Cai
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grape planatation /farm - 2006/11/21 13:29
Hi
I enjoyed plucking strawberries from strawberry farm in Cameron Highland during previous trip.
Is there any grape farm/planatation in Cameron Highland or any other parts of malaysia for visiting/plucking of grapes?
Thank you
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Caroline Chong
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Re:grape planatation /farm - 2006/11/22 13:56
Hi! It is nice to know that somebody is looking for commercial vineyard or grape plantations in Cameron Highlands. But unfortunately, from the past until present, nobody is willing to develop a commercial grape plantations in Cameron Highlands.
All the grape plantations in Cameron Highlands are in very small size and they are not even fit to be considered as a plantation or vineyard. This is because they are either plant in MARDI Agro Park in Tanah Rata as experimental crop or the grape is planted in Cactus Valley as ornamental crops. You have no chance to pick or see the grapevine produce large amount of grapes.
It is very saddened to see that the farmers in Cameron Highlands hardly try any new crops throughout these few decades. They only want to plant crops that are easy to thrive and good for market sales. They are too coward and too timid to emulate Taiwanese farmers.
When I stayed in Taiwan, the weather was much more humid than Malaysia and the rainfall is as heavy as Malaysia too. Sometimes,the rainfall is horrible than Malaysia due to typhoon. Even if you keep your paper cert inside a file holder and keep inside the cupboard for a substantial period of time. It will get mouldy. So the myth of planting grape under humid and wet weather is not true.
When I stayed in Taiwan, the weather was much more humid than Malaysia and the rainfall is as heavy as Malaysia too. Sometimes,the rainfall is horrible than Malaysia due to typhoon. Even if you keep your paper cert inside a file holder and keep inside the cupboard for a substantial period of time. It will get mouldy. So the myth of planting grape under humid and wet weather is not true.
Besides, Taiwan mountain areas or generally the whole province is enjoying strong breeze all year round. This is simply because it is en exposed island that is facing directly in front of the windy Pacific Ocean. But Taiwanese farmers still managed to plant many kind of new crops that are supposed to fail in humid weather like grape, peach, orange, olive or even Arabian dates (but Arabian dates is still under experimental level).
Don't forget that Taiwan has frequent earthquake and strong typhoon. Due to this reason, farmers in Taiwan always face a lot of obstacles and failures in trying out new crops or even maintain the traditional crops. Furthermore, they hardly get any assistant from the government. But they never give up, they suffered mass losses but their preseverance always overcome failure and eventually they reached triumphant result. Besides, a lot of farmers in Taiwan are not highly educated too. They speak Hokkien and very poor in Mandarin or not able to speak English at all. But they are willing to learn and progress.
But farmers in Cameron Highlands is nothing but a bunch of weakling cowards and 100% profit and greedy oriented farmers. They must make sure their profit is doubled, tripled or even higher or else they are unwilling to try out new crops. But never mind, the world is getting more globalised and their timid and cowardly greedy attitude will eventually kill them (farmers of Cameron Highlands) along the way. It is only a matter of time.
Same thing goes too many low land farmers. That is why I forced my father to try out new crops whether he like it or not at his fruit plantation at the foothill of Gunung Ledang. I force him to plant some new species of grapes and raspberry that are more suitable for Malaysian weather under experimental scale first before we do it in large scale. I hope I will try new crops in the future. My father does not like it at all, but I do not care. He can jump up and down but I will prove him wrong.
So I hope Ministry Of Agriculture will do something in order to change the mindset of farmers especially the farmers in Cameron Highlands.
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Lee
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Re:grape planatation /farm - 2008/04/16 16:34
Hi, I'm quite interested about the possibility of wineyard in Malaysia. Is there any suitable species grow in tropical? I have bought a grape tree from Cameron Highland 2 years ago. It does bloom but never get fruit!
Regards, Lee
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Girlie
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Re:grape planatation /farm - 2008/04/17 10:27
Dear Lee,
You might feel surprise if I tell you that India (even the tropical southern part of India like Tamil Nadu state) had been planting grapes since 300 years ago and Thailand actually had been planting grapes since 70 years ago. But the Thai only commercialised grape plantations in big scale 50 years ago.
Actually grapes do not really afraid of heat. That's why desert areas in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt can grow grapes well. Although grape plants need a lot of water, but grape plant just like durian cannot handle flood or simmer its root and lower part of the plant under water for a certain period of time. It will die. It needs good irrigation system, dry season for fruiting, no flood and lot of care, its leaves need trimming on daily basis so that it will fruit a lot and properly. That's why it is best to plant grapes on steep or slanted hill in Malaysia so that it will not accumulate water.
In fact many species of grapes are suitable to plantin Thailand and Malaysia, e.g. the muscat (black grapes), the China "ma nai" grapes (the fruit is green and oblong in shape) etc.
Surprisingly, Malaysian virgin forest has a species of grape (I forgot its scientific name) native to Malaysian forest. But the fruits are too small to consume, it grows very slow and cannot be cultivated by humans. It grows wild deep inside the hill forests.
I hope the information is useful to you and you may buy some grape plant saplings in Cameron Highlands to try out grape cultivation. Oh, one more thing, the soil to plant grape cannot be too carbonated, it must be a bit sandy or slightly mixed with very tiny pebbles. But cultivation near coastal areas might not be so successful in terms of fruiting. Good Luck!! 
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David
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Re:grape planatation /farm - 2008/04/23 10:00
Dear Lee,
Only some table grape species are able to cultivate in Malaysia. But none of the wine grape species is suitable for Malaysia geography conditions. So setting up a vineyard is not so possible in Malaysia. Have a nice trip in Cameron Highland! 
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otan
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question - 2008/06/06 09:19
hmmm, im a student in a secondary school in miri . is it cameron highland is the location of malaysia's climate ?
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Kong
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Re:question - 2008/06/07 01:54
Otan, i don't quite understand your question, perhaps you should rephrase and make it slightly more organised?
Anyhow, i'm just going to try my best in clearing your doubt. You mentioned ''climate'' so i guess you were interested in the weather of Cameron Highlands. Here are some facts that you might like to read on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Highlands
Generally speaking, Cameron Highlands has a much cooler weather than the other parts of Malaysia so that's why it constantly attracts tourists from all over Malaysia and even Singapore.
Have a great day.
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Dave_ng
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Re:grape planatation /farm - 2008/11/27 22:45
Hi, i'm a home grape grower at Kedah, actualy grape can grow find at all area in Malaysia, if u need to find some grape farm in malaysia, u have to up north to pelish, there have one.
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