My Fig Tree is Fruiting

Taken 23 Sept 2015

Taken 10 Jan 2016

Sentul The Rare Fruit

If you are a Malaysian in Kuala Lumpur, certainly would know about Sentol, or Sentul. A township within KL, closely linked to the KTM (Malaysian Railways).  Many of the town folks may not know the origin of the name Sentol. It original from a local jungle fruit.

Sentul on sale the star 25 Aug 2015

This gentleman is selling sentul fruit at RM11 per Kg. Sentul is of the same family as rambai, langsat, tampoi and taban. 

Malaysian Herbal

In the older days, when the modern medicine was not available, the people relied on nature to cure themselves. This is where the herbs played their roles

If you were to go to the Herbal Botanical Garden in Shah Alam, you will be able to see some of the Odd names of the Malaysian Herbal. One of which is the Haba Neraka, directly translated as the Hell Fire.

Dalit Durian Sells in Sabah

The Dalit Durian is new to me.
I am more familiar with the peninsular variety. The wild during is not cultivated, but grow in the wild naturally. It is known as durian daun, because the fruits bear at the twigs and surrounded by the leaves. The cultivated varieties fruit on the branches.  


Looking at the price, it seem to be interesting. At rm25 per kilo, it is a money maker. The other common variety is the kampong version, selling at about rm15 to rm20 per kilo. This durian is cultivated in a smaller plots, thus the supply is lower.

from the star 6 Aug 2015

BOUNTIES OF AGAR TREES

Agar Tree or commonly known as gaharu in Malaysia, has been known for centuries as tree providing the basic ingredient for perfume. The tree grows in the wild malaysian forest and has not been planted on a commercial scale.

TheStar 26 Sept 2013

The Star newspaper carried two-page write-up on the agar tree.

A. Uses
- medicine
- tea - from the leaves
- beauty powder from the leaves.
- herbal soup formula.
- perfume - the current price of black resin is rm2000 per kg.


B. The Plantation
- 121 ha - 330 acres of plantation in Gopeng Perak.
- It took him 21 years to build up the business.

C. Managing The Trees.
The tree will be worth more if infested by fungus.A black resin is secreted as the defence mechanism.

D. Product Processing
The company set up a factory in Gopeng Perak. With its 30 staff , it is currently producing the agar leaves herbal tea, for export to China, US and Indonesia, Middle East and Canada.
- about 1000kg if leaves are harvested daily. They are used to make biscuits, soup sachets and eve instant noodles.

My Dragon Fruit

I had not been taking care of my dragon fruits plants. I was suppose to put fertilizer, the organic type once a month, at least a kilo per tree. As such, the fruits are rather small.

Today I collected 5 fruits...

Wild Flowers at Bukit Tinggi

Bukit Tinggi is a resort located about 30 minutes drive from Kuala Lumpur. The name Bulit Tinggi is the lateral translation of High Hill in English. The name is now changed to berjaya resort.

 Beautiful Violet flowers from the crawler.

special tree with the pods to trap insets and small animal. The pods produces slippery chemical that  cause the animals to slip into the pods.

coconut tree

Coconut tree

It is kind of palm that grows in abundant both in the wild at the sea side as well in in large estates. It is a traditional'must have' tree in the Malaysian Malay community.

Uses

The plant is considered as a multipurpose plan. The main uses are:

a. milk from the white meat.Use in the cooking by peoples in the tropic.

b. water in the seed can be a cooling drink.

c. The husk can be turn to rope.

d. the meat can be dried to form copra and squeezed to produce oil. Coconut oil is used for cooking.

Served cooled coconut drink - natural and refreshing

As an industry, the plantation is not known to provide a steady income. This is mainly due to the high fluctuation in price, which some time fall below the the cost.

growing bamboo tree

Growing bamboo tree is not too difficult.

In fact the tree is meant to grow naturally, and that is what happen in nature. The one of the plant gets old or felled by strong wind, the tip will touch the ground and new shoot will start to grow.

Bamboo has many uses, one of which it can be used as cooking utensil. In the early days when there was no metal pot and pan, bamboo was used to replace the utensil, and that tradition i carried on until today.

Lemang is the traditional food cooked in bamboo in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. It is cooked in bamboo on an open flame. During festive time. it is almost mandatory for the Malay to have the Lemang.

The bamboo plant

Growing bamboo tree is easier now, with the knowledges and equipments. The plant grow in abundant in the tropic. As the jungle is being chopped down, it is harder to find the bamboo to be used for the lemang.

Many had started to plant the bamboo for own usage. The commercial farming is yet to take place.

The seedlings are shown below:

The bamboo seedling can be easily propagated

There are three ways to propagate the plants:

1. from the plants cuttings

2. from the roots and tubers.

3. from the seeds.

I was using both the cuttings and the roots. The success rate for the cuttings was about 50%. For roots and tubers, the success can be a high 80%. From my personal experience, growing bamboo tree was easy.

We many not realize that there is alot of money to be made in growing bamboo commercially. It is easy to grow and the competition is not too intense.

Malaysian Rubber Trees

Those who have not seen how the natural rubber is being produced will be wondering how it is done.
It starts with the rubber three like below. About six years after planting, it can be tapped.

Tapping is the manual process of control cut of the skin of the three. It is normal to tap half of the diameter.

Malaysia was the biggest producer of natural rubber until it decided to venture to palm oil. However it remains as the most effective producer, the highest Kg per Hectare.

Rubber taping requires high labor, as each tree has to be tapped manually.

Uneven growth makes tapping difficult..

The plantation was sprayed with herbicide to get rid of scrub and small trees.

The entrant road to the rubber plantation is full over small bushes. The non-metal road gets a bit slippery during the rainy season.

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The rubber trees are ready for tapping, when it reached the age of seven.

There are basically 3 ways the planter can sell the product.

1. he can leave it in the cup until it harden by itself.

2. he can collect the latex and sell the latex as unprocessed.

3. he can collect the latex and make it into rubber sheet.

Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages.