Greenhouse artocarpus updates

[TropicalFruitHunters]

Of all the artocarpus species I brought back from Borneo, mutabilis and brevipedunculatus have had the least amount of germination...and couldn't get fresher than this.  So be very patient with them.  They may very well take much longer to germinate.  Good luck and hope they all germinate.

[brian]

Aw, that's a shame.  My experience with artocarpus seeds is that if they haven't germinated in a month they've already rotted, so I guess I will find out soon.

[SplorKeLZ]

Of all the artocarpus species I brought back from Borneo, mutabilis and brevipedunculatus have had the least amount of germination...and couldn't get fresher than this.  So be very patient with them.  They may very well take much longer to germinate.  Good luck and hope they all germinate.

oh yikes! i got some too thinking they were like jackfruit with very high germination rate! fingers crossed...

[SplorKeLZ]

Brian, i would check your brevipedunculatus seeds for mold. Mine have all molded and i dont know whether they came like that or if i stored them wrong

[brian]

Brian, i would check your brevipedunculatus seeds for mold. Mine have all molded and i dont know whether they came like that or if i stored them wrong

I just checked mine.  They have vermiculite dust on them from the seed packing bag, but I guess could be some white powdery mold too?  Hard to tell.  I wiped them clean and changed their wet paper towel with a fresh one. 

[brian]

My brevipedunculatus seeds never sprouted, seems highly unlikely they will at this point.  I guess I will have to keep an eye out for seedlings instead.

[dolomis]

Looking great Brian.  I just put my Kwai Muk and Nanchuanensis back outside since temps picking back up, I don't get any bug problems with those specific ones.  I wish there was a list for which artocarpus are more hardy, but a lot of these species being sold are completely new here.

I put mine in the ground before winter last year did fine it’s only 4 ft tall. Not even one leaf loss

Fingers crossed you get some fruit set there! We all need to put our efforts together and get some good fruits out of this. One of us is bound to have superior tree

[BloomAndSprout]

Encouraging news on the Kwai muk! Would love to figure out how to grow kwai muk in a container and get fruit--such a shame this genus is so large. I got three trees in containers myself.  I think in December I decided to bring my ""big"" one (the one I put outside) in right before it got to freezing temps. It can definitely get to the upper 30s and 40s without much problems, at least for short periods. I unfortunately do not have a greenhouse, and I probably won't be able to afford one until I am in very old age!

[brian]

I have yet to see any fruit set on my in-ground kwai muk.  I assume that all those hundreds or thousands of flowers were male, which I guess is a common thing for first flowering.  But I'll just keep on waiting.

I still have my container kwai muk, which is nearly the same age as the in-ground tree but a tiny fraction of its size - 3-4ft tall in a 3gal container.  It is doing okay I guess but artocarpus really seem happier in the ground.  I'm not really sure why I've kept it, I have been using it as a guinea pig to test spray concentrations, cold hardiness, drought tolerance, etc.

[Jaboticaba45]

Nice Brian...
Mine got wrecked in the greenhouse freezes I had...
Whereas stuff like starfruit and imbe survived with dieback...
I still think this is a very viable tree to do anywhere you can grow a mango in FL...

[dolomis]

have you tried a. Brevipedunculatus? its supposed to be delicious and bellamy has them for pretty cheap right now

I ended up getting some of these seeds, thanks for the suggestion.  I'll post an update if they sprout

You bought all of them

[brian]

have you tried a. Brevipedunculatus? its supposed to be delicious and bellamy has them for pretty cheap right now

I ended up getting some of these seeds, thanks for the suggestion.  I'll post an update if they sprout

You bought all of them

Hah, unfortunately they all rotted, so my loss I guess

[brian]

I guess I spoke too soon - I just found a bunch of fruitlets!    Two branches look this like this, possibly more to come it still has a bunch of flowers. 









EDIT - I checked the jackfruit tree and I think I found my first jackfruit, too.  It seems too heavy to be a flower.  I never saw any flowers at all on it this year, they must have been hiding deep in the canopy.  I have to basically "enter" the tree to see much, I think it is time to prune again.

[brian]

Sadly, the kwai muk and jackfruit fruitlets dropped off

[TropicalFruitHunters]

Great job dude!  Keep the pics coming.

[akimbo]

I’ve had several artocarpus variants of seedlings that all seem to get brown, lose their leaves, etc. (same with plinias), and then die.  Some actually do revive eventually, but many don’t and I can’t figure out what starts their downward spiral.  I have them in a shaded area of my backyard lanai until they are large enough to move to the sunnier area, but they don’t even get that far.  What is the most common problem in growing artocarpuses (artocarpi?) from seedling to maturity?  I’m in central FL. 

Thanks!

[brian]

My cempedak suddenly wilted and died last week.  It has never really thrived, I wonder if it was a runt.  I might try another one sometime. 


Meanwhile, the marang is growing throughout the winter, and the jackfruit and kwai muk are healthy as always. 

I can longer reach the top of the marang tree even on my tip-toes, so it must be 8-9ft tall now

[TropicalFruitHunters]

Dang!  That sucks about the chemp.  I swear...some trees just don't want to survive and these artocarpus species seem to excel at it.  I'm still inconsolable over all the seedlings I've lost this past year.  Would love to see an updated pic on the entire marang tree.  Sounds like it is really doing well.  Any sign of mature leaves popping?  Would love to find kwai muk here...only it's lesser cousin lakoocha seems to be available.  Keep the updates coming.

[brian]

Here's the largest photo I can get of the marang.  It is still hard to see because it is surrounded by other plants.   Last couple years the marang looked weak mid-winter, but it has a lot of new growth right now despite the freezing weather outside. 

[brian]

Hah, I found a picture of the jackfruit when I planted it in 2019.  It was hitting the ceiling within a couple years.



It is flowering again now.  I think I see a female flower and some males but not as many flowers as I was expecting.  Hopefully more come