Collection and Evaluation of Breadfruit in Puerto Rico

Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is an emerging crop in Puerto Rico, although it has been appreciated as a backyard tree in the island for centuries. There is interest in establishing organized commercial orchards of breadfruit in Puerto Rico, but little has been done in the island to characterize and evaluate breadfruit germplasm to be found locally. The College of Agriculture of the University of Puerto Rico has initiated a long-term project to collect, characterize, and evaluate breadfruit germplasm to develop cultivars for potential growers and to expand the body of knowledge on the management of this crop. We have collected germplasm from various parts of the island with different ecological environments, and established collections and comparison experiments. In replicated experiments, we have found differences between accessions in transplanting survival, plant growth rates, shoot height gain, stem branching patterns, leaf area, leaf chlorophyll concentration, that may result in differences in adaptation to contrasting regions of the island and their yield.