How to Plant Jackfruit Seeds? A Detailed Guide to the Latest Planting Methods

Jackfruit originated in India and Southeast Asia, prefers a tropical climate, and thrives in frost-free areas with abundant annual rainfall. It was introduced to our country nearly a thousand years ago and is now mainly cultivated in Hainan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Taiwan, China and other parts of South China, and it has extremely high cultivation value. It can be propagated by seed, bud grafting, or air layering, but in most places seed propagation is the main method. Let us take a look below at how to plant jackfruit seeds!

Seed Selection

The first thing in propagating jackfruit from seed is, of course, seed selection. It is best to choose seeds from local jackfruit varieties with strong stress resistance and adaptability, and to use fresh seeds removed from the fruit, no more than 48 hours old. The seeds should be mature, plump, smooth on the outside, spot-free, free of external damage, and free of pests and diseases. Using such healthy seeds can ensure the germination rate. After seed selection is complete, proceed with seed treatment.

Washing the Seeds

The selected jackfruit seeds should be placed in clean water immediately and rubbed clean by hand, preferably for 2 to 3 minutes. They must be washed clean, rubbing off the fruit flesh and sugar on the seeds. If the seeds are cleaned thoroughly before sowing, ants will not be attracted, and other pests and diseases will not occur.

Disinfection

After washing the jackfruit seeds, the seeds should be disinfected. Use a 500-800 times dilution of carbendazim as the disinfectant. Add 15 kg of clean water to the prepared solution, pour the seeds into the solution, and let the seeds soak for 2 to 3 minutes. Next, make preparations for germination in a sand bed.

Sand Bed

The area of the sand bed for sowing jackfruit can be determined according to the number of seeds. Fine river sand should be used for the germination bed, with a moisture requirement of 25%. It should not stick to the hand when squeezed, and it should also crumble apart immediately. First spread 10 to 15 cm of sand as the base sand, and it must be spread level; smoothing it with a thin wooden board is best. For ease of management, the bed surface is generally made 10 m long and 1 m wide.

Germination

After the base sand is spread on the jackfruit sowing sand bed, spread the treated seeds evenly on the sand bed. The seeds should be spread apart so as not to hinder germination. After spreading the seeds, cover them with a layer of surface sand about 2 cm thick. Next, spread a layer of dry branches and weeds over the germination bed to further provide shade and retain moisture, and also to increase temperature.

Management

If germinating between 18 and 30°C, about 20 days is enough. If the weather is between 8 and 18°C, germination takes about 35 days. Observe the dry and wet condition of the sand bed and water it in time. The number of waterings is not fixed; the principle is to keep the soil surface moist. After sprouting, uncover the weeds.

Transplanting

The main root of jackfruit seedlings is especially well developed, with very few lateral roots, so they are not easy to survive transplanting. To overcome this shortcoming, it is best to shorten the main root when transplanting to separate beds, dip the root system in a 50 mg/kg rooting powder solution, and then transplant, so as to encourage it to grow more lateral roots and improve the survival rate. It is best to put them directly into nutritional seedling bags, 25×35 cm plastic bags, with the nutrient soil made by composting cow dung and topsoil at a 3:7 ratio.