Tamarind: Sweet or Sour?

[Matt B]

I want to grow some useful bonsai, and since my wife and I like tamarind, I thought it would make a good, if slightly large long term project. The thing is that I can't find enough info on Google to make a good purchase. We want sweet tamarind, and articles that are available have conflicting information on if sweet tamarind is a separate culture from the sour variety, or the same fruit harvested at a later stage of ripeness.

Additionally, there is conflicting information on how long a tree will take to produce fruit from seed. Some sources claim 3 to 6 years and others claim 10 years or more. This causes me to wonder where to source the tree. If it's grown from seed, it's probably less than 2 years old, so that leaves mature trees or air layered trees. I'd like to not pay a mint for a cultured bonsai specimen, and I dont mind working from raw material, but I'd like to find a tree that will be capable of fruiting within a few years.

Any suggestions on species or tree sourcing would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Matt B]

Echo! (echo, echo, echo)

 

[Potawatomi13]

David Kutchin (or Kutchen) in Ocala,FL area works at Tamarind nursery do not know name of it and likely can tell all needed to know about these. He did "Air Layering Primer" on Mirai Live using Tamarind.. Should try to contact for much knowledge on growing.

 

[TimIAm]

Not tamarind, but a suggestion... Mulberry are really easy to air layer, even large layers and because they grow so fast, if you do a large layer the tree can replace it within a season or two. I took a layer off, as big as my arm, this year during Autumn (Fall) (in the southern hemisphere) and it already put out some fruit this Spring.

From seed you can get a large tree from seed, ground grown, in about 5 years.

If you can't get seed or convince someone to let you do a layer, then a small tree is still quite cheap and will grow fast in the ground and they back bud quite well.

There are a few attempts to grow the as bonsai if you search on here.

 

[Cajunrider]

I want to grow some useful bonsai, and since my wife and I like tamarind, I thought it would make a good, if slightly large long term project. The thing is that I can't find enough info on Google to make a good purchase. We want sweet tamarind, and articles that are available have conflicting information on if sweet tamarind is a separate culture from the sour variety, or the same fruit harvested at a later stage of ripeness.

Additionally, there is conflicting information on how long a tree will take to produce fruit from seed. Some sources claim 3 to 6 years and others claim 10 years or more. This causes me to wonder where to source the tree. If it's grown from seed, it's probably less than 2 years old, so that leaves mature trees or air layered trees. I'd like to not pay a mint for a cultured bonsai specimen, and I dont mind working from raw material, but I'd like to find a tree that will be capable of fruiting within a few years.

Any suggestions on species or tree sourcing would be greatly appreciated!

My tamarinds are 3 years old now and still no fruit. Mine are the sweet variety. Sweet tamarinds are better for bonsai than sour I think. Generally, the sweet variety has smaller fruits than the sour variety because over the years the sour variety has been selected by people in Asia for larger fruits. Grown in pots, tamarinds usually fruit in 5 year. However, I believe it will take far longer in zones colder than 10. I don't expect mine to fruit any time soon.

 

[Matt B]

Not tamarind, but a suggestion... Mulberry are really easy to air layer, even large layers and because they grow so fast, if you do a large layer the tree can replace it within a season or two. I took a layer off, as big as my arm, this year during Autumn (Fall) (in the southern hemisphere) and it already put out some fruit this Spring.

From seed you can get a large tree from seed, ground grown, in about 5 years.

If you can't get seed or convince someone to let you do a layer, then a small tree is still quite cheap and will grow fast in the ground and they back bud quite well.

There are a few attempts to grow the as bonsai if you search on here.

I was stuck on tamarind. My fiance uses it to make fuchka, which is a delicious Bangladeshi street food. She complains that our lanai is like a forest for all my trees, so adding another bonsai wont be so much of an ask if the case can be made for it "earning it's keep" as it were. I wanted to start it from a mature tree so that as it is being developed, it can still be producing.

 

[Matt B]

My tamarinds are 3 years old now and still no fruit. Mine are the sweet variety. Sweet tamarinds are better for bonsai than sour I think. Generally, the sweet variety has smaller fruits than the sour variety because over the years the sour variety has been selected by people in Asia for larger fruits. Grown in pots, tamarinds usually fruit in 5 year. However, I believe it will take far longer in zones colder than 10. I don't expect mine to fruit any time soon.

So there are sweet and sour varieties. This adds another layer of complexity to my search. I want to start from a mature nursery tree, and lop the entire tree down to maybe 8 inches and start to ramify and develop it from there. The problem is that half of the nurseries don't know what a tamarind tree is, and even if they do, they certainly won't know if what they are ordering in is sweet or sour, is air layered, grafted, grown from seed or even mature unless it comes in with what appear to be turds hanging from it.

As far as the tree producing, I'm in southwest Florida, so it shouldn't be much of an ask for it to not die on me and produce usable fruit.

 

[Cajunrider]

I want to grow some useful bonsai, and since my wife and I like tamarind, I thought it would make a good, if slightly large long term project. The thing is that I can't find enough info on Google to make a good purchase. We want sweet tamarind, and articles that are available have conflicting information on if sweet tamarind is a separate culture from the sour variety, or the same fruit harvested at a later stage of ripeness.

Additionally, there is conflicting information on how long a tree will take to produce fruit from seed. Some sources claim 3 to 6 years and others claim 10 years or more. This causes me to wonder where to source the tree. If it's grown from seed, it's probably less than 2 years old, so that leaves mature trees or air layered trees. I'd like to not pay a mint for a cultured bonsai specimen, and I dont mind working from raw material, but I'd like to find a tree that will be capable of fruiting within a few years.

Any suggestions on species or tree sourcing would be greatly appreciated!

I would use sweet tamarind for bonsai. The sour ones have larger fruits.
LOL
I just realized that I gave the same answer earlier.