JungleBiker

Contact these people in Italy: http://www.nobili.com/en/contatti.php I am pretty sure they have a distributor in Thailand because I saw their machines in a brochure I picked up at the ag show in Bangkok in March (sorry, I can't find the brochure now).  

Thanks for the replies everyone. Farmerjo's idea to use an old logging truck could be the way to go. There are a lot more of those around where I am versus front loaders, etc. And since there is not much logging now, they should not cost too much to hire. 

On 03/11/2017 at 5:25 PM, tifino said:

there seems to be a few Thai-related hits on Yippy and Google:

 

ie:

https://www.yanmar.com/en_th/agri/cultivator/tractor/efseries/spec_index.html

Thanks. I saw hydrostatic steering mentioned but not hydrostatic transmission. 

Thanks guys for your replies. 

The machine I am considering is this one: http://www.frontierindustrial.net/mighty-mike-windrow-turner.php  

Windrow width and height 80 inches x 40 inches. That's roughly 2m x 1m. 

In my first post, I pasted the statement made by the supplier and the bolding was by him not me. Either a creeper gear or hydrostatic transmission. I assume the slow speed relates to the size of the windrow. A small machine/tractor (slowly) turning a lot of material? 

Better to forget about the temperature and simply don't drink. Ever. 

"People who take in just one drink a day are at increased risk for heart disease (American College of Cardiology. December 5, 2016)".  http://www.drmirkin.com/heart/alcohol-an-heart-attacks.html

Have you ever heard of Google? The CEO did his first degree in India... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/07/google-boss-sundar-pichai-tax-gender-equality-data-protection-jemima-kiss 

He looks overweight. If he's unable to take care of himself, how can he take care of the foreign affairs of a whole country? 

Does anyone know if the Yanmar tractors sold in Thailand have a hydrostatic transmission?  I'm interested to buy a compost turner. A small one that only requires 23 hp at the PTO. The supplier said:

"Your tractor must be capable of 14 feet per minute (or less) forward creep speed at 540 PTO engine RPM. Speeds this slow are only possible with creeper gear or a hydrostatic (infinitely variable speed) transmissions. A conventional (standard) tractor transmission will not go slow enough to correctly operate any tow behind compost turner."

Thanks,

JB. 

Does anyone here have a front end loader and on what size tractor? 

Do you know how many kilograms it can lift? 

I am asking because I may buy some gypsum in large bags weighing 1,000kg so I need to lift them off the delivery truck and load into a spreader. 

I know I will need an attachment on the front of the loader to get the extra height but I want to check first how much weight a front end loader (of the kind available in Thailand) can lift.

A fork lift would do the job if there was a concrete pad to work on but there isn't. And I'd have to find a fork lift. 

(I'm currently in Laos not Thailand)

Thanks.

JB. 

9 minutes ago, gamini said:

How do you come to the conclusion that Brit motor cyclists are some of the worlds best. 

2

He didn't conclude that. He said "some of the top motorcyclists in the world hail from the UK". Different meaning. He's talking about riders like the late Joey Dunlop, his nephew Michael Dunlop, Guy Martin, the late Mike Hailwood, the late Barry Sheene, Mick Grant, Ron Haslam, and many others that I don't know because I prefer bikes without engines!  

3 hours ago, burgdawg said:

Brits take their motor vehicle skills very seriously.

 

Thank you for the compliment sir. 

On 02/10/2017 at 10:58 AM, laochef said:

Anyone know of a good hydro- and aquaponics shop in Chiang Mai ? Both for equipment, organic liquid nutrients and seeds...

2

Perhaps these Dutch guys in CM can help you... http://datt.asia 

Thai's pronounce gypsum with a "y".... yipsum.

And they know you can make ceilings with it.

So they may wonder why you want to cover your soil with yipsum!  

On 24/10/2017 at 7:20 PM, cobbler said:

Well im surprised . Are your avocados special breed? Because there are hundreds of grafted stock on the highway beyween petchaburn and pitsunalog. In the mountain areas ,where they grow many of them. They are still roughly 30 bart per plant which is what we paid about 4 years ago when we were looking for plants. So we bought 100 seedlings. Which are now producing avocados. 100 x 30 bart = 3000 .
I must be not understanding your post somehow. For 600 bart we paid for 20 grafted seedlings.
Cheers cobbler

Sent from my SM-T815Y using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Do you know what varieties of avocado you have?

Are you sure they're grafted and not un-grafted seedlings?

Plants grafted with established named varieties will be worth more than ungrafted seedlings or seedlings grafted with varieties without any "track record". 

24 minutes ago, Formaleins said:

send it by DHL and you are asking for trouble, you will probably get your package but it will probably cost you twice the value of the goods.

 I agree. They not only add import duty and VAT (which is fair enough) but also add all sorts of extra charges like service fees, storage, this, that and the other, etc. I think it's a rip off, if not a scam. And the service isn't particularly quick, especially if you have to waste time sending them photocopies of your passport, explain how the product is used, etc. Best avoided.

For more than 2 decades I never had a problem, but this year 1 out of 2 packages never arrived. Seems like the service has deteriorated, probably for the reasons given above - i.e. theft by postal workers. 

I think it didn't work. I'm unable to upload any kind of file. Don't know why. 

I'm struggling to attach some photos of grafting avocados without wrapping the scion wood with plastic, just the union (joint). Not sure if this pdf file containing 3 photos will work. 

Avo pics.pdf

On 11/10/2017 at 10:07 AM, DumbFalang said:

 

Normally I would say "no surprise there then", but actually I am a bit surprised at this and I'm glad you made us all aware of the situation.

 

Here's my situation. I have grown hundreds of rootstocks from various varieties and not made a note of which variety each one is because my understanding was that it didn't really matter and the variety of the scion is what is more important. Please feel free to correct me here if I got this wrong ;-)

 

My plan was to graft all of these trees myself but unfortunately my skills with a grafting knife (and miracle grafting tool from the internet) seem to be a little lacking. Perhaps it was because I was grafting at the wrong time of year.... I don't know, but I'm going to have another go at the right time of year. As a backup, "she who knows all" has put the word around and a local Avocado farmer will be supplying us with grafted trees in Feb/March.

 

Now, back to 'authenticity' of the varieties, here's the story: Me and the missus helped a young hill tribe family by providing them with a small house and 1.6 rai of land in the village so they could put their girls in school. We found out they had an Avocado farm and went to investigate. She told us that 20+ years ago the Royal Project provided her Dad with various varieties of Avocado trees that they had brought in from overseas. They asked him to grow them so they could test the fruit and see which varieties performed best. This being Thailand, everything fell apart after that. Some trees were chopped down but others thrived and the result is that they are left with Peterson, Buccaneer, "Haas" and another one that they call Green Emerald - which is probably just a name they made up.

 

Can I provide a certificate that proves the Haas is an original?....... Nope. What are the odds on it being original?.... your guess is as good as mine but after what JungleBiker has just shared with us, it's value has certainly gone up a little in my estimation.

 

Gotta Love Thailand ;-)

Thanks for sharing that background DF. 

I'm pretty sure that the Royal Project would have brought in genuine Hass, etc. And based on your story about that particular orchard I would guess there is a good chance that those Hass are the real McCoy. 

I would like to help you get them DNA tested but the Spanish people who tested the plants for me did it as a favour for the avocado people I'm working with. I know they had a lot of hassle and paid a significant amount of money clearing the leaf samples through Spanish customs, not to mention their own lab costs. So I would not want to impose on them again. If you want, I could give you the contact and then perhaps you could enquire and ask how much would their service cost?   

Going back to the "fake Hass", I guess that after the Royal Project, and perhaps other projects, imported real Hass, there were people who took seeds from those trees and propagated them without grafting to produce what they call "Hass". People may also have saved seed from imported Hass fruits and grown them to produce "fake Hass" or "Thai Hass".

Regarding grafting, I have not yet tried it myself, so you are ahead of me, but my understanding is that there is not a right time of the year but there is a right kind of scion wood - you have to catch it as the leaf buds start to swell and nearly burst but not yet burst open. You have to trim off the leaves to leave short stubs of petiole that will soon drop off after grafting. 

Then there is the skill of making clean cuts and getting the cambiums to match. And then preventing the scion from dehydrating after grafting. You can see on youtube that some people put a zip lock plastic bag over the top. Alternatively, you could place your newly grafted seedlings under a polythene tent/tunnel with high humidity. You'd need some level of shade to prevent the scions cooking in the sun inside their little "greenhouses". This is where time of the year may be a factor - cooler or more humid times of the year may be more favorable but if you can create the right conditions using plastic and shade then time of the year should not matter.

Yes you are right that you can take any avocado seedling rootstock and if it is grafted with genuine Hass it will produce genuine Hass fruit. Though you do have to make sure that the rootstock does not produce new shoots that could take over and replace the scion.  

On 11/10/2017 at 11:56 AM, DumbFalang said:

You can use the toothpick and water method but in LA I think it may be warm enough to do what we do here in Thailand and just dip the seed into coconut fiber or even soil.

Just to add a couple of points: 

As DF as shown, you don't bury the seed but plant it with about a third to half of the seed exposed above the soil/substrate.

A seed has a "top" and a "bottom". The top is usually a bit pointy and the bottom is flattish or has a shallow depression. So plant the bottom facing downwards and the top facing upwards, rather than plant it on its side or upside down.

The seeds can be planted close together in the seedbed (e.g. in a trough as shown above) and then after germination, when a sprout is showing, it should be transplanted into its own pot/bag. This gives you a chance to reject any abnormal weak seedlings.

It is best not to try to keep everything that germinates but only select/keep the healthy vigorous seedlings. Throw the inferior ones away.

There are various seed treatments that can be done before sowing (cutting, peeling, hot water, fungicide, etc) - it's all on the web. Not necessary but may help.

When transplanting, I don't know what size bags they use in Thailand but the ones I saw from Vietnam were on the small side and I guess the same is the case for Thailand because it means lower costs (less plastic and substrate, easier to handle, more plants in a truck, etc).

A tall/deep bag holding 7 - 8 litres is recommended to produce strong plants that will establish well after planting. 

The avocado people I am collaborating with recommend a coir (cocopeat) substrate comprising 75% of the regular cocopeat powder-like stuff, and 25% of the coco chips (chopped husk). But it should be washed of salts and buffered with calcium nitrate and then you have to feed with liquid fertilisers. Similar to hydroponics (DF is already doing something like this with his strawberries!).

Alternatively, I think you could make a nice substrate using a mix of coco chips, cocopeat, rotted manure, carbonized rice husks, etc. Around here we have lots of coffee pulp that can be composted and mixed into the potting mix. It's important that the substrate should be airy and not be susceptible to becoming soggy/water-logged. Avocado roots will suffer phytophthora disease if they get too wet. "Phytophthora" comes from the Greek words meaning "plant destructor"!

On 11/10/2017 at 7:35 PM, Thian said:

I had real hass from Spain but it wasn't happy here grafted on my large avocadotree in BKK. I have a few other varieties which are not happy as well. Maybe it was the rootstock i grafted it on but i'm getting tired of growing avocado in BKK, if i don't get flowers this winter i'll cull the whole multigrafted tree.

 

But it is possible to ship scionwood for 10 days and graft it in Thailand...that's what i did with the hass.

 

Also now there are many avocado's for sale in BKK, i bought 4 small ones for 100 baht together at the Royal farms shop which are hass but they are not as good as hass from New Zealand which cost 55 baht in the MAkro and larger.

 

And the very large avocado's sold everywhere are rarely edible, picked too early or overripe...i stopped buying them at all, too frustrating to make sushi, have all ingredients ready to roll and then the avocado is not usable.

Those large ones are good for guacamole but not as fatty as hass.

 

So it's time  for a good farm with their own stickers on the avocadofruit and nobody allowed to copy that sticker.

 

I still have several varieties here, also imported ones but can't be bothered to grow them actually. BKK is too hot i guess and that's what all thai told me already years ago. 

 

 

It depends on latitude (how far north or south, from the equator) but, generally speaking, Hass prefers to be above 1,000 metres above sea level. So (real) Hass would not be happy in Bangkok.

The big avocados you mention will probably be varieties or seedlings of the more tropically-adapted West Indian race that will grow and give fruit at lower altitudes but have lower oil/fat content. That's why they are generally considered to be less tasty than Hass (which dominates about 95% or more of the international trade in avocado). Hass comes from the Guatemalan/Mexican races that prefer cooler conditions.

If you grow seeds taken from Hass fruits, without grafting, you will likely produce some trees that eventually bear fruits that look like Hass (having similar shape and size, with a dark purple pebbly skin when ripe) BUT they will not be genuine Hass. They will have different DNA and likely differ in several ways (such as flavor, oil content, texture, flesh colour, etc). 

I suspect that some of the "Hass" going around Thailand are something that came from a Hass seed and look like Hass but are not Hass, due to having different DNA. It has not been clonally propagated (by grafting scion wood) from a genuine Hass tree.

(Thian, I think you already know all of the above but I'm writing this for the others who may now know).  

Most cities have a large fruit and veg wholesale market.  

I would imagine 50kg of limes per week would be a "drop in the bucket" for one of these markets.

I don't know the markets in Surin and Srisaket but one large market I know in Ubon (Warin?) is located as per attached .kmz file.

Market Ubon.kmz

FYI, this year I took leaf samples from 2 lots of "Hass" trees here in Laos. One lot had been imported from Vietnam. The other had been imported from Thailand by a Thai agricultural company. The latter company told me the trees came from the Royal Project in Chiang Mai (but I cannot verify if that claim is true or not). 

I sent the leaf samples to a scientific institute in Spain for DNA testing. The institute was recommended to me by a leading global avocado company. 

The Hass from Vietnam were genuine Hass. 

The "Hass" from Thailand were not Hass. 

I am not saying that the Hass trees that Dumb Falang is offering are not Hass because I have not taken samples from those trees for DNA testing. 

I am only saying that there seem to be some trees going around Thailand that are being sold as Hass but are not Hass. 

2 minutes ago, dcnx said:

But then the police can't extort them.

Is that what they call an oxymoron? 

Regarding conscription, I doubt the Thai forces would want you if you can't understand the orders being shouted at you. 

Being fluent in English (native speaker) and not needing a work permit, I think there would be quite a few interesting job openings for you here working for companies that need your language ability (tourism, export, etc).

(You don't need to know Thai to teach English. You just need to know how to teach English.)