The Tropical Fruit Forum
Tropical Fruit => Tropical Fruit Discussion => Topic started by: Finca La Isla on August 02, 2020, 12:19:04 PM
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Overall we are off to a great start on this fruit season. Certainly one of the highlights is the durian season!
Peter
(https://i.postimg.cc/zyG0dXXK/1-C08848-C-9-AEF-48-BD-9-EC7-4-CF30-B308888.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/zyG0dXXK)
(https://i.postimg.cc/sG5NRntW/7-E648-A5-D-6-C42-451-D-86-A9-BA1-DF4-C6-FAAC.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/sG5NRntW)
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Livin tha dream Peter!
Happy harvest!!
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Peter,
Are your trees grafted? If so what varieties are you growing?
If they are from seed, how many years before they started to fruit?
How well is the fruit accepted there given it's not a new world fruit?
Great harvest!!
Regards,
Sam
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Hi Sam,
The tree in the photo is a grafted Gradum/D-99. The original was brought to CR by Bill Whitman and I made an approach graft off that tree more than 20 years ago. I have another of the same in production as well as a 30 year old seedling that took 12 years to come into production. Between the 3 trees we have perhaps 350 fruits.
In our area grafted durian can begin producing after 5-6 years, seedlings 8-12.
Initially demand was slow but it has picked up to the point that there is easily more demand than production and I see the demand pressure increasing faster than production for some time.
The buyers fall into three groups. There are Chinese who are aware of durian, obsessed by it, in Costa Rica. The expat community has many serious durian consumers. The durian consumer will drive 6-8 hours or more to buy good, fresh durian. Latin Costa Rican’s who have somehow become aware of durian are also buyers.
We continue to plant and have a pipeline of new production in the works.
Peter
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Thanks for the in depth response Peter!
Seems like I have a long wait then cause I have just one seedling tree in a pot that's 2 years old.....
Does cross pollination ensure increased production?
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Cross pollination is desirable and necessary sometimes although there are selections that are self fertile like my d-99 and also my seedling in production.
Peter
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Thanks for the in depth response Peter!
Seems like I have a long wait then cause I have just one seedling tree in a pot that's 2 years old.....
Does cross pollination ensure increased production?
Sam,
I think La Vega has a fruiting durian tree. Why don't you ask them for some buwood so you can try to graft it onto your seedling? That may increase your fruiting time.
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Good suggestion!
I think you meant reduce fruiting time..... ; )
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Good suggestion!
I think you meant reduce fruiting time..... ; )
Haha, yeah.
Another option is to get a permit to import the grafted trees directly from SE Asia. How difficult is it to get an import permit from the Ministry of Ag?
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Good suggestion!
I think you meant reduce fruiting time..... ; )
Haha, yeah.
Another option is to get a permit to import the grafted trees directly from SE Asia. How difficult is it to get an import permit from the Ministry of Ag?
That's very difficult. The trees need to be quarantined for 2 years upon arrival at a certified nursery. Also you need to get a phyto from country of origin.
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Anyone know if durians readily air layer? I have one I’m thinking of trying it, but only will if the odds are on my side
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Durians can be air layered.
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Good suggestion!
I think you meant reduce fruiting time..... ; )
Haha, yeah.
Another option is to get a permit to import the grafted trees directly from SE Asia. How difficult is it to get an import permit from the Ministry of Ag?
That's very difficult. The trees need to be quarantined for 2 years upon arrival at a certified nursery. Also you need to get a phyto from country of origin.
Sam is in Trinidad so hopefully it may easier to import the grafted tree there than it is into the US.
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It is actually quite difficult to import plant material into Trinidad. The Ministry of Agriculture (Trinidad) has stated that they will be re-looking into the importation of plant material to make it easier but this has not happened to date.
Nor do I expect it to happen in the short term.....
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Hi Peter. Would you be able to send some Durian Seeds to Mexico? I am dying to statt planting them! Hehe
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I need to see where I can seeds to right now. There is no postal service between CR and the USA. De Mexico, no sé.
Saludos
Peter
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Cheers for the reply on air layering Peter. I have a solitary Durio Macrantha on D10 rootstock and I would like to delete the less cold tolerant D10 from the equation
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I can’t claim to be the first to have posted that durians can be layered. Mike T referred to it some time ago. So far I have not gotten 90% take like with many other species but it definitely can work. Since I graft very young, tender material and durians grow slowly in the beginning it feels way ahead of the game to be planting the large air layer.
Peter
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How dangerous is it to walk under a Durian tree?
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How dangerous is it to walk under a Durian tree?
I rather get conked with a Jackfruit or coconut I think... :o
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It’s easier to get cut from a durian fruit but the spines might, in a sense, cushion the impact.
Ideally, durians are grown on a hillside. They need good drainage and you can put a log or some structure to retain rolling durians. Obviously this is set up outside of the impact zone.
Peter
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It’s easier to get cut from a durian fruit but the spines might, in a sense, cushion the impact.
Ideally, durians are grown on a hillside. They need good drainage and you can put a log or some structure to retain rolling durians. Obviously this is set up outside of the impact zone.
Peter
I don't think the impact from a Durian will be cushioned by the spikes haha... Not to your skull or body anyways!
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Durians can be air layered.
https://youtu.be/MQIRuNpreO4
Start your trip down the rabbit hole
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I can’t claim to be the first to have posted that durians can be layered. Mike T referred to it some time ago. So far I have not gotten 90% take like with many other species but it definitely can work. Since I graft very young, tender material and durians grow slowly in the beginning it feels way ahead of the game to be planting the large air layer.
Peter
Are you sure they can fruit though? I've heard airlayered trees don't have strong enough root system. That they need a tap root to support heavy fruits?
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I’m only beginning with layering durians so haven’t fruited any. Frequently the concern about inadequate root development comes up when discussing airlayering fruit trees. We air layer many different species of fruit trees and I’ve never had a problem of a tree blowing over or any other issue that supposedly can occur due to air layering, neither on my farm or from the many trees sold in my nursery.
I have had late developing graft incompatibility with rambutan and we only layer it now.
As for durian I feel good about air layering it, but time will tell.
Generally we cleft graft very tender material on root stock that is only 2-3 months old. These grafts could easily take a year to reach the size of the layer harvested off the tree.
Peter
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Do you know of anyone who has a fruiting durian tree started from airlayer?
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The answer to that question is no.
But I have heard reference to it from several places. I really have a lot of experience with air layering other fruit trees that are very heavy bearers, rambutan for instance, and they do very,very well.
In the Philippines langsat is layered and it comes into production earlier than grafted.
The thing is here, in CR, I and a few others are the first to work with durian seriously. My first 3 trees to produce are a seedling and two approach grafts. The first cleft grafted durians are beginning to produce this year.
At this point, based on my experience, I have no reason to doubt that an air layered durian will not produce nicely.
Peter
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The answer to that question is no.
But I have heard reference to it from several places. I really have a lot of experience with air layering other fruit trees that are very heavy bearers, rambutan for instance, and they do very,very well.
In the Philippines langsat is layered and it comes into production earlier than grafted.
The thing is here, in CR, I and a few others are the first to work with durian seriously. My first 3 trees to produce are a seedling and two approach grafts. The first cleft grafted durians are beginning to produce this year.
At this point, based on my experience, I have no reason to doubt that an air layered durian will not produce nicely.
Peter
I also airlayer a lot of plants, including the ones you mention. But none of them have very heavy fruits, like durians. I saw a post somewhere, can't remember where, that claimed that airlayered durians will not fruit because they need big taproot to support the heavy fruits. I don't know if that's true or not. But it does make some sense. I wonder if airlayered jackfruits, also with very heavy fruit, can be succesful from airlayers? Anyway, i hope you are right because airlayering durians would help in propagating them. I guess only time will tell because nobody has any real experience with this? Please let us know if you get any of your airlayered durians to fruiting stage? Or if you read about any success from others with this?
PS i just remembered where i heard that about durians not doing well from airlayers. Will see if i can get more info.
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I have airlayered rambutans that are really loaded with fruit. Large branches will break the fruit is so heavy but they have never fallen over or showed any stability weakness. I’m aware there is a sentiment that air layered trees will pull out but, here at least, nobody has been able to show me an example and we sell lots of air layered trees. The tree in the photo at the beginning of this thread set around 200kg and it is from an approach graft done more than 20 years ago.
Unfortunately it will be years until I can fruit an air layered durian but I am pretty confident. The durian layers I have in my nursery are not for sale as I will be planting them all here on my farm sometime in October/November.
I will keep you posted.
Saludos
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I have airlayered rambutans that are really loaded with fruit. Large branches will break the fruit is so heavy but they have never fallen over or showed any stability weakness. I’m aware there is a sentiment that air layered trees will pull out but, here at least, nobody has been able to show me an example and we sell lots of air layered trees. The tree in the photo at the beginning of this thread set around 200kg and it is from an approach graft done more than 20 years ago.
Unfortunately it will be years until I can fruit an air layered durian but I am pretty confident. The durian layers I have in my nursery are not for sale as I will be planting them all here on my farm sometime in October/November.
I will keep you posted.
Saludos
Hi Peter, agreed about the rambutans, and also lychees getting heavy with fruits and doing fine from airlayers. For a very long time there was the mistaken notion that rambutan airlayers don't do well. This is because of what Julia Morton wrote in her book. And that was repeated ad infinitum. But the failures of rambutan airlayer she talks about are only from one experiment in Florida, and with limestone soil. Any rambutan plant withers in limestone soil, not just airlayers.