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carambola

    33 responses

Anonymous starts with ...
i bought a star fruit (carambola) about 2 weeks ago but it is looking rather sad
the leaves will not spread out can any one help me!! i live in pooraka south australia
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Anonymous
 
1st March 2008
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Kath says...
This is how they look, the foliage droops from the branches and twigs, they have very floppy looking leaves.
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Kath
Cawongla
1st March 2008
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Anonymous says...
thank you!!! i thought my plant was dying
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Anonymous
 
1st March 2008
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Anonymous says...
do they like full sun?
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Anonymous
 
1st March 2008
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John says...
Hello Mr Anonymous, mine has been in for 3 weeks now and is doing the same except for some burnt leaves from some 40c heat the other day. In Indo they do handle just the morning sun.
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John
SB South Australia
1st March 2008
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Anonymous says...
i also have burnt leaves!!! can too much sun kill them?
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Anonymous
 
1st March 2008
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John says...
The leaves and branches will grow back. If your in SA give them a month coarse of pot ash and plent of water but watch out for wet feet, they dont like.
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John
SB South Australia
2nd March 2008
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Kath says...
I have mine growing in the full sun and it loves it.
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Kath
Cawongla
4th March 2008
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Shaun says...
How long will it take a seedling to produce fruit?
Is there any particular variety of Carambola that does better than the others in Australia?
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Shaun
WA
9th March 2008
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John says...
Hello shaun, the one thing I am quickly learning about star fruit is they need huge amounts of water daily to get them going and keep them going. unlike others these may require wet feet, and if your on sand like me. It carnt be done, with out changing some of the soil and putting some clay in the hole.
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John
SB South Australia
10th March 2008
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Scott G says...
I did a lot of searching for info about Carambola before I bought mine. There seemed to be very little information out there. On the web I eventually found a partial list of what the difference in the fruits was but nothing about how the plants differed in any other way.

With so little info I felt I couldn't make an informed decision about what would do best in my area. So I bought whatever variety I came accross. It is doing well (no doubt thanks to the very wet summer we have just had here). It produced 3 fruits within a few months of putting it in the ground!

I agree with John - they like lots of water.
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Scott G
The Gold Coast
10th March 2008
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Anonymous says...
what kind of carambola did you buy? was it a seedling? did the fruit taste good?
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Anonymous
 
10th March 2008
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Anonymous says...
will a carambola survive an adelaide winter?
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Anonymous
 
28th March 2008
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John says...
Carambola will survive if you water it daily, fed it monthly and protect it from the frosts and excesssive heat. Other wise they will grow, as will paw paws, choco fruit trees, custard apples, mangoes, pitayas, longons, lyches, white sapotes, and many more. ps heavy mulch helps
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John
SB
29th March 2008
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Anonymous says...
will shade cloth protect a carambola from heat and frost?
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Anonymous
 
30th March 2008
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Anonymous says...
hello, so you live in adelaide. The heat is over, so you need to protect it now from the frosts for the next four years. The best and cheapest thing to use for this is the heat reflectors you place on your wind screen. Place it around the plant silver facing the tree. You dont need to worry about the shade cloth untill november now, then still keeep the frost protector. Hay try growing a bisexual paw paw. they grow to about four foot and produce fruit. Mine have flowers on it now. 5 months old.
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Anonymous
 
30th March 2008
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Scott G says...
For the record here are details of my Carambola that is doing very well.

It is on a small mound in sloping heavy clay soil with a good layer of organic material near the top. And lots of mulch. This is one of the wettest parts of my garden.

It receives a little shade in various parts of the day due to the neighbours huge palm trees. I suspect it is also in one of the mildest temperature ranged parts of my garden. Temperature from about 7 to 37.

The planted is a grafted type "Fwang Tung". I am not sure what the rootstock is.

I planted it late spring and had 3 fruits by late summer. The fruits were tastey. It is not near any other Carambola to my knowledge so it is self polinating.

After 5 months in the ground (through a wet summer) it is about 1.4m tall by 1m wide. It has an open semi-weeping form and is covered with lush leaves and still retains many of the original leaves that it had when I bought it.

The soil has had a heavy application of gypsum and light applications of Dynamic Lifter and blood and bone.

I am very happy with this plant.
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Scott G
The Gold Coast
31st March 2008
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Anonymous says...
Use some pot ash for quick growth and plant repair, not much. Mine will take four years to get to where you are. Good luck.
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Anonymous
 
31st March 2008
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Anonymous says...
between what temperatures do carambola grow? what temperatures can they handle?
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Anonymous
 
1st April 2008
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Anonymous says...
are carambola kary seedlings polyembronic?
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Anonymous
 
14th June 2008
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Shaun says...
Does anyone know whether Carambola Arkin variety is self-pollinationf? .....
I read that some carambola need cross-pollination.

BTW, what is "polyembronic" ??
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Shaun
 
15th June 2008
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juanita says...
I think they don't grow or produce fruits like their parents?
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juanita
melbourne
15th June 2008
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Anonymous says...
if a seedling is polyemboric it will be the same as the parent plant
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Anonymous
 
15th June 2008
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Dekka says...
The term "Polyembryonic" means that more than one offspring derive from the same nucleus. In other words, identical twins, triplets,etc. But they are only identical or 'true-to-type' to eachother... not the parent. The whole point of sexual reproduction in organisms is to create genetic variation and so enhance the chances of survival. Any living thing that didn't vary in some way in each generation would then be in an evolutionary cul de sac.
If this wasn't the case then every Bowen mango in the world, for example, would be identical to the first Bowen ever grown and exhibit no differences whatsoever apart from environmental influences.
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Dekka
Newcastle
16th June 2008
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Anonymous says...
do they lose their leaves in winter? as mine are.
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Anonymous
 
17th June 2008
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Anonymous says...
no. they are evergreen in nature. but they should come back quick. use some aquasol and then some pot ash.
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Anonymous
 
17th June 2008
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Dekka says...
To clarify my last post about polyembryonic seed, there is a tendency for these to be true-to-type but no guarantee as one embryo in the seed is often a true sexual embryo having genetic characteristics of the parents. These are often less vigorous than the asexual seedlings but in some species the reverse is the case.
On the subject of Carambola from seed, I saw a study done by a group called Echo where they planted seven seeds from a very sweet Carambola 'Arkin' and ended up with only one sweet variety. The rest were very sour and all had undesirable fruit-shape characteristics.
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Dekka
Newcastle
18th June 2008
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Anonymous says...
are you garanteed a good sweet plant if you get a grafted plant?
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Anonymous
 
20th June 2008
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Shaun says...
I got an Arkin Carambolas from Joe @ Tass-1-tree (WA) ....
do I need to buy another variety to cross pollinate so that I get fruits ?
Has anyone got any info on this subject?
Thnx
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Shaun
WA/Perth
29th June 2008
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Yong says...
Shaun,
I'm from Perth too, had a tree bought some 5-6 years ago from a nursery, don't recall the variety. Tree growing well to about 2M high in full sun position, and flowered but we have yet to see a fruit formed. The flowers are very small, just wondering if I need to manually pollinate myself. In fact the tree flowered early June(Perth winter is mild), may be a bit cold for bees to hang around.
Appreciate anyone who may have the answers.
Thanks
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Yong
Perth/WA
7th July 2008
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Shaun says...
Thanks for your response, Yong.
Which area of Perth are you located?
If Carambola/Star-fruit plants need cross-pollination, then manual pollination may not work if you only have 1 plant or 1 variety.

My plant is still very small (approx 1m tall) and I intend to keep it planted in a pot (kind of like a 'bonsai') as I only got a very small court yard.

Hope to have comments from others who had experience with Carambola.
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Shaun
WA/Perth
3rd August 2008
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Correy says...
The varieties that daleys sell on the carambola page are self pollinating but do benefit from cross pollination.

My Kembangan Star Fruit Had one carambola in the first year without another variety that I know of.
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Correy
Woolloongabba, QLD
4th August 2008
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Tran says...
Like Yong's tree. mine is about the same age in a big pot under veranda. When the tree first arrived it had some little fruits but has been flowered ever seen. This year I don't cover up the soil and give it a bucket of water a week and it is still flowering in the cold Melbourne weather. I was told Kary type does not need polination and one book said so but I am still waiting.
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Tran
VIC
4th August 2008
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Shaun says...
My Arkin Carambola plant was doing OK, and sprouting away until this recent cold spell in July ......
now all the young shoots have turned yellow and start to drop its leaves ....
will it die from the recent wet & cold weather?
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Shaun
WA / Perth
19th August 2008
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