Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Giving my Calamansi an Air layering treatment...


Spring is coming round the corner, it looks like the weather is starting to warm up so I thought why not spend more time in the garden to raise new plants through vegetative propagation. I feel duty bound to learn this fascinating and interesting gardening art and one from which is possible to gain much pleasure  and a great sense of achievement if only I can successfully in propagating my calamansi plant. It has becomes the most sought after plant in my garden since I wrote about it in this blog. I have been inundated with requests from Singaporeans living in Australia for cuttings or seeds so that they too can enjoy this unique lime with their mee rabus or hokkien mee from their garden.
Success in plant propagation is often attributed to the possession of a “green thumb” - a belief which is not without some foundation. It is true that some people seem to be gifted and have little or no difficulty in propagating young plants. I have not been successful in the past few attempts and hope my renewed enthusiasm is not dampened by possible early setbacks and failure.  But there is no reason why I should not successfully propagate my calamansi plant, provided certain essentials are borne in mind. This time around, I will be trying the Chinese method of air layering with my clamansi plant which in its original form was practiced in China centuries ago. My calamansi plant has been grown in the open since I bought it from the nursery and I would be air layering it this coming spring when the sap is rising and flowing freely.  I will post the air layering and its method with drawings or photos once I get it started in the coming weeks.

5 comments:

  1. Uncle Phil: issit my turn for a cutting liao? still waiting patiently (Serene & colin)

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    1. Your name is right on top of the wait list, but hope it survive the 43 C heatwave today.

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  2. I am wondering if you are able to provide the name of a nursery in Sydney that sells the Calamansi plant. Apparently the Calamansi lime is not the same as the Calamondin. Still have no success getting the right one.

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    1. Hi Uncle Phil & Maksunni,
      I just saw calamondin on sales at BUNNINGS South Central in Cockburn, WA @$21 each. I searched high and low for calamansi for years at farmers' markets, flea marts, nurseries and even neighbours' & friends' backyards.
      Finally found calamondin, which is calamansi aka acid orange/ limau at Bunnings! We usually have it green in Singapore, before it ripens to a weirdly orange-coloured calamansi, which is featured on the photo on the plant tag that caused the initial confusion between my husband and I��.
      I love having it with mee siam, mee rebus, mee goreng, grilled sambal fish or just plain ice limau��. Heavenly! It's just not the same without limau.
      Good luck to your search!

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    2. Oops! I meant "sour orange", not "acid orange"��. Sorry about it.

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