Growing bananas from seeds can be a long, laborious labor of love and constant care. Depending on the variety, banana seeds can take anywhere from a few months to a whole year. Here is variety specific germination info: Darjeeling Banana – Musa sikkimensis. Cold tolerant …
Apricots are stone fruits with a velvety smooth skin and low-juice, firm flesh. The name apricot is a name given to several species of fruit from different botanical names (common names are Japanese apricot or Chinese plum, Siberian apricot, marmot plum), but the Prunus armeniaca …
Rambutan gets its name from the Malaysian word ‘rambut’ meaning hair. It is native to the Malay-Indonesian region, and is grown in tropical areas worldwide. The rambutan is related to the lychee and longan fruits.
This sweet tropical fruit is roundish or elliptical in shape with soft hairy spines on the outside of the skin. Depending on the variety, rambutans can be red, yellow, or green.
Growing Rambutan
The rambutan tree is evergreen, growing to about 80 feet in height with a straight trunk and a wide crown. The rambutan prefers warmer tropical climates where it has adapted, and is sensitive to cold temperatures and strong winds. Rambutan likes deep clay loam or sandy loam soils, with good drainage, and requires regular waterings.
The trees like their space and if many are planted in an orchard or in a row, fruit production will be limited if they are too crowded.
Rambutan is grown by seed, cuttings, air layering, or by grafting. Seed method is most successful. To grow rambutan by seed, use a fresh seed and plant with the flattened side pointed down in the seedling tray. Germination typically occurs from 9 to 25 days. The fresher the seed, the higher the germination rate, and a completely sun dried seed will never germinate. Flesh inhibits germination, so start with a perfectly washed seed free from any fruit lingering on it. Rambutan will begin to bear fruit in about 6 years, and under optimal conditions in about 4 years.
Branches that bear fruit one year, will produce growth at the same spot the following hear. Yield from the rambutan tree greatly varies year to year, with a heavy harvest one year, and very light one the next.
Rambutan Varieties
Many rambutan varieties are grown, and freestone varieties (when the seed is easily removed from the flesh) are desirable, and different colored skins – with red being the most popular. Some varieties can bear fruit twice a year.
Sectankooweh – Thin rind, with sweet, creamy colored flesh.
Queen Zaida – Dark red rind, sweet and juicy flesh, freestone variety.
Zamora – Yellowish rind with pale pink spins, thick flesh that is sweet.
Magsaysay – Dark red to near black rind with dark red spines, large fruit, sweet, thick flesh, freestone variety.
Victoria – Yellowish rind with red spines, sweet flesh, freestone variety, and early season fruiting.
Santo Tomas – Yellow pink rind with red pink spines, roundish fruit with small seeds.
Bin Jai – Orange red rind with green tipped spines, crisp flesh.
Harvesting Rambutan
Rambutan fruit grows in clusters, and does not further ripen once picked. It is best to pick in the morning when temperatures are cooler, and trees typically have a range of ripening time making harvesting the fruit done over a period of time. If a single rambutan fruit is picked from the cluster, ensure a piece of the stem is attached to keep the fruit from bruising or the skin from splitting. The fruit will keep for about a week properly chilled in the refrigerator.
Sources:
“INFOGRAPH: Friday Fruit Facts (#001) – Rambutan.” INFOGRAPH: Friday Fruit Facts (#001) – Rambutan | TFNet – International Tropical Fruits Network. International Tropical Fruits Network, n.d. Web.
Morton, J. “Rambutan.” Rambutan. Purdue University Center for New Crops & Plant Products, n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2017.
“Rambutan Cultivation.” RAMBUTAN CULTIVATION. Archives of the Rare Fruit Council of Austrailia, Sept. 1988. Web. 01 Oct. 2017.
“Rambutan Harvest.” Tropical Fruit – Global Information System. GFruit, n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2017.
The lychee, Litchi chinensis, is a member of the soapberry family along with the rambutan and longan. It is the sole member of the Litchi genus. Lychee also goes by the names lichi, laichi, leechee, or vai. It is a sweet, juicy fruit with a …
The longan fruit comes from the Dimocarpus longan tree, and the fruit is known as ‘dragon eyes’ because of its round shape and translucent flesh, and the seed which resembles an eye. The tree originates from Mayanmar, southern China, southwest India, and the Indochinese peninsula. …
What are chill hours? Find out why the number is important to some fruit trees. | Cultivate to Plate
Chill hours are the total number of hours below 45 degrees F that a plant is exposed to during their dormant period to produce properly developed fruit. Some deciduous fruit trees (fruit trees that loose their leaves seasonally) must go through a certain minimum number of chill hours to release their dormancy, go into bloom, and set their fruit.
Chilling Requirements
The chilling requirements are essentially the minimum period of cold weather after which a fruit-bearing tree will blossom.
This is from the Clemson Cooperatives Extension:
Chilling Requirements: Stone fruit trees such as peaches develop their vegetative and fruiting buds in the summer, and as winter approaches, the buds go dormant in response to both shorter days and cooler temperatures. These buds remain dormant until they have accumulated sufficient chilling hours (temperatures of 45 °F or less). Varieties with low chilling requirements are recommended for coastal areas. As long as there have been sufficient chilling hours, leaves and buds develop normally.
What Happens When the Minimum Chill Times Are Not Met
In the article, Chilling Accumulation: Its Importance and Estimation by David H. Byrne and Terry Bacon, one or more of these things may happen to a fruit tree if the cultivar has a certain number of chill hours that was not met:
Delayed foliation and heavy suckering – Delayed foliation is where a branch will sprout a grouping of leaves at the tips and be devoid of leaves for the next 1 to 2 feet from the tips. Suckering is a large amount of suckers that sprout from the base of the plant which will negatively affect the following year’s budding. The leaves and flowers are delayed for the entire plant.
Reduced fruit set and buttoning – The blooms are delayed, and the fruit remains very small as it ripens. Also, there will be a reduced fruit set overall. Buttoning may occur, where the fruit is misshapen and very small.
Reduced fruit quality – This is when the color is not as vibrant (more green), resulting from reduced firmness and not changing from a green immature color to a fully ripened color. The actual fruit quality will be reduced.
The number of hours needed differ depending on the actual cultivar, not the type of fruit. You can search for ‘low-chill’ varieties that would grow and produce fruit better in certain warmer garden zones – for example, peaches are deciduous fruit trees but certain peach cultivars are specifically grown to adapt to areas that don’t get their chilling requirements throughout the year.
Different Winter Chill Hour Models
There are three different models that calculate the winter chill hours: Chilling Hours Model; Utah Model; and Dynamic Model. The most commonly used one is the Chilling Hours Model, and the formula is below, courtesy of the US National Library of Medicine and the National Center for Biotechnology. Wikipedia has simplified the model: “one chilling unit for every full hour at temperatures below 7 °C (45 °F).”
Formula for Calculating Winter Chill Hours – courtesy National Center for Biotechnology | Cultivate to Plate
Examples of Chill Hour Requirements for Fruit and Nut Trees
Here is a list of general chill requirements for different fruits and vegetables. The range varies greatly in some species, depending on the specific cultivar. Some fruit and nut trees will not grow in certain zones. Find your zone, and learn what the average number of chill hours are in your area beforeyou bring home a fruiting plant. Information below comes from the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension.
Almond – 200 to 700 chill hours
Apple – 300 to 1200 chill hours
Apricot – 400 to 1000 chill hours
Avocado – None
Cherry – 600 to 1200 chill hours
Chestnut – 400 to 750 chill hours
Citrus Trees – None
Date Trees – None
Figs – 100 to 500 (low number of chill hours)
Filberts (Hazelnuts) – 800 to 1600 chill hours
Grapes – 100 to 500 chill hours
Kiwi – 400 to 800 chill hours
Olives – None
Peaches – 150 to 1200 chill hours
Pears – 400 to 1500 chill hours
Pecan – 200 to 1600 chill hours
Persimmon – 100 to 500 chill hours
Pistachio – 800 to 1000 chill hours
Plum – 400 to 1000 chill hours
Pomegranate – 100 to 200 (low number of chill hours)
Quince – 100 to 500 chill hours
Walnut – 400 to 1500 chill hours
More Information on Chill Requirements and Chill Hours
Resources for this article:
“About Chilling Units & Hours.” Fruit & Nut Research and Information Center. UC Davic, n.d. Web. 29 May 2015.
“AZ Master Gardener Manual: Introduction to Fruit Trees (Cont.).” Arizona Master Gardener Manual. University of Arizona College of Agriculture Cooperative Extension, n.d. Web. 30 May 2015.
Byrne, David H., and Terry Bacon. “Chilling Accumulation: Its Importance and Estimation.” Chilling Accumulation: Its Importance and Estimation. Texas A&M University, Dept. Horticultural Sci., n.d. Web. 29 May 2015.
“Chilling Requirement.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 May 2015.
“Derived Temperature Indices Chill Units: Chill Units.” Department of Agronomy: Applied Agricultural Meteorology. Iowa State University, n.d. Web.
Luedeling, Eike, and Patrick H. Brown. “A Global Analysis of the Comparability of Winter Chill Models for Fruit and Nut Trees.” International Journal of Biometeorology. Springer-Verlag, n.d. Web. 29 May 2015.
The jackfruit is a giant fruit that grows from a very tall evergreen tree that has leathery, highly glossy leaves. The fruit is very sweet and aromatic, but the jackfruit is useful for more than its fruit: the leaves are used in agriculture, the latex is used …
The Different Varieties of Mulberry The fruiting mulberry comes from the Morus genus in the Moraceae family. Mulberry hybrids come from the three main species of mulberry: white mulberry (Morus alba), red mulberry (Morus rubra), and the black mulberry (Morus nigra). The Russian mulberry is variant of the …
