Raf,
Just got back from vacation in Southern California and found lots of damaged leaves on Jujube and Pawpaw trees from Japanese beetles. They even ate small Jujube fruits. Unbelievable…
Tony
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that’s bad news @Tony. Is this a new occurrence? Just hoping it will not be a yearly issue, and if it should be yearly, that the damage will not be deadly and that your trees will be big or vigorous enough to bounce back.
here, we’ve had some years when locusts attacked our trees with considerable damage, or leaf-cutter bees notching foliage much more than usual. Thankfully the damage didn’t affect fruit production much, and none of the trees succumbed. We’ve also seen fruit-borers and leaf-footed bugs/stinkbugs cause some fruit damage, but luckily just negligible considering the abundance of crops.
btw, am actually more upset that your pawpaws were not spared, considering that the beetle is an introduced species, while pawpaws are native to usa and otherwise has few insect pests…
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Chico is dropping fruits…one or two a day. Creamy colored but no brown. I’ve eaten them even though they are hot and been off the tree a while. They are sweet with a bit of tart behind the sweet and are still relatively crunchy even in that state. Now if they would just hold on to the tree.
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congrats! I anticipate the quality of fruits to improve as the tree matures
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Just found a jujube sucker off my Li 3 foot from base of tree! This area has been mown recently so it must have sprung up fast. It’s prob about 4-5 inches tall.
There’s another one a few inches from the trunk. Should I harvest these?
Katy
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I got 5 of them in pots. I will be grafting them next Spring to Honey Jar variety for family members.
Tony
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the suclker three feet away should be safe to remove(safest to do it in winter). Simply use a hoe or machete and stab the ground between the sucker and the tree(stab closer to the sucker), as it is there where the root continuum will likely be. Then simply pull out of the ground, gently that is, to minimize rootlets getting damaged or severed.
the one closer to the tree might be more risky to remove. I normally will just wait for winter dormancy and gently dig around the base to loosen it a bit, to see if it is rooted shallowly.
If it is too deep, i simply tug on it in the hopes that it is attached to a thin root(not a thick root) If it is attached to a thin root, tugging should not move the main tree much. If it moves the tree so much with tugging, will probably just graft it over.
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I noticed that many Sugar Cane leaves are yellowing from top down, outside in. Magnesium deficiency.n i compare my keaves to the pics. Not sure if it is more than one nutrient deficiencies.
Any quick fix? We will send in for soil test but it takes a few weeks.
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have seen it happen to some of our juju branches too. It does not affect our trees much since they are more mature and bigger than yours, so understand your qualms. Where we’re at, iron deficiency is often the main culprit. A soil test is best. Probably more reliable to sample native soil at the edge of the compost mound, and not the compost mound you’ve planted the tree on.
we practice bokashi composting here in vegas-- from vegie scraps, to fish gills, dead pigeons, you name it-- it will be tossed or buried around our yard. Better the scraps serve some purpose instead of letting them rot and stink in the dumpster. Among plant-based refuse, orange/grapefruit peel, cauliflower stalks, spinach scraps, etc are relatively mineral-rich.
this practice(which would make any HOA cringe)seem to be offsetting any iron or maybe magnesium deficiency, especially animal-based refuse.
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Got out and get Epsom salt. Will use it for now water it in.
Chelate iron I have needs to be sprayed on leaves. Gotta get a spray bottle.
The trees were plant on top soil, with not much nutrients. I have not get a hang of makinfg compost yet. A bag of brand name compost here costs about $8 a bag.
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Just went out to check on the Jujube fruits. Honey Jar production got a grade of an A+.
I will top work most of my 6 years old Jujube trees to Honey Jar next Spring by bark graft.
Sugarcane are sizing up
Gazillion fruits on mild sweet native Jujube for cross pollination and dried jujube fruits tea.
Tony
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Very nice! I’m anxiously awaiting my trees getting older and more productive!!!
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Well…I dug him up and he is in intensive care to see if he pulls through. If I left him my husband would have mown him down…eveytime he mows…staked or not…
Katy
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Tony,
May I accuse you of doping your trees? 
All your trees grow amazingly great.
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Yup, Lance Armstrong was my advisor.
Tony
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Congrats Tony.
I have only found one fruit on one tree … yet another bad jujube year for me. 
Tons of flowers but no fruit.
In 3-4 years my other plantings will be going, that may be my best hope.
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I can send you my native Jujube scions for cross pollination if you like. The two Honey Jars next to it are loaded and the two 50 feet away had decent fruits set but not as loaded. So I believed that native Jujube flowers really helps cross pollination.
Tony
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who says jujus don’t do fine in zone 5?
@tonyOmahaz5 is obviously re-writing juju studies, and even with japanese beetle damages 
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two or three years and you should be swimming in jujus, considering your location. DFW is a much better place for jujus than Tony’s Omaha, but look at his stash!
mineral salts are clearly cheaper alternatives.
hundreds of years ago in the northeast regions of usa and neighboring canada, native american and native canadian farmers would use lobsters as organic fertilizer, back then when the seacoasts of prince edward island and massachusetts were “infested” with lobsters.
intriguing scenario that folks were sacrificing lobsters/shellfish in exchange for-- well, potatoes
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Yup, heard that story and have to shake my head. I like eating lobster. In fact, the popular compost brand around here is made by a company called Coast of Maine. Their product I really like is Coast of Maine’s Lobster compost.
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