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.

Jackfruit, Acquiring More Varieties (Transporting Jackfruit Sapling).

Jackfruit, I love Jackfruit. Had been going banana over Jackfruit lately. Since I was having difficulties in getting various varieties of Jackfruit clone in Keningau, Sabah, I decide to acquire it from Peninsular. On this trip home, I tried to source for these. Pricing is definitely much cheaper over here.

Had planed to acquire Mastura J 37, CJ-3, CJ-6 and the New Red Jackfruit. I started on area closer to Kuala Lumpur, but unfortunately was not successful. Was on the verge of giving up, but thank goodness I manage to locate most of these ex-stock at Termeloh, Pahang.

Called up the owner for a final confirmation as it's quite a distance from Kuala Lumpur, about 140 KM. Started off 8 in the morning.

Along the way, I found some Jackfruit trees at the R&R Hentian Lanchang. As I came out of the Gents, I noticed quite a numbers of trees at the rear.

 I think these could be the Mastura.

Reached Tapak Samaian Suzi at about 10.30 am. Locating it was easy, exit the Pantai Timur highway at Termeloh, turn left at the T junction toward Termeloh after the toll plaza. It's about 300 M on the right. There is a small white signboard. As the owner had gone out station, Suzi's mum was at site to meet me. Makcik is a very nice lady, I took some plants and managed a short chat with Makcik. Was granted permission to take a couple of photos. They have a mid size nursery at the road side and they concentrate more on Jackfruit. I manage to acquire Mastura, CJ-3 and the Red Jackfruit.

I managed to load about 25 plants onto the MyVi. As this is a trial these shall do.

Reached home in the late afternoon and transferred these to the balcony.

Wavy leafs, Mastura.

Preparation before traveling
I started to pack up the night before my flight. Flight is next morning 7.50 am. hence I need to start off from my home about 4.30 am. I started packing early 7.00 pm the night before as this was my 1st time.Thank goodness for that as there was no working space in my small home. It's a small apartment located on the 1st floor. I did prepare by watering these plants regularly a couple of days before, but it's still difficult to separate out the soil. I tried on 2 Mastura and found that I broke many of their roots.

I then tried dunk the whole bag into a pail and try to bath the soil out. This is much better, but still not a perfect method, but giving the circumstances and time, it's the best that I can do. Getting rid of the soil is very messy as I need to walk thru' the living hall, dinning hall and kitchen, then out of our home and down the stairs. Being wet and muddy, it left a trail of messy dirt & footprint. Thank you to Alice my wife who help to clean up after me. Have to dispose the soil for every plant. Alice even brew tea for me. How lucky of me with a supportive wife. Couldn't get more photos as my hands were too muddy.

Packing Jackfruit sapling for transport.

I only manage to finish up at 11.00 pm. That is 4 hours of packing. I'm sure that doing it in a farm with proper equipment shall be much faster. I line the plastic bag with old news print, spray it moist. I need to seperate the different varieties in different bags, Mastura, CJ-3 and Red Jackfruit.

Packed and floor cleaned.

I bag all these 3 bags into a larger yellow bag. Cover the top with another bag. I tried to stuff this into my backpack, but it's slightly too long. Had no choice but to bend it slightly.

Traveling with my Jackfruit.
Zip up my bag, off to catch my flight with AirAsia As am hand carrying, was afraid that I may have issues with the custom department. Well it went smoothly. Was only queried on the content and is there any soil.
I tried to take care of the sapling through out my journey. On the bus and in the airplane. Today being traveling day, the sapling have to withstand approximately 40 hours before I can replant them. I pray that they can survive the long journey. I immediately open the top bag for inspection upon arrival to my place.

Arrived safe, Jackfruit sapling.

 I found that one of sapling was damaged. The old news print is still moist and some leak out to my backpack. Shall add in some water to keep them moist as it's already evening.

Damaged Jackfruit sapling.

Took them to the farm 1st thing in the morning. Immediately started to " pot" them.

Welcoming our new members upon arrival at our farm.

 I started with the Red Jackfruit, we only had 5 saplings.

Done, I marked them SR Songsang Red.

Next comes the Mastura. We have 11 of them.

Done, I marked them M37.

Next and lastly the CJ-3. We have 10 of these.

Done, I marked them CJ3.

Since I still have time, I germinated the Honey Jackfruit seeds from CML trading which I bought from AEON Jusco. These tasted very sweet, strong jackfruit aroma with strong after taste, crunchy and golden yellow color. I reused the disposable packing for the seeds, which have been clean of the sack and soak in water. I left some water there to keep them moist for the journey as Jackfruit seeds drys superfast. Let's see if I can identify this variety when they grow up.

Arrived still moist.

Have 22 seeds. I marked these S cml.

Finally got it all done. "potting" them was much easier as I'm in the farm and I have tools at my disposal. I shall keep all of them in the shaded nursery, let them recover, grows then only transfer.

Say cheese for the Jackfruit album.

Let's have a group photo for our album. With these we now have 6 varieties of Jackfruit in our farm. J 29, J 32 Mantin, J 33 Tekam Yellow, J 37 Mastura, CJ-3 and Songsang Red. Let's wish every one of them a speedy recovery so that they can be planted in the field and do their variety proud by manifesting their variety. This complete our story on our Jackfruit Journey, from Temerloh, Pahang to Keningau, Sabah. Stay tune for their outcome on their migration.

“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it”
― Gautama Buddha