Durian fruit tree

[Cindy Adair]

We thought these were baby fruits, but our friends corrected us. We don't know if we'll get fruit and even if we do whether the strong smell will be tolerable, but we're still excited. I've never seen the fruit except in photos. The tree leaves have a pretty silver color underneath and the flowers are high up so any fruit will be a challenge to harvest. However, that's what ladders and fruit picker poles are for if we get lucky. Anybody growing these?

[aussiearoids]

You do not pick Durian from the tree but pick them up from the ground

Many other sp. in the family , oblongus has beautiful gold reverse to the leaf and much larger leaves .

[Madchemis]

Anybody in Southern California tried to grow this? Any success or problem to grow it here? Where can I find one?

thanks,

David

Edited May 2, 2011 by Madchemis

[paulgila]

i have never seen a tree or heard that it will grow here.

[aussiearoids]

uber-super-ultra tropical for equatorial wet tropics only

[Cindy Adair]

  On 5/2/2011 at 2:37 PM, aussiearoids said:

You do not pick Durian from the tree but pick them up from the ground

Many other sp. in the family , oblongus has beautiful gold reverse to the leaf and much larger leaves .

Thanks for the great photos and information! Nice to know if we get fruit that I won't need a ladder either!

As to where to get a tree, California Rare Fruit Gardeners group is a wonderful resource. In fact I found the ad for our farm in their magazine so I can rightly say that they changed my life!

[Manolitus]

  On 5/2/2011 at 8:12 PM, Madchemis said:

Anybody in Southern California tried to grow this? Any success or problem to grow it here? Where can I find one?

thanks,

David

Its never even survived long term in Miami, let alone flower or fruit. A rare fruit pioneer, Bill Whitman, who converted his house into a tropical fruit growing lab/experiment was never able to do it. It was one of only a handful of failures......

So I cant imagine it being possible anywhere in California........... UNLESS....You build a greenhouse thats at least 40 ft. tall... That's how big they get !

Manny

[aussiearoids]

Local commercial grower was dismayed at a large crop of Durians destroyed in Cyclone Larry 5 years ago , started experimenting with a trellis system 'open tatura' to protect his trees .

Even rescuing blown over trees by training the new growth onto wires .

Nearly all trees growing on these trellis's survived well in Cyclone Yasi earlier this year and a recent field day with our local Rare Fruits Australia group , we were all amazed at how well his trees had stood up to the devastating winds .

[Cindy Adair]

I'd never thought of espaliered Durians.... Neat idea.

[rprimbs]

  On 5/2/2011 at 8:12 PM, Madchemis said:

Anybody in Southern California tried to grow this? Any success or problem to grow it here? Where can I find one?

thanks,

David

I tried one down here.. It didn't make it through the winter. I even had a temporary greenhouse over it, but after a heavy rain I had a short that tripped the breaker -- and that caused my heater to stop working..

[fastfeat]

  On 5/4/2011 at 3:34 AM, rprimbs said:

  On 5/2/2011 at 8:12 PM, Madchemis said:

Anybody in Southern California tried to grow this? Any success or problem to grow it here? Where can I find one?

thanks,

David

I tried one down here.. It didn't make it through the winter. I even had a temporary greenhouse over it, but after a heavy rain I had a short that tripped the breaker -- and that caused my heater to stop working..

That's a rather impressive effort for SoCal!

How old was this plant before it died? Did you grow it from seed, or import from elsewhere?

[Madchemis]

Thank for everyone's input. I wonder and does anybody know if a grafted tree onto another type of friut tree that isn't so subtropical would have a chance here in So. Cal.? Have anybody done something like this?

-David

[Manolitus]

  On 5/4/2011 at 3:34 AM, rprimbs said:

  On 5/2/2011 at 8:12 PM, Madchemis said:

Anybody in Southern California tried to grow this? Any success or problem to grow it here? Where can I find one?

thanks,

David

I tried one down here.. It didn't make it through the winter. I even had a temporary greenhouse over it, but after a heavy rain I had a short that tripped the breaker -- and that caused my heater to stop working..

Wow. this is a pretty nice size seedling. I am very curious as well. Bought in California ? Hawaii then shipped ? How did it do in the shipping ??

Manny

[rprimbs]

  On 5/4/2011 at 5:20 AM, fastfeat said:

  On 5/4/2011 at 3:34 AM, rprimbs said:

  On 5/2/2011 at 8:12 PM, Madchemis said:

Anybody in Southern California tried to grow this? Any success or problem to grow it here? Where can I find one?

thanks,

David

I tried one down here.. It didn't make it through the winter. I even had a temporary greenhouse over it, but after a heavy rain I had a short that tripped the breaker -- and that caused my heater to stop working..

That's a rather impressive effort for SoCal!

How old was this plant before it died? Did you grow it from seed, or import from elsewhere?

I had it shipped from Hawaii. I think that it cost me $50 for shipping -- which wasn't too bad considering the size of the tree. But believe it or not it actually grew quite vigorously after I planted it in the ground. I was thinking that I had a good chance of making it through the winter.

I've tried growing durian from seed but I had trouble with phytophthora, and I have a suspicion that my tree did as well as it did because it was shipped with a little of the soil that it was grown in. I think that durians require certain mycorrhiza.

I've tried adding mycorrhiza to the soil that I started the seeds in and had bad luck. All of the plants that had the mycorrhiza added to the potting soil died, whereas the plants without the mycorrhiza continued to grow. So I think that mycorrhiza that I added was the wrong type.

Durians can be grown down here but they are definitely a greenhouse plant.

[Xenon]

I thought Durians were the most wimpy ultra tropicals...under 50F is fatal?

I remember watching a show where they hanged nets under Durian trees in Thailand to prevent them from maiming the unsuspected...

Durian is my favorite fruit, but it's only available frozen here

Jonathan

Edited May 7, 2011 by Xenon

[rprimbs]

  On 5/7/2011 at 3:51 AM, Xenon said:

I thought Durians were the most wimpy ultra tropicals...under 50F is fatal?

I remember watching a show where they hanged nets under Durian trees in Thailand to prevent them from maiming the unsuspected...

Durian is my favorite fruit, but it's only available frozen here

Jonathan

It's hardier than that, but not a lot. Mine started to show damage at around 40F and when temperatures got down into the 30's it died..

[aussiearoids]

Some durians need to be picked , just read that Durio oxleyanus can open on the tree and need to be picked . Lucky it has even more of a fragrance than the normal Durian .

[JD in the OC]

A customer of ours in Singapore says that there are highland varieties that are more cold hardy?...

[DoomsDave]

Durians won't grow here, that I know of.

But, they get here.

Shops in the right 'hoods are full of them, fresh, frozen, made into candies, tarts, roll-up-cookie thangs.

Nice, lightly sweet taste. Worth the trouble to get to grow.

[ariscott]

  On 5/2/2011 at 10:06 PM, aussiearoids said:

uber-super-ultra tropical for equatorial wet tropics only

they grow here....

[Stevetoad]

ranch 99 market on clairemont mesa blvd. has the fruit. i bought 2. the first one stunck up the house before i could open it and my wife threw it away. the second time we ate it... i didnt think it smelled to strong. taste wise it was kinda like vanilla pudding mixed with a natural gas smell. funky stuff

[fastfeat]

  On 7/21/2011 at 3:36 PM, Stevetoad said:

taste wise it was kinda like vanilla pudding mixed with a natural gas smell.

Yeah, nothing accents vanilla pudding quite like the additive to give natural gas an odor...

[paulgila]

its not so much the taste that gets me,its the texture--cheesy,kinda gooey but a lttle stringy all at once.

i wanted to like it but just couldnt get any down.

i had a durian shake,once,& it wasnt too bad if ya like sweet & garlic/onions all at once.

[Stevetoad]

  On 7/22/2011 at 5:17 PM, pohonkelapa said:

its not so much the taste that gets me,its the texture--cheesy,kinda gooey but a lttle stringy all at once.

i wanted to like it but just couldnt get any down.

i had a durian shake,once,& it wasnt too bad if ya like sweet & garlic/onions all at once.

i agree... the texture is super funky. i love garlic and onions just not mixed with banana pudding.

[Peter]

Best description I ever heard was that it was like eating a blancmange on the toilet.

[PalmatierMeg]

It's one of the few foods that gross Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods) out. He can't be in the same room with one much less eat it. This is a guy that eats lizard brains and fricassed chicken embryos.

[buccaneers37]

  On 7/22/2011 at 10:00 PM, PalmatierMeg said:

It's one of the few foods that gross Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods) out. He can't be in the same room with one much less eat it. This is a guy that eats lizard brains and fricassed chicken embryos.

While I wouldn't eat lizard brains or chicken embryos, I love Durian. Andrew Zimmern is a wimp! Just kidding . I was thinking of trying to get my dad to plant one down by the water at his house on Anna Maria Island to see if it was warm enough there, but I think he would kill me the first time it fruited & he got a whiff of the smell!! I guess I will have to rely on getting Durian shakes from the Vietnamese restaurant in Tampa & waiting on fresh fruit to come into my local oriental market.

This thread is getting me hungry. I think I'm going to Pho Quyen for dinner tonight and getting a Durian shake

[Stevetoad]

heres the one i ate...i love the scrambbled egg look. i swear this is the smell they add to natural gas so you can detect it...

[rprimbs]

  On 7/22/2011 at 10:54 PM, Stevetoad said:

heres the one i ate...i love the scrambbled egg look. i swear this is the smell they add to natural gas so you can detect it...

Gwyneth Paltrow described the durian as tasting the way a Texaco gas station bathroom smells during the middle of the summer..

I don't know if it's quite that bad, but it does have a little of that rotten onion smell -- which seems to go away as you eat more of them.

Edited July 24, 2011 by rprimbs

[Xenon]

Here's one my mom bought in Little Saigon yesterday, had some Phở too.

Nothing beats a durian smoothie or sinh tố sầu riêng in Vietnamese...

Jonathan

Edited July 24, 2011 by Xenon

[rprimbs]

  On 7/24/2011 at 6:47 PM, Xenon said:

Here's one my mom bought in Little Saigon yesterday, had some Phở too.

Nothing beats a durian smoothie or sinh tố sầu riêng in Vietnamese...

Jonathan

What's the recipe for a durian smoothie? It's not just milk and crushed ice and durian, is it?

[Xenon]

  On 7/24/2011 at 7:31 PM, rprimbs said:

  On 7/24/2011 at 6:47 PM, Xenon said:

Here's one my mom bought in Little Saigon yesterday, had some Phở too.

Nothing beats a durian smoothie or sinh tố sầu riêng in Vietnamese...

Jonathan

What's the recipe for a durian smoothie? It's not just milk and crushed ice and durian, is it?

It is, just durian, condensed milk, and ice. Most restaurants only use a little durian for the smell, but I like it when the smoothie is a light yellow color (normally a creme color in most Viet restaurants).

Jonathan

Edited July 24, 2011 by Xenon

[Alan_Tampa]

This thread is getting me hungry. I think I'm going to Pho Quyen for dinner tonight and getting a Durian shake

I go to Pho Quyen all the time. One of my favorites. I have eaten durian, I like it. Also, as for growing on Anna Maria, probably not going to make it. Try anyway, though. I've tried for years and these are more tender than mangosteen and fall victim to all sorts of fungus. One of the few trees Bill Whitman had little success with. One of the other species did perform better in South Florida , D. testudi -something.

I might try one on Siesta Key sometime soon.

Alan

[amazondk]

They grow fine here. But, they are hard to find. I would not mind planting one just for the novelty of it. It definately looks like a fruit that people love or hate. There are a lot of different native fruits here that few no outside of the region. Some of them other people love I find sort of hard to eat. But, others are delicious.

dk

[Madchemis]

For first time encounter in eating, I highly recommend fresh durain. The frozen one just doesn't taste the same and the smell is more pungent.

[aussiearoids]

Don a worthwhile tree to plant , search out some fruit and plant the seeds . They are fairly fast growing, seed has a reasonable period of viability as a local lady has collected many desirable species on trips to Borneo , posting back kilos and kilos of seed .

[kepel]

Indeed, these trees are immense. Here are two shots from the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens in Sri Lanka that I took earlier this month. This one is at least a century old and over 120 ft. tall:

These are about as old-note the buttressed roots at the base. These are about as large as these trees will get. Note the relative size of the adjacent people in the photos for scale:

[Cindy Adair]

Wow, what lovely old trees! Far bigger than any I've seen! Thanks for sharing them.

[Xenon]

Wow! Thanks for the amazing pics kepel! Would love to see more pics of Sri Lanka...

Welcome to Palmtalk!

Jonathan

[paulgila]

  On 7/22/2011 at 10:00 PM, PalmatierMeg said:

It's one of the few foods that gross Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods) out. He can't be in the same room with one much less eat it. This is a guy that eats lizard brains and fricassed chicken embryos.

he couldnt handle soursop,either,which doesnt have a funky taste like durian but does have a weird texture if yer not used to it.