13 June 2013

Delicious Nangka (Jackfruit)


Fruits of our labour!

My family and I tasted the sweet golden flesh of our nangka last night.

Just 4 years after setting my nangka tree into the ground, we were rewarded with its heavy fruit - in all there are 5 fruit on the tree. We brought down 2 last night, leaving 3 on the tree.

Do you think trees have feelings?

I ask this because my  jackfruit had been producing flowers and little baby jackfruit since last year. But each time the baby fruit got to be about 3 inches long, it would turn black and fall to the ground.

At that time, I had a gardener who was supposed to lighten our gardening duties. He was to come in 3 times a week to mow the lawn, water the plants, do the trimming and weeding. He underperformed, to put it mildly.

The gardener was slip-shod in his work. He didn't water the plants sufficiently, he didn't weed regularly, and he trimmed the bushes and trees hurriedly and with little thought.

In that time, I noticed that a lot of my fruit trees were not bearing fruit.

Before I asked the gardener to stop, he quit in December. After only 10 months.

Within a month of my gardener's departure, my umbra, mango, nona and jackfruit trees all regained their vivacious growth. Perhaps my plants did not like him. Not enough TLC.


Caring for my jackfruit tree

It has been quite simple caring for it. Regular watering when it was still a sapling, and applying fertilizer every 3-4 weeks.

I read on the net that pruning or trimming the tree is important to stimulate growth and fruiting.

I watched a very interesting video on youtube demonstrating how a jackfruit tree ought to be pruned. The instructions seemed rather radical but I followed them, with success. (video below)




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