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Gimli

Santalum acuminatum - Desert Quandong (Native Peach)

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On our property, we have 3 Quandong trees and only 1 produced fruit this year. Unfortunately, it only produced 3 and birds got the first 2

 

Following on from my other post, this tree and its fruit is fast becoming sought after as a bush food in restaurants and markets around Australia. Makes a good jam too.

 

Some info:

https://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/interns-2002/santalum-acuminatum.html

http://www.florabank.org.au/lucid/key/species navigator/media/html/Santalum_acuminatum.htm

 

===

 

http://cropsfordrylands.com/wp-content/uploads/ACFDsample.pdf

 

"..the plants acquired insecticidal compounds from their host tree, which accumulated to some degree in the fruits. Therefore, caution should be taken not to plant Desert Quandongs near poisonous plants as toxins may be transferred"

 

This is the basis of the following experiment. I will try host it with 1x Acacia acuminata and 1x Gastrolobium spinosum (Prickly Poison). Both nitrogen fixing FABACEAE. I decided I will host use both hosts just in case a single poison pea isn't enough. Hopefully a 100L pot will suffice as I am running out of room unfortunately and I can't think of where else to do said experiment

 

The Acacia and poison pea will go in the pot tomorrow and get settled in, before I germinate and transplant quandong in around 2-3 months

 

Here is the seed:

 

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Gave this bad boy a few love taps with a hammer and wondered why it wasn't cracking

 

Today I learned Quandong nuts are a lot thicker than their brethren Sandalwood.

 

It's just a little cracked. It's still good, it's still good. 

 

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Didn't get around to starting this last month. Changed which poison pea I am using also.

 

4/1/18 - 6 month old Acacia acuminata narrow phyllode seedling went in the pot

 

14/1/18 - 2 month old Gastrolobium parviflorum went into the pot

 

Still waiting for the Quandong to germinate.

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5aad0e746f6cc_20180315_065850-Copy.thumb.jpg.5e758fccee4f35723d8a587fa3ee46fc.jpg

Freshly pollinated Quandong fruits!

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Santalum_acuminatum.thumb.jpg.692b9a796078c8c890500bf6806b8831.jpg

Our biggest specimen. It has some fruits and hopefully we can beat the birds this year...

Santalum_acuminatum.thumb.jpg.692b9a796078c8c890500bf6806b8831.jpg

Santalum_acuminatum.thumb.jpg.692b9a796078c8c890500bf6806b8831.jpg

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30 minutes ago, Gimli said:

Santalum_acuminatum.thumb.jpg.692b9a796078c8c890500bf6806b8831.jpg

Our biggest specimen. It has some fruits and hopefully we can beat the birds this year...

this is a neat looking tree, what are you hoping to achieve though?

Will the fruit have aspects of both the acacia and the pea?

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Just now, TheMooseZeus said:

this is a neat looking tree, what are you hoping to achieve though?

Will the fruit have aspects of both the acacia and the pea?

 

To get some ripe fruits before the birds get them. I want the seed for growing purposes and the husk to eat/make jam.

 

Last year I think from memory we only had 3 fruits but the birds managed to get them before I got back to pick them :)

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2 minutes ago, Gimli said:

 

To get some ripe fruits before the birds get them. I want the seed for growing purposes and the husk to eat/make jam.

 

Last year I think from memory we only had 3 fruits but the birds managed to get them before I got back to pick them :)

Oh sweet. Though in your first post you said

On 16/12/2017 at 7:53 PM, Gimli said:

caution should be taken not to plant Desert Quandongs near poisonous plants as toxins may be transferred"

Surely the poison pea applies to that!

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1 minute ago, TheMooseZeus said:

Oh sweet. Though in your first post you said

Surely the poison pea applies to that!

 

Oh, my bad. This is not the poison specimen. I should have mentioned that.

 

The poison experiment will have to be started again unfortunately.

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Just now, Gimli said:

 

Oh, my bad. This is not the poison specimen. I should have mentioned that.

 

The poison experiment will have to be started again unfortunately.

Oh i see! Thats so cool anyway! Never really heard of a fruit doing that.. How would you test it?

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The expensive way and have the kernel and husk of the fruit tested in a lab. Will be some years away though.

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1 minute ago, Gimli said:

The expensive way and have the kernel and husk of the fruit tested in a lab. Will be some years away though.

Woah, thats dedication.

I can imagine there's some value to that feature on a plant too, something medicinal

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hey gimli what birds eat your quandongs?

 

i have about 10-15 trees, about half make masses of fruit since about 3yrs old, some tastier than others (strangely i had a dream about eating quandongs last night). I have never seen a bird eat any of my quandongs, which has always surprised me since there's a decent number of bird species around (~25). i know they are eaten by emus in the wild but i don't have emus.

 

our dog ate one once, got stuck in the intestines, had to be surgically removed. when the vet pulled it out was rather perplexed about what it was.

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14 hours ago, Gimli said:

Santalum_acuminatum.thumb.jpg.692b9a796078c8c890500bf6806b8831.jpg

Our biggest specimen. It has some fruits and hopefully we can beat the birds this year...

Is it worth netting it then?

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4 hours ago, Micromegas said:

hey gimli what birds eat your quandongs?

 

i have about 10-15 trees, about half make masses of fruit since about 3yrs old, some tastier than others (strangely i had a dream about eating quandongs last night). I have never seen a bird eat any of my quandongs, which has always surprised me since there's a decent number of bird species around (~25). i know they are eaten by emus in the wild but i don't have emus.

 

our dog ate one once, got stuck in the intestines, had to be surgically removed. when the vet pulled it out was rather perplexed about what it was.

 

Not sure what sort of bird(s) is eating them, but I know we had some ripe fruits and then we didn't - nothing laying on the ground either.

 

Sorry to hear about your dog. Hope all is good now!

 

Will PM you shortly

 

1 hour ago, tarenna said:

Is it worth netting it then?

 

Not really that desperate for fruit but would be nice to make some jam etc

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the dog is a samoyed and eats everything, but has given up on quandongs apparently. every morning she goes and plucks one carob off the tree sits down and eats it, to start the day. the tree is about 80m from the house, has trained my mum to let her out so she can go and get her daily carob. she also once got bitten by a brown snake, trying to eat it, and we rescued four lizards so far this year. has eaten socks, bits of string, dead things, once she came home with a fox that was freshly killed. but she looks so innocent.

 

but anyway, i am surprised about the birds eating the fruits. or rather, i have been surprised birds don't eat my fruits, and I have all the general fruit eating culprits, parrots, cockatoos, wattlebirds.

 

i also have around 10 sandalwoods, they don't fruit as prolifically and nothing eats these either.

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Managed a single ripe fruit still on the tree and a heap in the bags I tied over the unripe fruits some weeks back

Time to sow..

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20191024_163147.thumb.jpg.ea5507167785be69ff9f2757e207fc6f.jpg

Civil site I've been on recently has a small pocket of Quandong trees of varying sizes. Harvested a few fruits to make jam and germinate

 

Had a few germinate recently after quite some time (3+ months) and can't wait to plant them out in the garden

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