My 1st Che fruit plant that I purchased from Edible Landscape has been growing great but it's not branching the way I would like it to. It's kinda long and floppy with not very much branching. Edible landscape claims that their trees are self fertile but we shall see.Che Fruit
2015 (The che is on the far left)
This is an expensive and rare fruit tree and very hard to find at any local nurseries so I'd like to have as many clones of it as possible. So instead of pruning it to promote side branching I did an air layer and once it roots take a couple of more cuttings to root. They are related to Figs so maybe they will have the same easy rooting characteristics.
Here's what it looks like today. A long 6 ft whip with one branch at the bottom. Not too sexy in my opinion. I did not want to prune it last year because I wanted it to get established. This year is a different story.
Scraped the bark to give it place for roots to grow from
Slipped over a sandwich bag that has the bottom cut out of it and zipped tied the bottom
I used the same medium I use to root my figs with, Coco coir, HP promix and perlite. Pre moistened
Hopefully in 4-6 weeks the roots will begin to show.
Che Update: 5/9/16 Tiny little fruits are growing. I hear they drop their first season. So I'm not holding my breath
Unripened Che fruit
I was looking for an article to confirm whether or not Che could be air-layered, and I ran into your Blog. I too planted a couple of Che last year from Edible Landscaping, and wanted to air layer their top halves(hence my search) I guess I'll just have to give it a try and see what happens, as you have.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I think having a male Che near your self-fertile kind will cause it to have seeds.
We will see if this works. It should since they are related to mulberrits, which root pretty easily. Ive read mixed reports about it actually being self fertile. The male is there for insurance. I'd rather take mature fruit with seeds over years of it dropping it's fruit due to lack of a male pollinators.
DeleteI'd love to hear about your fruit tree when it ripens.
We will see if this works. It should since they are related to mulberrits, which root pretty easily. Ive read mixed reports about it actually being self fertile. The male is there for insurance. I'd rather take mature fruit with seeds over years of it dropping it's fruit due to lack of a male pollinators.
DeleteI'd love to hear about your fruit tree when it ripens.
A late response. I bought a Che from Edible Lanscaping more than 15 years ago and never have seen a ripe fruit. They all fall to the ground still green.
ReplyDelete