JACK (Artocarpus heterophyllus)Jack comes up well in humid regions up to an elevation of 1000 m. Soil should be deep and well drained. Any rise in water table or poor aeration of the soil is detrimental to the crop.
Varieties / types
Jackfruit differs in size, shape and quality. The jackfruit may be classified into two groups: (i) soft fleshed and (ii) firm fleshed. The firm fleshed type is highly tasty, sweet and crisp. The two groups are further classified depending on the taste, size of fruit, odour of flesh, nature, shape and diversity of prickles on the rind.
Two distinct types with desirable qualities recommended for Kerala are:
1. Muttom varikka which is a firm fleshed, sweet scented variety.
2. Singapore or Srilanka jack which is an introduced variety from Srilanka. It bears fruits in 3 years after planting and is extremely precocious in habit. The fruits are more or less the same size as the common jackfruit. A tree may yield as many as 250 fruits.
Planting materials
Use seedlings or grafts for planting. For grafting, raise seedlings in polythene bags and when they are 9-12 months old do inarching. One month after grafting, behead the rootstock above the graft joint.
Epicotyl grafting can be undertaken successfully in jack. Three to four month old, 10 cm long scions are grafted on five-day old rootstocks in polythene bags by the cleft method during the month of June and kept under moist conditions. The scions should be pre-cured 10 days before grafting by clipping the leaf blades and keeping the petioles intact on the twig. The graft union is complete by 80 days after grafting operations.
Season
Plant seedlings or one year old grafts at the onset of monsoon showers.
Planting
Prepare pits of size 60 x 60 x 60 cm at a spacing of 12-15 m. Refill pits with mixture of topsoil and 10 kg compost or FYM per pit to a level higher than the adjoining ground. Plant the grafts in the same depth as they were in the containers, preferably in the late evening. Deep planting results in poor growth of the graft. Ensure that the graft joint is above the soil level. Stake the plants to prevent snapping at the graft joints. Excellent drainage and adequate watering result in better performance. At no stage it should be exposed to drought or frost. It is useful to provide some protection, especially to young trees. Jack is rarely manured. Even without fertilizer application, the jack trees come up well under Kerala conditions.
Harvesting
The seedling plants generally bear after eight years and the grafted plants after three years of planting. The fruiting season lasts about four months from January-February to May-June. The average yield from one tree is about 50-100 fruits per year.
Plant protection
The important pests of jack are shoot borer caterpillar, mealy bug and jack scale.
1. To control shoot borer caterpillars spray with any contact insecticide.
2. To control jack scale apply contact insecticide.
3. To control mealy bug, spray contact insecticides like lime sulphur or dust sulphur.
The common diseases that attack the tree are the pink disease, stem rot and fruit rot. Pruning of affected plants and protecting the cut-ends with Bordeaux paste are recommended against these diseases.
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