EVERBEARING JACKFRUIT (ARTOCARPUS HETEROPHYLLUS LAM.)

Jackfruit plays a significant role in Indian agriculture and culture.
It was cultivated in India 3000 to 6000 years ago.
It is a popular and inexpensive fruit in southern Asia and other warm countries of both hemispheres.
The traditional cultivars bear fruit once in a year.
This tree produces the largest single fruit nearly 26 inches long, 40 inches in diameter and weighing up to 40 kg.
Fresh and tender fruits are usually not available after November.
However, three trees were identified; in the terai region of sub-Himalayan foot hills of Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts of West Bengal, India, which bear fruits throughout the year.
These trees were studied for three years from June 2006 to May 2009. Proper management of the crop i.e., application of 50.0 kg of farm yard manure, 5.0 kg of wood ash, 2.0 kg of bone meal, and 50.0 g. of borax per matured tree (10 years and above), was found to increase the fruit yield per tree substantially.
On an average, 26 to 31 fruits were harvested per month per tree in the months of April to November.
However, it was only 16 to 21 fruits during the months of December to February.
Thus a farmer could earn more than Rs. 2,500.00 per tree per year.
The average weight of fruits varied from 3.2 to 4.8 kg, during the entire year.
The following fertilizer-cum-manure dose was practiced, (farm yard manure at 50.0 kg, wood-ash at 5.0 kg, bone-meal at 2.0 kg, N, P, K at 2.0 kg and borax at 50.0 g) per matured tree.
Air-layering was successful (21.67%) when tried during the first fortnight of July.
An application of 1000 ppm of IBA was found effective.

XXVIII International Horticultural Congress on Science and Horticulture for People (IHC2010): III International Symposium on Plant Genetic Resources

B.C. Saha, A.D. Sharad , R. Barman

fruits, perennial

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2011.918.103