This film elaborates Chen’s family who were born and risen in Taipei city. Although Ms. Chen grew up in city, she has a dream to be a farmer since she was a child. Now her dream has came true: she has brought a house with approx. 18,000 square feet and there are 250 jujube trees in the farm. When Ms. Chen’s brother has a financial unstable situation, she and her parents invited him to co-run this jujube orchard farm. Now they are all new farmers. Even though she has a master degree from USA graduated school, currently five family members and five dogs live a happy life in the farm.
This jujube orchard used chemical fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide at its early stage, now changed to be an organic farm. The methods they used including a. using green manuring bean species to have more nitrogen in the soil; b. feeding chickens to get rid of worms and pests; and c. using the chicken dungs for organic fertilizers. Their work let them feel pride and consumers’ feedback shows appreciation for their organic products with no contained pesticide and nontoxic.
They have made many friends from Taiwan and all volunteers who helped them in the typhoon (tornado) season. There are many typhoons from July to November in Taiwan. Sometimes they have to pick jujube fruits up early before jujube become pre-mature and not consumable.
This is the second organic farm in the same area of Taiwan. Neighborhood farmers are bonded together to make home-made products such as jujube jam, drinks, vinegar, etc.… Their name and its new brand has great reputation in the market. This brand has been recognized by National Chung Hsing University and other organic products organizations.
I think this year I will have a good Jujube crops. I grafted a couple of wild Jujube scions just for pollination purpose to ensure fruits set plus I am getting the real hot weather in the upper 90s for the last 9 days and that will help. I also saw lots of pollinators.
probably safest to just girdle isolated branches, and not the main trunk. I wouldn’t advise it done in bone-dry desert regions, as all branches have observed circumferentially girdled by cicadas(or yet-to-be identified slitters) died, apparently the sapwood was parched by direct sun and dry heat.
wrapping tightly with parafilm or glad wrap,then with aluminum foil may have protected the girdled branches from low humidity and uv rays, but never really bothered doing it since jujus produce so bountifully here.
will probably try it on gi-1183 in the future since it seems to be a lazy producer.
Do not be afraid to girdle your jujube trees, depending on jujube trunk diameter. Just girdle it 1/10 width or "C " shape girdling ( leave a part bark). I do all fruit trees every summer. But deciduous trees do not girdle after Oct. That will stop nutrients to root and hurt it. Maybe you are from Vietnam, there are only India jujubes (tropic plant) that are different from Chinese date(temperate and frigid plant). Also I would like to say it, Taiwan is famous producer place for India jujube that is another technical skill.
definitely a safer alternative for folks whose juju trees lag and would like to try.
not something for those in desert regions with long summers(today we’re anticipating 118F here ), aside from being totally unnecessary since the best varieties are extremely productive already.
could surmise li, sugarcane, and hj would be the more productive varieties in so carolina. It also depends on how many hours of direct sunlight your trees are getting. Our trees get >8 hours direct sun daily(apart from lots of heat) beginning spring here in las vegas. Could also be the lack of humidity and periodic water deprivation which seem to be favorable to flower set/fruit development where we’re at.
Pls google “girdling” on net and what is the purpose for fruits. I studied 5 years in agricultural school and had much fruit plant knowledge. There are many fruits in Taiwan. I had good experience and practice. Trust me. Chinese cultivated jujubes more than 4,000 years and did girdling long ago, I used this kitchen knife and girdled around 50 day ago. I live LA, Ca.
My trees get lots of heat and sun, but also lots of rain and humidity. I will try girdling next year. My Honey Jar looked like Tony’s above, set good but dropped all soon after. The other three have just a few fruit that are sizing up nicely.
keep us posted!
have siblings in va, md, and nj, and will be sending them chico jujus then ask them to grow temporarily in pots and placed in the sunniest locations, and see if rationed watering helps mimic dry conditions which chico and many other jujus seem to prefer.
I’m in central VA and I mostly have Tigertooth. My trees in the field are well over 5 years old and have not yet fruited. By contrast, root cutting that I’ve taken from these trees to start new ones have produced fruit during their first growing season in containers on my deck. I’m sure they get more water, but the general climate is the same in terms of heat and humidity.
My point is that containerizing trees may in itself have an impact on fruiting which may invalidate the test.
I ask a professor that specializes in Jujube about my TIgertooth. He suggested that it was the containers limiting the root system that forced them into a fruiting state.
could be that stress induces fruit production among xerophytes. Could be a ‘survival thing’ when plants are pre-programmed to send out seeds(hence fruit) when they are constantly under threat.
many folks in the humid east manage to get their full grown li trees to fruit consistently(grown directly on the ground), and only things i could think of as differentials would be that their trees get plenty of sun,and that their soil drains very well, which permit periodic water stress.
climate and humidity we really couldn’t do anything about, but full sun and good drainage(and soil amendments) we could provide.
Yes, that is my understanding as well. When the root growth is limited by the container (air pruning containers in my case) several things occur. One I’m sure is stress which would be in some ways like girdling. My trees in the field are in full sun but they don’t get supplemental water. The soil is heavy clay which retains water well. The planting hole was amended at planting time, but the root systems for these trees is now well extended into the clay. The professor suggested that the field trees were simply not mature enough to fruit and were growing well but slowly in this soil. I’m expecting them to start fruiting any year now. Last year, I saw a few tiny fruit that were developing but they aborted.
