First Tasting of Cheena

[fruitlovers]

Just got to taste my first Cheena off one of my trees. (Cheena is a hybrid cross between Chempadek and Jackfruit.) The fruit looks and tastes more like a jackfruit than a chempadek. I thought the fruit was delicious, on par with Black Gold jackfruit. I noticed the seeds were quite a bit smaller than jackfruit seeds. Have 2 fruits on the small tree and both are in 12-15 pound range. This is a tree originally from PIN nursery in S. Florida. I remember PIN nursery salesperson told me they thought the fruit was mediocre quality. Maybe it is when grown in Florida, but here i thought it was quite good!

[bsbullie]

Just got to taste my first Cheena off one of my trees. (It's a cross between Chempadek and Jackfruit.) The fruit looks and tastes more like a jackfruit than a chempadek. I thought the fruit was delicious, on par with Black Gold jackfruit. I noticed the seeds were quite a bit smaller than jackfruit seeds. Have 2 fruits on the small tree and both are in 12-15 pound range. This is a tree originally from PIN nursery. I remember they told me they thought the fruit was mediocre quality. Maybe it is when grown in Florida, but here i thought it was quite good!

As the owner of the title "Mr/ Photographer" on this site  , I believe pictures are in order 

[fruitlovers]

As the owner of the title "Mr/ Photographer" on this site  , I believe pictures are in order 

HAHA, i knew someone would soon say "where are the photos"? I took some photos of fruit on the tree, but not of opened fruit, too busy eating them...will post some photos soon. Maybe i can get some better photos of the next fruit in waiting.
Wish i could share some fruit samples with you all to get your opinions, but technology for sending taste samples over cyberspace is not quite up to par for that yet. 

[Mike T]

Fruitlovers cheena is a pretty good cross.There are excellent vietnamese origin crosses that are lemony and bulbs stick to the core when you pull the stem off.You can do it with cheena also with care leaving the skin and rag behind.Some of the pure chempadak are also sweet and luscious and not too sloppy.With jacks black gold seems to be a pretty common standard and there seems to be alot of types around.A rare type called Amber is the best I have tried for flavour and it isn't even a crisp orange being almost crisp and amber in colour. 

[stressbaby]

I recall the guys telling me this was a Cheena, am I correct?

[HMHausman]

I forget where the discussion was had, but I think there is some discrepancy as to what excatly Cheena is.  I have seen some pictures of it where it appears much more Champedak in shape (longer than wide and somewhat irregular in shape) and other photos that show it to be a nice big, more broad frruit as one would see in a more fully sized jak.  I wil try to locate te photos to show you. Its been a while (since later 90's at the Just Jakfruit Fairchild Festival), but the my last tasting of what they were calling Cheena was very underwhelming.  Its been too long to make any more definitive statements.  The circumstances of mass prep of the jakfruit for that festival could have also affected the experience. What was the shape pf your fruit? And how was the cleaning?

Harry

[Mike T]

It sure looks like a straight jack and not a hybrid.The cheena I have tried was smoother,smaller and more of a cylinder.Perhaps seedlings are retaining the name over here.Chempadak seedlings have grayer and more sandpapery foliage than jacks for the first few months.It would be interesting to see if those seeds sprouted with more gray rough leaves or green smoother leaves.

[murahilin]

I recall the guys telling me this was a Cheena, am I correct?

I remember being told it was a cheena also but what I think it may have been was a cheena seedling that was more jackfruit than champedak. I wish we could have seen the inside to see if it had any champedak traits at all. Anyone ever ask Bryan what the fruit was like?

[HMHausman]

This is what the Cheena did with cleaning on the Fairchild fruit.  While i don't find a picture of the fruit prior to the stem bieng removed with the core and attached fruit/seeds, i remember the fruit to look a lot more like this:



Which, as you can see, looks totally different to what they were referring to as Cheena in Puerto Rico.....which Robert (Stressbaby) posted above.

Harry

[FloridaGreenMan]

Just got to taste my first Cheena off one of my trees. (Cheena is a hybrid cross between Chempadek and Jackfruit.) The fruit looks and tastes more like a jackfruit than a chempadek. I thought the fruit was delicious, on par with Black Gold jackfruit. I noticed the seeds were quite a bit smaller than jackfruit seeds. Have 2 fruits on the small tree and both are in 12-15 pound range. This is a tree originally from PIN nursery in S. Florida. I remember PIN nursery salesperson told me they thought the fruit was mediocre quality. Maybe it is when grown in Florida, but here i thought it was quite good!

I fruited a Cheena seedling about 7 or 8 years ago and really enjoyed the fruit. Mine were more cylindrical shaped than regular Jakfruit. 

 
 

[fruitlovers]

I forget where the discussion was had, but I think there is some discrepancy as to what excatly Cheena is.  I have seen some pictures of it where it appears much more Champedak in shape (longer than wide and somewhat irregular in shape) and other photos that show it to be a nice big, more broad frruit as one would see in a more fully sized jak.  I wil try to locate te photos to show you. Its been a while (since later 90's at the Just Jakfruit Fairchild Festival), but the my last tasting of what they were calling Cheena was very underwhelming.  Its been too long to make any more definitive statements.  The circumstances of mass prep of the jakfruit for that festival could have also affected the experience. What was the shape pf your fruit? And how was the cleaning?

Harry

I think that discussion about what Cheena is was right there, but i forget in which thread? It seems that the names Cheena and also Chempajack are applied to any cross between chempadek and jackfruit. But as we all know results are going to be different depending on exact parentage and also which species plays the role as receptor and pollinator. So really all the crosses should have different names from each other, but they don't. Frank Sekiya pointed this out to me in personal conversation, and that there are several crosses, and that they are all quite different in quality. To complicate things even more i think people are taking seeds of these hybrids and also calling them Cheena or Champejack, but from seeds there will be even further variation in fruit quality and other things like fruit shape, etc.

[Mike T]

A smart friend looked at the shots on this thread and advised that superficially the fruit appears too large and has minor differences from usual cheena but could be from a seedling of cheena.Cutting it open and comparing to the accurate shot of the desleeved one will reveal all.He rated the quality highly of cheena highly and while it is subjective he thought it distinctiveness would hold it in good stead with jacks black gold,honey gold,cochin,NS1 and the best thai jacks.He suggested the common small (2kg) orange fleshed smoother sausage chempadaks is poorer than cheena in quality but the twisted yellow orange large bulbed chempadak (av 3.5kg) also from malaysia was better than cheena.The photo of the twisted fruit could be tabouey jack or the twisted champa.He suggested the best jacks like amber were of higher quality than any of the above mentioned types in his opinion.

[fruitlovers]

Here's a photo of one of my Cheenas on the tree:

[Mike T]

Oscar is it a seedling or could it be in a grafted lineage going back to the original?I looks different from cheena I have tried but greater wisdom said it could be the real cheena.

[fruitlovers]

Oscar is it a seedling or could it be in a grafted lineage going back to the original?I looks different from cheena I have tried but greater wisdom said it could be the real cheena.

It's a grafted tree from PIN nursery in S. Florida.

[Mike T]

I guess it must be then and there could be a bit of variation due to alot of factors.Sorry to be a doubter.

[bsbullie]

Oscar is it a seedling or could it be in a grafted lineage going back to the original?I looks different from cheena I have tried but greater wisdom said it could be the real cheena.

It's a grafted tree from PIN nursery in S. Florida.

From your picture it looks as if the fruit is close to the ground.  If so, is it above or below the graft ?

[fruitlovers]

From your picture it looks as if the fruit is close to the ground.  If so, is it above or below the graft ?

Fruit is not that close to ground. Well above graft line.