How to Plant Jackfruit Seeds? Detailed Planting Methods and Steps
Jackfruit is native to 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. It has extremely high cultivation value. Propagation can be done by seed propagation, bud grafting, or air layering, but seed propagation is the main method in most places. Let's take a look below at how to plant jackfruit seeds!
Seed Selection
The first thing in jackfruit seed propagation is, of course, seed selection. It is best to choose seeds from local jackfruit varieties with strong stress resistance and adaptability. Use fresh seeds extracted from the fruit, and the time should not exceed 48 hours. The seeds should be mature, plump, smooth on the outside, spotless, 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 immediately placed in clean water and rubbed with hands for 2 to 3 minutes. Wash them thoroughly, rubbing off the pulp 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 need to be disinfected. Use a carbendazim solution diluted 500 to 800 times 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 sand bed germination.
Sand Bed
The area of the jackfruit sowing sand bed can be determined according to the number of seeds. Use fine river sand as the germination bed, with a moisture requirement of 25%. When squeezed by hand, it should not stick to the hand and should immediately scatter apart. First spread 10 to 15 cm of sand as the base sand, and be sure to spread it level; smoothing it with a thin wooden board is best. For ease of management, generally make the bed surface 10 m long and 1 m wide.
Germination
After the base sand of the jackfruit sowing sand bed is laid, slowly spread the treated seeds on the sand bed. Spread the seeds apart so as not to hinder germination. After spreading the seeds, cover them with a layer of surface sand about 2 cm thick. Next, cover the germination bed with a layer of dry branches and weeds to further provide shade and moisture retention, and also to increase temperature.
Management
If germinating at 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 conditions of the sand bed and water promptly. The frequency of watering is not fixed; the principle is to keep the soil surface moist. After germination, remove the weeds.
Transplanting
The main root of jackfruit seedlings is particularly well developed, with very few lateral roots, making survival after transplanting difficult. 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 before transplanting to encourage it to grow more lateral roots and improve the survival rate. It is best to directly place them in nutrient seedling bags, 25×35 cm plastic bags, with nutrient soil made by composting cow dung and topsoil at a 3:7 ratio.