During Winter you should keep the plant inside a greenhouse when it is still young.

This tree grows huge and there is no way I can build a greenhouse large enough. Plus it would cost a more that what the fruit is worth to heat up the greenhouse.

The seed was sprouted during the winter. The seeding is about 7 months old. It already got a feel of cold weather when it started off as a seed. It was never taken indoor.

Since the cold weather didn't kill it when it was extremely young, maybe it could survive the next winter.

It took two months for those little tiny leaves to sprout out.

And chances are- the next winter will off it. I have have seen the same pattern here in my cool 10a climate with some tropicals. That Breadfruit looks so much like my Delonix did. I had three,down to one.

Your best chance then is too plant it and in winter put up a temporary greenhouse around it.

Where did you get the seeds? I heard the frozen ones found in the Asian food store aren't viable because of irridiation? However, I've successfully sprouted things like lychee, longan and rambutan and they all were store bought. I would love to plant a durian. Maybe I should get a frozen fruit?

My brother bought the seeds back from his trip to Asia.

The next thing I want is a mangosteen.

As I know none has successfully grown Durian in Florida (outside). Durian is ultratropical plant

Durians can cope with heat and dry provided they're well watered. There's a Durian plantation not far from here. They have good soil and provide irrigation during our dry season when relative humidity can drop below 20% during the heat of the day. They grow other tropical fruit commercially as well but their main product is Durian.

I've been field trialing seed-grown durian outside in Florida (zone 10b) for the past year or so. My personal experience is that not all durian varieties will survive here, but some just might. Red Prawn, for example, died pretty much instantly when I planted it (twice). But some varieties - XO and Sultan, for example - appear to be faring quite well.

You obviously did not understand what I was saying. Seedlings need to be kept in a greenhouse. You can plant them outside after the tree reaches 3 or 4 feet tall.

Winter + Small plant size = needs Greenhouse

You don't even necessarily have to heat the greenhouse, by itself the inside of a greenhouse will usually be about 10° warmer than the outside.

Are you growing durian in South Florida? I'm very interested in learning from your experience with them. Which varieties do you grow?

Durian can grow in Miami. other parts of Florida may be more difficult...

I'm crossing my fingers that they can. I'm over-wintering 3 trees outside this year. We'll see how it goes :-)

Just bring the trees inside for 3 weeks during the coldest part of Winter. A grow light would be helpful during this time as well. Maybe just bring them inside on a cold winter night in January, when you know temperatures are going to be dropping really low. If they've already lost all their leaves, there's no point in keeping them outside.

I'm a bit concerned about uprooting them. All three have taproots and I've read that they really hate being moved once their taproots are in the ground. I'm not sure if this is true or not but I'd hate to see them die as a result of transplanting. They've been in the ground for about 8 months now.

Oh, when you mentioned "over-wintering" them I thought they were in pots. Yes then, you should leave them in the ground.

What part of Florida are you in? I can probably give you some idea what the odds of survival are. If you're in zone 9, that's going to be a no-no.

I'm in 10b (Miami-Dade).

I'm planning to blanket the trees on the coldest days of winter because they are still relatively small, but the point of my trial is to determine if there are any varieties that will over-winter here without extra protection. So I do expect some fatalities. Once the trees achieve a decent size (say 6-7 feet), they will be on their own.

My goal is limited commercial cultivation, and blanketing fields of durian for winter is probably not going to be a viable option for commercial growers.

My name is Scott by the way. It's a pleasure "talking" to you :-)

I'm interested in growing durian too, but I doubt I can make it grow in 9b FL. For those of you who have managed to grow, do you grow them for personal consumption or for commercial reasons? I know the fruit being sold as exotic fruit in the Asia grocery stores has a hefty price tag and only a few can appreciate the taste of it. I wonder if it comes as a dwarf variety. If so, it can be grown in the greenhouse and that would be ok, I suppose.

Does this durian tree look like it's a dwarf variety, or is it a young tree with an early fruiting capability?

Good question!

I'm not aware of any dwarf varieties, but I'm absolutely not a durian expert. The tree in your picture may be grafted but, honestly, I don't know.

I'm growing my plants both for personal pleasure and for possible commercial purposes - if any of them actually survive here :-) Unfortunately, none of my plants are fruiting size yet. I've read that it can take 15 years or more from seed - which is why commercial growers use grafted plants.

To control the height of the tree you can simply cut the main leader. This is already being done for Tatura trellis growing method in Australia. For more info, see the YearOfTheDurian blog.

There's no reason not to try a plant indoors or in a greenhouse in 9b. You can always move it outside in the summer :-)

I'm guessing 60% of the people here wouldn't be able to stomach a durian. It has an extremely pungent and foul onion-like aftertaste and aroma that does not leave your mouth. It is not a clean taste. The stench penetrates your innermost being exudes from your body. Like Jackfruit taken to a whole other level.

Do not forget, the fruit of the durian is adapted in its natural environment to be eaten by tigers, so it is not surprising that part of the aroma is reminiscent of something like rotting meat. The other part is reminiscent of vanilla custard.

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Durian is delicious! Even the frozen fruit is great. Ya, it can have a fairly strong smell depending upon the species and variety, but the flavor is absolutely addicting! YUM!

I think South Florida has seen plenty of GW. Its why coconut palms are growing in Orlando now. So,Durian in the best Miami 10b's could be done.

Also Scott- so many tropical's grown in "marginal" climates are then claimed to have better flavor. You read that over and over. Like Coffee beans in California for one. The slight stress alters the flavor in a positive way.

So,you might get Durian fruit with less Onion flavor!..you never know until you try.

I have 3 types of Durians growing and in winter I put them in a heated greenhouse and this is in central Fl also have Rumbutan red and yellow and Pulasan and Mangosteen purple

How old are you trees HU. I ask because I just planted some rambutan seeds and wondered if the would survive here.

I recently saw a YouTube video where some farm -- in Thailand, I think -- had brought the time down on getting durians to fruit. They had trees fruiting at 5 years of age. Almost certainly all were grafted varieties, not seedlings. I also saw a photograph of a durian that had fruited in a large pot, and I mean with a number of full-sized fruits growing on its main trunk and lower limbs. I'm going to try sprouting some seeds this year and just see what I can do with them. I've grown durian seedlings before, in Atlanta, but only to sell to others. At the time I had no way to keep a tropical tree of any size.

It sounds like seedling durian plants need to be kept in a heated greenhouse during winter time even if the cold hardiness zone is 10b which is what it is in my area near Newcastle in New South Wales in Australia which is near Sydney.While our summers are ideal because it gets warm,wet and humid our winters aren't , 2 of mine died when the temperatures got below 50°F & when it got down to about 33-34°F inside of the greenhouse overnight !