The Tropical Fruit Forum

It looks like a monstera to me as well. Did your son try to taste the fruit?
Peter

In the case of safou I’d say 7-8m
The others are more complicated but being really serious 10m might be practical.
Pedalai is another that is very difficult to control.
Where is your project located?
Peter

Those who are looking to get smaller, dwarfing results seek out rootstocks that can deliver in that aspect.
Peter

Safou has been pretty easy to shape for us. The others are more of a challenge. It is important that the trees are well in the open with all sides receiving good sun. I’d keep at it. I have had some success with dabai and Fiji longan although it’s been limited.
Suerte!
Peter

What do you think about cutting the taproot?  I think there is a case to be made that encouraging more lateral root development the tree can feed easier.
Peter

Very nice, Nerd, the foliage looks really good.
What sort of organic fertilizer do you apply?
Peter

I would prune off all dead wood.
What you can do to straighten the tip is to tie a straight stick into the tree, fastening at several points. It needn’t be in the ground as long as it is tied at at least two points where the trunk is straight. We do this frequently and consider that a straight stem allows for the easiest shaping.
Peter

So this is a graph showing recorded rainfall in inches at a sight about 1km from my farm. What’s interesting to me is the trend to less rainfall. Actually I have records from before this person started and there were some years with more than the highest on this graph.
Interestingly the graph clearly shows the pattern of two dry seasons, roughly March and September, then the rainiest periods falling around July and December. It’s this pattern that makes two durian harvests in a year highly likely.
We also use the pattern to target the best planting periods.
But the pattern seems less reliable lately. Preliminarily I’d say that the biggest difference is that the rainy season is not as rainy while the dry is more or less the same.
Peter

It’s interesting. We have recorded up to 5.5m in a couple of very rainy years but that was a long time ago and the trend is now much, much drier. Of the last 3 years 2 have been in the 2m range and this year, finishing today appears to be the driest yet. The dry trend is critically affecting the Panama Canal.
So if you research durian growing areas of Malaysia it seems that 2.5m of annual rain is typical.
We’ve had very good fruit production with the drier weather but it has been harder to plant. Just when it seems good for planting, we do, and then the rain stops and we’re having to water.
I think the farm does better with it drier but my nursery does better with more rain. We water every day in the nursery if it’s not raining but somehow it’s not the same.
Peter

How’s the quality, and do they also have well known varieties or is it all kampung?
Peter

Looks pretty good, Benjamin.
Peter

I had heard years ago that abiu needed a companion for good production. Perhaps that’s based on something but we get adequate production from the single tree we have left. Fruit fly is a problem here with abiu so it’s better to not have so many.
Peter