Jackfruit ( Artocarpus heterophyllus ) is a nutritionally and economically important tropical fruit crop but poor tolerance to abiotic stress constrained its cultivation. Hence, interspecific grafting with stress‐resilient wild relatives would be a sustainable strategy to overcome it. In this study, nine reciprocal graft combinations among A. heterophyllus (jackfruit) and its wild relatives of A. lacucha (“dewa”), and A. chama (“chama kathal”) were evaluated to sort out efficient rootstock and scion after assessing graft compatibility following early‐stage phenotyping and biochemical profiling characterization. Results revealed that among the studied jackfruit wild relatives, dewa was found as effective rootstock for grafting with the scion of jackfruit that showed the highest number of leaves (16.2), branches (2.3), maximum carotenoid content (82.57 mg/g), and antioxidant activity (9730.31 µg/mL) as compared to the other scion combinations. In addition, dewa also performed as the better scion while grafting with the rootstock of jackfruit that explored with the highest survival rate (SR) (∼95%), leaves number (12.2), branches number (0.2), carotenoid (80.99 mg.g), and antioxidant activity (7129.76 µg/mL) followed by the graft combinations with the rootstock of chama katahal that showed moderate SR (50%–60%) and generally lower growth and antioxidant profiles that led less compatible in grafting with jackfruit and dewa. Multivariate analysis further supported these trends and clearly distinguished high and low‐performing graft combinations that highlight the potential of dewa as the efficient rootstock in improving graft performance and stress resilience in jackfruit scion. This work would contribute to climate‐smart horticulture by integrating wild genetic diversity of Artocarpus species into sustainable orchard management strategies of jackfruit grafting in future.
Zubayer et al. (Sun,) studied this question.