Rambutan or fruit with the botanical name Nephelium Lappaceum L. is a tropical plant belonging to the tribe or sapindaceae , originating from the islands of Southeast Asia. The spread of rambutan was initially very limited only in the tropics. However, at this time many have been found on land that has a subtropical climate.
Rambutan ( Nephelium sp.) Is a horticultural fruit plant in the form of a tree with the Sapindacaeae family. This fruit plant in English is called Hairy Fruit which comes from Indonesia. Until now had spread out in an area that has a tropical climate such as the Philippines and country- countries of Latin America and some are on land that has a sub-tropical climate through natural spread of the use rambutan fruit seeds.
Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) is one type of fruit that contains substances needed by the human body. This plant is widely cultivated for fruit use because it has nutrients, vitamins and macro, micro mineral substances that can make the family healthy.
Rambutan can grow well in areas with heights of up to 500 meters above sea level and can grow in various types of soil. Although it is not good to grow in areas with a lot of standing water, rambutan requires areas with average rainfall throughout the year or an irrigation system that is regular.
Rambutan plants can grow and produce fruit even if left unattended. However, if you expect optimum results, rambutan plants also need maintenance even though they do not require intensive attention. Maintenance includes providing fertilizer if needed, weeding the soil around the plant, and pruning which is generally done after harvesting.
Plant Morphology
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- Root Morphology
Rambutan has a taproot system and side roots. The roots of the rambutan plants are brown and the roots of fibers that function to absorb water and minerals from the soil. In addition, the root cap is useful to protect the root from damage when it penetrates the soil.
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- The stem
Rambutan trees can generally grow to heights of up to 15m or more. Rambutan plant stems have an irregular round shape with a brown color reaching 40-60 cm in diameter. The stems of this plant have a hard and uneven texture, and include long-lived plants. Plants have quite a lot of branches with branches tend to be horizontal.
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- Leaf
Rambutan plants have intermittent compound leaves with small and long sizes and sharp edges. Green leaves are about 7-20 cm in diameter and 3-8 cm wide. Rambutan leaves contain oil, so it has flammable properties even though it is still green.
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- Flower
The flowering plant has a dimater of around 5 mm and is usually in a series that appears at the end of the branch. In addition there are also flower petals that serve to protect the flower while still in bud.
In rambutan flowers there are crowns, stamens, and pistils. Where the stamens consist of stalks, anthers, and also pollen. While pistils generally consist of ovaries, fruit stalks, and ovules.
Rambutan has three kinds of flowers, namely male flowers, female flowers, and perfect flowers (hermaphrodite). Rambutan plant pollination occurs cross-assisted by a bee (trigonoid).
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- Fruit
Rambutan fruit has a round to round shape elongated with skin filled with hair. Some have long hair and some are short. This fruit has a green skin when young and will change color to yellow, orange, until red when it is ripe.
Rambutan fruit has a length of 4-5 cm, with quite thick yellowish-white flesh and contains a lot of water. The taste of rambutan is sour until it is very sweet and quite refreshing.
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- Seed
Rambutan fruit seeds are generally ellipse shaped, wrapped in transparent white flesh. Rambutan seed skin is quite thin and woody.
Plant Classification
Kingdom | Plantea (Plants) |
Subkingdom | Tracheobionta (Vascular Plants) |
Super | Spermatophyta Division (Producing seeds) |
Division | Magnoliophyta (flowering plants) |
Class | Magnoliopsida (two pieces / dicot ) |
Sub Class | Rosidae |
Order | Sapindales |
Family | Sapindaceae |
Genus | Nephelium |
Species | Nephelium lappaceum L. |
Types of Rambutan Fruits
The types of rambutan both start from pure lines or the results of grafting or combining of two different types of lines. This grafting is usually done to get a good type of rambutan in terms of taste and production. Of the various types of rambutan that we know of, there are only a few varieties of rambutan that are in great demand and are cultivated by considering the relatively high economic value including:
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- Neat Rambutan
This type of rambutan is not too dense but the quality of the fruit is quite high, the skin is green, yellow, red uneven with a rather rare hair. The flesh is quite sweet and dry, chewy, sticky but thick flesh, with durability that can reach 6 days after being picked.
rambutan rapiah
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- Rambutan Aceh Lebak bulus
The tree is quite tall and bushy fruit that produces 160-170 bunch per tree. The rind is red yellow, smooth, with a fresh, sweet and sour taste with lots of water and glares. The shelf life of this type of rambutan is 4 days after being picked and includes a fruit that is resistant to transportation.
rambutan turtle
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- Rambutan Cimacan
The fruit is less dense with an average yield of only 90-170 bunches per tree. Has a yellowish red to dark red skin with coarse hair and is rather sparse, tastes sweet, a little runny but lacks resistance in transportation.
rambutan cimacan
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- Rambutan Binjai
It is the best type of rambutan in Indonesia because the size of the fruit is quite large, with skin that is blood red to dark red. Rambutan rambut hair is rather rough and sparse, it tastes quite sweet with a little acid, the results are not as dense as the Acehnese fleeced but the fruit flesh turns.
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- Rambutan Signal
The rambutan type is thick and has a lot of interest, especially Chinese, with a strong stem suitable for inoculation. The skin color of the fruit is dark red to burgundy, with smooth and dense hair, the taste of the fruit is sweet and sour, contains a lot of water, is soft and does not stick.
Nutrient Content in Rambutan Fruit
Based on research conducted by various institutions and health experts shows that rambutan has benefits and content that is almost the same as oranges and apples. In rambutan there are various important compounds such as vitamin C, iron, phosphorus, protein, and carbohydrates where all the above substances are needed by the body every day.
Chemical Composition of Rambutan Fruit Meat in 100 gr
Water | 80.40 grams | Ash | 0.30 gram |
Protein | 1,00 gram | Energy | 297.00 Kj |
Fat | 0.30 gram | Vitamin C | 66.70 mg |
Glucose | 0.30 gram | Thiamin | 0.01 mg |
Sucrose | 9.90 gram | Flavin Ribo | 0.07 mg |
Fructose | 3.00 grams | Niacin | 0.50 mg |
Starch | 0.00 gram | K | 140.00 mg |
Food fiber | 2.80 grams | N | 2.00 mg |
Malic Acid | 0.05 grams | Ca | 13.00 mg |
Citric Acid | 0.31 gram | Mg | 10.00 mg |
Fe: | 0.80 mg | Zn | 0.60 mg |
P. | 16.00 mg |
Cultivation
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- Growing Requirements
One of the conditions for planting rambutan is the height of the plain. Rambutan trees can only grow to the maximum if they are in the lowlands with an altitude of around 30-500 masl.
Besides the height of the land, another requirement for rambutan growth is the amount of rainfall that is obtained. The rainfall needed by rambutan is around 1500 – 2500 mm on average throughout the year.
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- Determine Land
Planting rambutan can actually be done on two media namely land media and also media pots. For land media, the thing to consider is the type of soil that will be the planting medium. The soil used as a planting medium must be fertile, loose, and contain a little sand. For the Ph, the rambutan trees grow to a maximum range of 6.5 to 7.
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- Prepare Rambutan Seedlings
To plant rambutan, there are generally two methods that can be used to obtain rambutan seeds. First, get it generatively by planting seeds. Second, obtaining rambutan seeds by vegetative means, such as grafting.
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- How to plant
For the planting media can use a mixture of soil, compost, and manure with a ratio of 1: 1: 1. And here are the things that must be considered before planting rambutan in the field:
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- Before the planting process, the land area is free from wild plants or weeds.
- Before planting make a planting hole with a size of 1.5m x 1.5m and a depth of 1.5m hole. This hole must be done 2 weeks before the seed planting process is carried out.
- If planting more than one seedling, give a spacing of about 10-14m so that the growth of the two seedlings does not interfere with each other.
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- Care
In addition to being given a basic fertilizer when planting, also provide continued fertilizer so that maximum growth. Can use manure with a TSP fertilizer mixture in a ratio of 1: 2. This fertilization is carried out after the rambutan tree is 2 years old.
Also do pruning by cutting or trimming branches or stems that are not productive and die. The function of this pruning is that the supply of nutrients from the flowing trees on branches or stems is productive so as to produce optimal fruit.
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- Harvesting
With graft techniques, rambutan will be able to start harvesting in the second or third year during the rainy season which ranges from November to February. Use a sharp cutting tool to harvest.
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- Post Harvest Care
This treatment is fertilizing which is done 3 weeks after the harvest has passed. The type of fertilizer used is NPK and Urea with a ratio of 2: 1. Also do pruning where branches or stems are not productive.