Author Topic: extreme breadfruit  (Read 1579 times)

rfielding

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extreme breadfruit
« on: February 26, 2021, 02:49:03 PM »
Hi everyone,

I'm a geographer based in South Carolina with a research interest in Caribbean food security. Most of my work to date has been on fishing and whaling but I've recently been reading a lot on breadfruit. It's a remarkable crop, as many here know, and is being discussed by NGOs and development agencies in terms of its potential to alleviate hunger throughout many world regions. One problem, though, is its extreme intolerance of cold. I've read the Breadfruit Institute's guide on its suitability range (linked below), and have seen a recently-published paper on how that range might expand under climate change (Mausio et al. 2020). I've begun to wonder about the extreme limits of breadfruit's growth, specifically, what is the furthest from the tropics that breadfruit has successfully been grown?

I suppose I should restrict the question to breadfruit trees rooted in the ground, outdoors, that have successfully fruited. In my reading I've mostly focused on trees growing in Florida, and I've heard of specimens as far north as Bokeelia and Loxahatchee (both 26.7°N). Does anyone here know of an example further north than this? And, since this is a global forum, I'm also interested to learn about breadfruit trees growing as far south as possible past the Tropic of Capricorn.

Please feel free to respond here, or via email (rfielding@coastal.edu) if you have anything to share about the extremes of breadfruit growth, or just about breadfruit in general.

Thanks very much,
Russell Fielding

Breadfruit Institute's range data and maps:
https://ntbg.org/breadfruit/care/regions/

Mausio paper (I'd be happy to share the PDF upon request):
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228552

Mike T

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Re: extreme breadfruit
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2021, 04:18:53 PM »
I too am qualified in geography and have a keen interest in biogeography and climate. There are a lot of breadfruit grown my area and lots of varieties. I'm sure you have seen the published material on cold tolerances of breadfruit and it is interesting that minimum tolerable temps for breadfruit are variously claimed to be between 8c and 0c. I think the expansion of growing areas of many tropical fruits due to climate warming is much slower than what people think. Even when you look at temp change maps for the last 100 years it is very modest and it would be best to consider if extreme minimums are changing not average temps. It may be worthwhile to test various varieties and look for warmer/sheltered microclimates at 26 latitude.

Frujt and Nut

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Re: extreme breadfruit
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2021, 09:14:46 PM »
I am aware of 2 fruiting trees in Mackay Queensland. I am 40 km south of there at 21.4 degrees south and have a tree which is about 3m high. It gets no special attention. I usually get 4 to 5 frosts a year which really slows it up. I am not aware of any further south than here.

nattyfroootz

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Re: extreme breadfruit
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2021, 09:31:44 PM »
I have an idea that cold tolerance is related to the evolutionary history of the plant and it's descedents.  A lot of plants, particularly in South America, have moved through various different climate types due to the intense geographic features; Paramos, etc.  Lecythis is one of these genera that has had members involved in multiple movements from lowland to highland throughout history.  I'm not sure about the Cold Tolerance of breadfruit but I'd assume it's not terribly cold tolerant.  It might be worth looking at some of it's closest relatives and using those as other potential candidates to get an idea for frost tolerance of the desired genera/species.
Grow cooler fruits

www.wildlandsplants.com

Gone tropo

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Re: extreme breadfruit
« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2021, 10:01:38 PM »
Maybe the Asian method could work best here, plant hundreds in marginal areas and see what survives and work with the survivors.

Mike T

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Re: extreme breadfruit
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2021, 10:43:11 PM »
Trial and error is a good method alright but takes a lot of commitment. The equatorial artocarpus are not fans of cool weather and the New Guinea lowlands is am oppressive climate.

Finca La Isla

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Re: extreme breadfruit
« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2021, 06:07:05 AM »
Breadfruit can be fussy.  Even well within the tropics it won’t tolerate dry winds like we have in some parts of Costa Rica..
Peter

pineislander

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Re: extreme breadfruit
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2021, 07:15:32 AM »
Mine in Bokeelia keeps growing but has around 50% defoliation every year. Somewhere between 50-40F degrees it begins to lose leaves. Hawaii should be a good proxy since with altitude it has stark climate changes from ultratropical to freezing. They probably know the limits and should have plenty of examples.

Future

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Re: extreme breadfruit
« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2021, 11:44:44 AM »
I and others in Bermuda have some tissue culture trees.  Our 32 degree north position is cheating due to the Gulf Stream keeping us from getting too cold. 50 years recorded low is 44F. Jan 30th got down to 49F.

rfielding

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Re: extreme breadfruit
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2021, 02:05:56 PM »
Mine in Bokeelia keeps growing but has around 50% defoliation every year. Somewhere between 50-40F degrees it begins to lose leaves. Hawaii should be a good proxy since with altitude it has stark climate changes from ultratropical to freezing. They probably know the limits and should have plenty of examples.

I think yours in Bokeelia might have been the one I heard about, via Palmtalk, that I mentioned in the OP. Sounds like a contender for "northernmost"!

rfielding

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Re: extreme breadfruit
« Reply #10 on: March 01, 2021, 02:07:23 PM »
I and others in Bermuda have some tissue culture trees.  Our 32 degree north position is cheating due to the Gulf Stream keeping us from getting too cold. 50 years recorded low is 44F. Jan 30th got down to 49F.

Well, I stand corrected. I don't consider the Gulf Stream to be "cheating" at all--you take what you can get! I would be interested to see whether any breadfruit can grow at a higher latitude, north or south, than 32° in Bermuda.

Mike T

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Re: extreme breadfruit
« Reply #11 on: March 02, 2021, 05:24:50 AM »
Breadfruit thrive in my area and are very productive right now I see trees, even small ones loaded with fruit around the place. They seem to thrive when it is 25c min to say 33c max continually with rain and heavy humidity.

Future

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Re: extreme breadfruit
« Reply #12 on: March 02, 2021, 05:08:15 PM »
Breadfruit thrive in my area and are very productive right now I see trees, even small ones loaded with fruit around the place. They seem to thrive when it is 25c min to say 33c max continually with rain and heavy humidity.


Interesting data. We have rain, humidity. Drops to about 12C in winter. Maxes out at 31C summer.

EdR

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Re: extreme breadfruit
« Reply #13 on: January 08, 2022, 07:33:27 AM »
Durban Botanical Gardens have some listed in their tree collection, South Africa 29.8S. I don't know if they fruit successfully, but this looks like one with some immature fruit on it visible in the Google street view of the garden

With a coolest month average low of 10.5C, mean of 16.5C and high of 22.6C winters seem quite a bit cooler than ideal, but frost has never been recorded and the coldest temp reached in an average year is 5.3C. Actually those are 1961-90 data and it's probably warmed at least a little since.

cassowary

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Re: extreme breadfruit
« Reply #14 on: January 08, 2022, 07:38:28 PM »
It would be hard to do a trial plot since lot's of the good breadfruit verieties have few or none seeds. Root cuttings are clones so no deviation.

Maybe if someone plants, a. marienensis, a. altilis, and breadnut and cross them deliberately then there might be chance for some significant deviation.
I am going for this as I am already distributing a. altilis plants but would like people further south to have access too.
Just gotta find someone willing to plant a bunch of these seedling, they would most probobly perish without irrigation down south.

I think the way to go would be to spread them along the beaches here (they thrive on the coast, and in Kiribati they are meant to be able to grow on the shore) and as people pass by they might bring seeds with them south.

I don't know if it would cross with a a. hetrophylla, that for sure would increase some cold resistance.
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