Update 7 May 2012
Durian trees are very sensitive to the weather. The hot and dry months of April and May encourage massive blooming of its flowers, indicating plentiful harvest to be expected in July but not for season 2012. Besides bringing heavy rains, Nature’s fury with its violent Sumatra squalls menace every tree in Pulau Ubin. This time round the strongest are not spared, our favorite durian tree was toppled yesterday.
Update 9 April 2012
Durian season hasn’t arrived yet and so are its flowers which are yet to bloom. Please come back and check for updates in June.
Update 23 October 2011
According to Ubin villagers. A mini durian season is expected in November 2011. Harvest quality is not expected due to constant rains. For die-hard pickers.
Update 10 July 2011
Its the height of the durian season in Ubin with most of the durians already dropped. Still there are some late bloomers trees which should start dropping in the coming week before the season ends. This year’s harvests has been lower than previous year.
We got about seven durians last night. 2 of them are very good. One was dry with slight bitterness. Another was sweet. Rest have rotted or worms infested.
My friend KP Tan who helped out on the island saw massive crowds who heard of free durians, some carrying scraps of newspapers cutting with maps purportedly showing locations of durians. I haven’t seen the cuttings but if true, such tabloid journalism can put people into danger. The jungle floor near demolished houses contains rusty spikes and broken glasses. There are more than 10 deep boar pits dotted about which have been neglected. The villagers have reported their pets missing so we do not know if they are victims of predators or if they have fallen into the pits. One can easily fall into them and break a leg.
Update 2 July 2011
Our friends at Naked Hermit Crabs are planning a Chek Jawa boardwalk nature trip cum durian gathering on Saturday 9 July at 9.30am. Highly recommended. You’ll need to be at Changi Jetty by 8.00am to reach there on time.
Update 26 June 2011.
Durian season has just started in Pulau Ubin. The early fruits are usually premature or rotten ones. We camped overnight as it is fun as always. We brought our newly purchased flashlights to see how they performed in durian seeking department. The latest Surefire 3 cell ‘Invictus UB3T’ did not disappoint, the most powerful yet. It was able to light up durians from the topmost tree for a ‘census count’. The rate the durians fall over the next month will help us determine when it peaks to plan our next overnight camping trip.
We also brought Malkoff high-cri drop-ins. I am impressed by its excellent color rendition, good-runtime and excellent flood. Zebralight headlamps are a class of their own also. More pictures will be posted.
Line-up of flashlights we brought.
For boys and girls, your requests are being heard. Since there are so many search requests for “Ubin ghost”, this is probably how she looks like when we found her. Full details embargoed for now.
Update 12 Jun 2011. Durian season must be in the air. This site got so many hits for latest durian season updates. Went to the trees where I took pictures of its blossoms. It a total fail for one tree as none of its flowers got pollinated with no fruit. The other was a lot more promising with clusters of growing durian fruits. That was two weeks ago and a number of nonviable small ones have already dropped prematurely. Ubin’s durian season 2011 should start end June but no bumper harvest is expected. Meanwhile I went to Giant Hypermart just before closing and bought the “cat mountain king (猫山王)”, custard like and slightly bitter with ample flesh with its small seeds, at half price.
Update 2 April 2011: The full season should start at around July. Durian buds are now appearing. This is the actual photo taken. I will be tracking its growth stages for the next few months.
Update 18 April 2011
Durian flowers blossom at night and by midday they would fall and the grounds will be covered with them. Luckily I managed to catch them at mid-bloom. The air is sweet with their fragrance. And some say they taste great when cooked with curry!
