Questions regarding my TM Red and Orange Crush Jakfruit Trees

[LarryG]

Nearly two years ago I purchased several Jakfruit trees from Excalibur nursery here in south Florida. Among them were two TM Reds, one grafted and one seedling. The grafted tree has struggled with die back but the seedling tree has really thrived. The first male flowers appeared a couple of months ago followed by female flowers last month, The first photo shows the entire tree (note the small fruit, lower left), and the second photo is a closeup of two fruit on the same branch. I am thinking about removing the second fruit but should I remove both fruit given the diameter of the trunk is only 4"?





My second question is regarding a grafted Orange Crush Jakfruit that I purchased at a Palm Beach Rare Fruit Council sale in October of 2018. I became interested in the Orange Crush after watching a You Tube video of Noris Ledesma extolling its virtues. The tree has grown to 15' tall despite being in the ground for only 16 months and is now putting out male flowers. My question is should I prune it back now (to what height?), or should I wait for our "winter" to end? Here is a photo:

[JoeP450]

On the TM fruit, if it was me I’d put a little platform under the fruit like a flipped over recycle bin to support the weight and let the tree do it’s thing. I am also growing the TM jackfruit, supposedly it’s the reddest there is but yet no one has any pictures of the flesh despite camera phones being ubiquitous and you’d think it’d be a selling aid! 🤷‍♂️🙈

If you decide to let the tree fruit, please post some pictures of the fruit and tasting notes, would be a great service to this forum!

Joe

[JoeP450]

Here is a picture of the elusive TM red jackfruit from Excalibur, rob was kind enough to send it to me. This fruit looks incredible, I can’t wait till my tree gets into production, beautiful 👀

-joe

[Vernmented]

Nearly two years ago I purchased several Jakfruit trees from Excalibur nursery here in south Florida. Among them were two TM Reds, one grafted and one seedling. The grafted tree has struggled with die back but the seedling tree has really thrived. The first male flowers appeared a couple of months ago followed by female flowers last month, The first photo shows the entire tree (note the small fruit, lower left), and the second photo is a closeup of two fruit on the same branch. I am thinking about removing the second fruit but should I remove both fruit given the diameter of the trunk is only 4"?





My second question is regarding a grafted Orange Crush Jakfruit that I purchased at a Palm Beach Rare Fruit Council sale in October of 2018. I became interested in the Orange Crush after watching a You Tube video of Noris Ledesma extolling its virtues. The tree has grown to 15' tall despite being in the ground for only 16 months and is now putting out male flowers. My question is should I prune it back now (to what height?), or should I wait for our "winter" to end? Here is a photo:

Hi Larry,
I was taught to prune Jackfruit in the rainy warm periods by Noris. However, I have heavily pruned back and shaped a very healthy 8 foot tree as a test this winter with no ill effects. Nothing is certain at this point but I would think overall tree health would be a major consideration. As far as pruning methods, I like to skirt up the trunk and lower scaffolding and then prune out larger high branches to keep the overall height under 12 feet. The main fruiting will be on the larger trunk and scaffolding so try to get those spread out to the width you are allowing for the tree. You can also paint with 50/50 white interior latex paint and water if you are concerned about sunburn.

[Tommyng]

I have a tm red also and am eager to try it’s fruit. A 4” thick  tree should be able to handle two fruits as long as they are not the larger variety. I had a seedling jack about your size that carried 3 fruit through harvest.