Where is breadfruit grown

Optimum annual rainfall is mm, but trees can yield regularly on Pacific atolls that receive mm. Deep, fertile, well-drained soils are preferred although some varieties are adapted to the shallow sandy soils of coral atolls. Growing Regions. Growing Regions Horticulture. Some fruits may have a harsh, sandpaper-like rind. Generally the rind is green at first, turning yellowish-green, yellow or yellow-brown when ripe, though one variety is lavender. In the green stage, the fruit is hard and the interior is white, starchy and somewhat fibrous.

When fully ripe, the fruit is somewhat soft, the interior is cream colored or yellow and pasty, also sweetly fragrant. The fruit is borne singly or in clusters of 2 or 3 at the branch tips.

The fruit stalk pedicel varies from 1 to 5 in 2. All parts of the tree, including the unripe fruit, are rich in milky, gummy latex. There are two main types: the normal, "wild" type cultivated in some areas with seeds and little pulp, and the "cultivated" more widely grown seedless type, but occasionally a few fully developed seeds are found in usually seedless cultivars. Some forms with entire leaves and with both seeds and edible pulp have been classified by Dr.

Fosberg as belonging to a separate species, A. It is said to have been widely spread in the Pacific area by migrating Polynesians, and Hawaiians believed that it was brought from the Samoan island of Upalu to Oahu in the 12th Century A. It is said to have been first seen by Europeans in the Marquesas in , then in Tahiti in At the beginning of the 18th Century, the early English explorers were loud in its praises, and its fame, together with several periods of famine in Jamaica between and , inspired plantation owners in the British West Indies to petition King George III to import seedless breadfruit trees to provide food for their slaves.

There is good evidence that the French navigator Sonnerat in obtained the seeded breadfruit in the Philippines and brought it to the French West Indies.

It seems also that some seedless and seeded breadfruit plants reached Jamaica from a French ship bound for Martinique but captured by the British in There were at least two plants of the seeded breadfruit in Jamaica in and distributions were quickly made to the other islands. There is a record of a plant having been sent from Martinique to the St.

Vincent Botanical Garden before The story of Captain Bligh's first voyage to Tahiti, in , and the loss of his cargo of 1, potted breadfruit plants on his disastrous return voyage is well known. He set out again in and delivered 5 different kinds totalling 2, plants to Jamaica in February On that island, the seedless breadfruit flourished and it came to be commonly planted in other islands of the West Indies, in the lowlands of Central America and northern South America. In some areas, only the seedless type is grown, in others, particularly Haiti, the seeded is more common.

Jamaica is by far the leading producer of the seedless type, followed by St. In New Guinea, only the seeded type is grown for food. It has been suggested that the seeded breadfruit was carried by Spaniards from the Philippines to Mexico and Central America long before any reached the West Indies. On the Pacific coast of Central America, the seeded type is common and standard fare for domestic swine. On the Atlantic Coast, seedless varieties are much consumed by people of African origin.

The breadfruit tree is much grown for shade in Yucatan. It is very common in the lowlands of Colombia, a popular food in the Cauca Valley, the Choco, and the San Andres Islands; mostly fed to live stock in other areas.

In Guyana, in , about 1, new breadfruit trees were being produced each year but not nearly enough to fill requests for plants. There and in Trinidad, because of many Asians in the population, both seeded and seedless breadfruits are much appreciated as a regular article of the diet; in some other areas of the Caribbean, breadfruit is regarded merely as a food for the poor for use only in emergencies. Nowadays, it is attracting the attention of gourmets and some islands are making small shipments to the United States, Canada and Europe for specialized ethnic markets.

In the Palau Islands of the South Pacific, breadfruit is being outclassed by cassava and imported flour and rice. For some time breadfruit was losing ground to taro Colocasia esculenta Schott. For many years there have been a number of seedless breadfruit trees in Key West, Florida, and there is now at least one on Vaca Key about 50 miles to the northeast.

On the mainland of Florida, the tree can be maintained outdoors for a few years with mild winters but, unless protected with plastic covering to prevent dehydration, it ultimately succumbs.

Varieties An unpublished report of covered cultivars of breadfruit in the Marquesas. The South Pacific Commission published the results of a breadfruit survey in There are 70 named varieties of seeded and seedless breadfruits in Fiji.

They are locally separated into 8 classes by leaf form. The following, briefly presented, are those that are recorded as "very good". It will be noted that some varietal names are reported under more than one class.

Class I : Leaf entire, or with one or two, occasionally, three lobes. Areas within the following countries are suitable for the cultivation of breadfruit based exclusively on temperature and rainfall. Many countries not listed are likely to have suitable environs for the cultivation of breadfruit with a reliable source of irrigation.

Because of the previous limited access to large numbers of trees, research in every possible climate has yet to be conducted.