Stay focus

I have been faithful to my running shoes. Three times a week , I try to clock in the kilometres at the stadium. If I stay off the running tracks for a while , regaining stamina is more than difficult. It is like trying to restart an old car ... once I get the momentum going , I shouldn't stop. I need to stay focus.

Easier said than done , to stay focus I need cooperation from every part of my limbs. Each time I hit the running tracks , it is a challenge. Not only convince my limbs to exert extra energy , but to convince my brain not to give up.

The on-going battle gets harder each time a faster runner overtakes us. I need to remind myself to stick to my own mission of finishing the set objectives of 20 or 25 laps. Running after a faster runner usually throws me off my rhythm and pushes me to the brink of giving up. I try to reassure myself .. practise makes perfect and .. no shortcuts to success !

Of course, I need to remind myself .. I have a fridge magnet that says " you must do the thing that you think you cannot do " . Oh well ...

Life begins

In durian planting , there are various ways of propagation - budgrafting , cleft grafting and approach grafting. The most common practise with the farming community is to grow seedling rootstocks in black polybags , then grafted. Ideally the grafted plants are raised to 1 - 1.5 metres in the nursery. This is to enhance the survival rate , from unpredictable mother nature. But sometimes we do not have the perfect situation ! The clones from the government nursery are less than 1 metre. Much too young to our liking. Rather than waiting for them to be nursed at the green house, ours had to take the plunge ...

When it comes to planting holes , they are 0.6m x 0.6m x 0.6m . Holes are dug about 3 weeks before actual planting . The plants are then transplanted , together with compost. In our case , with the aftermath of land burning , soil conditions are perfect for any planting.

Care must be taken not to damage the roots of the plant. Right after planting , we erected temporary shades , using wide-spanned coconut leaves to shield from the hot afternoon sun. At least temperature came down a few notches for sure !

For fear of the plants drying up and getting roasted , watering is important. With all the hard work the past few months, we prayed The Lord for rain that evening. Our prayers were answered generously as it rained cats and dogs ...

Planting begins

Thirty feet apart , we organized the planting. We started from the top of the hill , moving down the slopes. A hilly terrain to work on , but very ideal for growing durian. We hired a few local farmers who not only had experience but more importantly green fingers .. yes there are daily paid farmers that one can get assistance. It really speeds up the process.

More seedlings

These were some of the other fruit seedlings that we planted , like longan, mango , lime and honey orange. The selected kampung durian seedlings were taller and more matured as we prepared them much earlier. Although not grafted durian seedlings , we wanted to add more varieties to the dusun. Our intent was to grow the finest durian varieties. So far we have planted mostly D24 , D101 and D88s .

Seedlings

Planting started on May 26, 2008 , Most of the seedlings were purchased from the government nursery station. Three main varieties were planted namely D24 , D101 and MDUR88 . These were amongst the most popular clones in Malaysia. Along with this we also selected some very good kampung durian clones.

This is the start of a long journey ... planting and nurturing and fertilizers. Most of the durian seedlings were planted at the slopes , each 30 feet apart. For the initial stage, a total of 42 durian seedlings were planted. There were a couple of mango , longan , honey orange and pandan coconut seedlings as well.