I know quite a few folks that ordered many and lost them. In fact on TFF they’re all over the country. Some think it may be something like a bacteria in our soil that could be killing many of them off. Something they’re not exposed to over there. No clue but I’ve heard a few different people mention that. @Gkight sorry about your tree! I think mine may have succumbed to overwatering and being in direct sunlight with our crazy temp swings here this year.
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I think our PNW mild climate is good for growing young plants. Which is why there are so many growers in Oregon and WA.
Not the best climate for heavy fruit production though.
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Yeah I tend to agree it’s some bacteria or something also. If I try again it will be grafting on wax Myrtle which grows all over my adjacent property.
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I have a lot of rootstock ready to go. My trouble is finding scion wood. You can occasionally find male scion wood, but you basically have to know somebody to get any female scion wood in the US… well not including seedlings. I managed to snag some Eve scion wood from Marta during her spring sale but that’s it. The rest of the stuff I had to get from China and I think a good percentage of that was in bad shape when I received it. I got about a dozen trees and used some of the wood for grafting. You could tell when cutting into the scion wood that some of it was good, and some of it was not. I’d say about half of the trees had scion wood that that I had doubts about from the beginning.
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They are becoming quite common in the US.
I predict they will be in the nursery trade within 5 years. Collectors already have all the rare varieties.
No need to worry about availability.
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Looks good! Supposedly this is also Prince Anhai
I was expecting serrated leaves like you are showing but as you can see they don’t look serrated. The Chinese Yangmei book says some leaves are toothed and some are toothless, so maybe that’s not a conclusive differentiator.
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Yeah hopefully there is more availability in the future. I’ll just have to be patient.
I was under the impression the jagged leaves smooth over with age. Very nice tree!
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Thanks. It’s actually the furthest along of all my new yangmei. Yeah I looked through the FB group photos and many of the “Prince Anhai” posts showed smooth-ish leaves, so I still have some hope it is correct.
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That’s a lot of growth already.
Our climate is a lot cooler so obviously much less growth. But all I’m looking for this season is survival and establishment.
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This one is further along than the others. It’s been on my greenhouse which is part of the reason why it’s growing well. I did some grafts outside and a few of those (the survivors) are just starting to bud out.
I believe some of these trees from China have RKN so I don’t plan to plant them outside. I will just use them to harvest scion wood.
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Possibly RKN, but could also be root nodules. A search yielded this. I’ve seen photos purported to be RKN but they were actually root nodules.
yangmei (Myrica rubra) forms root nodules in symbiosis with actinobacteria, specifically Frankia species, not rhizobia like legumes.
These nodules are involved in nitrogen fixation, allowing yangmei to thrive in nutrient-poor, acidic soils (common in its native environment). Frankia-infected nodules appear as small, often coral-like swellings on the roots. This trait is shared across the Myricaceae family, to which yangmei belongs.
So, in cultivation, yangmei can benefit from:
- Low-nitrogen soils (it fixes its own nitrogen),
- Inoculation with Frankia strains, especially in sterilized or non-native soils.
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Btw I also researched obtaining these Frankia inoculants. They are near impossible to find in the us. So this might be another reason why these trees are so hard to establish.
Yes I believe these are Frankia nodules—they were present on the Prince Anhai:
Other trees had nodules that looked like RKN to me.
I’m using Myrica Californica as rootstock outside right now. I think those should have some naturally occurring inoculation but I’m not sure if that will carry over to the Myrica rubra if I ever start using that as rootstock. I guess I’ll cross that road when I get there.
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So those nodules are also on M Cerifera and M Californica? Funny I would have sworn my trees had RKN and when I pulled them all they seemed to all look normal roots. My last tree was dying out but I think I pulled the gun too soon it was flourishing underneath the soil roots grew like crazy.
Look like Frankia nodules. But you can cut it open to confirm. It will be translucent and jelly like if RKN. I doubt it’s RKN.
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Ok good to know. This was months ago so I will wait for them to see after they root in. Thanks.
I’m certainly no expert, but I have tried to find an inoculation source—without much success. According to my extensive research (I asked ChatGPT), many plant types have a symbiosis with Frankia; there are three main compatability groups, but it seems that even within these groups the Frankia are mostly species specific. I was hoping to use a native tree to inoculate the Myrica rootstock (alder or something)—it was just an idea
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