HARVEST
Picking, netting and pruning
The last few weeks decide what you actually get to sell. Birds and bats can empty a tree in days, and what you do straight after picking sets up next year.
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Watch the colour, not the calendar
Fruit takes roughly 150 days from flowering. It turns from green to yellow and finally to red. Red all over, with the hairs still firm, is ready.
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Net the tree before they find it
Once the first fruits colour, cover the tree. Birds and bats work fast, and a net put up a week late is a net put up for nothing.
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Cut the bunch, do not pull it
Snip each bunch with its short stalk. Pulling tears the bark where next year’s growth comes from, and bruised fruit will not keep the three or four days you need to reach a buyer.
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Ripe fruit can wait on the tree
Rambutan holds well for up to two weeks after colouring. If the price is poor this week, leave it — you have room to choose your day.
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Prune as soon as picking ends
Take out water shoots, dead wood and branches crossing into the centre. Do it now, not in the new year — the tree needs the whole off-season to build the wood that carries the next crop.
Not sure how this applies to your land?
Ask our nursery team