I buried the root crown

[mangomandan]

Just tried some drastic measures on my young jackfruit.  A couple weeks ago while mowing the lawn I backed into it with my foot, tearing whatever modest roots it had bothered to put out.

The leaves were starting to yellow so I dug up and planted it in another area, but about a foot deeper into the ground.  So, lots of trunk is now buried.  I'm hoping that (before the tree bites the dust) it will try putting out adventitious roots from the trunk.     I guess I'm planting it the way one might transplant a young tomato plant.     Has anyone else tried burying a jackfruit tree too deep?

I didn't want to waste the original hole, so I moved my young Mahachanok to that hole. Its root system was small, but did not seem rootbound or anything.  But it had not flushed even once since I planted it last August.    Now the Maha is close to my back door, a spot that gets more attention from me than some other parts of the yard.

[jcaldeira]

I haven't tried burying a jackfruit cutting deep, but jackfruit is generally difficult to start by branch cuttings.   Consider trimming off almost all the leaves if the roots are nearly nonexistant.

When transplanting seedlings or rooting cuttings, I try to match the strength of the plant above and below the soil level.  For example, when I am transplanting a breadfruit root sucker I will cut off most of the leaves if the roots are weak or few.  If I am digging up a young tree to move, destroying half the roots, I will cut off half the growth above the soil level so there is enough sap to serve the leaves.   

[bsbullie]

Just tried some drastic measures on my young jackfruit.  A couple weeks ago while mowing the lawn I backed into it with my foot, tearing whatever modest roots it had bothered to put out.

The leaves were starting to yellow so I dug up and planted it in another area, but about a foot deeper into the ground.  So, lots of trunk is now buried.  I'm hoping that (before the tree bites the dust) it will try putting out adventitious roots from the trunk.     I guess I'm planting it the way one might transplant a young tomato plant.     Has anyone else tried burying a jackfruit tree too deep?

I didn't want to waste the original hole, so I moved my young Mahachanok to that hole. Its root system was small, but did not seem rootbound or anything.  But it had not flushed even once since I planted it last August.    Now the Maha is close to my back door, a spot that gets more attention from me than some other parts of the yard.

Did you break off the trunk from the roots?  Is the tree grafted, did you bury the graft?  If all were still intact and you just damaged the rootball (if you snapped the trunk off then any drastic measure would cause no harm), burying the trunk is never a good thing...

[mangomandan]

Some roots were still attached to the trunk.  I think they were jarred to the extent that they lost their connection to the soil.  Since most of the leaves were yellowing afterwords I figured the tree was, at the least, shocked.

Years ago I heard that somewhere in the world it is traditional to plant jackfruit trees upside down. (I don't remember the reason for this.)     I figured that if the tree could survive that, it might survive my experiment.    I guess time will tell.

I would never try this with most trees, though.  Maybe a mulberry, though, if I had a extra one to experiment with.

[luc]

Years ago I heard that somewhere in the world it is traditional to plant jackfruit trees upside down.

Interesting to try this out , doesn't make sense to me but who knows....

[mangomandan]

It's been nearly three weeks since I planted the J-31 a foot too deep, and shoved my recalcitrant Mahachanok into the jackfruit hole.
Now, after having been dormant for 13 months, the Maha actually looks like it may bud out.



Sure it's lost about 8 inches in height, having been tipped twice, but where there's life there's hope.



The jackfruit hasn't lost any additional leaves, and doesn't look too bad. Maybe the roots won't rot after all.



(P.S.  thanks for re-posting the directions about inserting photos; I thought my early Alzheimer's was kicking in when I didn't see an easy way to insert pics.)

Both root balls, such as they were, got some mycor.... and some fish fertilizer.  Have no idea if it helped, but did not seem to hurt.

[mangomandan]

After only five weeks and various miracle products, the buds on the Maha are even larger!    I should be awash in flavor any time now.

[TnTrobbie]

Mabye in the next year or two . Nice potential for branching you got there. Any parsnip/turnip scents from crushing the leaves? I haven't been able to detect any  .

[bsbullie]

Dan - uncorfunately, withe the cool weather we are forecast to have next week, those buds will likely go dormant till next spring.  This happened to one of my Mahas that i cut back last year but glad to say it pushed a number of flushes tbis year.

[mangomandan]

I haven't tried crushing the leaves yet. Maybe I'll wait till the tree has more leaves...........in the spring?

Probably doesn't matter much in the greater scheme of things.  I think if I'm to taste a Maha Chanok before I'm a really old man, I'll have to buy some.    Or, like Blanche DuBois,   depend on the kindness of strangers.

[bsbullie]

don't worry about crushing leaves for turnip smell...if you purchased from a reputable source it is a Maha.

[mangomandan]

I'm not worried, as I bought it from Excalibur.  Do you think they will have any Maha fruit for sale next summer?   I think our area is lucky that several places sell some of the less common kinds of mangos.

[mangomandan]

We are thrilled to announce that little Maha, only 3 years old, has a branch.




(no gifts, please)

[murahilin]

We are thrilled to announce that little Maha, only 3 years old, has a branch.




(no gifts, please)

How often do you fertilize your trees? And do you also mulch?

[Tim]

Nice, this tree will branch out very nicely.  Where's the gift registry?

[mangomandan]

[/quote]

How often do you fertilize your trees? And do you also mulch?
[/quote]

My fertilization regimen is kind of irregular, and definitely not as thorough as it could be.  A handful of slow-release every 3-4 months, and some liquid fertilizer a couple times in between.  I don't mulch often, but do throw a bit of compost around the base of the younger trees once in a while.

But other mango trees I planted at the same time as Maha have grown much better.  It's a bit of an outlier.  I think sometimes trees don't prosper for reasons we'll never know.  This tree did absolutely nothing (but looked great) in its first planting location.    It seems to like its new location better. Or maybe just the passage of time. Hard to say.  I gave it some mycorriza and azomite when I replanted it, but can't say that necessarily helped.