DIZON EXOTIC FRUIT TREES

Manila Bulletin, Agri Plain Talk, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2000

A lot of people getting interested in rambutan

by Zac B. Sarian

After featuring rambutan on the cover of August issue of Agriculture Magazine, a lot of people from Central Luzon as well as many other provinces all of a sudden have gotten interested in this fruit tree.

We know because a lot of readers have contacted us asking where they could buy certified grafted planting materials, especially of the Rongrein variety from Thailand. One of the new rambutan enthusiasts is Mayor Efren Alvarez of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija. Hue just bought an initial 500 grafted seedlings of Rongrein for planting in his town. Dr. Rodolfo C. Undan, president of the Central Luzon State University, who has already started planting big numbers of rambutan in the university's orchard.

At the Magallanes Weekend Market in Makati, Bernie Dizon is also selling a lot of his double rootstock Rongrein rambutan which grow much faster than those with single rootstock. His double rootstock have been proven to be highly productive. In fact, the very fruitful rambutan trees in the farm of Atty. Victor Lazatin in Tiaong, Quezon, are mostly with double rootstock.

When he mentioned in our column in Panorama magazine the forthcoming rambutan festival in Atty. Lazatin's farm, we were swamped with telephone calls telling us that they would like to attend the fruitfest. One caller is a school administrator who would like to bring two busloads of student and faculty members. They are excited to see a rambutan farm, according to her.

By the way, the rambutan festival which was originally scheduled for Sept. 19 has bee reset to October 3. This will coincide with the peak harvest from the Rongrein trees. The farm is along the highway, Km 96.4, Tiaong.