Jujubes- Our New Adventure

*meant to click reply to @tonyOmahaz5, as @castanea has seen plenty of this!
at any rate, here’s a few pix of our dehydrated/rehydrated/abused black sea which proved quite precocious and super tough! The fruits are about an inch long, but shouldn’t be complaining considering that it was actually borne on an 8" tall stick.

Massandra is very good but Autumn Beauty is much better, larger too. They ripen about the same time for me.

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I had some jujube pits in the fridge from earlier this summer/fall. Some were from Chinatown and others were from Raf (thanks!). The presence/absence of seeds was interesting:

Sugar Cane (Raf): Maybe 70% had viable seeds and most of the rest at least had small or shrunken ones.
Li (Raf): Maybe 20% had good seeds. And those 20% were clustered in the largest pits. If it had a large pit, more than half had a seed (but not all the big ones).
Li (Chinatown): I went through a handful without finding any seeds. I then checked the largest 4 I could find and still no seeds.

What I take from this is that Sugar Cane needs pollination, while Li will set fruit without any (like the grower who supplies Chinatown). Even when pollinators are present (Raf’s place), only some of the fruit gets pollinated and it isn’t required.

I kept all of them in the fridge, with wet paper towel wrapped around them. And it was pretty icky.

One thing I noticed was that often the stratified ones crack down the edges, leaving two perfect halves, compared to the freshly harvested ones which crack more irregularly. When they crack in half, the seed often gets stuck in one half and is hard to pry out.

After destroying one, I accidentally found the answer by dropping it. When it hits the ground, the seed often pops out, at which point you just pick it up. I tried to pick up the shell too, so that I won’t get complaints about the kitchen floor…After I noticed this trick, I used it repeatedly. Sometimes, a tough one needs to be dropped several times, occasionally with a bit of force. From what I can tell, none of the seeds were damaged by this. If they were, it probably wasn’t as bad as what I would do, trying to pry it out.

The arrow on the left is a Li, which is still in the shell. Note that the Li are much bigger than the Sugar Cane seeds. Also, there are 2 seeds from some rootstock fruit on the right (one was twins). They are much smaller, but I’m guessing that a high percent are viable.

I divided the Sugar Cane into two batches because there were two different paper towels in the bag and the 2nd one seemed to have slightly more elongated seeds. I’m not sure that they are different, but they could be.

Here’s a pic of what the So seeds from October look like now. I’ve got at least 10 which have germinated.

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Great post. I’ve never seen a seed in Li. It’s reputed not to have any. For a few years I looked anyway and finally just gave up. I should have known better because I’ve found seeds in other types of fruits that weren’t supposed to have any.

Yes great post. I also could not find any viable Li seeds. The ones that also had viable seeds was the Honey Jar and So, but if the seed was too small then in most cases it was empty.

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i have to come clean about this @BobVance, but some of our li trees have redlands, shanxi li, globe, li#2 etc. grafted on to them which may have been mixed with the ‘spoils’ i sent you. My sister came to visit last summer and helped pick some fruits and she may have placed ‘all the eggs in one basket’…

i actually echo @castanea 's findings about li, but your findings now encourage me li may still have seeds. Will be cracking hundreds of seeds this spring of several varieties and will post our findings.

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Just out of curiosity. I cracked my Li seed and there were 2 viable seeds. So you all can start cranking those Li seeds with a vise grips.

Tony

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@BobVance,
My So from Burntridge arrived today. It is over 4 ft tall, a much bigger size than Hj and Sc I got from this nursery last year.

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Nice! What was the caliper, just above the graft union? I’m guessing about 7/16", from the photo. That would be a bit thicker and a bit taller than the regular one (a Honey Jar) I got from them last year (the Large, a Coco, was 1/2").

My Burnt Ridge trees arrive on Friday. I’m interested to see what they are like, as I got 4, covering 3 different “grades”- Regular, Large, and XLarge.

Bob,
Near the graft union is about 1/3" thick. It is about 4’ 3" tall from the base of the tree to the top.

What did you order from Raintree?

My regular Honey Jar from BR was 3/8" and 3.5-4’ tall last year, so it sounds like your So is similar (tiny bit thinner and taller).

Bob,

Anything beat the last year’s HJ and SC sizes!!!

What are the varieties of jujubes from Burntridge that you have ordered?

The box from Burnt Ridge was very long and thin.

I didn’t take them out tonight, but I measured each one (width, not height):
Lang (XLarge grade)- 5/8"
Honey Jar (Regular grade)- 7/16", almost 1/2"
Chico (Large grade)- 3/8"
Shanxi Li (Regular grade)- 3/8"

So, the Lang is into the same size area as ToA and the Honey Jar is not bad sized. Definitely bigger than last year’s HJ (3/8"). This year’s “Large” Chico is smaller than last year’s (5/8" → 3/8").

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Honey Jar from Edible Landscaping, planted 4/3/17, finally starts to bloom. Sugar Cane and Shanxi Li planted in 2016, are also blooming.

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13 months after the first planting in 2016, from an angle similat to that of the first pic.

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Very nice! Your HJ has been playing catch up! They look very nice in their home and I hope you get lots of fruit!

Katy

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Try to hand pollinate with a small paint brush between the two just for insurance. I hand pollinated mine plus the insects. Each leaf has about 6 to 8 baby fruits. Each tree has hundreds or more of baby fruits. So will continuing to hand pollinate them next year also.

Tony

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Thank you, Katy.

@tonyOmahaz5, i read somewhere that a soft brush like a small brush for make up is a good choice? I will buy a small brush tomorrow. Fortunately, all three trees bloom at the same time.

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I bought a bunch of small hobby paint brushes. I used on my pluots, plums, sweet cherries, Jujubes, and Pawpaws.

Tony

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Thanks, Tony. Will check out AC Moore tomorrow.

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