Where are you located?

West Palm Beach

A seedling will not fruit for about ten years, whereas a grafted tree in about 3 to 4. If grown in isolation, it may come true from seed, but there's always the chance of cross-pollination from another tree, making it a new variety. So says an expert from Pine Island Nursery.

good info - but they are free if anyone wants-and as i understand, the seedling will grow fairly quickly into a nice tree

Johnb51,
Jackfruit from seed often fruit in 3-4 years. I've seen them put out male flowers at 1 year old in 1 gallon containers. 10 years is definitely not the usual wait time for seedling jackfruit.

Sorry. Just going by what they told me. I wouldn't know for sure, but I trust your experience. They are beautiful trees, at any rate.

I think a lot depends on cultivar, but it's definitely not a rarity for a seedling to fruit faster than a grafted tree. My seedling NS1, for example, fruited about 1 year earlier than my grafted black gold. I think a lot has to do with the fact that the seedling is much more vigorous and much more rapidly reaches sufficient trunk girth to be able to hold those giant fruits.

As I see it, the advantages of a grafted jackfruit are: you get a 100% true to type fruit and you get a less vigorous and easier to maintain tree. There is definitely some variability among jackfruit seedlings (though maybe not as much as with other fruits such as the mango).

My seedling NS1 grows like a wild beast where the grafted black gold is much, much more tame.

Jeff

Hey Nats, sent you a message.

Jeff is right, even though a seedling jackfruit might fruit sooner or around the same time, there are more advantages to getting a grafted tree. I wouldn't plant a seedling jackfruit just because there are too many good grafted varieties and I am not willing to leave the quality of fruit up to chance. I have had very horrible seedlings and also very excellent seedlings. I'll leave the experimentation up to others.

Funny, the PO of my house was "into" planting seeds. Unfortunately I have what appears to be a seedling mango and to me it tastes like turpentine. I have a seedling Avocado that's H-U-G-E and I still have no fruit. Soon it and the mango will be gone.

The problem with seedlings isn't only getting undesirable fruit, it's that AND wasting time, energy, yard space AND then having to cut them down.

Anything I grow from seed (except guava and papaya) I'll keep in a pot to see how they do as fruit. If they outgrow a pot and do not fruit, it's the axe for them :-)

Gary

Makes sense, Gary!

Yes Gary... Makes total sense. Why not Guava and papaya? I know papaya grows very fast fruit from seed, but what about guava?

MGB

man-Go

Papaya grow fast from seed, and Guava are inexpensive as trees or bushes. I'll grow Guava when my lemon guava fruits again... unless Jeff has some more :-)

Cool!