Durian!

First bought 2 saplings at Balok's pasar tani - the popular type is "Raja Kunyit". The pasar tani's operator is just a middleman - the saplings were from China man's nursery somewhere in Johor. At RM14/sapling, you get a healthy looking tree. Later on, I attempted the state's own Taman Pertanian Jubli Perak along the Kuantan Bypass (not far from UIA). The Taman Pertanian nursery is in a sorry state... with thin, malnourished saplings... There are several types of durian saplings - I can't remember the code numbers, but the alternative names are polititian's wives' name. Not quite good strategy though, for I tak sampai hati nak beli durian "Siti Hasmah"... heheh. Despite the poor saplings condition, I bought some anyway, at RM5/sapling.

But what do I expect? The Taman Pertanian's saplings only survived for about a month after replanting before they die off. I bought another Pasar Tani's type i.e. 101 variety (aka IOI, not the mall...) - as replacement. There are also a couple of trees that we planted from seeds. Our area is actually famous for its "durian Beserah" - especially "Durian Hijau" type that came from Ah Hu's farm (again), I did mentioned briefly earlier in the banana posting. The durian sells at more than RM14/kg and would only fall at RM8/kg during peak season when fruits aplenty. Now, why didn't I plant the durian hijau seeds? Beats me... However, my favorite is still the old "Durian Tembaga", planted by great-grand-dad at the kebun. Copper colored, creamy, thick and... no words can explain...

I found out that planting durian is not as fun as first thought, for the progress is so slowww... The first Raja Kunyit was planted about 6 months ago, but I hardly see any growth - except for one time when it produce a batch of new leaves... but hardly noticeable growth. Requires a lot of patients, I suppose. Now the trick is to just ignore the growth...