Soil stabilization:
Jack Fruit Tree
The tree can be planted on farms to control soil erosion.
Crop shade/overstory:
Jackfruit is used as a shade tree for coffee, pepper, betel nut, and cardamom. Because the tree casts a deep shade, wide spacing such as 15 x 15 m (50 x 50 ft) is recommended unless the intercrop is considered shortterm.
Intercropping:
In the Philippines, jackfruit has been used as an intercrop with coconuts. Other intercrops include durian, mango, and citrus. At an early age, shortterm crops such as banana, sweet corn, and groundnut have been grown.
Homegardens:
Jackfruit makes an excellent tree for a homegarden for its beautiful foliage, many products, and bountiful production. One large tree in its prime can supply fruit for several families.
Windbreaks:
Jackfruit makes a very good component in a multispecies windbreak and has been known to withstand hurricane force winds. Because the fruit is borne on the main trunk and interior of larger branches, fruit damage due to moderate wind is minimal. Silvopasture Livestock readily eat jackfruit foliage, so young trees would not survive exposure to grazing animals. However, livestock can be pastured among mature trees. Fallen fruit are readily eaten by livestock and make an excellent contribution to their diet.
Host plant trellising:
Jackfruit has been used a support for pepper vine and yam (Dioscorea spp.).
Ornamental:
Jackfruit has glossy, medium to deep green foliage and makes a wonderful ornamental. The highly fragrant fruit may be offensive to neighbors, which can be a drawback to growing jackfruit near houses, especially in urban areas.
USES AND PRODUCTS:
Staple food:
The pulp of the young fruit is cooked as a starchy food and has a consistency resembling meat. The young fruit is also pickled or canned in brine or curry.
Fruit:
The ripe fruit is eaten fresh or is processed into numerous delicacies including jam, jelly, and chutney. It also makes an excellent dried fruit or preserved candy when combined with sugar or honey. The pulp is also used as a flavoring in ice cream and drinks. Canned fruit is available in ethnic markets (e.g., Hawai‘i).
Nut/seed:
The seeds must be cooked by boiling or roasting prior to eating. They are an excellent addition to curries, or can be eaten freshly cooked or dried with salt as a snack. The cooked and dried seeds are milled to a flourlike consistency and added to bread dough.
Leaf vegetable:
The tender young leaves are cooked and eaten as a vegetable.
Other vegetable:
Young male flower spikes can be grated or smashed and eaten with salt and vinegar as a vegetable, or pickled. They are also cooked and served as a vegetable.
Beverage/drink/tea:
Aside from flavoring for beverages, the fruit can be fermented and distilled to produce an alcoholic liquor.
Medicinal:
All parts of the tree are said to have medicinal properties. Morton (1987) reports, “The Chinese consider jackfruit
TIPS:
How to tell if a fruit is mature:
In order to achieve best fruit quality, the fruit must be allowed to develop to full maturity on the tree, then ripen after harvest. Harvested even a few days too early, the fruit will not ripen to its best quality. Fruits take 3–8 months from flower to mature fruit, depending on the individual tree, growing conditions, and weather; therefore, time from flowering alone is not a good indicator of maturity. It takes some experience to gauge maturity. There are four primary indicators.
- The skin turns from light green to yellowish or brownish green;
- the points of the spines grow further apart and flatten slightly, and the skin yields slightly to pressure;
- The last leaf on the stalk turns yellow;
- the fruit produces a dull, hollow sound when tapped. Usually two or more of these indicators are used to evaluate the maturity of fruit. After harvesting a mature fruit, it ripens in 3–7 days and begins to emit its strong, characteristic fragrance. For most people, the fragrance is too strong to bear indoors, and the fruit is kept outside or in an open shed until eaten.
Harvesting fruit:
Jack Fruit
Fruits are collected using an orchard ladder or by climbing the trees, cutting the stem of the fruit, and carefully lowering the fruit to the ground with a rope if necessary.
Reducing latex:
Harvesting ripe fruits between midmorning and late afternoon can reduce latex flow (Acedo 1992).
How to avoid a sticky mess:
When cutting into a jackfruit, a very sticky latex is exuded from the rind and fibrous parts of the fruit. Coating the knife and hands with edible oil (such as coconut oil) will prevent the latex from sticking. If some latex becomes inadvertently stuck to the skin or hair, it can be removed by rubbing with edible oil. 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 (having male hormone activity). 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.”
Animal fodder:
Cattle, goats, and other small ruminants relish the leaves. Cattle and pigs also readily eat fallen fruit. The waste after removing the pulp from fruits (“rags”) is considered good fodder for cattle and pigs.
Flavoring/spice:
The ripe pulp, fresh, concentrated, or powdered, is made into flavoring for ice cream and beverages.
Masticant/stimulant:
The latex can be used as chewing gum.
Timber:
The wood is classified as a medium hardwood (specific gravity 0.6–0.7) and is highly valued for building material, furniture and cabinet making, and even for musical instruments. It is highly durable, resisting termites and decay, seasons easily, resembles mahogany in appearance, and takes a beautiful polish. As the wood ages, it turns from yellow or orange to red or brown. Although not as strong as teak (Tectona grandis), jackfruit wood is considered superior for many purposes including furniture, construction, turnery, masts, oars, implements, and musical instruments. The excavated roots of old trees are highly prized for carving and picture frames.
Fuelwood:
Branches and trunk are burned for fuelwood.
Craft wood/tools:
In the province of Cebu, Philippines, the wood is highly prized for making guitars, ukuleles, and other musical instruments.
Rope/cordage/string:
The inner bark can be made into cordage or cloth.
Wrapping/parcelization:
In India, leaves are used to wrap food for cooking and are
woven together for plates.
Resin/gum/glue/latex:
The heated latex can be used as a glue for mending chinaware and pottery and as caulking for boats and buckets. The latex contains resins that may have use in varnishes. The latex also has bacteriolytic value comparable to that of papaya latex. Additionally, the sticky latex is used for trapping birds (birdlime) and for insect traps.
Tannin/dye:
There is 3.3% tannin in the bark. When boiled with alum, wood chips, or sawdust, it yields a dye that is commonly used to give the characteristic color to the robes of Buddhist priests and in dying silk.
Ceremonial/religious importance:
In India and Nepal, flowers and fruit are offered to Lord Vishnu on the eleventh day of Shravan. According to Morton (1987), dried branches are used to produce fire by friction in religious ceremonies in Malabar.
COMMERCIAL CULTIVATION:
The primary commercial products of jackfruit are fruit, timber, and to a lesser extent, fodder. In the Pacific the tree is most commonly grown in homegardens rather than for commercial purposes. Jackfruit is a popular tree for homegardens in India, the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and other regions where jackfruit is grown commercially.
Spacing:
For fruit production, trees are planted 7.5–12 m (25–40 ft) apart. Closer inrow spacing can be used for slower growing or more compact clonally reproduced cultivars (usually grafted clones) with inrow spacing of 4.6–7.6 m (15–25 ft) and betweenrow spacing of 6.1–7.6 m (20–25 ft) (Crane et al. 2002). For timber production, closer spacing should be used to inhibit side branching by shading and promote long, straight trunks. Spacing for timber of 2 x 3 m or 3 x 3 m (6.6 x 10 or 10 x 10 ft) is suitable.
Management objectives and design considerations:
During early establishment it is essential to control weeds, maintain soil moisture, and protect the area from all grazing animals. Weedseedfree mulch such as leaves, chipped tree branches, or hay works very well to help suppress weeds and reduce soil evaporation. An alley cropping system to produce mulch for a jackfruit orchard gave promising results (Elevitch and Wilkinson 1999). At an age of 2–3 years, the trees can be topped at 3–5 m (10–16 ft) height to encourage lateral growth for fruit production at an accessible height. Once a tree is topped, however, new branches will not be as strong as the original frame of the tree, and top pruning will have to be done throughout the life of the tree to avoid branches breaking off due to wind or the weight of the fruit.
Pruning damaged branches, especially on the lower interior of the tree, is advised. Fertilizer needs are not well studied for jackfruit. The tree seems to perform well even on moderately fertile soils. A recommended commercial fertilizer regime is 100–150 g (3.5–5 oz) ammonium sulfate (2000) per tree in the first year, increasing in prebearing years; then 0.5–1.0 kg (1.1–2.2 lb) of 141414 fertilizer per tree increasing with age and size, with a fullgrown tree 15–20 years old receiving 2–3 kg (4.4–6.6 lb) complete fertilizer (Coronel 1983). The use of nutrientrich organic mulches such as prunings from fastgrowing nitrogenfixing trees can reduce or eliminate the use of industrial fertilizer.
For timber production, it is important to keep the lower portion of the trunk clear of branches and fruitbearing lateral spikes in order to produce clear, knotfree wood. Because jackfruit has a tendency to produce fruitbearing spikes low on the trunk, annual pruning of these spikes is often necessary.
Advantages of polycultures:
During the early years, jackfruit can be successfully intercropped with a number of shortterm crops such as legumes, vegetables, and banana. The intercrop makes use of the unproductive space available in the early years and gives an income before the jackfruit trees come into production. As the trees grow closer, the crops grown among the trees can be replaced by a permanent ground cover. Perennial crops such as durian, coffee, and citrus can be grown together with jackfruit, given wider spacing between jackfruit trees to allow suffcient space for the other crop trees.
Yields:
Potential yields of 100–200 fruits per tree per year have been estimated. For example, in India a good annual yield is considered to be 150 large fruits per tree (Morton 1987). Actual yields of mature trees are 70–100 kg (150–220 lb) of fruit/tree/yr depending on variety, cultural practice, and environmental factors (Soepadmo 1992).
On-farm processing methods:
The fruit can be processed in several ways such as drying, candying, and pickling. These are relatively simple methods to preserve the fruit that can be done onfarm.
Markets:
Jackfruit is heavy and cumbersome to transport and should be harvested when mature only 3–5 days from ripening, so it is best to have a market close by if selling fresh fruit. For more remote areas, where the local market is small, processing the fruit into a more stable product such as dried or processed fruit may be necessary.
Interplanting/farm Applications:
Jackfruit has been planted as an intercrop in coconut groves, in durian, mango, and citrus orchards, and for dispersed shade in coffee plantations. In young jackfruit orchards, where there is ample space between trees, annual crops can be grown. One or two trees growing in mixed homegardens together with numerous other tree crops is also very common.
Example system
(after Elevitch and Wilkinson 1999a)
Location
Leaves Of a Jack Fruit Tree
Holualoa, Hawai‘i.
Description:
This project studied alley cropping for mulch production in a jackfruit orchard. In alley cropping, fast growing nitrogen fixing trees (NFTs) are grown in contour hedgerows alternated with crops to provide an abundant source of nutrientrich organic matter that is applied to the soil as mulch. By cycling nutrients in the agricultural system, alley cropping in an orchard setting holds promise for greatly reducing, and possibly eliminating, the need for manufactured or imported fertilizer inputs, replacing them with an onsite organic source of fertility. Research focused primarily on the ability of the alley cropping technique to provide suffcient nutrients to tree crops, as well as the economic feasibility of the practice for orchards. The two NFT species were Acacia angustissima and Calliandra calothyrsus.
Crop/tree interactions:
The hedgerows were pruned for mulch four times during the project. Hedgerow prunings fresh weight and nutrient concentrations for the two NFT species were measured at each cutting to ascertain fertilizer replacement values. Data show that the hedgerows produced about 136 kg (300 lb) of mulch per fruit tree per year. Nutrients from this mulch source provided the nutrient equivalent of over 561 kg chemical fertilizer per hectare per year (500 lb/ac/yr), potentially replacing 180 kg (400 lb) urea, 11 kg (25 lb) treble superphosphate, and 55 kg (120 lb) muriate of potash. Soil analysis showed significant increases in total nitrogen and potassium as a result of the practice. Soil pH also improved, becoming less acidic. The mulch also reduced the need for weed control around the crop trees and conserved soil moisture. The health and vigor of the mulched crop trees visibly surpassed that of the control trees without mulch, and analysis of the data shows a trend of faster growth and larger stem diameter in the mulched trees over unmulched.
The costs of this practice are roughly equivalent to using purchased mulch materials. This practice may be particularly of benefit to cashpoor Pacific island farmers, who have better access to labor than cash.
Spacing/density of species:
The jackfruit trees were planted in contour rows 8–12 apart with 4 m (13 ft) spacing between trees inrow. The contour hedgerows were planted midway between jackfruit rows.
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