I think Bina was right over in the Thai Language Forum, we should open one for farming, animal husbandry etc (no sick jokes guys, you know what I mean).

I've got a fruit question, no, not ladyboys, Grapefruit! Anyone ever seen it in Thailand? Or trees growing for that matter? Pomelo's are ok but a bit too dry for my tastes. My husband and I are growing avocadoes (first fruits were delicious ), trees that we drove up to Tak to buy. I would be interested in growing other "exotics": macadamia nuts, grapefruit. I already have a couple of Ponderosa Lemon trees growing. I would love to diversify our orchard.

How long from buying trees to fruiting?

How much do they cost?

Would quite fancy some fresh avicados growing in my garden

Thanks

See George!

Loong, we bought them from orchards outside the Govt research center in Mae Sot, presumably trees would also be available in chiang Mai. Can't remember how much they cost but it wasn't outrageous.

We had problems getting our trees to flower and fruit--father in law kept spraying herbicides on the elephant grass growing in the orchard, thus inhibiting flowering-- once he finally stopped we got flowers and fruit the next year. Normally it takes about 4-5 years if you have grafted trees (don't grow from seed, they won't come true and usually take forever to flower and fruit). Ours flowered in Feb, we harvested a few weeks ago.

They like fairly dry soil that drains quickly (don't plant them in boggy areas) and don't like windy spots. Ours are well inland and (other than the herbicide issue ) have done really well.

Thanks for that info

Don't spose you know anything about obtaininng decent apple trees do you?

Ps I,m not interested in farming, just the idea of growing a variety of fruit for personal consumption

Loong, apple trees have a chilling requirement in order to flower and fruit, I don't think even the north of thailand has enough cold days for apples. Guess that's why all the apples you buy here are soft and mushy, too long in transportation

Okay , thanks

On the subject of fruit & veg.

Has anyone had any success in growing potatoes in the hotter climate ?

I bought some small spuds over from the UK and have managed to get them to grow (well the plant anyway.) Planted them in a barrel about 5 weeks ago and now the plant is about 30 cm - 1 ft high. Dont know if they will make any tuba's because of the heat. Will be interesting to see if they flower, NO FLOWERS NO SPUDS.

Anyone got any ideas where to buy a SOIL TESTER in BKK want to test PH level of ground in a village in Korat ?

Paw-boon-than

Below is link for mail order soil tester in Thailand

Other gardening goods available also, but fairly pricey.

Are there enough people interested in gardening for a deducated forum, do you think???

http://www.afmgroup.com/details.asp?prodid...33&path=210,133

What do you think Loong? Should we do a poll? I was being kind of tongue in cheek since most people on this forum seem to talk about bars and such. However if there were fellow interested gardeners/farmers out there, well, that would definitely be of more interest to me than BGs in soi nana

I'm fairly new to the forum, so not yet sure how everything works.

You've obviously been a member for much longer, done a lot more postings and so have an idea how things work.

I've not really looked at the polls as the subjects don't seem interesting to me.

Maybe a poll would be a good idea.

One thing I especially like about Thailand is the climate that allows a long growing season compared to the UK. Many people may consider it boring, but it gives me a lot of pleasure to cultivate and watch things grow.

I began work in my garden in the north last year and am really looking forward to getting back to it in the next few months

I'd be interested in that, if you look in the issan forum, theres a thread "farming in Northeast Thailand,

Farming in Norhteast Thailand

11 pages, 168 replies, and 5839 views. There is a lot of intrest, in this topic, but because they are not the popular posts they sometimes get swamped out .

Cheers RC