Jujubes- Our New Adventure

The upper parts of my trees are in the sun whenever its sunny yet they don’t fruit. A few years ago when I got all that wood from Cliff I topworked all but a couple varieties so for several years there has been light on the lower parts even. I also removed many branches so they are basically spindle shapes. Overall its pretty well-exposed I would say. They also flower like crazy, its not like the flowering is weak. I still think its the lack of afternoon sun doing them in, its shady by about 1PM where they are. They may also like more horizontal wood, my trees don’t have much of that due to the spindle pruning. I bent some limbs in the past but they didn’t fruit any more though.

1 Like

no they wont fruit if shaded by 1

1 Like

I bend limb too horizontal sometimes because I forget about weight of fruit once a tree is producing.

I think your issue could be a heat issue. Not enough heat, I mean. In my area, in the summer, the hottest sun seems to be between 1-5 Pm. On hot days, I work in the garden from the time I get up until about 1 pm. Then, I get back into my house until 5 pm. Too hot out.

My jujubes get sun from 9 am until sunset. Full sun.

Here’s my limb bending Shanxi Li.

3 Likes

I’ve been googling jujube trees to see the shape. To see if they make beautiful trees like persimmon. Your tree looks pretty upright even with horizontal branches. But the branches don’t seem all that strong. Are jujube trees not that sturdy in general? Are they ornamental, meaning front yard kind of trees?

1 Like

I would say someone like @jujubemulberry or @Bhawkins are the persons to ask as they have grown jujubes for several years.

I don’t know how sturdy are their branches but the trees last over thousands of years :joy:

It also depends in how you like the look of a tree, big leaves, dense like pawpaw or small leaves, wispy (to me) like jujube. I like the look of jujube tree, it reminds me a bit of a willow tree when btanches weep with fruit. In fact, I am trying to convince my hubby to let me put a So in the front yard.

3 Likes

hi @Susu, some jujus have droopy branches when laden with fruits, like li, hj, autumn beauty, from what could recall. Trees that don’t get plenty sun also tend to get droopy, since the internodes are longer. Other jujus have stiffer wood, such as sihong, sugarcane, coco, lang and some spinosa-type rootstock. While the rest are in between, but for the most part, juju wood, especially if already developed heartwood, is pretty strong and hard.

trees are quite ornamental due to the sparkling foliage in summer, and zigzag branching in winter. As @mamuang mentioned, they are actually our favorite front yard tree since they live long and are practically impervious to diseases/pests which often result in sudden death of apples and peaches. A dead apple or peach tree on your front yard isn’t just an eyesore, but having to chop and remove them quite often is a chore that makes you sore!

they can also take pruning well, since capable of fruiting on both old wood and same-year green wood. You could sculpt your trees to your heart’s content. You could also braid them to minimize sagging. This results in auto-grafting, and quite ornamental and eye-catching. Braided uprights are more resistant to lateral movement/sagging, as opposed to having them grow separately. We posted a few pics of mature trees and a braided contorted in our jujube video

5 Likes

They’re very strong. I think they look great but that depends one’s taste. Like jujubemulberry says, they’re easy to prune.

Try to keep it 20-30ft away from the house or any flower beds. Once in a while the roots can be invasive. I know a couple who took theirs out because the roots kept popping up in flower beds and they’re thorny. Another person I know was concerned about their foundation. I’ve never had any problems, but if the tree needs water the jujubee roots will keep spreading until they find it.

Philly’s a little cold for jujubees but Mamuang’s trees are doing well, farther north than you.

5 Likes

Bob,
Glad you mentioned about the fact that roots can be invasive. It’s a good reminder not to plant mine close to the foundation.

1 Like

I too have tried bending a few branches, didn’t see any difference

Thank you all for the comments. I’m thinking about adding a jujube. I like that it has invasive roots. I have 2 large maple trees and my trees have to fight for water and food. This thread got me so interested in jujubes.

2 Likes

Do it! Jujubes are very addicting and fun :slight_smile:

3 Likes

You guys create fruit addicts :grinning: (or maybe people join this group because they are already fruit addicts) all I know is that when I joined here couple of years ago I had two fruit trees. Now I got 9 trees! That’s after 3 dead trees this spring. Totally getting addicted to this. But loving it.

6 Likes

Different cultivars definitely have different growth patterns. Jin tends to be very erect with a columnar type growth pattern. Sherwood has a slightly weeping type look. Chico droops more than weeps. Jujube wood is very strong.

3 Likes

I know from grafting that the wood is very tough. Not the easiest to work…

So makes a great tree for the front yard. This spring, I put one into both my own yard, and also a co-worker’s. The co-worker is more concerned than I about aesthetics and is pleased with it. It helped that I got 6’ tall Contorted from England’s, so they are starting out pretty tall.

I’m not sure it would be as much of an issue on the east coast- there is plenty of water, so they don’t need to go all the way to a foundation to find it. Until this year, I’ve only gotten suckers from my oldest (7 years), and even then, the furthest any of the 5-6 went was about 6’. This year I got one from a 3 year old tree and it was maybe 1-2’ from the trunk. I actually wouldn’t mind more, as I transplant and graft them.

Just make sure that the maples aren’t blocking the sun for the new jujubes. If they don’t have enough sun, then they will just be ornamental and not fruit.

I was almost sure that I had read that Sherwood is a thin, upright (almost columnar) tree. But, the two Sherwood I have seem to match your description (weeping). Both have been putting on quite a bit of growth this year. Here’s a pic of one from a few days ago at a rental. I didn’t do any branch bending at all- the tree (planted in spring 2017 as a 1" caliper monster from Trees of Antiquity) took this form on its own.

4 Likes

Hard to tell in this photo of Sherwood, but the ends of branches tend to weep. This tree is around 25 years old and maybe 15 feet tall.

5 Likes

it is hands down the most attractive when fully leafed out; with foliage growing densely like fur. And may grow them like giant bonsai’s. Fruiting profusely too at 6’-8’ tall

and has a striking stance in winter due to the gyrations and corkscrew branching

11 Likes

Raf,

Do you have the photos of Redlands and Jin Chang. Texture? Size ?Taste between the two?

Thanks

Tony

That tree is beautiful, specially without the leaves!
How do you think it would take to vase shape pruning? Or is it just not done with jujubes?

lost my tags for redlands but we have a pic or two at lasvegasjujubes.wordpress.com

still remember where our chang graft is so will take a photo when get the chance, but also have pics of that at our webpage. Redlands is better than chang(jin-chang) in taste and texture. Chang is relatively big for a juju, but redlands is bigger. We didn’t take redlands too seriously because it is somewhat similar to li in quality, and li seems to be better overall. Of course taste is subjective and depends on individual preference, apart from being influenced by climate conditions. Would be wrong to be prejudiced against any cultivar, or any fruit for that matter!

Thanks @Susu . Among deciduous trees, jujus are probably the most resilient to hard pruning. Here in vegas, or in many areas with early summers and late falls, it won’t set you back a year’s waiting even if you get rid of all its old wood/fruiting spurs, because it will still bear fruit on this year’s green growth. You could do vase-shape, or wantonly remove laterals and/or remove uprights, or even coppice it down to the ground and your jujus will bounce back with green growth bearing flowers then fruits. Any pruning will do-- as long as it is above the graft and tree is getting plenty sunlight :slightly_smiling_face: You may refer to our other webpage for that most cruel technique of jujube cultivation. You need to scroll down to the bottom of that page to see how jujus are literally grown like bell peppers in some parts of the orient. Too low to the ground in fact, lol!

4 Likes

Picture of my Jin Chang fruit. There are three…this one is closest to ripe. Just had big rains and one of them is splitting. I’m guessing I should pick the one that is splitting?

Katy

4 Likes