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When I went up to El Arish in March this year to the A. G. M., I purchased 2 grafted rambutan trees from Roger Goebel (156 Red, 156 yellow). As soon as I arrived back to Bouldercombe, (Bouldercombe is located half-way between Rockhampton and Mt. Morgan and is an old gold field, rainfall average is 916 mm), I planted out the trees. I made two small shade houses and covered them with 80% shade cloth; these young trees need protection from the sun for the first two or three years. The shade houses must face East and West, with North and South left open to allow the air to circulate around the trees.

As rambutans cannot tolerate frost or temperatures below 8°C, I wrapped two or three newspapers around the trunks of the trees up to the first lot of branches, and sealed the papers with tape. This acted as an insulator to keep out the cold and also to stop the plant cells being killed by the cold. Do not water the trees during the winter: this slows down the juice flow in the trees, allowing them to survive the cold better.

R156 yellow with frost burns on leaves. Note newspaper wrapped around the trunk. The last week in June and the first week in July, the temperature dropped to 0°C to 3°C with about a week of frost on and off. The last week in July, we only had a few days at 2°C, the rest were around the 8°C to 10°C. We also had a lot of cold days in August around 3°C to 6°C.

The total number of days under 8°C was 42 days, with the day temperatures rising to the mid-twenties. These extreme rises and falls in temperature made the rambutans lose all their leaves in late August.

Now that the winter is over, the 156 Red has survived the better, and is now starting to flush again while the 156 yellow has died back to just the rootstock and is still alive but hasn't flushed as yet. The two trees were planted in the same area.

Now all that remains is to see if these trees survive next year's winter.

This summer I also intend to plant out some purple mangosteens in the same manner and see if they will survive the winter.

R156 red rambutan, trunk wrapped in newspaper, in shade house made out of 3/8 pipe and 80% shade cloth. Note maximum-minimum thermometer.

DATE: November 1990

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