Author Topic: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!  (Read 6858 times)

Finca La Isla

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #25 on: September 28, 2020, 10:59:47 AM »
Mike, I have a hybrid from Famies nursery in Kuala Kangsar that is called bunga merah. I think this is a zib/dulcis cross buy I’m not sure.  Have you heard of this?  It was recently released from a nursery that is certified by the agriculture department.
Three large durian trees produced about 600kg this last season for us so you can get an idea of the potential production of the 20 plus durian trees being planted in Kona.  One is a seedling and two are grafted kradonthon.
Peter

shaneatwell

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #26 on: September 28, 2020, 12:38:29 PM »
Just noticed this. Really exciting and good luck!
Shane

ben mango

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #27 on: September 28, 2020, 02:36:44 PM »
i came across a z x dulcis once outside of Miri. the fruits were large and appeared to be easier to open than dulcis. some people will just cut dulcis fruit in half because it can be a pain to open, the spikes are very sharp and it can be unclear where the pods are. dulcis also has a small flesh to seed ratio, making a hybrid more optimal,  the same could be said for graveolens.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2020, 02:38:31 PM by ben mango »

Kona fruit farm

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #28 on: September 29, 2020, 03:34:59 AM »
Have you guys ever wondered what it is exactly about durians that evokes such an excitement and respect and just awe?  its crazy.. other fruits do not command such efforts or time or respect or distant trips to asia.  But durian has a special power... THE KING OF FRUITS!  all others must bow down.   anyway its just interesting to me the lengths i'm literally going through right now on my land to plant this durian orchard.  its almost crazy.  We shall not even mention the amount of money being spent on rock walls, excavators, fill material, mulch, dirt, shade cages, irrigation,  i digress...   check back with me in 10 years and hopefully its all worth it.  and i'm a pioneer for having an awesome durian orchard in Kona Hawaii.    only time will tell.  But I'm willing to take my chances. 
With 3 acres of prime real estate for growing tropicals... why not create my own garden of eden?? Work in progress

Mike T

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #29 on: September 29, 2020, 03:45:22 AM »
The D x Z come in 2 basic forms. One small unridged orange one that is ok and a larger ridged reddish more zib like one. The latter is the one to get. Yes the king of fruit alright. Those with uncultured palates and newbies don't get it. I guess to a lesser extent people new to avos sometimes don't get why people like them so much.

Finca La Isla

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #30 on: September 29, 2020, 11:47:26 AM »
People do come from far for durian.  I like the farm model patterned off of what I have seen in Penang crossed with Sonoma/Napa wineries.  Small farm in a beautiful setting with very high quality production.  Visitors come and can enjoy the product at the farm and also buy to take home.
I’d like to see Puerto Viejo become a Mecca of such farms.  Some exist and are ramping up, like us, and many others are just getting going.  It’s a multigenerational project for us just as it has been on Penang.
What I really need to accomplish is establish our own, locally developed, high quality varieties.
Peter

fruitlovers

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #31 on: September 29, 2020, 04:52:26 PM »
Have you guys ever wondered what it is exactly about durians that evokes such an excitement and respect and just awe?  its crazy.. other fruits do not command such efforts or time or respect or distant trips to asia.  But durian has a special power... THE KING OF FRUITS!  all others must bow down.   anyway its just interesting to me the lengths i'm literally going through right now on my land to plant this durian orchard.  its almost crazy.  We shall not even mention the amount of money being spent on rock walls, excavators, fill material, mulch, dirt, shade cages, irrigation,  i digress...   check back with me in 10 years and hopefully its all worth it.  and i'm a pioneer for having an awesome durian orchard in Kona Hawaii.    only time will tell.  But I'm willing to take my chances.
That question is worthy of a whole new thread. But the short answers are, for growers a lot money can be made growing durian, unlike most other fruit tree crops. Why do consumers travel so far to eat durians, simple answer is that it's not available in their countries, or only available frozen, or only available a short time, or not so much selection or good quality. Mike, i would not compare the delight of eating durian to an avocado! It's more like a tree ripened mango, peach or apricot, or a dessert grown fig. But even those comparisons don't serve justice. A perfectly ripened durian can be euphoric. A lot of people just don't get that. They are mostly stuck and side tracked on stories about bad smells.
Oscar

johnb51

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #32 on: September 29, 2020, 05:18:39 PM »
Have you guys ever wondered what it is exactly about durians that evokes such an excitement and respect and just awe?  its crazy.. other fruits do not command such efforts or time or respect or distant trips to asia.  But durian has a special power... THE KING OF FRUITS!  all others must bow down.   anyway its just interesting to me the lengths i'm literally going through right now on my land to plant this durian orchard.  its almost crazy.  We shall not even mention the amount of money being spent on rock walls, excavators, fill material, mulch, dirt, shade cages, irrigation,  i digress...   check back with me in 10 years and hopefully its all worth it.  and i'm a pioneer for having an awesome durian orchard in Kona Hawaii.    only time will tell.  But I'm willing to take my chances.
Gotta love the eccentric vision of tropical fruit growers (but mostly the passion)!
« Last Edit: September 29, 2020, 11:16:59 PM by johnb51 »
John

Finca La Isla

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #33 on: September 29, 2020, 08:10:05 PM »
My two most lucrative crops are durian and mangosteen.  Mangosteen is a great thing to have for sale.  I sold about 1200kg in the last couple of months.  But nobody is going to drive 6 hours to come here to eat mangosteen.  For durian, they have to and they will.
Peter

fruitlovers

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #34 on: September 29, 2020, 10:29:26 PM »
My two most lucrative crops are durian and mangosteen.  Mangosteen is a great thing to have for sale.  I sold about 1200kg in the last couple of months.  But nobody is going to drive 6 hours to come here to eat mangosteen.  For durian, they have to and they will.
Peter
Mangosteen is good, but is not habit forming, like durian.
1200 kg of mangosteen? That's a whole lot of mangosteen! How many fruiting mangosteen trees do you have? And how old are they?
It's the same here, mangosteen and durian are best money making crops. They also are 2 of the longest to fruit from planting.
« Last Edit: September 29, 2020, 10:32:26 PM by fruitlovers »
Oscar

Mike T

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #35 on: September 30, 2020, 04:17:06 AM »
Yes I agree that mangosteens don't fire the imagination like durian does. You're probably getting over $US 4/lb over there. That is a pretty penny.

ben mango

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #36 on: September 30, 2020, 10:30:27 AM »
check back with me in 10 years

It is not unusual for even a grafted tree to take 15 years to fruit on the islands
« Last Edit: September 30, 2020, 10:34:48 AM by ben mango »

Finca La Isla

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #37 on: September 30, 2020, 11:37:37 AM »
I have 25 mangosteen trees that were planted more than 30 years ago.  There are more mangosteen buyers than durian buyers and the season lasted 8 weeks this harvest.
Durian buyers can be more intense, especially the frutarians and raw eaters.  They need to eat durian in large quantities.
  But the main buyers of durian are Chinese who want to buy in large quantities.  I think it can be a status thing to have fine, expensive fruit to share with friends and family.
Frutarians are also looking for lots of other fruits, especially artocarpus while the Chinese will pick at other fruits but pretty much stick to durian.
CR is much cheaper for fruit than Hawaii or Queensland.  Mangosteen retails at $3.25 kg
Durian from the farm gets about $6 kg and in the capitol $10 kg.
Peter

TheGivingTree

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #38 on: September 30, 2020, 05:00:56 PM »
Congrats on your endeavor! I'd be happy to catch a flight over there for some durian one day.

fruitlovers

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I have 25 mangosteen trees that were planted more than 30 years ago.  There are more mangosteen buyers than durian buyers and the season lasted 8 weeks this harvest.
Durian buyers can be more intense, especially the frutarians and raw eaters.  They need to eat durian in large quantities.
  But the main buyers of durian are Chinese who want to buy in large quantities.  I think it can be a status thing to have fine, expensive fruit to share with friends and family.
Frutarians are also looking for lots of other fruits, especially artocarpus while the Chinese will pick at other fruits but pretty much stick to durian.
CR is much cheaper for fruit than Hawaii or Queensland.  Mangosteen retails at $3.25 kg
Durian from the farm gets about $6 kg and in the capitol $10 kg.
Peter
Mangosteen is a fruit that is much more widely liked. But the people that like it are not going to walk a mile for it, like they do for durians.
Makes sense that your fruits would sell for cheaper prices. All your inputs cost less, your land is cheaper, and labor is probably way cheaper!
Oscar

Finca La Isla

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Yes, costs are relative.  Workers get about $125 for a 40 hour week here and that includes complete health care.  Land is variable with agricultural land going from $5000 an acre.  What’s good is that the Costa Rican’s do have disposable income and they are great fruit buyers.  Probably most of the mangosteens are sold by the kilo to locals.
Peter

fruitlovers

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Yes, costs are relative.  Workers get about $125 for a 40 hour week here and that includes complete health care.  Land is variable with agricultural land going from $5000 an acre.  What’s good is that the Costa Rican’s do have disposable income and they are great fruit buyers.  Probably most of the mangosteens are sold by the kilo to locals.
Peter
A worker here can easily make your weekly salary of 40 hours in just one day of only 6 hours of work! So it's really surprising that the costs here aren't 7x higher here than CR.
Oscar

Finca La Isla

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Cost of labor and cost of propert tax, and health care/insurance are areas that are pretty cheap here although workers get less than half in Nicaragua.  Some moved to Nica because of that but then... Some things are more expensive like gas and cars.
Comparisons are interesting but we’re happy here.  Certainly it’s world class for growing equatorial plants.
Peter

fruitlovers

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Cost of labor and cost of propert tax, and health care/insurance are areas that are pretty cheap here although workers get less than half in Nicaragua.  Some moved to Nica because of that but then... Some things are more expensive like gas and cars.
Comparisons are interesting but we’re happy here.  Certainly it’s world class for growing equatorial plants.
Peter
FYI, and you probably i'm sure already know it, CR is considered most expensive country to live in Central America. But i think there are so many other factors besides the expenses that are even more important, like the stability of the government, amount of corruption, and whether it's safe to live there. Cheapest place to live is usually not the nicest place to live.
Oscar

Finca La Isla

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Yes, CR ir easily the most expensive in Central America/Mexico. It says something that, despite this, big export agriculture remains here. It’s a great place to grow plants and you can expect due process in the judicial system. That it’s expensive is good if you have something to sell on the local market.
Peter

Kona fruit farm

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Hey peter what elevation is your farm at?   Also what’s your latitude?   And what is the coldest temps you ever get during the year?
With 3 acres of prime real estate for growing tropicals... why not create my own garden of eden?? Work in progress

Finca La Isla

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Hi,
Finca la Isla is at 9 degrees N
Altitude varies from 10m to 60m
Coldest temp is 19C 66f. But it might go all year without going below 70.
Two driest months September and March.
Two wettest July and December.
Rainfall anywhere from 100” to 225”. This has been a dry year, might barely make 100”
Peter

happyhana

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #47 on: February 01, 2022, 01:54:31 PM »
Project update?

Recently I drove from captain cook to south point and was amazed at how green everything is. Your trees must be off to a good start!

Kona fruit farm

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #48 on: February 03, 2022, 02:15:26 AM »
Aloha happy Hana.   The project has evolved considerably and most the trees are plugging along.  Slow growing.  The final planting ended up in 4 rows.   

Bottom row is 8 pohakulani seedlings.    This is my favorite Hawaiian grown durian and one I’m willing to gamble on seedlings with.  So fingers crossed and we will see how these turn out.

Row 2 is:  durio kutagensis seedling
-durian (simas)
-durio graveolens seedling
-durian (mdur 88)
-durian (mdur 88)
-durian (red prawn)
-durian (monthong)
-durian (pohakulani) grafted

Row 3:  durian (suluk Sionggong)
-durian (Lihoha)
-durian (Kilauea)
-durian (kajmak)
-durian (ganyao)
-durian (chanee)
-durian (d168)
-durian (red prawn)

Row 4:  -durio (macrantha grafted)
-durian (red prawn)
-durian (d168)
-durian (black thorn seedling)
-durian (Jamuk/D99)
-durian (Jamuk/D99)
-durian (choice chanee)
-durian (d145)

All the trees have shade cages and wrapped on bottom with clear plastic wrap.    They are all on a small drip emitter sprinkler.   All have been planted in small mounds and have lots of mulch all around them.   



With 3 acres of prime real estate for growing tropicals... why not create my own garden of eden?? Work in progress

ben mango

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Re: Epic Hawaii Durian Orchard project and shade cage design... and irrigation!
« Reply #49 on: February 03, 2022, 08:10:54 AM »
Who on island has fruited macrantha before ?
« Last Edit: February 03, 2022, 08:17:20 AM by ben mango »