Everything you need to know about jackfruit tree cultivation, growth and production. Learn about:- 1. Introduction to Jackfruit Tree 2. Climate and Soil Required for Growing Jackfruit 3.Propagation 4. Manuring and Fertilization 5. Harvesting and Postharvest Management 6. Pests and Diseases 7. Varieties 8. Uses.
Contents for Growing Jackfruits
- Introduction to Jackfruit Tree
- Climate and Soil Required for Growing Jackfruit
- Propagation of Jackfruit
- Manuring and Fertilization of Jackfruit
- Harvesting and Postharvest Management of Jackfruit
- Pests and Diseases of Jackfruit
- Varieties of Jackfruit
- Uses of Jackfruit
1. Introduction to Jackfruit Tree:
The jackfruit [Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. (syns. A. integrifolius Auct. NOT L. f.; A integrifolia L. f.; A. integra Merr.; Rademachia integra Thunb.)], of the family Moraceae, is also called jak-fruit, jak, jaca, and, in Malaysia and the Philippines, nangka; in Thailand, khanun; in Cambodia, khnor, in Laos, mak mi or may mi; in Vietnam, mit. It is an excellent example of a food prized in some areas of the world and allowed to go to waste in others. It is popularly known as the poor man’s food in the eastern and southern parts of India.
The origin of jackfruit is unknown, however, it is believed indigenous to the rainforests of the Western Ghats. It is cultivated at low elevations throughout India, Burma, Ceylon, southern China, Malaya, and the East Indies. It is common in the Philippines, both cultivated and naturalized. It is grown to a limited extent in Queensland and Mauritius. In Africa, it is often planted in Kenya, Uganda and former Zanzibar.
It was introduced into northern Brazil in the mid-19th Century and is more popular there and in Surinam than elsewhere in the New World. In Ceylon it is planted mainly for timber, with the fruit a much-appreciated by-product. Away from the Far East, the jackfruit has never gained the acceptance accorded the breadfruit (except in settlements of people of East Indian origin). This is due largely to the odor of the ripe fruit and to traditional preference for the breadfruit.
In South India, the jackfruit is a popular food ranking next to the mango and banana in total annual production. There are more than 100,000 trees in backyards and grown for shade in betelnut, coffee, pepper and cardamom plantations.
Jackfruit grows wild in the forests of Western and Eastern Ghats of India and a few species, namely, A. chaplasha, A. hirsutus and A. lakoocha are available in nature in Assam, West Bengal in the Eastern India and in the Andaman Islands. The total area planted to jackfruit in all India is calculated at 14,826 acres (26,000 ha). Government horticulturists promote the planting of jackfruit trees along highways, waterways and railroads to add to the country’s food supply.
Jackfruit is a good source of vitamin A, C, minerals, carbohydrates and pectin. The flakes (4.6%), seeds (1.6%), sterile flowers (3.7%), skin (3.2%) and core (2.1%) contain calcium pectate. The tender jackfruits are used as vegetable. The skin of the fruit and its leaves are excellent cattle feed.
Tree provides valued timber for furniture because wood is resistant to white ants and the latex obtained from bark contains resin. Pickles and dehydrated leather are its preserved delicacies. They can be bottled and served after mixing with honey and sugar. Nectar is prepared from its pulp.
The tree is handsome and stately, 30 to 70 ft (9-21 m) tall, with evergreen, alternate, glossy, somewhat leathery leaves to 9 in (22.5 cm) long, oval on mature wood, sometimes oblong or deeply lobed on young shoots. All parts contain sticky, white latex. Short, stout flowering twigs emerge from the trunk and large branches, or even from the soil-covered base of very old trees.
The tree is monoecious- Tiny male flowers are borne in oblong clusters 2 to 4 in (5-10 cm) in length; the female flower clusters are elliptic or rounded. Largest of all tree-borne fruits, the jackfruit may be 8 in to 3 ft (20-90 cm) long and 6 to 20 in (15-50 cm) wide, and the weight ranges from 10 to 60 or even as much as 110 lbs (4.5-20 or 50 kg).
The “rind” or exterior of the compound or aggregate fruit is green or yellow when ripe and composed of numerous hard, cone-like points attached to a thick and rubbery, pale yellow or whitish wall.
The interior consists of large “bulbs” (fully developed perianths) of yellow, banana-flavored flesh, massed among narrow ribbons of thin, tough undeveloped perianths (or perigones), and a central, pithy core. Each bulb encloses a smooth, oval, light-brown “seed” (endocarp) covered by a thin white membrane (exocarp).
The seed is ¾ to 1 ½ in (2-4 cm) long and ½ to ¾ in (1.25-2 cm) thick and is white and crisp within. There may be 100 or up to 500 seeds in a single fruit. When fully ripe, the unopened jackfruit emits a strong disagreeable odor, resembling that of decayed onions, while the pulp of the opened fruit smells of pineapple and banana.
2. Climate and Soil
Required for Growing Jackfruit:
The jackfruit is adapted only to humid tropical and near-tropical climates. It is preferred in homesteads, as a shade-tree or as a mixed crop. It is sensitive to frost in its early life and cannot tolerate drought. If rainfall is deficient, the tree must be irrigated. In India, it thrives in the Himalayan foothills and from sea- level to an altitude of 5,000 ft (1,500 m) in the south. It is stated that jackfruits grown above 4,000 ft (1,200 m) are of poor quality and usable only for cooking.
The tree ascends to about 800 ft (244 m) in Kwangtung, China. It grows well in a warm, humid climate up to an elevation of 1,500 m. In south India, it performs satisfactory in arid and warmer plains. However, it cannot tolerate cold and frost.
The jackfruit tree flourishes in rich, deep soil of medium or open texture, sometimes on deep gravelly or laterite soil. It can also be grown on open textured or lateritic soil provided sufficient nutrients are available. It will grow, but more slowly and not as tall in shallow limestone. In India, they say that the tree grows tall and thin on sand, short and thick on stony land. It cannot tolerate wet feet. If the roots touch water, the tree will not bear fruit or may die.
3.
Propagation of Jackfruit:
Propagation is usually by seeds. Seeds cannot be kept longer than a month before planting. Germination needs 3 to 8 weeks. The seeds are soaked in water for 24 hours and if soaked in 10% solution of gibberellic acid, it results in 100% germination or soaking seeds in 25 ppm NAA for 24 hr improves their germination and seedling growth. The seeds may be sown in situ or may be nursery-germinated. The seedlings may be transferred at 4 leaves stage. Advanced stage seedling with long and delicate tap root are difficult to transplant successfully.
Budding and grafting methods are unsuccessful. Either jackfruit or champedak (q.v.) seedlings may serve as rootstocks and the grafting may be done at any time of year. Inarching has been practiced and advocated but presents the same problem of transplanting after separation from the scion parent.
At Calcutta University, cuttings have been successfully rooted only with forced and etiolated shoots treated with indole butyric acid (preferably at 5,000 mg/l) and kept under mist. Tissue culture experiments have been conducted at the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore. Soaking one-month-old seedlings in a gibberellic acid solution (25-200 ppm) enhances shoot growth. Gibberellic acid spray and paste increase root growth. In plantations, the trees are set 30 to 40 ft (9-12 m) apart.
Air layering, grafting (inarching and epicotyl) and budding (forkert, chip and patch) are means of its vegetative propagation. At Konkan, it gives a success of 50-90% through epicotyl grafting performed during April-May, with grafts attaining planting size within a year.
Young plants should be protected from sunscald and from grazing animals, hares, deer, etc. Seeds in the field may be eaten by rats. The young seedling should be raised in a 3 to 4 ft (0.9-1.2 m) bamboo tube, then bending over and coiling the pliant stem beneath the soil, with only the tip showing. The plants of Jackfruit should be planted in a square system (hexagonal if the soil is less fertile) 12 m apart, June-August is ideal time for planting.
Such plants after 5 years will produce large and fine fruits on the spiral underground. In Travancore, the whole fruit is buried, the many seedlings which spring up are bound together with straw and they gradually fuse into one tree which bears in 6 to 7 years.
Seedlings may ordinarily take 4 to 14 years to come into bearing, though certain precocious cultivars may begin to bear in 2 ½ to 3 ½ years.
The jackfruit is a fairly rapid grower, reaching 17.5 m in height and 28 in (70 cm) around the trunk in 20 years in Ceylon. It is said to live as long as 100 years. However, productivity declines with age.
In Thailand, it is recommended that alternate rows be planted every 10 years so that 20-year-old trees may be routinely removed from the plantation and replaced by a new generation. Little attention has been given to the tree’s fertilizer requirements. Severe symptoms of manganese deficiency have been observed in India.
4. Manuring and Fertilization
of Jackfruit:
Its plants need adequate nutrition for regular and good cropping. Apply 80 kg farmyard manure to a tree annually along with chemical fertilizers.
For obtaining higher productivity, the following fertilizer schedule is recommended (Table 28.2):
5. Harvesting and Postharvest Management of Jackfruit:
Seedling trees start bearing from seventh to eighth year onwards while the grafted ones from third year, when a few fruits may develop. Singapore variety starts yielding from third year of planting. The tree attains its peak bearing stage in about 15-16 years of planting.
At this stage, normally a tree bears up to 250 fruits annually with annual fluctuations in yield. The weight of fruits also varies depending on the type. On an average about 40-50 tonnes of fruits/ha could be obtained.
Fruits mature 3 to 8 months from flowering. In Jamaica, an X is sometimes cut in the apex of the fruit to speed ripening and improve flavor.
In India, a good yield is 150 large fruits per tree annually, though some trees bear as many as 250 and a fully mature tree may produce 500, these probably of medium or small size.
Jackfruits turn brown and deteriorate quickly after ripening. Cold storage trials indicate that ripe fruits can be kept for 3 to 6 weeks at 52° to 55°F (11.11°-12.78°C) and relative humidity of 85 to 95%.
6. Pests and Diseases of Jackfruit:
Principal insect pests in India are the shoot-borer caterpillar, Diaphania caesalis; mealybugs. Nipaecoccus viridis, Pseudococcus corymbatus, and Ferrisia virgata, the spittle bug, Cosmoscarta relata, and jack scale, Ceroplastes rubina.
The most destructive and widespread bark borers are Indarbela tetraonis and Batocera rufomaculata. Other major pests are the stem and fruit borer, Margaronia caecalis, and the brown bud-weevil, Ochyromera artocarpio.
In southern China, the larvae of the longicorn beetles, including Apriona germarri; Pterolophia discalis, Xenolea tomenlosa asiatica, and Olenecamptus bilobus seriously damage the fruit stem. The caterpillar of the leaf webbers, Perina nuda and Diaphania bivitralis, is a minor problem, as are aphids, Greenidea artocarpi and Toxoptera aurantii; and thrips, Pseudodendrothrips dwivarna.
Diseases of importance include pink disease, Pelliculana (Corticium) salmonicolor, stem rot, fruit rot and male inflorescence rot caused by Rhizopus artocarpi; and leafspot due to Phomopsis artocarpina, Colletotrichum lagenarium, Septoria artocarpi, and other fungi. Gray blight, Pestalotia elasticola, charcoal rot, Ustilana zonata, collar rot, Rosellinia arcuata, and rust, Uredo artocarpi, occur on jackfruit in some regions.
The fruits may be covered with paper sacks when very young to protect them from pests and diseases.
7. Varieties
of Jackfruit:
Jackfruit is a cross-pollinated and seed propagated crop. The fruits differ widely in density of spines, rind, bearing, size, shape, quality and period of maturity.
In South India, jackfruits are classified as of two general types:
1. Koozha chakka, the fruits of which have small, fibrous, soft, mushy, but very sweet carpels.
2. Koozha pazham, more important commercially, with crisp carpers of high quality known as Varika.
These types are apparently known in different areas by other names such as Barka, or Berka (soft, sweet and broken open with the hands), and Kapa or Kapiya (crisp and cut open with a knife). The equivalent types are known as Kha-nun nang (firm; best) and Kha-nun lamoud (soft) in Thailand; and as Vela (soft) and Varaka, or Waraka (firm) in Ceylon. The Peniwaraka, or honey jak, has sweet pulp, and some have claimed it the best of all. The Kuruwaraka has small, rounded fruits.
In 1961, the Horticultural Research Institute at Saharanpur, India, reported the acquisition of air-layered plants of the excellent varieties, Safeda, Khaja, Bhusila, Bhadaiyan and Handia and others. In Assam, nurserymen have given names such as ‘Mammoth’, ‘Everbearer’, and ‘Rose-scented’ to preferred types.
In India, local selections are named as Gulabi (rose-scented), Champa (flavour like that of champak) and Hazar (bearing a large number of fruits). The varieties can be divided in to two cultivated types – (1) Soft-fleshed and (2) firm-fleshed.
Variability can be observed in evergreen forests of the Western Ghats, Gorakhpur, Dewaria. In these forests jackfruits may be of 40 kg weight. In Allahabad, jackfruits are small with white, juice and soft pulp.
8. Uses of Jackfruit:
1. Food Uses:
Westerners generally will find the jackfruit most acceptable in the full-grown but unripe stage, when it has no objectionable odor and excels cooked green breadfruit and plantain. The fruit at this time is simply cut into large chunks for cooking, the only handicap being its copious gummy latex which accumulates on the knife and the hands unless they are first rubbed with salad oil. The chunks are boiled in lightly salted water until tender, when the really delicious flesh is cut from the rind and served as a vegetable, including the seeds which, if thoroughly cooked, are mealy and agreeable.
The latex clinging to the pot may be removed by rubbing with oil. The flesh of the unripe fruit has been experimentally canned in brine or with curry. It may also be dried and kept in tins for a year. Cross sections of dried, unripe jackfruit are sold in native markets in Thailand. Tender young fruits may be pickled with or without spices.
If the jackfruit is allowed to ripen, the bulbs and seeds may be extracted outdoors; or, if indoors, the odorous residue should be removed from the kitchen at once. The bulbs may then be enjoyed raw or cooked (with coconut milk or otherwise); or made into ice cream, chutney, jam, jelly, paste, “leather” or papad, or canned in syrup made with sugar or honey with citric acid added.
The crisp types of jackfruit are preferred for canning. The canned product is more attractive than the fresh pulp and is sometimes called “vegetable meat”. The ripe bulbs are mechanically pulped to make jackfruit nectar or reduced to concentrate or powder. The addition of synthetic flavoring – ethyl and n-butyl esters of 4-hydroxybutyric acid at 120 ppm and 100 ppm, respectively greatly improves the flavor of the canned fruit and the nectar.
If the bulbs are boiled in milk, the latter when drained off and cooled will congeal and form pleasant, orange colored custard. By a method patented in India, the ripe bulbs may be dried, fried in oil and salted for eating like potato chips. Candied jackfruit pulp in boxes was being marketed in Brazil in 1917. Improved methods of preserving and candying jackfruit pulp have been devised at the Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, India.
Ripe bulbs, sliced and packed in syrup with added citric acid, and frozen, retain good color, flavor and texture for one year. Canned jackfruit retains quality for 63 weeks at room temperature – 75° to 80°F (23.89°-26.67°C), with only 3% loss of B-carotene. When frozen, the canned pulp keeps well for 2 years.
In Malaya, where the odor of the ripe fruit is not avoided, small jackfruits are cut in half, seeded, chilled, and brought to the table filled with ice cream. The ripe bulbs, fermented and then distilled, produce a potent liquor.
The seeds, which appeal to all tastes, may be boiled or roasted and eaten, or boiled and preserved in syrup like chestnuts. They have also been successfully canned in brine, in curry, and, like baked beans, in tomato sauce. They are often included in curried dishes. Roasted, dried seeds are ground to make a flour which is blended with wheat flour for baking.
Where large quantities of jackfruit are available, it is worthwhile to utilize the inedible portion, and the rind has been found to yield a fair jelly with citric acid. A pectin extract can be made from the peel, undeveloped perianths and core, or just from the inner rind; and this waste also yields a syrup used for tobacco curing. Tender jackfruit leaves and young male flower clusters may be cooked and served as vegetables.
The pulp constitutes 25-40% of the fruit’s weight. In general, fresh seeds are considered to be high in starch, low in calcium and iron; good sources of vitamins B1 and B2.
Even in India there is some resistance to the jackfruit, attributed to the belief that overindulgence in it causes digestive ailments. Burkill declares that it is the raw, unripe fruit that is astringent and indigestible. The ripe fruit is somewhat laxative; if eaten in excess it will cause diarrhea. Raw jackfruit seeds are indigestible due to the presence of a powerful trypsin inhibitor. This element is destroyed by boiling or baking.
2. Other Uses:
i. Fruit:
In some areas, the jackfruit is fed to cattle. The tree is even planted in pastures so that the animals can avail themselves of the fallen fruits. Surplus jackfruit rind is considered a good stock food.
ii. Leaves:
Young leaves are readily eaten by cattle and other livestock and are said to be fattening. In India, the leaves are used as food wrappers in cooking, and they are also fastened together for use as plates.
iii. Latex:
The latex serves as birdlime, alone or mixed with Ficus sap and oil from Schleichera trijuga Willd. The heated latex is employed as household cement for mending chinaware and earthenware, and to caulk boats and holes in buckets. The chemical constituents of the latex have been reported by Tanchico and Magpanlay. It is not a substitute for rubber but contains 82.6 to 86.4% resins which may have value in varnishes. Its bacteriolytic activity is equal to that of papaya latex.
iv. Wood:
Jackwood is an important timber in Ceylon and, to a lesser extent, in India; some is exported to Europe. It changes with age from orange or yellow to brown or dark-red; is termite proof, fairly resistant to fungal and bacterial decay, seasons without difficulty, resembles mahogany and is superior to teak for furniture, construction, turnery, masts, oars, implements, brush backs and musical instruments.
Palaces were built of jackwood in Bali and Macassar, and the limited supply was once reserved for temples in Indochina. Its strength is 75 to 80% that of teak. Though sharp tools are needed to achieve a smooth surface, it polishes beautifully. Roots of old trees are greatly prized for carving and picture framing. Dried branches are employed to produce fire by friction in religious ceremonies in Malabar.
From the sawdust of jackwood or chips of the heartwood, boiled with alum, there is derived a rich yellow dye commonly used for dyeing silk and the cotton robes of Buddhist priests. In Indonesia, splinters of the wood are put into the bamboo tubes collecting coconut toddy in order to impart a yellow tone to the sugar.
Besides the yellow colorant, morin, the wood contains the colorless cyanomaclurin and a new yellow coloring matter, artocarpin, was reported by workers in Bombay in 1955. Six other flavanoids have been isolated at the National Chemical Laboratory, Poona.
v. Bark:
There is only 3.3% tannin in the bark which is occasionally made into cordage or cloth.
vi. Medicinal Uses:
The Chinese consider jackfruit pulp and seeds tonic, cooling and nutritious, and to be “useful in overcoming the influence of alcohol on the system.” The seed starch is given to relieve biliousness and the roasted seeds are regarded as aphrodisiac. The ash of jackfruit leaves, burned with corn and coconut shells, is used alone or mixed with coconut oil to heal ulcers.
The dried latex yields artostenone, convertible to artosterone, a compound with marked androgenic action. Mixed with vinegar, the latex promotes healing of abscesses, snakebite and glandular swellings. The root is a remedy for skin diseases and asthma. An extract of the root is taken in cases of fever and diarrhea. The bark is made into poultices. Heated leaves are placed on wounds. The wood has a sedative property; its pith is said to produce abortion.