First durian flowers!! - foliar spray ??

[jimreevescairns]

Greetings
Got the best surprise in a long time this week. Flower buds at varying stages on a 7 year old monthong/gan yaow cross
Hugely exciting !!!!!
There are some groups of buds that are clearly a couple of weeks older than others and I even found a couple of flowers on the floor when there are very small buds on other branches. Funnily enough the larger flower buds are all on branches that are only the diameter of my thumb whereas the newer buds are along the entire length of one single larger branch

I have never used foliar sprays before wonder if this would be a good time to start ?
I have the Triple Boost stuff recommended by the local nursery - kelp / fish / worm cast emulsion and would use it weekly ??
I have a couple of bags of cow manure that I was planning on spreading around too

Seem reasonable ?

kind regards
Jim

[fruitlovers]

Congratulations on the durian flower buds. Mine also flowered for first time recently so i know how exciting that is. I think rather than foliar sprays more helpful would be to hand pollinate the flowers. This is best done after dark and right before the flowers are fully opened.

[jimreevescairns]

Cheers Oscar !

[Marsbars]

Greetings
Got the best surprise in a long time this week. Flower buds at varying stages on a 7 year old monthong/gan yaow cross
Hugely exciting !!!!!
There are some groups of buds that are clearly a couple of weeks older than others and I even found a couple of flowers on the floor when there are very small buds on other branches. Funnily enough the larger flower buds are all on branches that are only the diameter of my thumb whereas the newer buds are along the entire length of one single larger branch

I have never used foliar sprays before wonder if this would be a good time to start ?
I have the Triple Boost stuff recommended by the local nursery - kelp / fish / worm cast emulsion and would use it weekly ??
I have a couple of bags of cow manure that I was planning on spreading around too

Seem reasonable ?

kind regards
Jim

http://www.insad.pl/files/journal_pdf/journal2009/vol17(1)2009/Full7%202009_1_.pdf This may help

[jimreevescairns]

Thank you Marsbars much appreciated.

Oscar your comments regarding hand pollination have had me searching the internet - I have never hand pollinated anything !

It is hard to find a clear, simple description of what you do

I understand that that the male and female organs/gametes are separated by distance( long pistil) and time( anthers having viable pollen some hours after the pistil elongates) in an effort to reduce self pollination.

From your comments re timing - "after dark and before flowers are fully open" I was planning to use a soft brush to poke down into the area where the anthers are a few hours after everything starts opening( 8-9pm ... it gets dark here about 615 pm ) and then brush this over the ends(?) of the pistils and repeat this randomly amongst opening flowers each night.

Does that sound about right ?

thanks Jim