Awesome, thanks a lot Bob.
Dax
Anybody have any insight on how big a Shanxi Li jujube tree will get in zone 7? Mine is in its first year and is still very small. I want to squeeze an apple tree between the jujube and another apple tree.
I planted one here in Dallas 8B last spring; a good size bare root one, from either Dave Wilson or LE Cooke. Grew to 8 ft 1st year. I trimmed it back to 6 ft in the winter, now its 9 ft. Grows big in Dallas. Doesn’t seem to mind hard pruning.
Wow, 8 feet in first year!!! Mine is not even close to that after the deer ate the new branches. She is bouncing back though. How about the width, any idea?
Maybe 5 ft, I’ll take a look this evening
Funny thing, I’ve got a couple trees by themselves; like a Contorted; nothing around it; & it grows very wide, maybe 12 ft. But I have a row of various trees, 8 ft spacing, they seem to want to avoid each other, they’re skinny & tall.
how does winter delight compare to honey jar i see it is larger in fruit. does it ripen the same time?
The true Winter Delight is a very late ripening cultivar. It is often confused with other cultivars like Autumn Beauty or Mango Dong Zao/Zho that ripen much earlier and are supposed to be tastier than Winter Delight. @castanea
i got one from OGW but i saw the post about mislabel and i cant grow late ripening. OGW still uses the photo on their website WS as round large jujube. And, their Autumn beauty is a large but oblong shape. hoping to get more info about WD to decide if WD is going to ripen in time in my climate. If autumn beauty is correct as OGW listed it is early ripening i hope that will be true.
As I understand it WD is round. I have one that has not fruited yet
What OGW shows as a photo is meaningless.
Some years they sell Autumn Beauty as Autumn Beauty and the next year they sell Winter Delight as Autumn Beauty.
You just don’t know what you’re going to get until you order it. The only solution I see is to order both in the same year and hope they send you both of them. Then when you figure out which one is really Winter Delight, top work it to something else.
I never saw this photo when it was originally posted. The fruit on the left is not Winter Delight.
This is Winter Delight-
the issue is i dont think they really know how much difference it make for people in cooler zone like me that not just the wrong label variety the fruit just might not ripen properly. i doubt they have a replacement policy when they send us mislabel how do i even proof that its wrong variety when their photo on website is not even correct. im not brave enough to graft jujubes. so im hoping for correct variety. there isn’t very many online nurseries that sell jujube so i have limited options.
i do believe you have the right WD and that would mean it wouldnt ripen well for me.
Then you might want to learn to graft or find someone who can. There are many fruit growers up in your area who are prolific grafters. It would take less than 5 minutes to graft a jujube tree.
can anyone tell me which branch is ideal if i wanted to take cuttings? i only understand fig cuttings and some other fruits but jujube and its thorns is a little confusing.
I think what wood you want depends on how you are going to graft it.
I normally prefer cleft grafts, so wood a bit thinner than a pencil is best, at least how I make grafts. Small wood is more forgiving and I can force it into place. But when you get to really tiny wood, it get tougher to work with. Of course, if you are more skilled than I at making matching cuts, then you could probably get very good results with thick wood too…
On the other hand, if you are doing bark grafts on a big tree, then thin wood is probably the easiest to wedge under the bark…And if you like to make Splice grafts (Alan’s preferred method), then somewhat larger wood helps.
From a late May post last year, which was buried in one of the jujube threads:
Here’s my 2021 Jujube data for in-ground grafts on established stocks:
| Size | Grafts | Takes | Pct |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thin (<= 2mm) | 12 | 9 | 75% |
| Medium Thin (3mm) | 19 | 15 | 79% |
| Medium (4mm) | 26 | 23 | 88% |
| Medium Large (5mm) | 34 | 32 | 94% |
| Large (6-7mm) | 35 | 31 | 89% |
| Large-Very Large (8mm) | 13 | 10 | 77% |
| Very Large+ (>=9mm) | 18 | 10 | 56% |
| 157 | 130 | 83% |
In terms of where on the tree to get the wood, I think upright shoots are the traditional answer. At least, I’ve heard that primary shoots will put on more growth than lateral side branches. I’m not sure if that still applies once it has been cut off the original tree and grafted to a new one. Preferably in a high location with good sun-exposure. Maybe someone with more experience than I can say. I did start noting which grafts were made with lateral vs primary wood this spring, so maybe I’ll be able to comment at some point.
I may also make another chart similar to the above, but from later in the season. I haven’t made quite as many qualifying (cleft on mature in-ground stock) jujube grafts this spring (136 vs 157 last year), but it should still be interesting.
thank you so much! looks like the medium large size is the highest success rate!
I just thought of a simpler solution for your situation. Alcalde #1 is the same as Autumn Beauty. Buy an Alcalde #1 tree this Fall from Shengrui at Jujube - Chinese Red Date Orchard
thank you so much! i will try. i contacted them a few months ago they said they werent selling rooted jujubes. so i will try again in fall.
I have heard that you need to send them an email asap with what you want just to stay in line.