I've some questions about jackfruit. First off, does anyone have any of these growing? How did you get your plant? how does the fruit taste? and is there some sort of place i might be able to purchase some to try to see if i like it?
thanks,

-smiley

Well Hello fellow Ohioan! I have to first ask if you are already growing any tropical fruit and do you have a greenhouse? It is not that jak is all that difficult, but it does require a lot of space...even if you plan on pruning heavily. Something to think about. It is a beautiful tree though and grows like a weed.

Tastes and textures range from variety to variety. I've had some that were pretty good to down right nauseating...which was most likely due to how the fruit stand in Florida was packaging/storing the portions. You may find some fresh fruit in an Asian market. If they sell them whole, then you are in trouble. It will most likely be one of the giant fruits and cost $30 or more. A lot of money to sample a bite only to find that it was a sub par fruit. Hopefully they will be selling them by portions.

The variety I'm growing in my greenhouse is a Gold Nugget. It produces a much smaller fruit than the others and can be kept relatively small by pruning. It is a grafted plant purchased from Pine Island Nursery in Florida. It wasn't much more than a stick when it arrived in June of 2007. I've had to prune it several times now. Since they fruit heavily from the trunk and nearby branches, I keep it pruned back going up the sides. I will allow some branches at the top to go to either side of the greenhouse. It's roughly 12-13' tall. Here is a recent pic.

ohiojay, that is amazing growth for between a year to two years old. as to if i've got other tropicals, i have have a handful of small citrus varieties i've started from seed, some arabica coffee plants, a pineapple, and 2 dwarf orinoco bananas. No i do not have a greenhouse but i have areas in my house with extra tall ceilings and skylights.
I got the whole idea of jakfruit cause i was talking to a friend and i told him about the plant and he said it sounded cool and he'd try the fruit if i could find some. And i'll grow just about anything the i enjoy the taste of. jakfruit isn't like citrus in that it needs a node count is it? because i'd have no problems pruning it to fit in the house if it doesn't matter all that much the size or node count of the tree.

Citrus is the only ones I know of requiring the node count.

ok cool, now all i have to do is track down a local source of fruit to taste on my quest to find new tastey fruits!