chico cultivar ID is facilitated even before the fruits mature-- flowers are weakly scented compared to li blossoms, and the fruits assume the shape of a leprechaun kettle or squash at a very early stage
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This is an early fruit and I thought it was probably going to be deformed or something…like it had been girdled on the lower half. it’s looking a bit better now but not growing very fast.
May 5
Today
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My “Chiclets” are getting bigger and taking on the Chico shape but are taking on a reddish blush like an apple. Not ripening red but just a blush.
Is this expected? The first photo is magnified. It looks bumpy but isn’t to touch.
Katy
ruddy color may be a response to sunlight. Some jujus will develop that overnight. They seem to be assuming the squash-like forms typical of chico. A couple of weeks more and findings should be more conclusive.
porterville is another variety that may assume squash shapes, and quite bumpy with nodes all over the fruit. It is similar to chico in quality, but not exactly productive, even here in vegas. Quite intriguing that many juju cultivars developed/discovered here in usa are excellent, but practically all of them have production issues. Chico seems not productive in states north of texas, same with sherwood, porterville, gi-1183, and ga-866. All of them are pretty good jujus, but often penny-pinchers when it comes to production…
This tree is making a lot (relatively) of fruit but really in my opinion has sparse foliage so all the fruit is sun exposed. I’m not sure if because of its history growing mostly under a tree, or because of the cultivar, or if it is just concentrating its energy into fruiting but the growth of the actual tree certainly does not match the younger jujus.
Here’s a photo of my Lang when it is drooping. It does this and then will “undroop” … the drooping does not correspond with being dry. it is not dry at present nor is it too wet…that I know of. We do have clay but the sandy loam on top is moist but not “wet”. Is this a Lang habit? I haven’t noticed it on any of the others. It’s not limp. It stands back up.
Chico rootstock sucker…
Several of my cups of koolaid are dry. I’ve lost about 3-4 seedlings (counting the dead caterpillar one) and most of those were Honey Jar seedlings. There’s a couple more that might go either way. And one that I thought was long dead is now got some green areas and putting out tiny growth. It’s kinda like they simmer for a while and then either die or just explode into little trees.
it can happen to most jujus with vigorous upright growth, especially when planted bare-root or recently transplanted, since bare-roots trees are generally deficient in root-hairs, even though proportionally-rich in stored food(since the thickest parts of the roots have the most stored food, but having most of their distal parts removed,they tend to be severely deficient in finer root-hairs.)
glad that the ‘erectile dysfunction’ seems to be transient. The limp effect often results from windy weather and/or elevated daytime temps/ missed irrigation.[quote=“k8tpayaso, post:27, topic:10613”]
lost about 3-4 seedlings (counting the dead caterpillar one) and most of those were Honey Jar seedlings. There’s a couple more that might go either way. And one that I thought was long dead is now got some green areas and putting out tiny growth. It’s kinda like they simmer for a while and then either die or just explode into little trees.
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they are weird that way, with some being weak or sickly compared to others, so just a matter of isolating the more vigorous ones after a year or two. Many may be too tiny to be grafted on to anyway, so it is just a matter of time, and one may simply choose those which proved their mettle. As for the weak ones which do not show promise as rootstock, you may get twiggies and use as bark-grafts to your current trees. Just because they are not promising as rootstock does not mean they are undesirable as scions. In fact, many desirable scions in the fruit world are actually poor-performing when grown on their own roots.
lastly, you probably should pinch that sucker growing at the base of your chico. Don’t dig or pull out, just pinch above-ground(for now)
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Fantastic!!
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no doubt! And from the looks of it, juju seedlings grow much faster in dfw conditions. Our 2 and 3 yr old seedlings are so tiny in comparison, even though you started germinating seeds much late. Ours have extremely short internodes. BTW @k8tpayaso, do you see any flower buds?
the earliest flowering age have seen was exhibited by unnamed wild-type rootstoc seedlings, at 2 yrs of age, at about 6inches tall, and with measly ~4 mm ‘trunk’ thickness.
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Yes, the largest rootstock (second picture) has flowers on two or three branches. 
This summer they have just exploded with growth but I did give them a sprinkle of 10-10-10 in June and potted them up. The roots are amazing on them. I always try to unbind the roots when I repot and they had roots over a foot long. A third of the germinated seedlings have died and another one that looked dead has a bit of green sprouts so it might not be dead yet. I have three not pictured that are still living and looking much better but at one time I would have counted them out. One of those looks like it’s going to be fine…the other two are growing again but only 4-5 inches tall. Nearly all that died were the HJ seeds–I think 2 living are for sure HJ and 1-2 more that could be HJ or rootstock (after the cat fiasco that depotted a few of them). So total I have 9 left (maybe 10) of the many seeds you sent and I have the original seed that I got from Brenham.
So…looks like I’ll be ready to graft in spring…
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was it a rootstoc sucker or a rootstock seedling?
have the same findings about hj seeds having a fair degree of viability but with seemingly high rates of mortality, not sure why. Sihong’s are similar.
glad to hear your ‘nursery’ is chugging along(and anticipating they grow to be unstoppable freight trains), considering you just recently started.
keep us posted on your grafting 
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Everything is seedling.
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