National Durian Vol. 5

“Bloom and bear fruit - when there is flower there is fruit. This means more flowers may result in high fruiting. Therefore, the yield of durian is closely associated with flowering.” Continuous flowering can be observed at different region in Malaysia. However, the flowering rate is unpredictable because the continuous flowering is constraining the tree to produce flower excessively. A durian tree average blooms between 30,000 and 40,000 flowers per flowering season and only 3% to 4% of it formed fruits. This means only few hundreds of fruits are formed. Rise in durian price has led to farmers focus more in increasing the yield, especially when the price of Musang King (D197) is sky high, thus how to protect flowers and fruits has become the main discussion among the farmers.…

In the early stage of land cultivation, farmers only consider of orchard planning. They usually pay attention to the location of water pipes, distance between the rows of trees, water storage facility, variety to be planted and so on. “If farmers plant durian trees that produce only female flowers, then the trees will bear lots of flowers but no fruits.” said durian cultivation expert Ng Swee Pen. “The farmers have to make sure more trees are planted to that there are also plant female or male flowers for pollination to take place. Ng Swee Pen is managing an organic durian orchard in Karak, Pahang. His organic approach allows insects to live in his orchard. Relying solely on insects as pollinators is enough to contribute to ample durian fruit sets. Bats…

Most of the fruit trees, including durians are cross-pollinating plants. Cross pollination is a necessary process for fruiting. Durians face challenges in natural pollination due to environment factors. Factors that affect natural pollinators can be geographic or climatic. Durian pollens are very light and are easily spread by wind. However, the sources of wind pollination depends on geographical location of the orchard. If the orchard is situated in an area where the air is relatively still, natural pollination will not take place. Further, blossom duration is short and is is at night, pollination by bees can easily missed. The use of agro-chemicals for pest control may also kill the beneficial pollinators. Under such circumstances, artificial pollination has to be considered. Flowers which bloom early will result in large fruit formation…

With fruit freezing facilities, Malaysian and Thai durians are almost available throughout the world. Durian cannot be grown in countries with four seasons. But, there are exceptions, for example Taiwan is one such country and durian is grown there. Durian cultivation in Taiwan has been successful, the trees are now bearing fruits,” Chen Li Jung said. Chen Li Jung is one of the bosses of Han Miao Fruit Tree Seedling Garden. His orchard produces a variety of fruit tree seedlings including durian. Early durian varieties harvested in Taiwan were mostly Golden Pillows (D159). According to data provided, there are successful cases of flowering and fruiting in Taichung, Taitung, and Southern Taiwan. However, the fruiting rate was inconsistent. It was high in some places and low in other places. Thus, farmers…

Durian flowers usually bloom when vegetative growth slows down or temporarily ceases. Generally, Malaysia being located at north of the Equator, with tropical climate, hot and humid weather all year round, should very well optimize the growth and yield of durian. However, climate change in recent years has led to changes in the durian growth environment. For example, the heavy rainfall in the previous year has caused low yield in durian. Whereas the four-months dry weather in the first half of year 2019 resulted in continuous flowering and fruiting with 3 periods of flowering being observed in a short span of six months. The abrupt change in climate has profoundly affected the pollination rate of durians in Malaysia. Mature durian trees appear lush and sound, yet fail to produce fruits,…

Durians are the pride and joy of Malaysian farmers. It is a known fact that the older and more fruitful the tree, the better the quality. Due to this, farmers try their level best to protect and graft these old trees. Generally, old trees of the D24 and some other lesser known or even unnamed varieties can grow to 40 or 50 years. Since the well known ones are either Musang King (D197) or Black Thorn (D200), many farmers are grafting old trees of these two varieties. New shoots are tied tightly to the Rootstock Malaysia nation wide there are many old tree grafters, their grafting technique is about the same: First, they fertilise the trees adequately, then they ring cut the bark or cut the terminal shoots to stop…