Buah dabai

I took this picture at morning wet markets in Sibu. When in season, the entire place would be crowded with buah dabai vendors. The buah dabai would be graded by size and freshness. Good profit for the vendors especially if they start selling before others.

Preparing P2

Some more pictures taken on P2. Land preparation will start mid December 08. After surveying the land, we will clear the land in stages. Quite a number of mature fruit trees to be kept - durian, local olive - buah dabai, langsat.

papaya tree

Papaya can grow almost anywhere. While a female tree bears fruit, a male tree only flowers. Although flowers can be eaten, most prefer the papaya. From large papaya to small exotica papaya .. some very sweet and others no so sweet. The ones that we are planting at the dusun are smaller fruit with a tougher fruitskin. Supposedly the fruit can last 4 or 5 days after plucking. Very sweet. It takes about 9 months for a papaya tree to mature and bear fruit.

papaya sprouts

Two months ago after sampling a very good papaya in KL that was RM10 per kg, I saved the seeds and took them back to my little nursery. Sowed the seeds onto the little black bags ... now at least 200 tiny papaya plants have sprouted. Next month they will be transplanted to the dusun.

This special papaya specie produces small but very sweet papaya. The uniqueness is the fruitskin is firmer and the papaya can last up to 4 or 5 days, which is ideal if we need to despatch them to the fruit wholesalers and vendors.

A peek into P2

Amidst the undergrowth and old abandoned rubber trees, there are quite a number of matured fruiting durian, langsat and local olive trees. Then there are other younger fruit trees, as you can see in the pictures above. The task in hand is to transform this plot of land into a dusun. What it takes is weeding, cutting away unwanted trees and shrubs ... still it will take some planning and hard labour !

limau madu

There are 33 mandarin orange clones registered with the DOA in the country, but only two are viable for commercial farming. The two clones are limau madu and limau langkat. The scientific name is citrus suhuiensis hort, and it belongs to the family of rutaceae. The tropical fruit is medium in size, the fruitskin is smooth .. green to yellowish green when ripe. Orange pulp and very sweet. The clone we intend to plant is limau madu or honey mandarin .

Maturity is 3 to 4 years after planting. First year of yield 8,000 kg per hectare of fruit. By the 6th year, the yield goes up to 24,000 kg. A non seasonal tree, fruiting is year round but peak season is Oct-Nov and Mar-Apr.

Per kg of limau madu is selling between RM 5-6 across the country.

P2 for honey mandarin

Several hundred metres away from P1, there is another plot of land. This plot of land, which we will call P2, used to be cultivated, however over time it had been left unattended. Now overgrown with jungle undergrowth, we need to do some clearing . Equally fertile, it will be ideal for our next dusun. P2 will be for growing honey mandarin or limau madu. It will be a government initiated project for 200 trees. Scheduled to start sometime in January 2009, we need to get the land ready for cultivation.

Above pictures show the discreet entrance. Not many will find this entrance , at least for now. Will take a tour of what's in store at P2 next couple of days.