Not enough Durian Discussion

[0hip]

it might be sunburn - the sun has moved drastically in the past month and now they get sun for alot longer than they were in summer as the sun is not blocked by my house for half the day as it was a month ago. ill keep an eye on it and maybe put some extra shade cloth on it but i also want them to sun harden a bit

insider did a video on durians being cut down by the government in Malaysia. it almost made me cry seeing those poor trees cut down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OHBqljDwjA

[fruit nerd]

Never seen sunburn like that. In my experience, durians will drop their leaves following sunburn. How often are you watering? When it's hot and dry, I water everyday and really believe that helps. Other trees you can neglect and they still grow vigorously, like jackfruit. This is not the case for durian, unless they are in an ideal environment perhaps.

[0hip]

Well I work fifo so someone else takes care of them when I’m away for 12 days. When I’m home I water almost every day but last swing I did loose a marcotted Maprang, erdon lee which were very newly planted and Haitian star apple so maybe that was the problem  . But she does take care of them well all the other times just a lot going on this month so I just bought some new ones.
Can’t get upset at someone that takes care of them while your away

My durio Macrantha seedlings in the first picture and a fresh batch of D99 seedlings below too

[fruit nerd]

Looks good . Yeah, a bit tough if you have to go away for a while regularly. Maybe you could set up an automated irrigation system? Bit of work and upfront cost but could really help.

[Finca La Isla]

So pretty serious flowering here. The ground is covered with the drop and a secondary flower pop is occurring as well.
This is on a D-99 that is about 25 years old. Another D-99 is a tad behind this one. Not sure why that would be but it’s welcome of course. A couple of trees are flowering for the first time now. A mongthong and a Nokachip.
The harvest season should fall from early September into November we figure at this point.
Peter

[fruit nerd]

Looks good. Can't wait for my trees to flower for the first time.

I have a question, I while back, I topped my oldest seedling tree just above a lateral branch. Now, a new shoot has formed just below the cut and it looks like this will become the new leader. Should I remove this and encourage the lateral to become the new leader?

[Finca La Isla]

I would go with what looks strongest, has the most energy. It could be that the lateral you thought would become the new leader just doesn’t have what it takes. I’ve had that experience before and so I try to make my topping cut directly above what seems like the strongest branch, maybe that’s even pointing upward somewhat. But things can happen and a leader have a setback somehow and then, ideally, another will take over.
Peter

[fruit nerd]

Thanks Peter. The lateral that I want to become the main leader is already pointing up and is quite thick with lots of new growth so looks good to me. I would prefer it to become the leader rather than the new shoot.

[0hip]

The cold is getting to the durians. Getting to me too. Having to wear a jumper when I wake up in the morning. The leaves are the Macrantha sadly so not as cold tolerant as hoped and the second is just leaves falling from the smaller seedling. Leaves falling from the larger seedling but it’s got plenty to spare.

[fruit nerd]

What minimums have you been getting down to in your area? I'm a fair bit further north of you but most of my trees are still pushing out new growth. Expect them to slow down about though over the next few months.

[0hip]

I think the coldest was 8. This morning was 10 but the days are also staying colder not just the nights. Put the greenhouse plastic back up to try encourage them along

[fruit nerd]

8C is certainly getting a bit cold, though they get those kind of mins between Cairns and Mission Beach and plenty of durian is grown there. Here's my Macrantha. I did cut of the main leader since it don't damaged (by a grass hopper I believe). I have selected a new leader and seems to be going okay.


Also, here is the new shoot I mentioned previously. My wife is on the side of keeping the new shoot.

[Gone tropo]

We had two mornings last year at my place in a row of 8.4 and 8.9c two of my durians dropped all of their leaves and are still only barely recovering almost a year later

[fruit nerd]

I assume once the trees get more established, they should become more cold tolerant? If so, giving them a but more protection for the fist couple of years I would do the trick I think. Micro-climates are also certainly important. I live close to Gone Troppo but on the side of a hill and have not experienced any leaf drop following cold nights.

[0hip]

I think my macrantha a goner. When I planted it a few months ago it got plenty of sun. Since we moved into winter it gets almost no direct sun because it’s in the shadow of the house. The sun have moved an insane amount and stuff that used to be only partly shaded is now full sun for most of the day and vice Versa.

 It dosent even get sun to heat up the mini greenhouse I’ve given it. The main durian house is fine though but I don’t think that location will ever work for a plant that needs heat in winter
 

[cassowary]

Our durians are pumping out lots of new leaves, I can't believe it.
I'll take a photo of one when I can.

It haven't been cold here though, coldest 17.8C recorded so far this year. But quite windy.

Seeing some machrantah talk, does anyone notice any consistent difference in leaf morphology of machrantah vs zibethinus?

Cold damage, does anyone of ya monitor leaf brix levels? Increasing that should help with cooler weather. If you are monitoring, did it help to increase?

Wow Peter you got the "red carpet" there

Ohip,
Yeah I saw that documentary too. Seams like a waste of resources when they could just claim the land back again with the  police army. But I guess they want to hit hard on those who LAWFULLY INHERITED the land from a long time back when a farmer got the ownership of the land if you planted durian and other tree crops in the rainforest. all the fruits talks about this deal of the past in one of his videos. I guess there weren't any title system back then, just good o'l agreements.
And yeah sure now they (durian exporters) want them as workers "slaves" and not land owners or business owners.
"The middle class" is to do away with in a dictatorship/monarchy/oligarchy.

Peace and durian!

[fruit nerd]

The leaves of my macrantha do look different to my zibethinus durians, but even within zibethinus, there is a lot of leaf variabilty. It doesn't look different enough from my untrained eyes to suspect that it was not a zibethinus.

Regarding other durio species, I planted a durian today which I suspect is a different species. Interestingly, the seedling did not have a taproot! Instead it had ~8 roots of similar size originating from base of the plant. The fruit the seed came from was particularly spiky and hard to open. The flesh was orange (edit: cream color with a hint of orange) and strong tasting/bitter. Also, the leaf size is larger than my other durians. It came from a property with multiple durio species but it was sold as just a durian.

Edit: Suspect it's a Durio lowianus.

Here is a photo of the fruit. Pretty excited by this. Suspected it could of been a different species based off the fruit itself but the root structure was clearly nothing like a zibethinus.

[cassowary]

Yeah I agree there is variabilty in zibethinus.
I am also unsure how many cultuvar that we call zibethinus that actually could be hybrids with, kutejensis, lowianus, graveolens, dulcis and oxleyanus.
According to Anthon Lamb, Wild durio zibehinus in Borneo has very white flesh small spikes and is quite bitter. It’s in A guide to wild fruits of Borneo.

I’v got a zibethinus x dulcis and know that there are zibethinus x graveolens and zibethinus x kutejensis.
Havent heard of oxleyanus hybrids but suspetc it is possible.
Durian Suluk is a graveolens hybrid i think and its a F3 hybrid i think. So it’s been through 3 crossings if I am not wrong.
There are lowianus and zibethinus hybrids, poscii on the forum knows a tree and I have a photo somewhere.

How many seeds of the fruit did you plant?
Did all grow multiple roots?
I have seen zibethinus grow multiple roots so can happen, it’s usually when the seed is not very big or unhealthy.
It could be lowianus. Lowianus is really bitter and less sweet, but I have only tried it once in Thailand.
There are diversity in lowianus fruits too.
I would look at the flower for clear ID.


Strong durian having great growth during winter!

[fruit nerd]

I planted 4 seeds, 1 died (pot might have dried out), 1 had issues throwing off the seed casing, 2 are looking good. Have planted one in the ground, might get the next in the ground soon. Have not seen the roots of the other good seedling.

Your durian is looking great. Much bigger than mine .

[Mike T]

I had only about a dozen big gumpuns this season but they were good.

[fruit nerd]

New leader after 1 month of growth -

[Finca La Isla]

What’s happening there is unusual in my experience. I’m seeing something similar on one of my topped durian trees right now. But in most cases the highest branch remaining grows more vertical and takes over as the new leader. Obviously the new growth is thinner at this point but when this happened before it really picked up the pace and pushed the development of the tree. Something still tells me the tree is supposed to go with the larger branch but I think it works out anyway and the fact that you topped the tree at that point should lead to a better shape overall.
Peter

[ben mango]

Last weeks monthong 7.5/10. Season seems to be almost over here on the big island

[Finca La Isla]

Nice Ben, how’s the season been, any really special, stand out durians?
Peter

[ben mango]

Hey Peter, just been here a couple months now almost, think I caught the tail end of the season. Seemed to be mostly monthongs, maybe chanee and some others. A variety called pohakulani is one of the best here, but didn’t get to try any this season. It’s a bitter-sweet durian