Today I attempted to graft durian for the first time. Earlier in the day I watched a bunch of YouTube tutorials on how to do it.
I visited an exotic fruit farm in Papaaloa to obtain some durian scions. I really love visiting other people’s farms to be all inspired. For the first time I got to see some 20+ year old durian trees up close, and they were starting to flower! This gave me a good idea how some of our trees might look in 15 years. Mind blown.
After picking and sampling a bunch of fruits we harvested some durian grafting material. Aside from the bounty of fruits, I was given a staghorn fern (I wanted one for a while).
I rushed home, tied the fern to a tree then I brought out the brand new felco grafting knife. Grafting is basically plant surgery and it is nerve-racking. I dunno…. I grafted five trees and if even one of them makes it I will be very happy. I probably did about 30 things wrong. We’ll see what happens in six weeks. Seeing that I want to start grafting cacao trees too I really have to practice, practice, and practice. Like a thousand more times.
Originally posted on 2021-08-30, part of the daily planting journal behind Ha’a Chocolate’s food forest on Hawai’i Island.