TESTIMONIALS

Recently, the market price of Black Thorn (D200) has been encouraging and is higher than Musang King. This has raised the industry’s attention and has observed changes in the industry towards increasing the acreage of Black Thorn plantation. For those who have foreseen such potential of the Black Thorn and have invested in the plantation of this variety earlier, they are enjoying the gains from the current market price. Fellow farmer Wang Mei You was one of them.

Wang Mei You believed that producing quality Black Thorn durians was of utmost importance. Other than paying great attention to fertiliser management practice and applying quality fertiliser products, it was important to keep the production of each tree to be no more than 100 fruits, to avoid stressing the trees that would result in adverse impact to the quality.

Situated near the toll plaza of Bandar Baharu in Kedah, Wang Mei You’s 100-acre durian orchard is planted with Black Thorn for more than 10 years now. His orchard is a form of hill planting, and the slopes allow his 100-acre orchard to fit up to 600 Black Thorn trees. 2000 of these trees are of 10 years in age and the rest of the 4000 are less than 10 years.

It was out of pure interest that he ventured into Black Thorn durian plantation. “It was out of interest that I took the first step to venture into durian plantation. Throughout the 10 years, there had been ups and downs, where much time, effort and money were spent. Finally, it all turned out well.” 61-year-old Wang Mei You quoted a Chinese idiom “Heaven will not disappoint the person who put in hard works. (If you try hard, you will eventually succeed). Recently the durian demand started to gain momentum, which in turn provided me with better income.” Particularly it was quality improvement that contributed to the increasing popularity of Black Thorn, and in turn translated into higher income. He attributed his success solely to the quality products of AgroBridge (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.

Applying AgroBridge European-imported fertilisers and Wuxal

Wang Mei You shared that before flowering stage, he would take turn to apply AgroBridge foliar fertilisers from Germany, Wuxal Ascofol and Boron, each at 300ml mixed in 200L of water. During fruiting stage, he would still apply AgroBridge’s imported fertilisers from Europe, the 15-5-20 at 4kg to 5kg per plant and at variable quantity according to the age of the trees.

Other than these, he would combine Wuxal Calcium and K40, each at 300ml and mixed in 200L of water, to boost the weight of fruits and to prevent the fruits from splitting. He shared that every year the Black Thorns experience incremental yield and achieve noticeable quality improvement, which led to the fruits to grow to the have the desired aroma, yellow flesh and round structure. Above all, yield is secondary in his priority as he focuses heavily on the quality of the fruits. Therefore, he maintained the production of each tree to just 100 fruits to prevent over-stressing the trees and thus affected the quality of the fruits.

As the trees are recovering, he would apply AgroBridge imported fertiliser 15-15-15 to boost the growth of leaves and enhance the health of the trees. As a result of his proper fertiliser management practice and the resultant production of premium quality Black Thorns, he emerged as the champion in the Black Thorn competition category during the 2018 durian carnival at Bangi Golf Resort.