Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis), Sukun, 面包树.

I only came to know about Breadfruit after I started farming here. Locally it's known as Sukun. According to Wikipedia, the ancestors of the Polynesia found the trees growing in the northwest New Guinea area around 3,500 years ago. They gave up the rice cultivation they had brought with them from Taiwan and raised breadfruit wherever they went in the Pacific. Their ancient eastern Indonesian cousins spread the plant west and north through insular and coastal Southeast Asia. It has, in historical times, also been widely planted in tropical regions elsewhere.

The Mother Breadfruit tree in our little farm.

 My interest in breadfruit grew as there is a mature tree in our little farm. Thank you for that. I wanted to fell it to make way for my planting. I was told that the fruit is edible. When it fruited, we had a snack made from it. Meshed up the breadfruit, mixed with fine coconut pieces and deep fried in thick pieces. It tasted marvelous. I then check at the local market and yes, it's sell able. Made further check at the city, I found ready market for Sukun. When in season, there are some stalls selling it in the market, and plenty stall sell on their Tamu (weekly market).

Artocarpus altilis. The smallest of the 3.

I then went around this area and spoke to a couple of farmers. I spoke with them on this and was told that's it's call 面包树,Chinese translation. Previously there are buyers coming to collect, but nowadays no more. Maybe the profit margin is not there. Hence most of them had fell off the breadfruit.

A search on the internet shows that it's suppose to be a very easy to grow with minimal input. Propagation can be done easily with air layering, root cutting and root shoot.

The 2nd breadfruit which is about 3 feet.

Being seedless I just didn't know how to propagate it. I had tried air layering, but at that time my farming experience is practically zero. It didn't work, I waited for it to propagate itself, root shot. Had tried transplanting a couple of times to polybags, but failed. At 1 time I had some successful transplanted a couple to the field, but it didn't survive.  I then lost interest in it as I feel it did not fit into my farming plan which is to search for a lazy man's fruit tree. Being so difficult to propagate and transplant really kill my interest. I also do not have the ability to propagate in volume. Breadfruit or Artocarpus altilis is a tall large tree and till now I had not found a suitable land to plant. As the land that we are planting now are mostly left over idle land, perimeter, in-between terrace from rubber trees. Also hilly lands shall have problem with harvesting. Farms with breadfruit, which I had visited are integrated as a supplementary crops only. It maybe not feasible to plant breadfruit as a mono crop here, or maybe the market demand is not that big.

The 3rd Sukun, largest.

Being a big & tall tree, harvesting is also very challenging. Harvesting the ripe fruit undamaged is difficult. Flowers and fruit are grown on the tip so it's not productive to prune back the trees in height or width. Until I can think of ways to solve all these issues, I shall let it take a back seat. I'll just plant a couple for fun, learning and maybe own consumption.

This time I managed to transfer 3 plants to the field. I had them nursed till they are more than 2 feet before I transplant. Upon checking I found the same problem, rodents love to chew on the young sapling during hot drought.

Had requested our helper to shore up the soil to cover up the wounded area, hopefully it shall root and recover. I have 2 more sapling in my nursery. Lets hope that all can survive and bear fruit soon.

My crude air layering of Breadfruit tree.

Mother Breadfruit tree bearing fruits.

Breadfruit Male & Female. You can easily tell which is the male.

Breadfruit / Buah Sukun.