Star Fruit - Carambola Kembangan Quick Flowering

Here is my 1 year old Carambola Kembangan. It is nicknamed the Star Fruit Tree because when you cut the fruit it looks like a star.

Mine is a grafted variety which I am growing in a pot. I am amazed how quickly and prolifically it is flowering at the moment. It has tripled in size since I got it and is one of my best performers so far second to my panama berry.

It is twice the price of a seedling Carambola tree but life is too short for seedling fruit trees as they take much longer to fruit.

One thing about the leaves is that they always seem to be drooping. Some people make the mistake of thinking it is laking water but this is not the case and is their natural position.

I have eaten a few star fruits in my life and by far the best tasting ones were the well known varieties. They are far more juicy and the flavour is less watery and fibrous.

Another thing about star fruit is they really do crop well. They do come into Australian supermarkets on occasions but usually not for long and you really do pay for them.

Another benefit of getting a well known variety such as the Grafted Kary Star Fruit and my Kembangan Star Fruit is that you only need one. Some varieties of Star fruit will flower but not fruit due to needing another variety to cross pollinate with.






More Information on the Star Fruit (Carambolas)
Buy Carambola Star Fruit - Mail Order to your door
A picture of them fruiting from Daleys Orchard - Amazing how well they crop
Forum: Star Fruit Discussion - Pollination Problems - Problems with flowering but not setting fruit for different varieties.
Plant Tag: Carambola or Star Fruit - Find out about cultural notes, soil types and ideal conditions.

Edible Landscapes Nursery - Northey Street City Farms

This Sunday I visited Northey Street City Farms Organic Market. There were lots of people there who packed the very shaded and cool carpark to buy fruit and vegetables.



What makes it different to all the other fruit and veg markets is that while you are there you can walk through the farm which produces some of the fruit you buy.

There are well developed fruit trees and booming vegetables gardens all grown using proven permaculture techniques. Most of the fruit trees and vegetables that you see growing you can then buy from Edible Landscapes Nursery which is also part of the markets.



The kids have plenty of breezy, shady places to play and the chicken pens keep them transfixed.

More Information
Edible Landscapes Nursery

Competiton - Dwarf Fruit Trees - $100 Prize

Use your digital camera to take a picture of a person with a Dwarf Fruit Tree that has fruit on it.

Everyone who enteres will get a $15 Gift Voucher from Daleys Nursery and there will be one Grand Prize winner who will get a $100 voucher.

ENTER COMPETITION OR SEE PICS SO FAR

Tips:

- Make sure the person and the fruit are the central focus

- Smile

- Be creative

Conditions:

- You can enter as many pictures as you want but will only receive one Gift Voucher unless of course you win the $100 grand prize.

- Vouchers can only be used in Australia (Excluding Tas and NT)

Wampees Guy Sam, Lychees, Lolly Tree, Coffee - GTS

Most cultures use masculin or femanin language to describe nature. And Wampee Trees and Lychee Trees are Men. I laughed when I read the description of our Guy Sam Wampee Teee.

"Wampees are a handsome foliage evergreen tree grown for Summer ripe fruit with grape like flesh"

So here are my 3 young men From Left to right: Wampee Tree Guy Sam - Lychee Tree Salathial - Lychee Tree Bosworth 3


Carla bought in some wampees for the staff to taste which she picked from 2 different wampee trees that she grew from seed. They both tasted totally different depending on from which tree they came from. One was very sour but the other was very sweet. That is why if you buy a grafted Wampee Tree like the Guy Sam you know that when the fruit finally does ripen it will have that characteristic sweet grape like flavour. But when you grow it from seed who knows how it could taste. It would depend on how it was pollinated perhaps. Sometimes the extra money for a grafted specimen from a nursery rather then a seedling from the markets or a big outlet chain which might be cheaper really does pay off with fruit trees. Unless of course you want to breed the next Guy Sam or Yeem Pay.

Also in the garden this Green Thumb Sunday are my Panama Berries which most days are giving me that abundantly sweet taste. By far the sweetest berry you will ever taste hence some people call it the lolly tree.
And of course my coffee plant is full of beans and come June in Australia I will be very keen to finally pick them after waiting so long. (About 9 months from flowering it will end up being)

Ants and Fruit Trees

So you want to grow organic fruit and your trees are maturing with new shoots and your hard work is paying off. However on your next visit you notice that someone else is working hard:

Someone who has no chief, officer or ruler but boy are they regimented.



When it comes to your scale on your citrus and other fruit trees Ants are quite happy to farm aphids and eat the sweet honeydew which the aphids secrete leaving a scale on your fruit trees and hampering new growth.

So let's assume that we are all responsible gardeners and don't want to spray our plants with poisons. What are our organic options?

One of our staff members Kath has taken some pictures of how she uses some grafting tape and Vaseline to stop not only ants but also vine weevil and earwigs.
Kath says on the art of Banding Citrus Trees: "the ant would reach it and then slip off the tree, then I put a big fat wadge of Vaseline around the tape to stop the little fellows climbing my tree. That has them stumped for a few days at least"

Australia Day 2008 - Green Thumb Sunday

Australia Day 2008 is being celebrated so I thought I might share a few fruit trees from our Great South Land for this hot green thumb sunday.

Macadamia Nut Tree
Below is a picture of my Dwarf Macadamai Nut Tree in a pot
One of the best tasting nuts you will eat especially when roasted in honey or salt. Most people don't realise that it originates in Australia.

Australian Finger Lime
Comes in many different colours and I heard that it often fruits in Australia at times when your other citrus doesn't.

Midyim Berry

Our Staff Member Paul who has a passion for bushfoods describes this naturally occuring berry in the wild as his favourite. The flowers are quaint and pretty and the soft pulp is very sweet

Tree Ripened Fruit Is Superb

We recently asked each of our Staff about their favourite fruit trees and Greg gave what I thought was a very interesting answer by saying:

"a tree ripened Navelina Orange picked in June. The juicy and sweet flesh is superb."

Just recently a TV show exposed that fruit found in Australian supermarkets at certain times of the year would sit in a warehouses for 8 months before being sold.

You can watch the video here but the gist of it is that the chemical called ethylene can be measured to find the real age of fruit. The show concentrated on how the nutrition of fruit reduced with age but I think they missed what I think to be the most important point and probably what you know because you are reading a blog about fruit trees.

The point is this: There is a something becoming about picking and eating a piece of fruit that you have grown yourself.

Daleys in My Business Magazine Feb 2008

At Daley's we learnt very early on that growing fruit trees is a passion, a hobby and a lifestyle and our aim is to show this in as many parts of our nursery as we can. One way we have done this is through our monthly newsletters.

In 2006 when youtube was just starting up we decided to do our first video newsletter and ask our readers what they thought. We got some very mixed responses where some people loved it and others preferred the old format.

Since then we decided to go with mixed video and text which we have in many parts of our website now.

Minimum Quantities For Forestry Tubestock

We recently sent plants to Graham who gave us some great feedback on our forestry tubestock

Daleys service and plant quality was excellent, although i was little disappointed in not being able to buy tubestock in smaller than minimum quantities available. all the best for Christmas and the new year. regards Graham Banks, BOYNE ISLAND QLD AUSTRALIA (16th Dec 2007)

As our packing techniques are getting better we are able to handle these smaller fiddly quantities more efficiently. And we reduced it from a minimum tubestock amount of 7 down to 5 and today we have decreased it down to a minimum of 4. Our new boxes are also designed to accommodate these smaller quantities.