This cute little plant is a grafted mangoesteen, yes, none other than the "Queen of Fruits". Strange that I should buy this little fella, but then never try, never know. I have always been fascinated by mangoesteens (love the fruit as well), so I cannot resist this attempt to cultivate one beside the house. The nursery guy said if I am lucky this plant will start fruiting within 3 to 5 years. It does not matter, but just see how this one goes. After all what is RM 13 for a lifetime experience to do what I dreamt of doing.....planting a mangoesteen tree beside the house. Hope I get lucky. Okay, let us check out the other fruit trees that I am growing.
My son loves the custard apple. The white soft flesh is sweet, but the numerous hard black seeds are an irritation. We have to spit out as we eat the fruit. The skills of taking this fruit must be acquired and developed in order to enjoy the sweet fruit. The plant smells nice too. The Cananga Odorate is somehow related to this plant. The flowers of the custard apple are much smaller in comparison. I planted two custard apple trees about a year ago from seeds obtained from a fruit a friend gave us. Both trees are already bearing their first fruits.
A papaya tree is a common sight in villages. When we were growing up, there was always a papaya tree in the backyard. So when we moved here, I was determined to create the country side atmosphere, and immediately set about planting these papayas outside of the house compound. I planted about 5 or 6 and all looked very promising until they start to flower....and one even started to fruit (left hand side). Well errr.... not many, just about 6 precious fruits, then 'gone case' ! One by one the papaya trees started to yellow and drop leaves. We checked around, some people said not enough water, no I definitely watered religiously....then some said too much water --- hardly possible given the hot weather.....! Finally with no solution to sight, I had to remove the sickly trees. I purposely dug out one plant to check the roots....but there were no rooting roots, just that the roots seemed stunted. Okay, so I am not going to be a brilliant papaya fruit cultivator.....! Growing papaya for fruits is not as easy as in the old days. Perhaps it is something to do with the species. Anyway let me not gripe and grumble .... as they say, " I will be back" ! 
Interested to hear about how naive and over enthusiastic I was for a first timer ? I was at this nursery when I saw this strange creeper with all the green fruits so lovely looking......Wow, I asked the nursery fellow what plant is that ? It looked like the 'lohan kuo fruit' (the fruit we bought from the medical hall which is all dried up and brownish-black). Yes, was the reply, so I thought I will try growing one of this creeper myself. At the nursery the creeper was allowed to wind around a pole and it did not take up too much space. I naively thought no problem, I could do it.......haha, self delusional only! Now a year and half later, what have I got ? A creeper that seems overgrown and hard to control despite me diligently removing the leaves until at one desperate time I trimmed it all bare except for a couple of strangling vines. Well, two months later it looked like it did previously. Before I trimmed it all I was successful with three. fruits.....correct, 3 only, Two dropped half way and one managed to mature for me to taste it.! Was it worth it...hellaluya! Yes, the fruit - as I discovered is the Passion fruit, sweetish, juicy....not bad, if only I can get more out of the creeper! So i give it more time, if still no results, I wowed to remove it totally, Actually the flowers are beautiful as well, but unlike my purple passion flower these is more whitish/purple and no fragrance. Unfortunately I have no photos to show here. Unlike my passion flower, this creeper despite being a fast grower does not seem to bloom much.
Last on today's blog, there is the malay gooseberry plant ( Phyllanthus distichus or in chinese - Yu -Kam). Growing this plant is my younger sister's wish list item actually. Admittedly it is a nice plant. and is known to be grown as an ornamental plant in some parts of the world. My younger sister bought the plant during one of her home visits a year ago and we planted it. When we were young, my mother had one of this tree behind the old house. We used to be very fascinated by the yellow little fruit that tasted so sour and tart. Normally my mother will pickle the fruits. Recently a strange thing happened. My younger sister works in Singapore and she was home again on leave. When she inspected the plant, she remarked, " maybe this is not the Yu-Kam, but the Too Bor Seung (Averrhoa bilimbi)" . Both trees looked similar.
Three days after she went back to Singapore, this tiny fruit appeared ! It seemed like this plant is determined to stake its identity. Normally the fruits grew along the branches, not at the tip like this one. Now everyday I checked for flowers, but there were none. The plant seems happy though, branching out and sprouting leaves.....I imagine it must be happy now that we cannot doubt its identity!
More on my fruit trees planting endeavors next blog.....!
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