Canines who went down in history

* Laika: The first dog in space. Laika was aboard the Soviet satellite 'Sputnik 2' in 1957.
 

* Lassie: Any of a line of popular collies in movies and in television series. The first Lassie starred in the 1942 movie 'Lassie Come Home'.

* Le Diable: A notorious French dog that smuggled lace and other costly items across the French border under a false skin dyed various colours by its owners to baffle the customs guards.
 

* Rin Tin Tin: A German shepherd who ranked as one of the all-time famous canine movie stars. "Rinty" was in 19 movies before its death in 1932.

* Saur or Suening: A dog that was "king" of Norway for three years during the 11th century AD. The Norwegian king, angry that his subjects once deposed him, put Saur on the throne and demanded that it be treated regally.

* Soter: One of 50 watchdogs of ancient Greece that alone survived attack by invaders and ran to the gates of Corinth to warn the citizens.

Garden Guide

With Dr. Fazal Sultanbawa PhD, Director Research and Development CIC:

Sapodilla from a Home Garden

It is indeed sad that the delectable Sapodilla is a rarity in the market today. Commercial scale orchards are non-existent and supply is dependent on isolated home gardens.

This is a most unfortunate state of affairs considering that Sapodilla is one of the easiest fruit trees to grow. Macmillan quotes the words of one aficionado "a more luscious, cool and agreeable fruit is not to be met with perhaps in any country in the world".

The tree is of tropical American/Caribbean origin and botanically is (now) called Manilkara zapota. It is in the family Sapotaceae which includes lawulu and the Mee tree, which is now a common roadside tree. The tree is quite ornamental, with shiny dark green leaves and attractive form.

Sapodilla grows in most parts of the wet zone and does quite well in Colombo. An open, sunny location is best. Trees can reach 8-10 m in height, but need to be managed by pruning to maintain a height of 3-4 m. Pruning is not a difficult task, requiring cutting off of the tall branches and encouraging the tree to spread laterally rather than grow vertically.

Pruning may be required every three years or so. Any addition of plant nutrients in the form of a commercial fruit fertilizer or even compost will increase the number of fruits.

While seedling trees take 5-7 years to start bearing, grafted plants start flowering in two years. Grafted plants are best obtained from a reliable nursery such as the Department of Agriculture outlets or from their farm at Horana.

Flowering and fruiting in well-managed grafted plants is usually year round. Fruits take about two months to ripen sufficiently and this is perhaps the most difficult time because squirrels and birds also take a fancy to the brown fruits.

Deciding on the best time to pick fruits is also tricky and needs a little experience. Observe the fruits regularly and once they have reached a constant size, they are ready for picking. Detach the fruit with a piece of the stalk and invert it so that all the latex drips off. Avoid contact of latex with the fruit or your hands - it is not toxic but is quite sticky.

However, the fruit is far from ready to eat! Allow the fruit to ripen in a fruit basket indoors until the skin starts to wrinkle and shrivel. This can take 5-7 days. When it is quite soft to the touch, peel off the skin and keep the fruit exposed to the air for 5-10 minutes. The reason for this exposure is so that any latex has time to coagulate, rather than sticking on the insides of the mouth. Thereafter, bon aperitif!

The main pest/disease problem you may encounter is a result of ants. Both black and the red (Dimiya) ants can be a problem, the latter also because they build nests with the leaves and can be a nuisance when plucking fruit or pruning.

Both ants transmit mealy bugs which are white fluffy creatures that suck the juices from fruits. In addition the feeding of these insects releases sugars onto the surface of the fruits and a black fungus grows on this sugar ('Sooty mold') thereby disfiguring the fruit into a repulsive black mass.

The area around the stalk and eventually the whole fruit becomes black and the fruit may shrivel and drop. This is not easy to control without resorting to insecticides, but a common sense approach focusing on control of the ants with soapy water, neem (kohomba) leaf extracts, wood ash, breaking off ant nests etc is usually effective.

An occasional spray of a household insecticide onto the Dimiya nest or parts other than the fruit can be a last resort.