Can two jackfruit seedlings cross pollinate each other?

[bradflorida]

I will be planting out two bangkok lemon seedlings.   They will be from a batch of seeds all taken from the same fruit.  Can two seedlings from the same fruit cross pollinate each other?  Must they be significantly different genetically in order for this to work?

Brad

[fruitlovers]

I will be planting out two bangkok lemon seedlings.   They will be from a batch of seeds all taken from the same fruit.  Can two seedlings from the same fruit cross pollinate each other?  Must they be significantly different genetically in order for this to work?

Brad

Yes they can pollinate each other, in fact jackfruit is self pollinating.

[HMHausman]

Agreed.  Jaks are self-polinating.  So unless you forcibly pollinate with the pollen of one seedling on the female potion of he other, you are most likely going to get a selfing.

[Sleepdoc]

I would suggest planting 3 or 4 of your seedlings in the same hole.  There will be some genetic diversity in seedlings, and if your seedlings had some cross pollination, there might be a fair amount is variability.  You can also select out which of the seedlings fits your palate the best after fruiting begins.

[bradflorida]

Hi Clint,

When you say "same hole", what distance are you referring to between seedlings?  18" apart?  And down the road, 3-5 years later, when it is time to get rid of all but one tree, wouldn't the root system be so intertwined that fully removing the other trees would actually uproot the desired one? Or would you just cut down the "undesirables" at the base and leave them as stumps?

Brad

[HMHausman]

Hi Clint,

When you say "same hole", what distance are you referring to between seedlings?  18" apart?  And down the road, 3-5 years later, when it is time to get rid of all but one tree, wouldn't the root system be so intertwined that fully removing the other trees would actually uproot the desired one? Would that mean the "undesirables" are just cut down at the base and left as stumps?

Brad

Same hole means just that, the root balls can actually touch and the multiple trees can point up at slightly different angles.  Yes, you may have a tree that you find undesirable. But, just as likely is that you'll keep them all, pruning them to retain diversity and allowing none to shade out the others.  If there is one that you want to remove, it will be a severe cut back to a stump and a continuing trimming back of new stump or root growth.  I suppose there might be some treatments that you could kill the stump with, but that might jeopardize your other trees.  Uprooting would not, as you describe be a viable option.

[Sleepdoc]

I have read that there is a practice of planting an entire Jackfruit worth of seeds in the same hole.  Multiple seedlings will start to grow, and the seedlings are then bound together so they "bond" or self graft.  I found this to be a very cool idea, so I actually planted about 20 seedlings close together in the ground.  They did sprout, and when they were 18-24" tall, I bound them together with green nursery tape.  At this point, which is almost 2 years later, I have removed the tape and they seem to have bonded/self grafted well at the trunk base/bases.   The cluster is now about 12 feet tall and growing well. 

My plan is to let them fruit that way.  I will then be able to select out the individual/individuals that I like which grow above the bonded area.  The root system below the "cut" should maintain all of its viability and then support the remaining individuals above the grafted/bonded area.  Even if I end up with just one individual tree, It will be my favorite out of the 20. 

That is my plan anyway, and I will of course post up how that all works out.  It will be a couple of years before the result is known, but it should be interesting.

[Sleepdoc]

Brad,

The seeds I sent you have a fairly high likely hood of some cross pollination.  The fruit that they came from grew very close to another seedling of mine, which was flowering at the same time.  I also did some hand cross pollination on some of my fruit.  I don't remember if your particular seeds are hand cross pollinated.  So you might get very little genetic diversity, or you might get a lot.

[plantlover13]

I have read that there is a practice of planting an entire Jackfruit worth of seeds in the same hole.  Multiple seedlings will start to grow, and the seedlings are then bound together so they "bond" or self graft.  I found this to be a very cool idea, so I actually planted about 20 seedlings close together in the ground.  They did sprout, and when they were 18-24" tall, I bound them together with green nursery tape.  At this point, which is almost 2 years later, I have removed the tape and they seem to have bonded/self grafted well at the trunk base/bases.   The cluster is now about 12 feet tall and growing well. 

My plan is to let them fruit that way.  I will then be able to select out the individual/individuals that I like which grow above the bonded area.  The root system below the "cut" should maintain all of its viability and then support the remaining individuals above the grafted/bonded area.  Even if I end up with just one individual tree, It will be my favorite out of the 20. 

That is my plan anyway, and I will of course post up how that all works out.  It will be a couple of years before the result is known, but it should be interesting.

that sounds cool. Please keep us updated. Pics would also be nice.

[Sleepdoc]

. Pics would also be nice.

Okie Dokie

[plantlover13]

Holy cow that is absolutely nuts. Will each tree be able to support fruit?

[rovha]

That really is amazing, how old are they?

[Saltcayman]

Really cool!!  I am going to try it.  Dave

[Sleepdoc]

Holy cow that is absolutely nuts. Will each tree be able to support fruit?

Thanks    Not sure, Hopefully we'll find out in about 2 years.

That really is amazing, how old are they?

Thanks   2 years old in November

[rovha]

Amazing growth for only 2 years, lets hope they fruit as fast as they grow.

[bradflorida]

Clint,

That is really cool.  Pics look great.  It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.  It makes the idea of putting 3 or 4 seedlings close to each other, seem very conservative.  I was trying to find more info on the web regarding the idea of tying the trunks together.  It seems I had read about it a while back, but all I could find now was a gardenweb post by someone who said they read about it tying a handful of seedlings together and then selecting the 7 best. 

The seeds arrived today, and several had already started sprouting!  Thanks so much.  I can't wait to plant them! 

Brad

 

[bradflorida]

Are Jackfruit Trees thought to be better candidates for multiples in one hole than other fruit trees? If so is it because they fruit mostly on the trunks and inner limbs therefore the fruiting area is not compromised as it would be with other fruit trees? 

If multiple Jackfruit trees are grown in this way then does foliage pruning have to occur on the inside or the middle of the trees, or will Mother Nature do this and prevent overcrowding of the inner limbs and foliage?

Brad

[murahilin]

Clint, did any of the trees in the group planting ever fruit?

[bradflorida]

Also curious to hear the outcome.
Brad

[Sleepdoc]

No, zero fruit and actually not really even flowering.  I'm surprised, at well over 6 years old, I would expect some activity.  But nope - nada.  The cluster has some decent mass to it overall, but the individual trunks are not that large.  Maybe thats the issue, or maybe these particular seedlings just take a long while to flower.  Tough to say, but I am getting impatient !!

[bradflorida]

Thanks for the update.  Too bad no fruit.  Hopefully soon.

Any recent pics?

Brad

[cbss_daviefl]

4 years ago, I planted 3 jak seedling trees in an equilateral triangle around 1 ft apart. The trees seem to be very sympathetic to the needs of each other. These trees are team players. The trunks are mostly straight up and the horizontal branches tend to grow away from the other trees. One is growing a bit faster than the others and has its first fruits hanging. The other 2 are pumping out males. I think when planted this close, they seem to ration nutrients and the growth of a single tree is divided among the group. If these trees were planted 8ft apart, they would be twice the size they are now.

Around the same time, I planted 2 jak seedling trees a foot apart in another spot and the tree planted to the north is 16 ft tall and the tree to the south is 6 ft. The bigger tree cradles the smaller sibling and does not put out hotizonal branches through the space occupied by the other, even though the small tree is sparse. The big north tree has is first fruits.

[Sleepdoc]

[bradflorida]

Hi Clint. Thanks for the picture.  It looks as if maybe a dozen of the seedlings survived. Interesting how some are thicker than others. It will be interesting to see if they ever fruit.

Brad

[Sleepdoc]

NP.  Yeah, some of the seedlings stayed very tiny, so eventually I just clipped those individuals at ground level.   There is a lot of size variation in the remaining seedlings, with the center one being the largest.