Paano Magtanim ng Langka: How to Plant Jackfruit the Traditional Way
Paano magtanim ng langka? Here is how traditional Filipino farmers usually plant langka (jackfruit), step by step from getting the field ready to the harvest, with the day of each step and what to change for a higher yield.
This guide shows how traditional farmers usually plant langka. Use it as a starting point. For a higher yield, update it: plant certified seed or clean planting material, test your soil, and follow the right spacing and fertilizer.
This guide shows how Filipino farmers usually plant jackfruit, either a grafted seedling of a sweet variety or a tree grown from the seed of a good fruit, and care for it until the first fruits. It is for backyards, coconut farms and small orchards.
Before you plant, get the field ready with our land preparation guide for fruit and plantation trees. Then choose your seed or planting material with the langka varieties sold here. If the leaves turn pale later on, the langka nutrient deficiency guide helps you find what is missing. For more on the crop, read pagtatanim ng puno.
When to plant langka
Planting is best as the rains begin, around May to July, so the young trees need little watering. With water on hand, farmers plant in any month when the soil is not very dry. Jackfruit flowers almost all year, and the main fruiting season runs about March to August.
What you plant
Many growers now buy grafted seedlings of a sweet, firm fleshed variety, such as EVIARC sweet, from a trusted nursery. In the old way farmers sow big, fresh seeds from a sweet, heavy bearing tree straight into bags and plant the seedling out, which costs nothing but takes years longer to bear and the fruit can differ from the mother.
Paano magtanim ng langka: grafted seedling
This is the grafted seedling way (Grafted seedling (grafted na langka)). Grafted jackfruit usually bears at about 4 to 5 years. The crop is ready about 4 years after planting.
Grafted seedling: before planting (Bago magtanim)
30 days before planting: Clear and mark the planting spots
Clear the area and mark the spots about 8 to 10 m apart in squares or triangles, since jackfruit grows into a big tree. Avoid low spots where water stands, because the roots rot easily.
7 days before planting: Dig the holes
Dig each hole about twice as wide and deep as the seedling bag. Mix the topsoil with compost or dried manure and put some back in the hole.
Grafted seedling: planting day (Pagtatanim)
Planting day: Plant the seedling
Remove the bag gently, set the seedling at the depth it grew and keep the graft union above the soil. Cut off extra shoots and cut the remaining leaves in half so the young tree loses less water, then firm the soil and water well.
Grafted seedling: care while it grows (Pag aalaga)
Day 1: Water and mulch
Water right after planting and by hand during any dry spell until the tree is well rooted. Mulch the base in the dry season, a little away from the trunk.
Day 30: First fertilizer
One month after planting, spread about 100 to 150 g of ammonium sulfate (21 0 0) around the tree and mix it lightly into the soil. Add compost or manure when you have it.
Day 45: Weed and plant cash crops between
Keep a clean circle around the young tree. Short crops or a legume cover crop can grow in the open space between trees until they get in the way.
Month 3: Watch for borers and rot
Check the trunk and branches for bark borer holes and the base for dark, wet rot. Cut off and burn damaged branches and keep the base dry and clean.
Month 7: Second fertilizer near the end of the rains
About six months after the first, give the same amount of ammonium sulfate again, near the end of the rainy season. Give a little more each year as the tree grows.
Month 12: Water through the second dry season
Keep watering in the dry months of the first and second years. After that, mulch is usually enough.
Grafted seedling: harvest (Anihan)
Year 4: First fruits
Bag young fruits with sacks or old newspaper about a month after they appear. They are ready about three months after bagging, when tapping gives a dull, hollow sound, the spines spread apart and the skin turns yellowish. Cut the stalk with a sharp knife while a second person holds the fruit.
From seed, step by step
This is the from seed way (From seed (punla mula sa buto)). Trees from seed usually bear at about 6 to 8 years or more. The nursery step is counted back from the planting day. The crop is ready about 6 years after planting.
From seed: before planting (Bago magtanim)
14 days before planting: Mark and dig the holes
Mark the spots about 8 to 10 m apart and dig holes about twice as wide as the bag. Mix compost or manure into the topsoil that goes back in.
From seed: the nursery (Punlaan)
3 months before planting: Sow fresh seeds from a good fruit
Take big, plump seeds from a ripe, sweet fruit of a heavy bearing tree, wash off the pulp and sow them within a few days, one or two to a bag of loose soil. Keep the bags in light shade and water them often. Tip: Jackfruit seeds lose life quickly once they dry out, so sow them fresh.
From seed: planting day (Pagtatanim)
Planting day: Plant out young seedlings
Plant out the seedlings while they are still young, since jackfruit has a long taproot that hates being disturbed. Set them at the same depth, firm the soil and water well.
From seed: care while it grows (Pag aalaga)
Day 30: Feed, weed and water the young tree
Give about 100 to 150 g of ammonium sulfate a month after planting and again near the end of the rains. Keep the circle around the tree weeded and water in dry spells for the first two years.
Month 3: Watch for borers and rot
Check the trunk for borer holes and the base for rot, and cut and burn damaged parts. Keep the base mulched but dry.
From seed: harvest (Anihan)
Year 6: First fruits
Bag the young fruits and cut them when tapping gives a dull, hollow sound and the spines spread apart.
Watering langka, stage by stage
Jackfruit is planted as the rains begin and watered by hand in dry spells for the first two years, after which most farmers leave it to the rain with a mulch at the base. Grown trees are seldom watered or fed and still bear, though they bear better with care. A pail or hose into a ring basin for young trees. Grown trees get rain only. Water in the early morning or late afternoon.
The first two dry seasons after planting. Young and filling fruits in a long drought, which stay small or fall.
| Stage | When | How often | How much |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seedlings in bags (trees from seed) | 3 months before planting to planting day | Every day or every other day, in light shade | Enough to wet each bag right through |
| Planting to 3 months | Planting day to month 3 | Water right after planting, then about once a week when no rain falls, more often in a hot spell | One to two watering cans a tree, into a ring basin a little away from the trunk |
| First and second year | Month 3 to 24 | About once a week in the dry months. Not needed in the rains | A deep soak of the ring basin, widened as the tree grows |
| Year 3 to the first fruits | Month 24 to 44 | Usually none. Mulch the base before the dry months and water only in a long drought | A deep soak of the ring when the soil under the mulch is dry a hand deep |
| Bearing trees: fruit set to harvest (each year) | Month 44 to 48 | Where water is near, soak in a long dry spell while the fruits fill. Trees from seed reach this at about 6 to 8 years | A deep soak of the ground under the crown |
Without irrigation. Plant as the rains begin so the young tree needs little watering, keep the base mulched in the dry season a little off the trunk, and grow short crops or a legume cover between the trees to shade the soil. After the second year, mulch alone usually carries a jackfruit tree through the dry months.
In the dry season. Young trees in their first two years: about once a week. Older trees: mulch, and water only in a long drought, mainly while fruits are filling. Water when the leaves droop by midday and lose their shine.
In the rainy season. Jackfruit cannot stand waterlogging: never plant in low spots where water stands, dig a drain from any wet corner, and keep the base dry and clean. A tree whose roots sit in water bears poorly, gets a dark, wet rot at the base and can die.
- Too little water: Leaves droop and lose their shine, older leaves yellow and drop, and young fruits shrivel and fall.
- Too much water: Leaves yellow and fall, dark wet rot shows at the trunk base, branches die back, and a whole tree can wilt suddenly after a flood.
To water better for a higher yield: Water young trees weekly through the first two dry seasons and keep a thick mulch. This gets them to first bearing sooner. On bearing trees with water near, a deep soak in long dry spells while the fruits fill gives bigger fruits and fewer drops.
Spacing, water and fertilizer for langka
Spacing
About 8 to 10 m between trees in squares or triangles. Some growers give 12 to 14 m. In backyards and coconut farms one or two trees are often planted wherever there is room.
Water
Planted at the start of the rains and watered by hand in dry spells after planting. Young trees are watered in the dry months of the first two years, after which mulch is usually enough. Jackfruit cannot stand waterlogging.
Fertilizer
Compost or manure in the hole. Young trees get about 100 to 150 g of ammonium sulfate (21 0 0) a month after planting and the same again about six months later, near the end of the rains. Bearing trees get about 0.5 to 1 kg of complete fertilizer at the start of the rains and again near their end, with more for big old trees, plus manure where available. To read what a bag really gives, see our guide to fertilizer for this crop.
Care and harvest
Care while it grows
Weeding a circle around young trees, mulching in the dry season, growing short crops or a legume cover between the trees while they are small, and pruning only dead, sick or crowded inner branches once the tree bears. Bagging young fruits against fruit flies and fruit borers, and burning infested fruit and borer damaged branches.
When and how to harvest
Fruits are bagged with sacks, cement bags, dried banana sheaths or old newspaper soon after they form, and are ready about three months after bagging. A ripe fruit sounds dull and hollow when tapped, its spines spread apart and give a little when pressed, and its skin turns greenish yellow or brownish yellow. For home use the smell tells. The stalk is cut with a sharp knife or bolo, and big or high fruits are lowered by rope in a sack.
Common mistakes when planting langka
- Planting in low, wet ground where the roots and trunk base rot.
- Leaving seedlings too long in the bag, so the taproot coils and the tree stays weak.
- Taking seed from a tree with poor or soft fruit.
- Not bagging the young fruits, so fruit flies and borers ruin them.
- Letting the trees crowd each other or other trees.
- Leaving rotting fruits and borer damaged branches in the orchard.
How to get a higher yield of langka
The traditional way gets a crop, but small changes add up. These are the first things to change, one season at a time.
- Plant grafted seedlings of a proven sweet variety from an accredited nursery.
- Test the soil and feed by the result, more as the tree grows and bears.
- Bag every young fruit on time and record the date to know when to pick.
- Prune to keep the tree low and open once it bears, so fruits are easier to bag and pick.
- Scout for borers, fruit flies and trunk rot every month and clean up fallen fruit.
- Make contour canals on slopes and water young trees in dry months.
anee.io helps with each of these. The NPK Plus calculator checks that your fertilizer plan feeds the yield you want, the pest and disease finders tell you what is on the leaves before you spray, and Anee, the smart farm technician answers your questions in Tagalog or English.
Members open this guide in the How to Plant tool and send every step to the Protocol Builder in one tap, each on its own day. There you can change the seed, the spacing and the fertilizer, then turn it into a cropping calendar for your lots.
Start from the traditional way, make it better, and let anee.io date every task from your own planting day. Free to start.
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