ʻUlu was one of the very first trees Julia and I ever planted here, back in 2014, long before I started counting days or trees. That original one is a Maʻafala, which makes smaller fruit and has been quietly feeding us with carbs ever since.
The Basics
Breadfruit, Artocarpus altilis, is a big, fast growing tree in the same family as jackfruit and fig. It’s originally from New Guinea and the Indo Malay region, and Polynesian voyagers carried it across the Pacific, including here to Hawaiʻi, as one of their most important canoe plants.
Origin and Habitat
ʻUlu likes it warm, humid, and lowland, which describes most of the Hamakua Coast pretty well. We actually adopted one from friends up in Volcano, and breadfruit really doesn’t love high elevation. It took a while, and a sunnier spot, before that tree looked happy again.
What It Looks Like
It’s a big tree, easily 60 to 80 feet given room and time, with huge, deeply lobed glossy leaves that are honestly reason enough to plant one. The fruit itself is round to oblong, green and bumpy skinned, and can get as big as a soccer ball on some varieties. One of ours came from an air layer my friend Bobby Grimes helped me make off a big Hawaiian variety tree in Haina that makes these huge globe shaped fruit.
Uses and Flavor
Starchy, mild, and incredibly versatile is the best way I can describe it. Semi ripe ʻulu fries are a regular dinner around here, and I’ve also fried a whole one on a cast iron skillet at a friend’s farm up in North Kohala, which might be the single greasiest and most satisfying thing I cooked all year.
Growing It Here
ʻUlu wants lowland warmth, consistent moisture, and good drainage. It’s not picky about soil once it’s settled in, but it does sulk in the cold and at higher elevation. Give it plenty of room since the roots spread wide and can send up suckers a fair distance from the trunk.
Pests and Diseases to Watch For
Most growers will tell you breadfruit is a relatively pest and disease free tree compared to a lot of other fruit trees. The two things worth watching for here are the breadfruit mealybug, a fluted scale looking insect that can build up on new growth, and fruit rot from Phytophthora species in wet weather, which shows up as lesions that spread across the fruit. ʻUlu is also a fruit fly host, which isn’t really a growing problem so much as a reason fresh breadfruit can’t be shipped off island as easily as people would like.
Kenta’s Take
Simple food, big tree, doesn’t ask for much once it’s settled in. Between the shade it throws, the carbs it produces, and the fact that Polynesian voyagers trusted it enough to bring it across the whole Pacific in a canoe, I figure it’s earned its spot here. Hard to complain about that.