Have some, but less than 3 years.

Would suggest that if violent, no point resisting. Our live is too precious.

I also had my share of thief, sometimes there is nothing much you can do. The kampung folks do some "jampi" and tie a red cloth around the tree.

Mr suknat,

eggs have a hard shell unlike apple. but no harm trying & do share the result.

Mr framer,
i heard that wild agar tree is preferred compared to injected ones?
and how much cost per injection if you have any infos?

suknat
I remember it could be the MARDI booth in MAHA 2012 that they have different "Wax" for fruits. Hmmh, wondering when is MAHA 2014.

pok
I don't really know. I planted, just to play play. Back in June 14, 3 Indons fell a tree (wild) near our plantation, got about 3 kg resin, sold in Kota Kinabaly for $24,000.

Wild or grown, I guess these are marketing strategy / branding.

Am thinking of growing more, for retirement.

Anyone got caught on the Fig trend? Buah Tin.

I just ordered beeswax from china, i search around and they said beeswax is edible and can be be use to spray on fruits, well, will jist have to wait and see

Hi all.

How's the group been doing so far? I know Para and Mr. Farmer have been really busy, so have I. Anybody wanna update a little?

On my part, I am still involved with research, primarily dealing with plant diseases. A lot of P&C stuff, so can't reveal much.

Anyway, talking about gaharu... UNIMAS has come up with a method of producing the essential oil without needing to plant the trees. Apparently, the method does work, but needs some fine tuning. Also, it still remains to be seen if it can be scaled up to large production quantities (the likes of a Carlsberg fermentary). Nonetheless, if the tech proves worthy, there may be less needs for inoculated tree plantations.

On a separate note, I've been noticing a massive drop in key lime production, coupled with a 100% surge in prices. It used to cost about RM4/kg, but now it is about RM9/kg in most places. Anybody growing key limes?

Hi Michael,
Nice to see you. This tread is a bit slow lately :-)
With rubber prices so low, have no choice but to look into fruit trees.
Concentrating on my trials on Avocado, Jackfruits & Soursop.
Have 4 trees of Lime, 3 key lime & 1 Limau Purut, more on experimenting, don't really know how to care for them. Started these so that can use it for propagating if/when required.

Started trial for Fig.
Collecting data, started mini trial and looking into a Fig orchard. What do you guys think?

Maybe looking at Dragon Fruit?

Opinion please.

Anybody knows date for MAHA this year? Need to plan my schedule....

MAHA is 20 Nov to 30 Nov 2014

http://www.maha.gov.my/index.php/en/



sorry guys but what is Key Lime ??

This post has been edited by ParaOpticaL: Apr 29 2014, 05:28 PM

Key Lime = Limau Nipis mamak store type
Kaffir Lime = Limau Purut have 1 fruiting.

Yes, can make it 28th till 30 Nov, got 3 days. Yes!

Hi all,

Para + Mr. Farmer:

Key lime is not actually limau nipis, although grouped together as such. What we often refer to as limau nipis a.k.a. mamak lime is actually calamondin/calamansi, which is not a lime, but a sour orange.

Key lime is a type of lime with sweeter flesh, primarily found in the Caribbean, Florida Keys, Mexico, and parts of India. It is also a lot more larger than calamansi, i.e. Key limes produce fruits about 5cm diameters, whereas calamansi are usually about 2-3cm diameter only. In addition, a fully ripe calamansi fruit can be eaten whole, peel and all; whereas a Key lime peel will be highly bitter and almost inedible.

There are also some distinctions in the flower and color. Calamansi produces mostly small white/cream coloured flowers; Key limes however produce large white flowers that have a yellowish center.

Then there are the seeds. Calamansi seeds are almost always greenish colored, bulky, and tear-drop shaped. Key lime seeds tend to take on a beige color, are flat, and tapered at the ends.

Mr Farmer:

About figs, they are one of the most productive tree species I've ever known. Although they can take some time to reach maturity, the yield does make it an acceptable long term crop. Kinda like olive trees... you plant them now not for this generation, but for the next.

As for dragon fruit... this one I have mixed feelings. I'm not so sure how popular they are now, but the plantations in Sepang have been quite stagnant. I used to see them sell fresh fruits along the tourist routes, but now most of them don't do it anymore. Instead, it seems that they are more interested at selling dragon fruit wine or vinegar. Maybe because after selling off their top-crop, they find more value from turning their lesser crops into these kind of products?

If you do plant them though, make sure it is the red variety. Also, be vigilant against pests, especially moths. The other headache is bacterial rot, which is a big problem in areas with high rainfall. Sepang is a sunny, dry and windy place, with acid/peat soil; so the dragon fruit cactus does quite ok under such conditions. The other places I've been, eg. Teluk Intan, some parts of Perak etc. with higher rainfalls and humidity levels... really a sad sight. Entire acres devastated by moths, bacterial rots etc...



On a different topic about livestock... I would like to ask the group's opinion about an often neglected poultry species:

Pigeon.

Yes, I know... it might sound disgusting, but seriously I'm not talking about those vagrant type of pigeons. I'm referring to Rock Pigeon bred for meat production.

Here are some merits of pigeon meat: it is low in fat, high in nutrients as what would be expected from dark red meats like beef or mutton, and rich in taste.

As for pigeon being a livestock, it is even more fascinating. Pigeons are known to mate for life, and each pair produces continuous litters every year. This means that when the hatchlings of a previous brood is just about ready to leave the nest, a mated pair will often be expecting a new batch of hatchlings to hatch. In addition, there is no need to feed the younglings, as the parents are the ones who do the feeding, so just feed the parents, and they will take care of the rest.

In Europe, especially places like France, pigeon rearing for food is very commonplace, and nearly every household in the countryside has a pigeon house. In Asian cuisine, pigeon does feature quite often on menus, notably Hong Kong delicacy or medicinal foods. It isn't cheap either, with a single bird going for RM15-17 or so. Weight for weight, pigeons are priced a lot more higher than chicken, with a fraction of feed cost.

What are your thoughts?

Have you all read this news:

www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/05/01/Farmers-dumping-tomatoes-Many-forced-to-throw-away-produce-because-of-oversupply/

Apparently, the prices of tomatoes has dropped to 20-30 sen per kg lei.... and farmers are dumping their crops because they don't want to bear the transport cost. Opportunity for someone enterprising?

If not because of the amount of pesticides they spray onto it, I would have take it to feed my ducks.

But no, try to wash it and many white bubbles comes off

Fig product fruits from cuttings quite fast. As fast as 8 months, as reported by some planters. Doing a trial.

Dragon fruit, I read the Yellow skin / white flesh is the sweetest and fetch the highest price. Seen some orchard in Sabah, which don't look well. Still contemplating.

Pigeon, looked into it 3 years ago, but have a personal problem, can't bear to cook them.

kruuu kruuu kruuuu

ak_suknat:

I think that's the Thiram fungicide they coat the fruits with. Helps prevent post-harvest rotting.



Mr. Farmer:

Which cultivar of fig? If it is the Asian ones, then I'd be cautious... some variants do fruit early and produce multiple crops a year, but not all produce "edible" fruits. Non-edible fruits are hermaphrodites a.k.a. caprifigs, and contain seeds.

As for dragon fruits... It might be a preference issue, I guess. But the majority of fruits on the international market seem to be the red variant, or at least hybrid of red and white. Yellow variants (skin and flesh) are much less common, and yes, they do taste a lot sweeter. And because of their rarity, they do command hefty prices. Something like GBp1-2 each in the UK? That's about RM10 each in local currency.



About pigeons... I guess there's some squeamishness involved with slaughtering and dressing them. Pigeons tend to be "cute", like rabbits. Haa..... I take a personal view that they aren't much different from other poultry such as chicken or ducks.

Am looking at the Fircus Carica, edible / common fig. Got some from Turkey, don't know what varieties. Turkish fig most probably need caprification with a special wasp, which we don't have. Brought in some self fruiting, no need capricfication and am still bringing in more varieties for trial. The trend locally is at an infancy stage, about 2 ~3 years, unlike Indonesia & Thailand which started earlier and more mature. Locally it's still a hobbyist plant, hence asking arms & legs just for a cutting / plant. China is also going into it in a mega scale, got news of a 1,000 hectare Fig farm.

Still going through tons of reading material. Maybe you can comment more?

yes all animals are cute. Have some Village Chicken, which I am keeping my distance so that I'm not attached to them. May look into Bees when I have more time / when I finish planting. Just harvest honey, without slaughtering therm

Mr Farmer:

Asian stingless bees? There's a group on Facebook, I think, that are promoting this species.

With regards to figs. About 18 years back, I got to know some local growers who were cultivating figs in Sarawak. But back then I was only a kid, so I didn't put much interest into it. But I do remember dried compressed figs being sold commonly when I was in Kuching. My dad was visiting one of his company's distributors at the time. Heard that the trend eventually died out due to low demand soon after. One of the fig vendors happened to be a friend of my dad's distributor.


Mmm.... it might just be me, but whenever I hear somewhere somewhere got some kind of mega agriculture program, I get the shivers. To me, that's bad news, not good news.

Reference is made to that tomato article I've posted a while back. When everyone bandwagons onto something, it eventually loses value. Just like golden arowana business... last time one highback can sell for RM1,000+; now can't find anyone want to buy for RM250 or less. Heck, even the original Malayan Gold with bluebase scales that were once selling a few thousand ringgit, now you can get one for just a couple hundred bucks!

Anyway, that is just my thoughts. Be the Warren Buffett of agribusiness; when everybody is planting one thing, you plant something different. When everybody is buying, you start selling.