Ashok, My friend and I stayed together in the same dormitory at one time during college years and belonging to the same group that cook together our own meals. He is currently a full time professor now in another University. He loves the mountains and wanted to catalogue our endemic fruiting species and always excited to get reports from him. So far, aside from the endemic Nepheliums, he has shown me unique aromatic mangoes, red-fleshed durian, different red colored banana species, unique fruit nuts, and many others. And of course the problems of people encroaching into the virgin forests of Palawan and knocking the trees down for lumber or firewood, or simply for clearing to plant crops. My programmer is now helping him build the website (for free, as donation or volunteer work) for you all to see and I will post it here once itis done. Too bad, most of the pics are poor quality, simply because he is using super-outdated digital camera from lack of funds for equipments. His work is currently funded by the Japanese government and would end soon, so if you can point me to the right places to help fund worthwhile non-profit projects like this one, I'd appreciate it. Lately, we had cooler areas in the mountains than before. IIRC, our record lows was about 4 deg C (39 deg F) in the mountains, elevation of 3,000 feet and above. Big-name multi-national companies like Dole and Del Monte are beginning to grow blueberries over there, in those mountains! they beat me to it. I know that with cooler temps in the mountains, coupled with native acidic soils, and new evergreen blueberry cultivars, that truly is feasible as a crop. If I were to look for cold hardy types that will have a chance to make it here, the mountain regions of the tropics are such places to hunt for good candidate exotic fruits. One of these days, we may be able to get some Nephelium that are tree-ripened from our own backyards. Joe

I only nurseries that sell Rambutan are in Hawaii. They probably can ship to Pa. I'm guessing you're trying to grow in in a container overwintered in greenhouse or indoor. I don't think they'll do well in contaienrs, the trees get very large, and they'll need constant humidity and warmth, just like a tropical climate. below is link to a nursery that usually have rambutan, but they're sold out. Bass Here is a link that might be useful: tropical nursery

Eldys, as always thanks for the info about durians. I wish there was a dwarf variety somewhere out there. Maybe they will adapt better as a container specimen. Eggo, I'm sorry to hear that yours didn't make it. It's a pity after 3 years of taking care of them. So, did you plant them in containers or did you put them in the ground? Are you planning to plant any more? Ohiojay, I saw some of the pictures you posted of your plants in containers. They are all way too cool. You must have got a large greenhouse to house them all? Can you also grow them in the ground in the greenhouse? Also, have you been able to get any harvest from them yet? Speaking about greenhouse, I've been wondering if I should get/build a greenhouse for planting cold sensitive plants and the cost involved in having one. Would like to learn more about greenhouse planting for tropical fruit trees. If any one has anything to share, would really love to hear it from you. Happy planting and "hi" to all your plants for me!

Thanks ch3rri. These babies are fun to grow. The question on what kind of tea--I'm guessing any kind of tea would work as I'm only in the experimental stage right now. Tea is naturally acidic which is what Rambutans like and perhaps other acidic loving plants like lychees perhaps? I have yet to try that out with my lychees. Right now, I'm using tea bags and I pour the tea into a spray bottle and use it to wet the soil whenever the soil dries up. I don't have any guarantee this will always work, but as far as what it's doing to my plants now, they seem to be quite happy.