Innovation of wax apple industry in Taiwan

Wax apple, Syzygium samarangense Merr. et Perry, is one of the major tropical fruit crops produced in southern Taiwan where the production period is mainly from November through May. The production seasons shift in central and northern Taiwan from April through October. Among the cultivated varieties, 'Pink', 'Big Fruit', 'Thub Thim Chan', and 'Indonesia Big Fruit' are the most popular ones. Adjustment of production period is a unique technique developed in Taiwan, through which fruit production can be manually adjusted from summer to winter, or be extended into spring. In connection to the technique, strategies such as planting in different months, choosing a separate production area, and using various cultivars are also adopted to have year-round production of this fruit. Recently because of the impact brought by climate change, damages and unstable production caused by typhoon, drought, and other extreme weather events became an important issue to the industry. In order to deal with the problems, many techniques and practices have been developed: cross breeding to improve the defect of fruit shape and fruit colour, pruning to enlarge fruit size, girdling to decrease fruit cracking ratio and orchard covering to decrease the chilling injury.