Cempedak Tree Question

[roboto212]

So there is a cempedak tree on my friends property, seedling from another cemp tree that is simply exquisite. The tree that the seedling came from has one of the most sublime, stoning tastes of the few cemps ive tried, I rate it up there with some of the better durians Ive had. Now my friend planted a seedling from that fruit , and its grown over the past 8 years into a 40 foot tall tree... Last year was its first year fruiting and it set a good number of sausage shaped fruits, roughly 1.5 feet long, but most of the fruits were all rag, no pods. and the few fruits that had pods there was only 1-2 pods per fruit.

Now it fruited again this year, loaded with 50-60 good sized fruits, and the same thing... most of them all rag, some with a few scant pods for eating.

Now we are hoping it just has to set in before really fruiting properly, but im also thinking maybe its not getting good pollination to develop pods?

Anyone out there familiar with this issue? Ive read in malaysia they hand pollinate them to get get pod to rag ratio, but cant really find any info on this.

Is this tree going to eventually get comfy and produce good fruits?


more info on the mother tree the seedling came from: this one also tends to not be fully loaded with pods, some smaller fruits ive had off of it there were only 3-4 pods, where it had room for like 10-14. Not to say they all are more scant, I had a large one recently and it had 25 pods or so.

[Mike T]

They increase the flesh amount with age and improved pollination especially if another tree or jack is close.Flavor will also improve with age.Some kinds,especially big bulbed,elongate ones have lower flesh yield than others.The orange fleshed smooth sausage shaped ones that usually have deep orange flesh have very good flesh yield.I don't think hand pollination is often carried out for this species.

[fruitlovers]

So there is a cempedak tree on my friends property, seedling from another cemp tree that is simply exquisite. The tree that the seedling came from has one of the most sublime, stoning tastes of the few cemps ive tried, I rate it up there with some of the better durians Ive had. Now my friend planted a seedling from that fruit , and its grown over the past 8 years into a 40 foot tall tree... Last year was its first year fruiting and it set a good number of sausage shaped fruits, roughly 1.5 feet long, but most of the fruits were all rag, no pods. and the few fruits that had pods there was only 1-2 pods per fruit.

Now it fruited again this year, loaded with 50-60 good sized fruits, and the same thing... most of them all rag, some with a few scant pods for eating.

Now we are hoping it just has to set in before really fruiting properly, but im also thinking maybe its not getting good pollination to develop pods?

Anyone out there familiar with this issue? Ive read in malaysia they hand pollinate them to get get pod to rag ratio, but cant really find any info on this.

Is this tree going to eventually get comfy and produce good fruits?


more info on the mother tree the seedling came from: this one also tends to not be fully loaded with pods, some smaller fruits ive had off of it there were only 3-4 pods, where it had room for like 10-14. Not to say they all are more scant, I had a large one recently and it had 25 pods or so.

Roboto, i had same thing happen with seedling jackfruit which came from great orange pulped Tha jacksi. Planted 3 of them and all are junk. Waited many years and every year they produce junk fruit. Don't think it's a pollination issue. This is why trees are grafted, there is variation in artocarpus from seed. If you know how to graft you can top work the tree with scion wood from the superior chempadek. Otherwise you will have to cut them down and start over again.

[luc]

Same thing here , one single Chempedak at a friends place produces fruit but no pods , I don't know maybe needs interpollination...

[Mike T]

I have not heard of that problem with jacks or chempadek here and they are seedling grown at least half of the time.Chempas are mostly true from seed but jacks seem to have a proportion that don't turn out like the parent.By the same token I have seen many seedlings turn out just like their mother.The seedling chempadaks at an acquaintances' house nearby are eye-popping trees for yields and quality fruit.
Jackfruit are all over the place here and there are lots of pollinators so I don't know what would happen when there are no other pollinators around.

[fruitlovers]

Artocarpus is monoecious. As far as i know self sterility is not a problem. I have one jackfruit tree, Dang Rasimi, planted next to two other cultivars that sets very few fruits, always distorted in shape, and never ripen up properly. So it has plenty of pollen flying around from other neighboring trees. I think the fruits in Dang Rasimi are just more susceptible to fungus and tend to rot out in my climate. In other words, i doubt pollination is the problem.

[fruitlovers]

I have not heard of that problem with jacks or chempadek here and they are seedling grown at least half of the time.Chempas are mostly true from seed but jacks seem to have a proportion that don't turn out like the parent.By the same token I have seen many seedlings turn out just like their mother.The seedling chempadaks at an acquaintances' house nearby are eye-popping trees for yields and quality fruit.
Jackfruit are all over the place here and there are lots of pollinators so I don't know what would happen when there are no other pollinators around.

There are lots of wild jacks here growing in the highway median divider. Almost all are complete junk, maybe only good as lumber. Chempadeks are still pretty rare here, and certainly none growing wild, you have to baby them to get them to grow well.

[Mike T]

Oscar if the climate is rainy year 'round in many parts of hawaii maybe this has an influence on pollination.Fruit set here mostly in the dry season and fill out in the rainy season.

[fruitlovers]

Oscar if the climate is rainy year 'round in many parts of hawaii maybe this has an influence on pollination.Fruit set here mostly in the dry season and fill out in the rainy season.

Mike, the 2 other cultivars right next to Dang Rasimi: Black Gold and Golden Nugget have no problems with our heavy rain.

[red durian]

I have not heard of that problem with jacks or chempadek here and they are seedling grown at least half of the time.Chempas are mostly true from seed but jacks seem to have a proportion that don't turn out like the parent.By the same token I have seen many seedlings turn out just like their mother.The seedling chempadaks at an acquaintances' house nearby are eye-popping trees for yields and quality fruit.
Jackfruit are all over the place here and there are lots of pollinators so I don't know what would happen when there are no other pollinators around.

I am familiar with a Jak Fruit  that produces lovely fruits full of seeds and has no other Jak Fruit tree within 10 km.

[red durian]

I have not heard of that problem with jacks or chempadek here and they are seedling grown at least half of the time.Chempas are mostly true from seed but jacks seem to have a proportion that don't turn out like the parent.By the same token I have seen many seedlings turn out just like their mother.The seedling chempadaks at an acquaintances' house nearby are eye-popping trees for yields and quality fruit.
Jackfruit are all over the place here and there are lots of pollinators so I don't know what would happen when there are no other pollinators around.

There are lots of wild jacks here growing in the highway median divider. Almost all are complete junk, maybe only good as lumber. Chempadeks are still pretty rare here, and certainly none growing wild, you have to baby them to get them to grow well.

I lived on a property in Kapoho with what the owner called a "cempejak" tree.  I had assumed it was cempedak, but he said it was a cross between a jak fruit and a cempedak.  It was a fairly ugly-looking tree compared to a jak fruit, about 10 yrs old, and gave fruits that looked more like cempedak.  Each fruit had at least 10 seeds.  This tree was not so well taken care of, with the owner gone most of the year, but still survived and fruited well.  The fruit had a really problematic characteristic, though.  No matter how much you chewed them, they would remain one piece in your mouth.
I used to keep my eye (and nose) on those un-tended road-side jak fruits on the Big Island, but never happened to stop at a tree on a day when a ripe one was ready.  I guess if they were empty, they wouldn't give off the tell-tale scent as I drove past, even if they were already on the ground.

[roboto212]

I dont view the gummy hard to chew into pieces a problem with the cheena and cempedak... more about the taste. plus I find the softer texture like this digests faster than the crunchy jacks.


This is a tree at Kumu Aina, down in Kapoho, its tricky to get scion wood cause the owners are hard to deal with :0... but my friend managed to get scion about a year ago and we now have a grafted plant, small that went into the ground a few months ago... so only time and we can get more scion...

oh man the taste is this buttery rich, caramel with mild nutty flavor, slight onion flavor in there as well... very durian like, but with its own *magic* quality

[fruitlovers]

I dont view the gummy hard to chew into pieces a problem with the cheena and cempedak... more about the taste. plus I find the softer texture like this digests faster than the crunchy jacks.


This is a tree at Kumu Aina, down in Kapoho, its tricky to get scion wood cause the owners are hard to deal with :0... but my friend managed to get scion about a year ago and we now have a grafted plant, small that went into the ground a few months ago... so only time and we can get more scion...

oh man the taste is this buttery rich, caramel with mild nutty flavor, slight onion flavor in there as well... very durian like, but with its own *magic* quality

It's probably a grafted chempedak. Some of those can be heavenly, and yes taste very much like durian. I know the first owner of that Kumu Aina property, pre-Bob, and pre-Arvid. He managed to collect very rare material from around the world. Planted a lot of great stuff, Then broke his leg and had to sell that land. Went downhill after that as none of the later owners was tropical fruit fanatic like original owner.

[roboto212]

yea I just buy the cemps they sell at Maku'u, the owners arent fond of fruitarians hehehe...

Hey Oscar do you have any sublime cempedaks that I could score scion wood from?

[fruitlovers]

yea I just buy the cemps they sell at Maku'u, the owners arent fond of fruitarians hehehe...

Hey Oscar do you have any sublime cempedaks that I could score scion wood from?

My chemps aren't fruiting yet, so don't know if they're sublime. I suggest you buy a grafted chemp from Frankies Nursery in Waimanalo, Oahu.

[roboto212]

I called and asked if they had any cemps or cemp x jack hybrids and they were all out

[Recher]

i have been pleased with the results of jak seedlings grown from good quality parent

i saw lots of orange fleshed jak for sale in malaysia and of course ate some. I found the flavour nothing special and prefer many seedlings i am growing at home, but of course i sent seed back because i want to grow orange fleshed jaks.

[fruitlovers]

i have been pleased with the results of jak seedlings grown from good quality parent

i saw lots of orange fleshed jak for sale in malaysia and of course ate some. I found the flavour nothing special and prefer many seedlings i am growing at home, but of course i sent seed back because i want to grow orange fleshed jaks.

Color alone ofcourse means nothing about quality. It's like people saying they like green starapples better than purples. There are good types in both colors. That said, i did have some excellent orange fleshed jacks in Thailand. Brought back seed and all 3 trees turned out  be worthless junk. That's the problem of generalizing from isolated experiences.