This is the world’s largest tree fruit, and can weigh up to
40 kilograms. The flesh is golden yellow, very sweet and juicy and
tastes like banana bubblegum.You eat the segments inside. Watch
out for the seed, which can also be boiled and eaten. In India this
fruit is picked green and eaten as a vegetable in curries.
Soil
Characteristics
Best performance will be on well-drained, fertile, clay loams.
Climate Requirements
Requires a warm environment with rain all year. The tree
will survive harsh conditions with reduced yield and will
even tolerate frost once established.
Culture
Jakfruit grows to be a large tree to 20 meters or more, and
is a useful windbreak species.Young trees should be cut to
encourage lateral branching to 3-4 trunks. Two styles exist,
a soft form eaten ripe and a firm form eaten immature and
cooked as a vegetable
Harvesting
The main harvest is from January to June, but climatic differences
can mean that fruit is available all year. Individual fruit
can weigh up to 40 Kg, but normally weigh around 5 - 10 Kg.
The fruit are picked when they are fully formed, and they
should soften to ripe within one week
Length of time
until first crop
Three years.
Marketing Notes
The large size of the fruit make transport of fresh fruit
costly. There is probably more potential in drying the flesh
of the soft form of the fruit as the honey sweet leather is
attractive, high energy and easily transported.
Food Preparation
Immature fruit can be fried,
boiled or roasted, and in India or Sri Lanka it will be commonly
found as the main ingredient in a curry. For use in this way, the
fruit is usually harvested and cooked before the seeds have fully
formed.
When the fruit has softened to ripe, the soft varieties can be sliced
to open one side and then pulled apart easily. The fruit contains
dozens of fleshy segments, each enclosing a seed. Firm fleshed varieties
can also be eaten when ripe, but the segments have to be cut out,
as the flesh will not pull apart easily. Cutting this fruit releases
the latex, which does not dissolve in water and so cannot be washed
off the hands or implements. One trick is to wipe the hands and
knife with cooking oil before cutting the fruit, and the latex will
not stick. If you forget to do this and get covered in latex, you
will have to use kerosene to clean everything!
The packing fibre ('rags' or 'spaghetti') is also quite edible,
without the intensity of flavour of the main flesh. The seeds can
also be eaten after cooking.
Germplasm
Catalogue of Jackfruit in Bangladesh An attempt has been made to characterise and evaluate the genetic
diversity through a farmers’ survey and laboratory analysis during
1997-1998. A wide range of variation of morphological characters
were identified during this time. The catalogue is the output of
this study and include passport data and diversity of tree, leaf,
fruit, pulp and seed. This research programme (R6389) was funded
by the Department for International Development.
Cape
Tribulation Bed and Breakfast accommodation on an exotic tropical fruit
orchard in the heart of the Daintree Rainforest
Cape Trib Exotic Fruit Farm, Lot 5 Nicole Drive, Cape Tribulation, Queensland,
4873, Australia - Tel: 0740 980057 - Fax: 0740 980067 digby@capetrib.com.au.
