Jujubes- Our New Adventure

How do your two elongated Shanxi Li in the pic do? Have they ripened? Do they tasted like Shanxi Li?

Sas,

I just put my HJ seed in the pot buried in potting soil. I will see if anything come out of it and how long it will take.

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When I did mine, it was almost immediately after eating the fruit. It might be getting late for outside, but not late for indoors. If they come out before the freeze and go dormant, leave them alone until spring. Out of eight, I lost three by spring time, still no too bad considering they all went brown.

I think you cracked open the seed, right? I just put it in soil (in pot) without cracking it. It is inside the door by the window.

Thank You.

Just ordered a Massandra to put my mind at ease. It looks like if new varieties appear these might disappear,just like what happened with Winter Delight and Autumn Beauty a few years ago.

Used a hand vice cracked the seeds open almost immediately after consuming the fruit and grew them in small individual 4" pots using Seed starting mix.

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If you don’t crack it open it will take forever. It might even need refrigeration, which means several months at best. But you must use extreme caution when cracking it open as not to damage the embryo.

When you crack them open you’ll be able to see how many are viable. You will find that many are not even viable, as much as 70 % could be bad seeds. That’s one reason I don’t buy seeds on eBay unless I know the seller is reliable and a grower himself.

Ok. Cracking I will. Thanks for the suggestion.

I got a pair of vise grips today (yes, I’m not the guy who has every tool, other than every gardening tool :blush:). Of course, I had to try it out right away and met with pretty good success (compared to before). I did 10 and got:
3 nearly perfect
3 slight damage
2 very damaged
1 complete destruction
1 shriveled (poor pollination?)

How damaged can the seed be and still germinate? Roughly how long should it take? I know, I’m being impatient by checking them again, only 4 days in (unless they are as speedy as beans…).

[quote=“Sas, post:147, topic:5823”]
You will find that many are not even viable, as much as 70 % could be bad seeds.
[/quote]

I guess I got good pollination to have only 10% bad. When I destroyed twice this many the other day, I think there were only 1 or two shriveled ones, so this seems pretty representative. Maybe having a dozen (or more) varieties on the same tree helps with pollination.

There were actually 3 as of a few days ago on that graft. I ate one which had just started to color (maybe 15% brown), as there was a potential frost that night. It wasn’t bad (light, crisp, moderately sweet), but I need to let one ripen better for a good comparison. It looks like we got past the potential frost, so I’ve got at least ~8 more days, before it is forecast to get close again. I think that should be enough for both the elongated ones on the graft and the large one on the new tree to ripen.

Update- adding pic of pliers (Vise Grips). $19.97 for the pair at Home Depot. I like the loop at the end, which makes it easier to tighten than a knob. I slipped a spoon (a screw driver would probably be better) into it and used it like a lever, which was much easier on the wrists.

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you implying that you don’t have autumn b and winter d? And that you’re worried it may no longer be available and that those cultivars are destined to oblivion?

Thanks, Bob for the pic.

I will let the last few Shanxi Li hang as long as possible. I will use their seeds to practice cracking.

I managed to finally get an Autumn Beauty, but not a Winter Delight. No nursery has it these days.
As new varieties become available, what’s available today at your local nursery might not be in five years, or might have a name change perhaps. Couldn’t find any literature about Massandra, so I decided to add it to my trees.

oops, my reply to @snowjunky was actually for you… and quoting what @snowjunky posted as a possible lead to winter delight.

Yes Thank You, that same generous member sent me some wood too, but with my limited grafting skills, I wasn’t able to get any grafts to take. I got lucky finding the last autumn beauty among Shirley’s last few trees before closing shop.
I’m eternally thankful to that generous member who tried to help.

So surprise to find a Sugar Cane on the tree. It is so small, about the size of a cranberry or a small grape. No wonder I missed it all season :grin:

Here is Sugar Cane (0.1 oz) comparing to Shanxi Li (0.6 oz).
Honey Jar is a bit bigger than Sugar Cane, not by much.

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That looks too small to be a Sugar Cane. I hope you didn’t get the rootstock there, its not uncommon since the stock can easily outgrow the graft on jujubes

Scott,

This tree I got from Burnt Ridge. I can still see the interstem grafting on it. I got SC and HJ from BR. Both are interstem grafted. I have a Shanxi Li from Tree of Antiquity. It’ s grafted directly to a rootstock, without interstem.

I hope my SC is not a rootstock. It’s the first fruit. My first HJ is bigger than that.

I asked before if sugar cane was as good as honey jar now the question is how do Coco and Tigertooth stack up compared to honey jar for fresh eating?

Dainel ( or Daniel?),
I have little real experience eating HJ and SC. I’ll leave it to someone like @tonyOmahaz5, @BobVance, @scottfsmith, @Bhawkins, @jujubemulberry,et al to answer you.

I have learned that I prefer Shanxi Li half ripened than fully ripened. The fully ripened one lost some of its crunchiness which I love.

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personally, hj is better than both, with coco being better than tigertooth

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