Thai orange trees

[dirtydog]

Ok there are several differant types of thai orange trees, none of them are very good, I have 3 or 4 differant types at the moment, so if I went to Malaysia and bought some of the really nice oranges they have there and brought back the seeds,
1. Would they grow?
2. Would they get fruit?

Anyway here's a picture I took this morning of my first orange, the tree is about 1.5 met high and only has one orange on it.

[anto2]

How are your Oranges doing ? ...WILL A JAFA ORANGE GROW IN THAILAND ?

[Zone]

Hey Dirty Dog,, looking at the pic, the plant appears to have a magnesium deficiency.Does it have lighter coloured blotches on the leaves?? cheers Z one

[Boon Mee]

Fek! I can't get my Lime trees (bushes, really) to grow worth a fok let alone try orange trees although I'd like to have some. I think it's the soil here. Nasty Din Pao but getting a truck of real good Din Dum is tough...

[dirtydog]

I have to admit I have no idea where that tree is now, maybe in the back garden or on the land, we had to move loads of stuff from the front garden and I didn't get involved.

[PaulBunyon]

Fek! I can't get my Lime trees (bushes, really) to grow worth a fok let alone try orange trees although I'd like to have some. I think it's the soil here. Nasty Din Pao but getting a truck of real good Din Dum is tough...

Yep. The same happened to me. The only trees that grow up on our land in Esarn are mangos, guavas, mayom, and tamarid. The citrus trees don't go far.

Another isssue is the actual soil your planting in. Is your land 'natural topsoil' or was it filled where you planted? When people put in houses they tend to get any old dirt and dump it over the natural soil which is better. They filled on our land burying better land so if the trees can't make it down 4 feet they don't go to far. But if they make it down they'll hit a lot better soil and have a good chance. The mando trees seem to do well anywhere. Who knows where the other trees originally come from. A lot of the trees here probably aren't native to Thailand.

[taffyapple]

i got same problem with my lime trees,our house was the last one to be built and they put all the fuc-king rubbish from every where under the turf they laid about 400sq.mts.it takes 1hr.just to dig one hole,even the gardener wont come and do any work.

[anto2]

Same in my garden in Chiang mai .It consists of just one inch top soil then every kind of shit underneath .I use large pots with bought in soil to grow everything .

[prvtdetdave]

I would like to know some of the techniques / methods used in composting here in Thailand. The family has 80 ria and I want to put in a small garden away from the cash & sustenance crops. I was raised on a farm and my family still does large scale farming in Wisconsin. Thailand is like another universe as anything dropped / organic is quickly consumed by insects or small animals.

[anto2]

I got some really sweet tasting Mandarin Oranges at Rimping Supermarket .I am going to have a try to sow the seeds and see how they grow (or not ) up here in Chiang Mai .

[Troy]

I would like to know some of the techniques / methods used in composting here in Thailand. The family has 80 ria and I want to put in a small garden away from the cash & sustenance crops. I was raised on a farm and my family still does large scale farming in Wisconsin. Thailand is like another universe as anything dropped / organic is quickly consumed by insects or small animals.

I'm not from same area as you...as a kid, farming in Norfolk UK where the soil is superb in comparison to Isaan. I spent about 7 years getting our back garden (1 Rai) conditioned...but I was not there often to start with and invariably had to start from scratch each visit...until I stayed for 18 months and taught them what to do.

Firstly, their technique was to burn the vegetation, which I stopped in favour of composting, using different heaps for different vegetation. I put the leaves and larger twigs together with banana trunks (great material) in one bin for long time composting and general vegetable matter in several others for shorter term composting.

Unlike the UK, where it can take a year to make compost, Thailand is very different. I can get good compost from the short term piles within 3 months and from the long term ones in a year. The main problem in our area is that too much heat is as bad as too little and shade rather than sun is essential...as well as shielding from heavy rain...which drowns any activity.

Sorry if this is teaching "Granny to suck eggs" but for those who don't know about composting:
Basic concept is "brown" material (I use the rice stalks from harvesting) then some cow/pig/buffalo manure (I was laughed at originally for picking it up from the road in a wheelbarrow) followed by greens (household peelings and vegetable offcuts) and a thin layer of soil. The ratio depends on area but I find that twice the brown to green and a quarter of manure and soil works quite well. (beware of manure due to salt which is the one thing that kills plants more than any other).

The main problem I found with the compost heaps was ants...but I quickly got rid of them with lime (as in calciumOxide not the fruit)...later the crushed eggshells from household waste helped and later still the Mint we grew made them a negligible pest.

The Thai family came up with all sorts of reasons not to follow the principles I laid down...snakes, centipedes (the nasty ones) etc. but I ignored them and they ended up as myths...

I use 20ft x 5ft plots (100 sq ft) and found I need to have at least 6 inches of compost to start with and to add to this every month...because it goes quickly with the insects that are still around. I use a garlic/chilli mix as a pesticide for the small stuff and hand pick the beetles etc. from the plants when they arrive in numbers.

Once everything got going, I had a separate compost heap with just tomato vegetation (because someone told me to once) and found that it is true...tomatoes like to have tomato compost more than anything else...and make sure you grow them with basil and away from onions....they just love being with their basil mates.

Obviously carrots don't follow the rules and keep them away from any manure compost...I put them in as a soil recovery crop when the compost has been used up. They are great for the soil as a recovery plant, especially if you have had a high intake plant such as tomato or cucumber...and then it's any legume after this to make sure little fertiliser is required.

I was going to give a quick one sentence answer....but it get's difficult when the question is vague and the questioner is not around to stop me....apologies to all!

[Troy]

Now I feel really stupid....the topic was about oranges...sorry guys...

I was under the impression that the Japanese Orange was used as the main tree because of its strength in tough climatic conditions...but is very sour. For this reason a sweeter variety, that is not so strong has to be grafted to the main tree. This way you get a tough tree with sweet oranges.

I know, I need to provide a link but I can't find one that is relevant to Asia...perhaps someone can look it up and give further details.

[dirtydog]

I'm making compost at the moment, I put water lettuce in my pond, eventually it covered it so we dragged it out and piled it, it seems to breaking down pretty good, really should make some storage areas for it rather than great big piles as it probably wastes loads of it.