First Fruiting of Artocarpus elasticus (Mendi or Bendo)

[fruitlovers]

After very long wait just noticed that the Artocarpus elasticus tree is starting to fruit for the first time. The tree is huge, probably over 40 feet tall. So a couple months ago i tried some 0-0-50 to try to initiate flowering, and it seems to have worked!  I didn't get to try the fruit yet as some of the ones on the ground looked like immature aborted fruits with no arils inside. The big fruits are way up on the tree.

[HIfarm]

Great news, Oscar!  How old is the tree?  Hopefully you will be able to give us a taste report in the near future.

John

[fruitlovers]

Great news, Oscar!  How old is the tree?  Hopefully you will be able to give us a taste report in the near future.

John

The tree is at least 12 years old.

[Raulglezruiz]

Congrats Oscar! That is one of the most rare ones for sure, waiting to hear taste report!

[micah]

Yum!
You need a trained monkey ..or a trained punatic for easy harvest

[joaave]

tell us when you will eat the fruit...here only i seem jackfruits 

[Mike T]

Oscar often the first artocarpus of the season has few arils and so do the fruit for the first few seasons.This species has not had the same enthusiastic endorsement of local artocarpus enthusiasts as say keledang or the big pedalais but there should be much variation between trees like monkey jack.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

congrats!

[fruitlovers]

Oscar often the first artocarpus of the season has few arils and so do the fruit for the first few seasons.This species has not had the same enthusiastic endorsement of local artocarpus enthusiasts as say keledang or the big pedalais but there should be much variation between trees like monkey jack.

Yeah, i had similar happen on first fruiting of marang. BTW have bumper crop of marangs this year, so turning out to be an artocarpus feast year. 

[fruitlovers]

congrats!

Thanks. Too bad i can't mail you some fruits, or i would!

[Kona fruit farm]

Oscar has your tree fruited again?   Mine is about 12’ tall now.  I topped it and I’m encouraging 4 main branches to grow out at about 6’ from the ground.

[fruitlovers]

Oscar has your tree fruited again?   Mine is about 12’ tall now.  I topped it and I’m encouraging 4 main branches to grow out at about 6’ from the ground.

Yes it fruited again. Smart to top it. They get massively tall.

[DurianLover]

Oscar has your tree fruited again?   Mine is about 12’ tall now.  I topped it and I’m encouraging 4 main branches to grow out at about 6’ from the ground.

12 feet is nothing for these trees. It's still a baby.  You may need to continue pruning few more times. I topped my like 5 times until I got into this reasonably acceptable round shape. 

[Kona fruit farm]

Oscar how was the fruit?

[fruitlovers]

Oscar how was the fruit?

Was ok, but arils very small. Not much to it.

[luketrollope]

The Mendi is one of my favorite trees a beautiful specimen tree that can apparently grow up to 1600 meters in it's native range so we should expect some cold tolerance with  it.

Even with fully mature trees they seem to produce about 1/3 fruit with no pulp aborted fruit. It is very hard to judge when they are ripe. I stopped picking them off the tree after wasting too many fruit and just wait for them to drop and check under the tree when they are fruiting.  the "fur" seems to break the fall and they don't get damaged.

The fruit is great in my opinion similar to marang without the smell of marang and with out the slight after taste of marang. It is a mild fruit that any one would appreciate ( i would think).

I got some in the nursery ready in September for any Australian members!

 

[Kona fruit farm]

Thank you Luke!   Super informative

[fruitlovers]

The Mendi is one of my favorite trees a beautiful specimen tree that can apparently grow up to 1600 meters in it's native range so we should expect some cold tolerance with  it.

Even with fully mature trees they seem to produce about 1/3 fruit with no pulp aborted fruit. It is very hard to judge when they are ripe. I stopped picking them off the tree after wasting too many fruit and just wait for them to drop and check under the tree when they are fruiting.  the "fur" seems to break the fall and they don't get damaged.

The fruit is great in my opinion similar to marang without the smell of marang and with out the slight after taste of marang. It is a mild fruit that any one would appreciate ( i would think).

I got some in the nursery ready in September for any Australian members!

My marang has no smell and no after taste. Marang in my opinion is way superior, and much larger fruit than mendi. So much more to eat. It's possible my mendi did not get fully pollinated. Very few arils, very disappointing.

[luketrollope]

Wow Oscar a Marang with no smell... With a binomial name like "Artocarpus odoratissimus" you would need to expect some sort of smell. The ones we get here smell like burnt rubber from 50 meters away. It is a good burnt rubber smell though   

I once had marang, chempadak, durian, noni and santol in my car for a few hours on a seed collecting trip and that smell stayed in the car for months.

Hang in there and I bet once you get a good mendi fully formed you will say it is a great fruit especially if you like marang.

[fruitlovers]

Wow Oscar a Marang with no smell... With a binomial name like "Artocarpus odoratissimus" you would need to expect some sort of smell. The ones we get here smell like burnt rubber from 50 meters away. It is a good burnt rubber smell though   

I once had marang, chempadak, durian, noni and santol in my car for a few hours on a seed collecting trip and that smell stayed in the car for months.

Hang in there and I bet once you get a good mendi fully formed you will say it is a great fruit especially if you like marang.

Yeah thanks, i haven't given up on the mendi fruits yet.
We have the pungent marangs here also. They smell to me more a petroleum distillation plant. Really a bizzare smell, and yes you can smell it from far away.
That is quite an assortment of smelly fruits you had in your car! New type of car deodorizer? 

[Kona fruit farm]

Hi Oscar any more mendi fruits to report on?  hoping that growing this tree is worth the space it takes up...  if you have had any additional fruits would love to hear an updated report.