Limes – “The Bartender’s Fruit”

Like lemons, limes are an acid fruit. They tend to be slightly more sensitive to cold and certainly should not be grown in frost prone areas unless some protective measures are taken. Many travellers come back from tropical climes looking to buy a green fruited lime with a strong flavour that they have found in places like Bali and Singapore.

All the limes that grow around the metropolitan area will produce a coloured skin. The West Indian Lime and the Tahitian Lime both are quite bright yellow in maturity and Rangpur is bright orange. The reason for this is that in the tropics there is sufficient cold at night time for the skin to fully colour so even when the limes are fully ripe, the skin is quite green.

Lime trees are principally used to supply sliced fruit and juice for the bar. However the bright acid juice can be used in quite a few dessert recipes as a substitute for lemons.

Lime Varieties

The West Indian Lime is a small tree with very compact dense growth. It has many small thorns and is extremely intolerant to cold conditions. The fruit remains dark green almost black until it is ready to ripen, it will eventually turn a bright yellow colour. The best time to pick the fruit is when it is a dark green but some patches of yellow are starting to come through on the skin. At this stage it is at it’s most acid. The fruit is small in size, very difficult to peel and can have either a few or many seeds depending on the cultivar. The fruit tends to drop after maturity. This is a highly acid aromatic fruit and very juicy as well. Unfortunately because of it’s climate requirements, it is not par­ticularly well suited to Perth, needing every, very warm spot and quite a deal of cold protection during the Winter. A small growing tree, it is ideal for container planting.

The Tahitian Lime is a larger tree growing about the same size as most ‘Eureka’ lemons, the fruit however is only half the size. Once again this should be harvested at the green, just turning to yellow stage. A vigorous, dense foliage tree, it has some thorns but a lot less than the West Indian Lime. The Tahitian Lime has very few to no seeds and holds quite well on the tree. It is a true acid lime in its flavour and very juicy.

Having a long cropping season which lasts some nine months it’s an ideal lime for growing around the metropolitan area where its requirement for heat is a lot less than the West Indian form. A very beautiful ornamental tree producing fragrant blossoms and very juicy bright coloured attractive fruit. Limes should not be consigned to the back yard but considered as an ornamental for planting in the front garden. While it will grow as large as a lemon, they can be contained by planting in a large tub. Limes look great around the pool side or on a sunny patio.

Rangpur is not a true lime, in fact it is more like a sour orange, a miniature one at that. The tree is medium size, spreading with slightly weeping branches. It is a vigorous extremely productive tree with slender twigs and comparatively few thorns. Very cold hardy plant Rangpur grows very well through the metropolitan area. The fruit is small to medium in size, round with a loose skin, the fruit colour is bright reddish-orange and the flesh is orange as well. It is easy to peel, has many seeds and holds for a good time on the tree making it an ornamental plant of some value. The fruit has a tender flesh and is very juicy and extremely acid. Like the other varieties, it makes a great and colourful tub plant.

For the adventurous, here is an Hawaiian recipe involving a lime marinade, which dena­tures the fish virtually cooking it in about six to eight hours.

Hawaiian Coral Fish Salad

750 grams of Snapper Fillets. Juice of three limes (or 3 lemons) 112 teaspoon salt

1 small white onion finely sliced green peppercorns, lime slices for garnishing

Remove skin and bones from fillets and slice into thin strips about 1 centimetre thick and 3 – 4 centimetres long. Place in a glass dish, add onion then cover with lime juice and sprinkle with salt.

Marinate for around 6 – 8 hours (you can leave it overnight in the fridge). This denatures the flesh turning it white as if it were cooked. Pour off lime juice and arrange fish over a fresh salad, garnish with green peppercorns and lime slices. That’s right, you don’t actually cook the fish however it is delicious I can vouch for that!

Kiwi Fruit – Chinese Gooseberry

Tasty, Tangy Kiwi Fruit

Commonly known as the Chinese Gooseberry, Kiwifruit represents the marketing triumph of New Zealand Fruit Growers.

The green flesh of the fruit is very appealing with a flavour that hints of Melon, Strawberry and Banana. When sliced thinly the fruit adds an unusual colour to deserts such as fruit salads. For me it is the ultimate garnish to one of my favourite foods – Pavlova. A versatile fruit, it can be juiced, pureed, dried, eaten fresh and – I’m led to believe – turned into possibly good wine. It also makes an interesting Jam.

As a home garden crop it has the advantages of being very productive, un­attractive to birds and fruit fly, and a quick cover for Pergolas, Garden fences or walls. The fruit stores well, helping to overcome the home garden dilemma of a ‘feast or famine.

How and Where to Grow

Kiwifruits come from vigorous, deciduous vines. As mentioned they can be grown as a cover for pergolas and fences. However, it is important to realize that the structure must be strong. A well grown vine in full foliage and fruit is too weighty for a flimsy support.

Growing Conditions

SOIL – Kiwifruit prefer a rich loam, however, sandy soil can be made into an excellent growing medium with the addition of copious quantities of organic soil addi­tives such as well matured animal manure, peat or spent mushroom compost. The proportion of organic material to sand should be equal.

Commonly known as the Chinese Gooseberry, Kiwifruit represents the marketing triumph of New Zealand Fruit Growers.

The green flesh of the fruit is very appealing with a flavour that hints of Melon, Strawberry and Banana. When sliced thinly the fruit adds an unusual colour to deserts such as fruit salads. For me it is the ultimate garnish to one of my favourite foods – Pavlova. A versatile fruit, it can be juiced, pureed, dried, eaten fresh and – I’m led to believe – turned into possibly good wine. It also makes an interesting Jam.

As a home garden crop it has the advantages of being very productive, un­attractive to birds and fruit fly, and a quick cover for Pergolas, Garden fences or walls. The fruit stores well, helping to overcome the home garden dilemma of a ‘feast or famine’.

Jakfruit

Fruits of this tropical tree are simply enormous. Usually weighing 4 – 10 kilograms particular fruits can come in at 40 kilos. By any measure that one heck of a feast. Fruits are roughly oval in shape and. arise on main trunks and large old stems. The spiney outer skin is cut away to reveal many large seeds, each surrounded by a strongly flavoured cream – yellow fleshy pocket. The aril or seed covering is the edible portion and is surrounded by inedible pith. When ripe the fruits have a distinctive smell reminiscent but nowhere as strong as the famous Durian which goes by the local name – “smells like hell tastes like heaven”. Jakfruit is a delightful treat eaten fresh ­it makes a memorable addition to curries. Unripened fruits are treated more like a vegetable in South East Asia and are boiled. The large seeds can be boiled then roasted and I’ve been told, rival roasted Chestnuts in flavour.

The Tree

A glossy foliage feature tree Jakfruit is a large specimen in its native South East Asia. I believe that our dryer conditions around Perth will limit the growth to around 5 – 10 metres in height.  Jakfruit trees have been planted in groves with spacings of 1 – 1.5 metres. This style of planting is worth looking at even for home gardens. Jakfruit are grown from seed and this always guarantees a range of flavours in the crops of different trees. A small grove of 4 or 5 trees would supply a range of flavours. Grown closely together individual trees would grow tall and thin. Jakfruit trees are tolerant of a wide range of climatic conditions and can be grown successfully in the Perth area and parts North. They do require high humidity during Summer – this can be achieved by covering the soil with a thick mulch up to 12cm (around 5 – 6 inches) deep. Heavy sprinkler irrigation through the warmer months is the other ingredient. Those folks with reticulated gardens will really see their plants shoot away, Jakfruit trees love plenty of moisture.

Feeding

Being gross feeders it is important to keep your trees growing quickly through the summer months. N.P.K. Blue fertilizer is very successful but it is a very strong feeder and needs to be applied sparingly so as to avoid fertilizer burn.

How to beat our cold wet winters

More tropical plants perish through “cold wet feet” than from frosts in Perth. Here’s a simple effective solar heating devise to protect these plants from root problems. All you need is 2 pieces of plastic film and some bricks or rocks. Mulch your trees as mentioned before then cover the soil with a sheet of black plastic film – extend this sheet to cover the area from the trunk to the outer branches. Place bricks or rocks on the sheeting to weigh it down. Then place a sheet of clear plastic film on top weighing it down around the edges. This creates a solar warmth trap, the black plastic draws the heat and the airspace between the two sheets traps the warmth near the rootzone. This solar trap also keeps the roots dry – so you will need to water your trees by hose, probably once a week. Jakfruit is botanically known as Artocarpus Heterophyllus. They are self fertile so one tree alone will fruit successfully.

Jaboticaba – The Brazilian Tree Grape

The Brazilian tree grape is a little known fruit which should prove to be a winner for Perth’s gardeners.  Known as Jaboticaba, the tree is related to the pitanga or Brazilian cherry – its botanical name is Myrciaria caulifora.  Apart from producing a sweet juicy fruit for eating fresh, a delicious highly-popular wine can be fermented from the juice.  These twin uses make Jaboticaba a highly-prized fruit in its native Brazil.

THE FRUIT

Purple-black plum-size fruits cluster directly around the trunk and main branches. Apart from their grape-like appearance, the flavour also is reminiscent of grapes, being sweet with an attractive sub acid tang.

The skin is tougher than grapes and this aids storage and handling. One to four seeds are con­tained in the white gelatinous pulp.  Rather than concentrating its crop in one brief three or four-week period,  Jaboticaba can produce five or six crops a year.

Flowering usually begins in spring and goes through to the onset of cool weather. Fruits can be harvested 20 to 30 days after flowering.  This style of fruiting is ideal for the home gardener, overcoming the “feast or famine” syndrome.  Aboticabas can be successfully frozen fresh or processed into juice or jelly.

Growing to a bushy four to six metres high, the Brazilian tree grape is a handsome compact ornamental tree. Dark green foliage and a pleasing symmetrical crown make it a worthwhile landscape specimen. While intolerant of salt water and spray, the tree can withstand light frosts down to minus 3 C.

The main factor limiting commercial exploration is the slow early growth and the fact that seedling trees take up to 10 years to bear. However, grafted trees are now available in limited quantities and these should produce their first fruits in three to five years from planting. Like many nut-bearing trees,  Jaboticaba needs to be seen as a longer-term investment, with an abundant and delicious payback. Girdling is a method of forcing a mature, but unfruitful tree into cropping.

Take a sharp knife and cut through the bark to the wood in a horizontal ring around the trunk. Then make a second cut two to three centimetres above. Don’t remove the bark between these cuts, as you could ringbark and kill the tree. Best done in late winter, this girding usually shocks the tree into flowering and then fruiting.  Jaboticaba will thrive in most soils which are well drained and don’t have a high water table.

Our sand or loam soils are both ideal if richly improved with organic materials such as Compeat, compost and mature animal manure.  Mulching is beneficial, particularly to aid growth in our hot summer months, and protection from strong winds will encourage growth and improve fruit setting.  Protection from winter cold is recommended for the first two to three years.  Jaboticaba is an ideal birthday tree. Plant it to celebrate the birth of a baby and when he or she is old enough to climb trees there will be a sweet reward halfway up the main trunk.

The Icecream Bean Tree – Inga

The genus Inga is commonly referred to as Ice Cream Bean due to the characteristic white, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth pulp surrounding each seed. Pal­atability varies from species to species. In the humid sub-tropics of northern New South Wales, Inga mor­toniana, of aU the species tried, is both the best adapt­ed and tastiest. The original material on the North Coast was coUected in a highland Central American market-place.( 1).

Other species of Inga on trial (I. spec­tabalis, I. coxil. I. paterno) have all grown strongly, and all make strikingly handsome specimen trees but none have fruited well. Ingas have also been tnalled with success in Sarawak. Ma­laysia. Contral)’ to published data (2) which states that isolated Inga trees do not bear fruit because they are self­ incompatible, all the non-bearing spe­cies I have planted here have partners within pollinating distance, and the original Inga mortoniana tree was on its own when bearing huge crops. Bear­ing commenced at three years with hun­dreds of 7-20cm golden yellow pods by five years.

Nitrogen Fixing

The most outstanding feature of Inga mortoniana is the massive production of nitrogen fixing nodules. I have never witnessed such massive numbers of nodules on any other legume. Last year, digging four metres away from the nearest Inga, I found that the roots were heavily laced with nodules like strung pearls on all available root surfaces. This feature combined with the ease of growing in the nursery and establish­ment in the field make this species ex­tremely useful for soil rejuvenation. With that aim in mind, I planted over 400 trees in a paddock which I have in­terplanted with a range of other species. This, their fourth year, found me for the first time going at them with the chain­saw lopping branches and letting them lie as trash as I try to recreate the forest floor in as short a time as my low maintenance program will allow.

Intriguingly, seeds are polyembryon­ic, which is weird and unexpected in a pioneer species where one would ex­pect the opposite. To whit: great varia­tion in the gene pool to maximise adap­tation to various sites. With excellent coppicing ability, these trees can be continually cut back. If at any time the trees need to be removed, chainsawing at ground level and repeated slashing will kill them as their underground parts rot to the total restoration of soil health. Trees are readily propagated by directly sowing seed into 150 mm pots and they are ready for field planting in a year. All my trees have been estab­lished from 150 mm pots.

Pests

Inga mortoniana is the only species to ever have mites in the field here, but this was only on a couple of trees; it went untreated and disappeared. The biggest pest problem is a seed borer that can damage up to 90% of the pods, ren­dering them unsuitable for sale but not for consumption as only part of the pod is riddled.

Adaptability and Value

This species has proven adaptable to all sites from constantly moist to dl)’, heavy soils to light soils, and is hardy to at least -3C. I even planted 60 trees 400 mm apart on good quality basalt soil. After three years trees were an effective windbreak four metres high and fruit­ing! The new growth is an attractive reddish-bronze and the white flowers pretty. All Inga species have amazingly shaped pinnate leaves. Traditionally some Inga species (I. vera) have been used as shade and support trees (coffee, vanilla, pepper) in plantations. Most In­gas have valuable timber properties; judging by the density of Inga mortoni­ana wood at such an early age, this is a particularly valuable species. The only limitation is strong tendency to branch. Ingas are also good fodder and street trees.

This species is naturalising and over time could prove to be competitive with Australian pioneers such as Acacia melanoxylon. Even with that possibility, this is an outstanding multi-purpose tree.

Grumichama – Eugenia dombeyi

Grumichama is another member of the myrtle family from South America that includes the pitanga, jaboticaba and feijoa. Other mem­bers of this adaptable family closer to home include the eucalyptus and the lilly pilly.

Botanically known as Eugenia dombeyi, the grumichama is a highly-ornamental small tree with a delicious purple-black fruit.  It is widely recommended for many subtropical areas because it is easy to grow and produces abundant quantities of good fruit.

Crimson to purple-black fruits appear four weeks after the pretty white flowers. About the diameter of a dollar coin, the fruits have a thin skin and white melting flesh.  The pleasant flavour makes grumichama worth eating fresh off the tree. It also can be stewed and used for jam, jelly and in fruit cakes.

Like the jaboticaba (tree grape), grumichama is a slow-growing compact small tree. A mature height of four to five metres can be expected. It makes an excellent hedge plant and is worth considering for tub planting.

Its big, handsome leathery leaves are dark glossy-green. New foliage has a purple-red colour which adds an attractive highlight in the early summer months.

Most Eugenias are fairly cold hardy. When the grumichama is mature it can withstand temperatures down to minus 2C. I have seen young plants in pots breeze through this winter under shadecloth with no apparent distress.

This robustness in the face of one of our most severe winters gives me con­fidence that grumichama will prove to be a very successful introduction to Perth gardens.

While our sandy soils are very free draining, they need substantial bolster­ing with organic materials to provide a successful springboard for growth. I recommend two parts organic material such as Compeat, Groganic or mature cow or chicken manure to one part original soil.

During summer, grumichama appreciates ample watering and a humid atmosphere. Increased humidity can be achieved by heavy mulching and by positioning sprinklers either in the canopy of foliage or above the tree.This sort of extra care may sound a “bit much”, but I would recommend no less for a lemon tree in order to achieve good results.  Like a lemon, your grumichama will perform under a lesser regime, but will fall short of achieving it’s potential.

Under favourable conditions you can look forward to enjoying grumichama coffee cake or grumichama liqueur in about three years from planting.  Long before you enjoy the fruit, however, you are sure to appreciate the good looks of this charmer from Brazil.

Gotu Kola – “The Miracle Plant”

Former arthritis sufferers are claiming that this common garden plant has taken all their painfful symptoms away.

The herb, Gotu Kola, also known as swamp pennywort, and Indian ginseng, grows in swampy areas from North Queensland to South Western Australia.

Gotu Kola belongs to the botanical family Umbelliferae which also includes Carrots, Parsley ~ Celery, Fennel and Angelica.

The plant has very minute flowers on a 1cm stalk. The fruits of Gotu Kola are flattened discs, 3mm in diameter and occur in upright groups of three “looking like toast in a rack”. It is the leaves however which are the most beneficial.

There are two species which exist in Australia, Centella Asiatica, also called Hydrocotyle Asiatica, and Centella Cordifolia.

Centella Cordifolia has a circular, heart shaped leaf which is toothed around the edge. Centella Asiatica has a more kidney shaped leaf. The leaf sizes can vary from 1cm to 7cm, in more favourable areas. Both the Cordifolia and Asiatica are very similar in their appearance, growing habit, and medicinal value !!

Growing Needs

Preferring a semi-shade position in moist, fertile soil, Gotu Kola can be grown successfully in garden beds, tubs and patio hanging baskets.

In order to be able to harvest two leaves a day, it will be necessary to allow at least a month for the plant to establish itself.

To ensure a bountiful supply, a weekly feed with a liquid fertilizer such as phostrogen, is recommended. Snails are found to have a passion for Gotu Kola so it will be necessary to apply snail pellets, or to generously spread· sawdust around the plant.

Using Gotu Kola

The recommended dosage is two leaves a day, these can be eaten whole or added to stirfry dishes, rice and salads. An infusion of the leaf can be beneficial as a wash on burns and wounds.

Consumers have claimed that within three months of eating two leaves a day, arthritis has been cured.

It is not advisable for people suffering from cardiovascular disorders, peptide ulcers or hypertension to take Gotu Kola, nor is it advisable for anyone to exceed more than two leaves a day, as severe headaches and dizziness will result.

Biochemical analysis has found its active constituents to include asiaticoside, thunkinside, madecassic acid, and brahmoside.

It has been found to have anti-bacterial activity; anti-fungal; anit-amaebic; anti-ulcer effects on gastric and duodenal ulcers; anti-inflammatory effects externally; mild sedative effects; and anti-spasmodic effects.

Beneficial effects have been found in the treatment of wounds, burns and ulcers, using an infusion of Gotu Kola leaves, Results of this treatment have been accelerated tissue regeneration and reduced scarring.

Gotu Kola has been used medically in Asia for thousands of years for fever; rheumatism; gastric complaints; leprosy; ageing; nervous breakdown; depression; and longevity.

Is it any wonder it’s called “the elixir of life” in eastern countries.

Nov 10 test 3 by “RC”, checking out the RSS to Email set up

Nov 10 test 3 by “RC”, checking out the RSS to Email set up

Nov 10 test 2 by “RC”, checking out the RSS to Email set up

Nov 10 test 2 by “RC”, checking out the RSS to Email set up

Nov 10 test 1 by “RC”, checking out the RSS to Email set up

Nov 10 test 1 by “RC”, checking out the RSS to Email set up

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