Jackfruit or Kathhal Cultivation; A Complete Information Guide

May 31, 2021May 3, 2023 Agrovista 1 Comment

Jackfruit or Kathhal Cultivation ; A Complete Information Guide

Introduction;

The jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) belongs family Moraceae. It is widely cultivated throughout the tropical region of the world .it is the favorite fruit of many, because of its sweetness. The edible portion of jack fruit is the fleshy carpel which is botanically known as perianth. Jack tree bears the largest fruit among all the trees The weight of the jack fruit is as much as 50 to 55 kg and the size of jack fruit may reach approximately around 90 cm in length, 50 cms in diameter. A mature jack tree produces 200 fruits per year with older jack trees may produce up to 500 fruits per year. The Jack fruit matures during the rainy season from July to August.

Table of Contents

Jack Fruit is the National fruit of Bangladesh and India consider as its native place.

In India, jack trees are mainly found the States like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, coastal Maharashtra, Assam, Bihar, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, and foothills of the Himalayas.

Local Names of Jack Fruit ;

kathhal ; hindi and urdu

Pala; Tamil

Halasina Hannu; kannada

Panasa Pandu; Telugu

Phanos; Marathi and Konkani

Uses of JackFruit ;

1) Apart from its use as a table fruit, jack is a popular fruit for the preparation of pickles, chips, jack leather, and papad.

2) The fruit has got good potential for value addition into several products like squash, jam, candy, halwa, etc.

3) The ripe bulbs can be preserved for one year in sugar syrup or in the form of sweetened pulp.

4) The unripe mature bulbs can be blanched and dehydrated for further use throughout the year.

5) Seed is a rich source of starch and a delicacy during the season.

6) The timber is highly valued for its strength and sought for construction and furniture.

7) The dried leaves are stitched to make disposable plates.

Nutritional Value of Jack Fruit ;

Jack fruit is a complete fruit and considered a highly nutritious diet for human consumption similar to fruit like avocado and olive. Its nutrient value also considers equivalent to mother’s milk.

Nutrient	Value	Nutrient	Value
Moisture	76.2 g	Potassium	107 mg
Protein	1.9 g	Phosphorus	195mg
Fat	0.1 g	Phosphorus	41 mg
Fiber	1.10 g	Vitamin C	7.0 mg
Carbohydrate	19.8 g	Beta Carotene	175 mg
Calories	88 K cal.	Thiamine	0.03 mg
Calcium	20.0 mg	Riboflavin	0.13 mg
Iron	0.56 mg	Niacin	0.40 mg

Health Benefits of Jack Fruit;

India’s jackfruit goes global

1) Jack Fruit support the hearth health due to the presence of low saturated fat and high fiber content
2) It enhances immunity because of high vitamin C content
3) Intake of Jack fruit add magnesium which reduced incidence of insomnia
4) Tne jack Fruit Strengthens Bones due to the presence of essential element manganese
5) It Lowers the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes due to the high content of fiber and micronutrient
6) Jack fruit improves the digestive system
7) The Extract of boiled jackfruit root has been found effective to control asthma.

Climatic Condition required for Jack Fruit Cultivation ;

1) Jack Fruit yields more under hot humid warm conditions

2) It requires a temperature range between 25 to 35-degree celsius for its ideal growth
3) Jack fruit crop can be grown successfully from sea level up to an elevation of 1200 M
4) Jack fruit can not tolerate the frost and drought conditions

5) The quality of jack fruit deteriorates in higher altitudes but it grows satisfactorily in humid and warm plains of Southern parts of India
6) cold temperature and the warm air during summer are very harming full for Jack Fruit

Soil Requirement for Jack Fruit Cultivation ;

Jack Fruit can be grown in a variety of soils but the deep well-drained soil that has a pH range between 6 – 6.5 is found most suitable for jack Fruit cultivation.

Important Varieties of Jack Fruit;

Based on the flesh of jack fruit the varieties are divided into two groups; a) Variety with Fim Flesh b) varieties with soft flesh the important varieties of Jack Fruit are ;

1) Konkani Prolific;

a) The Jack tree height is approximately 14.7 m with an average spread of 11.5 m (N-S) and the average girth of the Jack tree is about 1.10 m.

b) Growth habit is semi spreading and fairly large

c) Fruit is multiple types, medium size (8 to 9 kg), fruit’s skin color is green when immature and greenish-yellow to brownish-yellow when ripe.

d) The fruit contains edible, sweet, aromatic, crisply bulbs.

2) Singapore (or) Ceylon Jack;

1) Its fruits are medium in size each weighing 7-10 kg.

2) The carpels are crisp, sweet, yellow with a strong pleasant aroma.

3) This variety of Jack Fruit is a precocious bearer viz, even seedling progenies will start bearing from 3 years after planting (normally in other types the seedling progenies will start bearing only from 7-8 years after planting.)

4) It provides fruits 2 times in a year March – June and again from September – December.

5) Introduced in Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka

3) Kandel ;

1) Medium weight, bears fruits around the year.

2) Propagation can only be done by approach grafting.

3) Seeds germinate very easily even while still intact in the fruit.

4) It was released as national superior cultivar of Indonesia.

4) Mini ;

Fruit is small ( 5-12kg) and starts to bear the fruit just 18 months after sowing the seed. Potted plants bear fruits easily.

5) Golden nugget;

It is fast-growing jack tree variety, Flesh is deep orange in color, fruits are small (3-3.5kg) excellent flesh, and have no fiber.

6) Black gold;

The tree is vigorous with medium-sized fruit (6.7kg) with 35% edible flesh. The spines do not flatten at the time of maturity, difficult to judge the proper harvest time. The flesh is easily removed compared to other cultivars.

Other Varieties;

Gulabi ( rose-scented)
Champa (flavor like that of Michelia sp)
Hazari ( bearing a large number of fruits )
Rudrakshi ( Roundish fruits)
Genotype (No.7) selected from UP, large fruits ( >15kg), and moderate yield.
GKVK-1 and Swarna with superior quality fruits were released from Karnataka.
Gumless jack, Muttan Varica from Kerala found better.
Koozha, Varikka, Navarika popular in Kerala.
Radar, Khawaja, and Sugandh identified through a survey in the plains of UP.
NJT1, NJT2, NJT3, NJT4 Jackfruit varieties released from Faizabad.
NJC1, NJC2, NJC3, NJC4 used for culinary preparation.
Burliar-1, Palur-1 were released from TNAU, Coimbatore.

Propagation of Jack fruit;

1)Seed Propagation;

1) Seed propagation is the most commonly used for the propagation of jackfruit.

2) Seeds of Jack fruit should be sown immediately just after its extraction otherwise it may lose its viability

3) Take 4-5 seeds and plant them in situ so that the taproot can grow without any disturbance.

4) Approximately about 70% of the seeds germinate within 15 days after an extraction.

3) To Achieve good germination the following techniques can be used ;

a) Soaking the seeds in water for 24 hours improves germination.

b) Seed Soaking in 25 ppm NAA for 24 hours is another way to achieve better germination.

c) Removing outer thin leathery seed coat and soaking in water for 8 hours improved germination.

d) Seeds treatment with biotin ( 10ppm) and kinetin (50ppm) resulted in a significantly higher vigor index.

2) Vegetative Propagation of Jack Fruit ;

A wide range of variations in progenies can be observed When the jack fruit propagated through seeds hence vegetative propagation is more recommended than overseed propagation.

Vegetative proportion can be achieved through Cutting, Grafting, Budding, and Layering Methods out of these methods grafting and layering methods results are more encouraging. The most common methods used for vegetative propagation are as follows;

a) Air layering;

It is one of the best methods to obtain a true type plant. Air layering of a one-year-old shoot of a bearing plant gives higher success when treated with IBA (500 ppm).

b) Grafting;

Grafting can be used for growing the jack fruit plant for this seeds should be sown in poly bags (l0cm x 20cm) in the 1 st week of July. The seedlings when reached 12-14 cm heights ( approximately 9 -12 months old ) enarching should perform

Epicotyl grafting; This method of grafting can be successfully used in jack fruit cultivation in this method 3-4-month-old and 10 cm long scion is grafted on a 5-day old rootstock by using the cleft method during the month of June – July and are kept under the moist conditions

Scions from the terminal shoot of a selected good variety of one season old, having well-developed buds should be used. At the base of the individual scion, a wedge of 4.0 cm should be prepared and inserted in the split epicotyls region of the stock and tied firmly by polythene strips.

Planting of Jack Tree ;

To avoid mortality of the grafted plant jack fruit planting is preferred at the onset of the monsoon. For the planting of jackfruit dig the pits of size 1 cubic meter each at a distance of 10 meters (10 days before the planting ) and filled the pits with topsoil and 10 kg FYM.

For jack fruit planting Square system ( 10 m X 10 m) of planting is followed in fertile soil whereas the hexagonal system of planting is followed in less fertile soils.

under ideal conditions, the recommended number of plants for this crop is 70 plants per hectare under ideal conditions.

Traning of Jack Tree ;

Jack trees are trained to a single stem, early side branches must be removed so that a uniform smooth trunk develops for a height of 1.5 – 2 M and then side branches should be permitted to arise. The flower buds appear on the trunk which should be kept free of vegetative growth.

Requirement of fertilizer and Manure for Jack Tree Planting ;

Apply well-rotted FYM @ 80 kg per tree /year. jack fruit tree requirement of fertilizers is as follows;

a) First Year of planting; Apply 10 kg of FYM, 0.150 kg of nitrogen,0.080 kg of phosphorous, and 0.100 kg of potassium per plant

b) Two – Five years of planting; Apply 10 kg of FYM, 0.150 kg of nitrogen,0.080 kg of phosphorous, and 0.100 kg of potassium per plant at the increasing rate year

c) Five years onwards; Apply 50 kg of FYM, 0.750 kg of nitrogen,0.400 kg of phosphorous, and 0.500 kg of potassium per plant per year.

Note; 1) Fertilizer must be applied circularly and it must be 50 cm away from the main trunk.

2) Under unirrigated conditions the fertilizer must be given during the rainy season If irrigation is available the fertilizer must be applied in two split doses ie June – July and September-October.

Intercropping in Jack tree field;

Vegetables like radish, brinjal, chili, cabbage, etc can be grown as an intercrop under assured irrigation facilities to utilize the inter-space (during the gestation period of jackfruit ) Intercropping gives some extra income to the grower. When the jack tree comes to the fruit-bearing stage the pulses crop can be grown as an intercrop These crops increase the nitrozen status of the soil.

Irrigation Requirements ;

Jackfruit is cultivated as a rainfed crop. The young jack trees are quite sensitive to drought hence irrigation should be given depending on the various factors like the type of soil, season, etc. Hence there should not be any moisture stress, especially during flowering and fruit sets Similarly too much soil moisture will affect the quality of the fruit. Under the excess moisture conditions, the taste of the carpels became insipid. For better growth of the seedlings, watering should be done during the summer and winter month

Pest and Disease Management in Jack Tree Plants;

Shoot and trunk borer:

The caterpillar bore into the shoots bud and fruit and cause severe damage. The infected part should be cut and destroyed. Spraying of Carbaryl 50% @4grnIL of water in the flowering season at the interval of 15 days gives controls the pest.

Fruit rot:

Fruit rot pathogen usually infects the male inflorescence and fruits. The rot initiates near, the stalk end, which gets covered with the mycelium. Application of Dithane M-45 @ 0.2% and Bavistin (Carbendazim) @ 0.05% three times at 14 days intervals starting in March effective control over the disease.

Harvesting of jackfruit ;

The first fruiting takes place 6-8 years after planting. The tender fruits are harvested for vegetables during the early spring till the seeds of the fruit became hard The fruits mature towards the end of summer in June. The optimum stage of harvesting jackfruit is 90-110 days after appearing the spikes

The Yield of Jackfruit ;

The yield of jackfruit varies widely depending upon the type of variety grown and prevailing climate conditions. The trees produce a few fruits to as high as 250 to 300 fruits/tree/year. The weight of fruit varies from 1 kg to 20 kg