propagation is reproduction by means other than seed. It is termed 'asexual' because the function of sex is not involved. Vegetative parts of the plants, whether from the roots, stems, or leaves, are separated and made to develop into new individual plants. These plants are in a real sense 'chips off the old block' and are not original specimens as are seedlings. They retain the parent plant's desirable characteristics, which may not come true in seedlings. Fruit quality of plants grown from seeds can be determined only after the plant has matured and borne fruits. On the other hand, with an asexually propagated plant, the quality of the fruits will be the same as that of the parent plant. Thus, one can choose and produce the quality of the fruit he desires through asexual propagation by selecting a good parent plant. Besides, using this method substantially reduces the number of years before a plant bears fruit. Asexually propagated rambutan fruits are harvested after only three or four years.

Rambutan can be raised on various types of soil. The best results, however, can be obtained when it is planted in deep loamy soil with good drainage.

Edwin applies the following methods of asexual propagation for rambutan: inarching, grafting, and budding (particularly, patch-budding, which is ideal for mass-production.)

Grafting is the process of joining together a rootstock and a scion until they unite permanently. The rootstock is the plant, usually a seedling, in which the scion is inserted. The scion is any plant part, usually a stem, taken from the desired plant.

Budding is a specialized form of grafting in which a single detached bud is used as a scion; hence, it is also called bud grafting. It is very popular with nurserymen because it is a quick and efficient method. By budding, you can get the greatest number of plants from a propagating material. Almost every bud on the budstick may produce a new individual plant.

In inarching or grafting by approach, the plants are made to unite while growing on their own roots. Since the scion and the stock are both actually growing, the time required for them to unite is not limited as in other methods of asexual propagation where the scion only has a short span of life..

T.J. O'HARE
Horticulture Postharvest Group, QDPI
Hamilton, Queensland 4007, Australia

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