The climate here is quite different offering new challenges. I am not a person who asks for help from other people. I prefer to learn the hard way by experiencing for myself the pitfalls and enjoying the successes, however short lived they will be.
Davao City is close to the coast and the island of Samal. It boasts good views of the Mount Apo, the highest mountain in the Philippines, an old extinct volcano which towers at around 10,000 feet.
These two geological features seem to protect the city from severe winds. Typhoons are rarely heard of here. High temperatures and high intensity rainfalls are the two climatic conditions which govern what can be successfully grown here. With around 80% of sunshine it can be so hot that even the most hardy of plants can suffer some wilting.
Davao is famous for it's local fruit called the Durian. To be honest, I had never heard of this fruit before I first came here seven years ago.
The fruit has an unmistakable smell to it, and for this reason is banned from many public places. I would describe it as rather like a household gas leak smell. As you can see the fruit has a spiky exterior look to it and inside there are several compartments each containing a fruit segment.
Many local people love the taste of the Durian, but for me, I would say that you have to acquire a taste to really enjoy it.
Anyway, several months ago, a friend brought a fruit for me and my wife to try at our apartment. Whilst they enjoyed the fruit I was more interested in seeds that remained. I had never seen such big seeds. The biggest seeds I can recall planting before were cucumber or sunflower seeds. These were more the size of an egg.
I had looked up on the internet about growing Durian from seed and thought I would give it a go! I always enjoy watching the daily development of seedlings but what a fascinating experience it was watching these germinate and grow day by day! Here is the story!
These are the five seeds on a small plate and taken from the fruit on a Friday night in February 2013. We placed them in a sealed plastic bag with a little hot water and left them a few days in a warm position.
The photo shows that already after only 4 days they had started germinating. The seed casings were quite hard and I doubted whether they would rot sufficiently to allow further germination.
One week into the project the roots had started to search out water provided by a bed of soaked tissue placed in an old ice cream container.
By this time the trees had started to dig their roots in around and under the damp cotton wool which was added to the container to simulate a more soil like environment.
At this stage I removed one of the seedlings to discover that there had already been quite a bit of root development. Strong firmly bedded roots would probably be needed in order to lift the seed casting and force it from the developing baby leaves.
Now the leaves are starting to show. The temptation at this stage is to help the plants along by pulling them out of their husks but I resisted. I wanted to know how they would develop naturally. By this time the seed husks had turned a darker color.
Already some of the plants had started to lift the seed husks. What seemed like two strong leaves would hold the seed husk while a central stem started to grow.
The first seed husk has lifted and will soon be ready for transplanting. The photo below shows this more clearly.
The first tree was transplanted into a soil rich in rotting wood.
The second tree was transplanted into a heavy soil.
The remaining trees were transplanted a while later.
We tried different soils and, although some plants where slow growing at first, all eventually took to their individual soils and are growing quite well.
It is now early June and the trees are thriving.
I am reluctant to release them from their pots because they grow so rapidly.
