Propagating breadfruit trees can be achieved through various methods. Here are some of the most common techniques:
- Root Suckers: This method involves finding a shoot growing from a root, severing the root on either side of the shoot, and then transplanting it into a pot with soil. It’s simple and low-tech but can damage the mother tree and may have a low survival rate.
- Root Cuttings: This involves gathering a large section of root, cutting it into 3-4 inch long sections, and potting it in soil while keeping it moist. It’s also simple and low-tech but can damage the mother tree and be prone to infection and disease.
- Adventitious Shoot Cuttings: This method encourages shoots from a branch or root, takes a cutting at about 18 inches high, and roots it in humid conditions. It requires relatively low-tech equipment but needs a high humidity environment.
- Air Layering: This involves girdling the bark of a small shoot and simulating underground conditions with moist medium for around 3 months or until roots develop. It’s a self-propagating method that doesn’t damage the tree and produces a larger starting tree, but requires a high labor and time investment.
- Grafting: This method uses rootstock from seeds such as breadnut or jackfruit, and attaches a cutting of breadfruit. It can enhance the tree by using superior rootstock and can be done at a large scale, but it requires skill and can make the tree prone to infection if done poorly.
- Tissue Culture: This recently developed method involves using buds, shoots, or other small vegetative parts of the plant, thoroughly washing and disinfecting them, and placing them in a growing medium. This medium provides the necessary vitamins, nutrients, and growth regulators to grow a plant identical to the parent plant.
- Simple Cutting: An experimental method involves cutting off the end of a branch from an existing breadfruit tree and sticking it into a small pot with soil, keeping it well-watered and in high humidity. This method is still under experimentation but shows promise for its simplicity.
Each of these methods has its advantages and drawbacks, and the choice of method may depend on the scale of propagation, available resources, and specific conditions of the environment where the trees are being propagated.