The distance between each tree plays a crucial role in the overall business model of a durian farm.
This factor is one of the first decisions a land owner needs to make so that all following decisions can be made based on this information.
The industry practice for describing the spacing between trees is usually stated as a number in footage times a number in footage.
For example, if the distance between each tree is 50 feet, then it would be stated as 50×50.
This methodology of presenting this information assumes that the plantation has trees planted in a grid arrangement. And each tree on the front, back, left and right are spaced apart by the number of feet mentioned.
The water irrigation system for instance will have to be designed by accounting for this distance between trees in order to create an optimal environment for threes to grow healthily and thrive.
New farmers today have a wealth of knowledge that they can tap onto since durians have been cultivated for hundreds of years. Ignore the collective wisdom of veteran farmers at your own risk.
If a rookie cannot decide what distance to space trees apart, the magic number that has been passed down for generations is 40×40.
This ensures that durian trees will not intrude into the space of others even if they grow to a century old.
Many newer farmers are unable to visualize how big their trees can eventually grow into and only think about the ground space for the roots and trunk.
But what they are not seeing is the spread of the branches and foliage.
Should 2 trees intersect and entangle with each other, it will affect their ability to harvest sunlight via photosynthesis. This in turn will inevitably affect their health.
While such affected trees can very well still produce good fruits, what the farmer gives up is better fruits and even more fruits. So planting trees close together fulling knowing that it can affect the trees’ growth is more motivated by the business strategy of generating as much revenue as possible in as short a time as possible.
With that said, it should be noted that the best fruit producing trees are not necessarily those that are left to grow on their own. After all a farmer’s job is to cajole his or her crops to provide the best harvest.
This is why an expert farmer know when and where to trim the trees. They can identify rough branches at a glance, fully knowing that they can cause problems if left unattended to.
They also know with a certain amount of certainty about where new branches will grow and in which direction.
So in a way, experienced expert farmers are able to control where the durian fruits will grow on the tree itself.
With the current gold rush of durian farming well on it’s way, more and more new entrants are involved in durian farms. More and more younger farmers are shrinking the distance between trees on their plantations so as to maximise the yield per acre.
As mentioned earlier, shorter distances between durian trees might not pose a problem in the first decade or so, but can be a nightmare scenario in future.
Granted, farmers can always prune old trees or even remove them. But this will deny the precious old trees a the chance to bask in their own glory.
If a tree has grown to an old age, it is such a shame that they are not allowed to grow freely.
But then, the role of the farmer comes in.
In recent years, more intensive cultivation of durians has seen the spacing between trees shortened to as low as 25×25, and even lower.
To put this into perspective, 1 acre of land can roughly house 27 trees at 40×40. For 25×25, this number goes up exponentially to 70 trees.
While this is obviously good for business, I personally don’t think it’s good for the trees in the long run.
And from a viewpoint of personal achievement, would you prefer to have 100 old trees that have more than enough room to grow even bigger, or 259 that have to have their growth artificially halted?
Again, I have to say that I do understand the business reasons for increasing the production rate. I just don’t agree with compromising the potential of the durian trees.
Type of durian cultivars
Recent studies have found that certain cultivars can be suitable for close planting.
It should obvious that different types of trees for different types of durians will have different characteristics.
And by a stroke of luck, black thorn durian trees tend to be shorter and smaller. Making them suitable for close planting.
With the high premium prices of black thorn and it’s suitability for close planting, it’s no wonder that newer farms are jumping into the black thorn bandwagon.
We are still not seeing a flush of black thorn supply because newer farmers of black thorn still don’t have trees that are mature enough to bear quality fruits.
We should see the supply increase sharply in the coming years.