Eight years later, the tree finally bears fruit.
What do you get?
There is no guarantee that a Musang King seed you sow will grow into a tree producing pure Musang King fruits.
Based on the laws of nature, you could end up naming your durian Musang Joker, Bad Musang or Musang Nonsense.
In March, the Johor government announced that the state’s 81,000ha of durian orchards recorded an annual production of 214,000 tonnes of the fruit.
With Penang island spanning about 30,000ha, Johor’s durian orchards collectively amount to nearly three times that area.
Johor’s durian tonnage comprises Musang King (40%), IOI (30%), Kampung Premium (20%) and Black Thorn (10%).
Data on Penang’s durian orchard sizes and tonnages is harder to acquire, but when you walk up to any Penang durian stall, you might be stunned by the variety.
You will find Ang Heh, Xiao Hong, Cheh Poay, Lipan, D600, D604, D11, D14, Capri, Tian Song, Black Thorn, Ang Bak Kia, Lin Feng Jiao and more.
A durian connoisseur will be able to tell the differences in taste, smell, texture and pulp thickness.
Some are extra bitter. Some leave a tingling sensation on the tongue.
Many carry hints of fermentation, honey, vanilla or even cinnamon.
I love Capri, D600 and D604, among the oldest varieties found only in Penang.
This season, I have developed a liking for D14, although it will take a few more tastings before it gets a spot on my must-have list.
You must survive many durian seasons and thousands of calories to build your own list.
Why does Penang have such a dizzying variety?
If there is land at your disposal, money and time, you might invest effort in a durian orchard.
You plant anonymous durian seeds and wait patiently.
Because of genetics and cross-pollination, this is essentially a durian gene roulette.
Perhaps only one in every 10 trees will produce truly exceptional fruit.
Let’s call that tree Dragon Reborn.
The fruits from the other nine trees may just be average ones.
So what is the next step?
You turn to what agriculturists call top-working grafting.
The underperforming trees are cut back, leaving only their roots, trunks and main branches.
Then you take scion wood from your Dragon Reborn and graft it onto your “headless” trees.
The scions grow into new branches.
Genetically, the roots and trunks still belong to the old trees while the fruiting branches and fruits carry the Dragon Reborn genes.
In Penang, many durian orchards are generations old, long before clones like D24 and Musang King gained mass-market fame.
Over decades of playing durian gene roulette, neighbouring orchard owners exchanged and bought scions, spreading successful clones throughout the island’s orchards.
Start a durian orchard from scratch today, and business logic dictates sourcing scion wood from the best-selling varieties.
That is why Musang King can become so widely planted in states with vast land areas that its price sometimes falls close to kampung durian levels towards the end of the season.
To durian lovers, here’s a tip _ savour no more than five or six varieties in a sitting.
Beyond that, your taste buds and sense of smell become overwhelmed, and every durian starts tasting the same.
