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 ...