How to Grow Jackfruit? The Latest Planting Techniques and Methods Tutorial

Jackfruit is a tropical tree species that combines fruit, woody food, and valuable timber in one, also known as wood jackfruit, tree jackfruit, honey winter melon, etc. It is an evergreen tree of the genus Artocarpus in the Moraceae family, native to India and Southeast Asia, and has been introduced to China for nearly a thousand years. It is now mainly cultivated in Hainan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Taiwan, China and other places in South China, and has extremely high cultivation value. Let us take a look at the planting techniques of jackfruit together!

Site Selection

Jackfruit prefers a warm and humid tropical climate. It is not cold-tolerant, and the planting site is required to have an annual average temperature of ≥21°C, an average temperature in the coldest month of ≥13°C, and an absolute minimum temperature of ≥0°C. It has no strict requirements for soil and can grow normally in deep, fertile, loose, well-drained acidic soil, as well as slightly alkaline clay or sandy loam soil. Cultivation is best on low hills or flat land below 600 m in altitude.

Seed Propagation

During the main ripening period of jackfruit, select fully mature, normally developed, pest- and disease-free firm-fleshed fruits for seed selection, wash them clean with clear water, then spread them evenly on a sand bed for germination, cover the sand bed with fine sand 1-2 cm thick, then cover with a layer of rice straw, and water 1-2 times daily. After about 1 week, they will gradually sprout and take root. When the seedlings grow 1-2 true leaves, they can be transplanted to separate beds.

Bud Grafting Propagation

Jackfruit seedlings can be bud grafted once they grow to more than 1 cm, using the patch budding method. Select one-year-old, sun-facing, mature branches from superior varieties as scions. The scions should be kept moist during storage, and it is best to graft immediately after collecting. In Hainan, bud grafting can be done throughout the year, but the survival rate is higher during the rainy season and tree growth season from April to October, when the rootstock and scion peel easily and survive readily after grafting.

Orchard Establishment and Planting

For jackfruit, the spacing between plants and rows is 5-6 m × 6-7 m. Dig planting holes of 80 cm × 80 cm × 80 cm. Place weeds at the bottom of the hole, mix branches, leaves and 0.5 kg of lime, then backfill a layer of topsoil, and add pond mud, 30 kg of poultry and livestock manure, and 0.5 kg of phosphate fertilizer. Jackfruit can be planted in all four seasons, but spring planting (March to April) and autumn planting (September to November) are best. When planting, break up the soil in the planting hole finely, spread and straighten the seedling roots, then press in fine soil layer by layer, with the root collar level with the ground being appropriate. After planting, water thoroughly immediately to settle the roots, and cover the tree base with plastic film.

Rational Fertilization

1. Young trees: Young trees have a relatively shallow and narrow root distribution, so it is better to apply fertilizer frequently and lightly, preferably as water-soluble fertilizer. Generally, two fertilizations per flush of growth is more reasonable, namely a shoot-promoting fertilizer and a shoot-strengthening fertilizer. From before branch buds sprout until a small number of branch buds have sprouted, apply 20 g of urea per tree per time in the first year to promote shoots. When most young shoots have grown to 6 cm and the new leaves from the shoot base change from light green to dark green, apply compound fertilizer and potassium fertilizer to strengthen the shoots. In the first year, apply (20 g compound fertilizer + 15 g potassium sulfate) per tree per time, increasing year by year thereafter.

2. Fruiting trees: Fruiting trees are generally fertilized 3 times a year. Before flower spikes emerge, apply flower-promoting fertilizer, mainly compound fertilizer, with 1 kg compound fertilizer, 0.5 kg potassium sulfate, and 5 kg manure water per tree. Apply fruit-strengthening fertilizer during the young fruit stage, mainly nitrogen and potassium, to promote rapid fruit expansion, with 5 kg pig manure water, 0.5 kg urea, 0.5 kg compound fertilizer, and 0.5 kg potassium sulfate per tree. Apply post-harvest fertilizer in October together with renewal pruning, and heavy application of organic fertilizer should be used to promote adventitious bud germination and store nutrients for renewing the canopy, with 15 kg chicken manure, 0.5 kg urea, 1 kg compound fertilizer, and 0.5 kg superphosphate per tree.