I have a soft spot for durians, not just the fruits but the trees as well. To me, durian trees are handsome (or beautiful) and the fruits are awkwardly mystifying. Another of my favourite fruit trees is langsat. So, quite some years ago, during one durian and langsat fruit season, I started collecting some "choice" seeds available in my village including those belonging to my late grandfather. It was quite a chore learning how to grow seedlings successfully out of those seeds. After some good advice from the elderly, I managed to grow quite a number of durian and langsat seedings. I also complimented my collections with a few dozens of the famous D24 durian clone.
All in all, I managed to plant close to two hundred durian trees of mixed species and about fifty langsat plantlets. Due to my limited financial resources then, most of the time those young plants were left to grow naturally on their own. Only occasionally were they fed with chemical fertilisers, usually after clearing which were only done at most twice a year.
Now that they have grown into young trees and I feel very glad it was not a disappointment after all. In fact, for the last couple of years, some of those trees have already learned how to bear fruits. In a few more years, majority of them would have been matured and I am expecting most of them to produce harvest. And many of my D24 clone look promising because for a number of years now, for whenever I went back home during durian seasons, the little blessings would be fairly shared amongst my siblings. I now no longer bring back durians fruits belonging to my parents, not because I am not allowed to, but because, as they say, I am now learning to enjoy the fruits of my own labour, in a small and humble way though.
And my langsat trees? It seems that I still need to patiently wait for some more years for them to bear fruits. I must admit that if I were to bring back langsat from my village, most probably that would still be my father's. Heh...heh...
My son (brown T-shirt) with his cousin posed for the camera in front of his dad's young durian trees.
Looking down from uphill of my mini durian orchard.
The panoramic view surrounding my mini orchard.
Another breathtaking view as seen from my humble durian farm.
A colony of wasps having a free rent on the branch of one of my durian trees.
A view of my humble house from uphill.
A preparation for my retirement years as seen from uphill.
My humble house, my humble mini orchard seen from the main road. Remember Lundu-Biawak Road story? Click here.
Another view from the main road.
6 comments:
Wahlau weh… such a nice place to be spent during the retirement! Congratulations to you, as you have reaped on what you’ve been sowed for those past many years.
My planted durian trees are still small in sizes. I just left it grown naturally in my so-called “nature park”. I only carry out the maintenance works occasionally, lah. Yup, I know that durian trees need sunlight, but I didn’t clear fell the surrounding, competing trees, as I know that some of those trees are useful for other purposes (air amelioration, etc.).
It’s quite true that less number of flying foxes (due to excessive hunting) could affect the fruiting ability of durians, as these mammals play a pivotal role in pollinating durian flowers. The “heat” is already been felt in our kampong areas. The durian trees did flowering, but less fruits at the end! So next time, do help conserve those flying foxes and other kind of wildlife!
Your next project: Jatropha curcas… Heh!
Dear Tiyung,
Thank you for your nice comment.
By nature, I am a conservationist though in a very minute way. My durians are interspersed with a few specimens of belian, selangan, meranti and a few more other species which I managed to gather in wild in those that.
As for Jatropha curcas thingy, I have yet to learn a thing or two about it but if my "fulus" permits, why not?
Wah! Meaning that we can exchange ideas on that! At my “nature park”, I also have four planted Belian saplings, three Engkabang Jantong saplings and three to four Kapor Keladan saplings – all seeds were “imported” from other areas within Sarawak…
About Jatropha curcas, well, it’s quite expensive if you go for it at once. I’ve done my own study on that: theoretically, 1 hectare of (native) land is to be planted with the exact number of 2,601 seedlings at a planting distance of 2 m x 2 m (i.e. 51 seedlings x 51 seedlings); the total cost of establishment per hectare is about RM11K+ (minus transportation and administration costs, which is estimated between 5-15% of the total cost – depending on your site location). Yes, we have to consider site preparation, contract workers’ wages (if any), etc.
At the moment, I’ve done a trial planting with 14 seedlings (only), where the seeds were also “imported” from other area within Sarawak! Out of 14 seedlings, 2 of them were “severely (b)eaten” by snails! So, snail baits should be put in place (around the tree base) right after planting. Otherwise, your so-called “investment” would be gone into waste. The market price for one Jatropha curcas seedling will cost you about RM2.00. This is the market price done by a local company in Samarahan (Alam Widuri). So, RM2.00 per seedling times 2,601 seedlings sudah jadi RM5,202.00! Well, I’m not sure about the current, market price right now. I can consider myself as lucky as I got the seeds for free lah… But then, if you go into genetic things, then you’ll be “pening kapla” lah, whether the seeds are genetically viable or not… Ahh, don’t bother about genetic lah!
Tanam suka-suka saja bah… I’m just doing it for the purpose of seed production. Beware: the seeds are poisonous, so DO NOT TRY to cook and eat it at your farm hut, OK! Heh…
de.... pane ale indah aku ka kampokng nanang gambar kita' koa. hu.... misti repo mun ampus ka koa owh. mun dah babuah kala' ame kaupa'atn ka aku boh. hehe
Your hideout is heavenly. Congratulations. Jehim will surely yearn to have such a park for his homestay programmes. Have you got the areas surveyed and registered? Watch out for smartly dressed sweet talking strangers! Taib and Jabu are eyeing!
Kudos.
Besar betul you punya durian plantation. SALCRA pun kalah.
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