I have never germinated marang, but if they are anything like jakfruit, and I believe they are very similar, any method would work....in fact, you'll have to try to kill them to get them not to germinate. As long as you don't flood them, any medium will get them to germinate without problem. Good luck!

Harry

Thanks Harry,
I am trying these only because Bo was able to get them. I think she said that she got them from Sherry in Puerto Rico. I really am not anticipating any fruit from these trees(That is if I can even keep them alive!)

They require really warm temps right? I thought that I read here that they cannot withstand ant temps below 50 degrees. How would you describe the fruit's flavor? I am a big fan of pana(breadfruit). I know you must have seen some impressive pana trees in P.R. I just find the tree itself as very ornamental. I had never seen them before until I went there about 4 years ago. I was amazed at the size of the tree and the fruit. I remember before we left, my roomate's mom wanted totake some home. Her friend had a HUGE pana tree on his property and he said that she could have as many as she wanted. He climbed up that tree like nothing, and cut down these mamoth fruits with his machete. Those fruits were WAY WAY up in the tree and all I could think was man, if tht hits my head or anyone ele's we would have been goners!! LOL!
Harry, how are your seedlings, and mango from P.R. doing? I am hoping maybe next year we can go back.
Andrew

I sprouted 26 seeds in the spring. All of them germinated very quickly and grew to about 4-5". After that, for unknown reasons they all declined and died. I was disappointed as they looked so good.

I used a peat based medium, so perhaps using alternate mediums would produce better results.

Harry - I killed my marang seeds by overwatering : ( This is why I asked Andrew to germinate them. And though, I don't expect fruit either there is always that magical possibility.

Good Luck Andrew!

Bo

Andrew, I planted 7 marang seeds in peat and only one germinated, i made sure they got alot of water but dried out in between. they are smaller and darker then Jackfruit seeds, although i was never was very good at germinating seeds or nursing seedlings

I germinated 10 seeds last year. I had about about 80% germination. The seedlings all survived and are about a foot tall but only have about 8 leaves each. Growing rather slow. They did survive the freezes last winter surprisingly.

wow, goodluck, i dont know why my other seeds didnt germinate.
i hear they can take their time to grow

eldys had posted one a few years back, wonder what happened
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tropicalfruits/msg0911082130734.html

pedalai seems to grow a bit faster, again from 2007
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tropicalfruits/msg0122294123294.html

The marang seeds I have from Puerto Rico have almost all sprouted, there were a few puny seeds that did not. I started them, like almost all my seeds, in a moist (not wet) paper towel inside a zip top bag. Once the seeds cracked open and started send out their roots, I planted them in potting soil. I started them in 16oz plastic cups filled with OSH potting soil (shredded bark, perlite, sand, peat w/ph 5.5-6), perlite and Soil Moist w/mycorrhizae. Once the first real leaf emerged I moved them up to 32oz cups, the tap root had already reached the bottom of the 16oz. Most of them seem to be doing good, a few died but most are healthy and are on their 3rd or 4th real leaves. They have not seen temps below 60F and receive filtered sun/shade. They will overwinter in a S. facing window inside a humidity chamber in the house (w/ pulasan, rambutan, mangosteen, etc.).

Considering Whitman has them in a pavilion, I dont have a lot of hope fruiting them in the CA desert.

Pedalai was a holy grail for me, I found a source this past winter for seeds and ordered multiples, killed them all. In PR we saw a HUGE pedalai tree, unfortunately, no fruit. I've satiated my urge to kill pedalai seeds for now and seeing how monstrous the tree gets settled me down too. I'll stick to kwai muk, jak, breadfruit, breadnut, chempedak and marang, that is enough artocarpus for now, well.....maybe lakoocha.

-Ethan