I am going to give it a go. Thanks
I have other types of che and will be happy to trade cuttings/scion with you for your types if you want more types. You can graft them and then airlayer that limb to get it on its own roots if youd like. And same goes for fig and a list of other things. And i have jujubes too if you want to do some swapping next dormant harvest season. For che and jujube and most things that is around Feb. And for fig perhaps fall. Trading is a great way to gain a nice list of cultivars.
And airlayer is my preferred method for rooting things. Here are a new type of citrus and fig that I just grafted so I can later airlayer it onto its own roots:
And here are some airlayers I have going to multiply each variety:
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I would very much like to do some trading
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I have a ~ 4 yr old Che from edible landscaping, it has No thorns
I have been grafting them to osage Orange. And see no thorns.
Do all Che develop thorns ?
I was un aware the will root from cuttings .
Since mine appears thornless, will it develop thorns if I root from cuttings ? On root suckers ?
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I have several that are thornless on all wood. And one with small thorns. And another type with huge thorns only on new wood that the thorns fall off going into the next year and as it matures it is having less thorns.
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How many different varieties of che are there and is it safe to assume that they differ in taste?
I did not realize that there were multiple varieties.
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All che cuttings will grow up with thorns. As the tree gets older the thorns will not show up on new wood, but that will take many years, as many as 20 or more for the thorns to disappear on new wood.
We probably have 10-12 different varieties of che in the US. I have tasted about 8 of them. They all taste basically the same, which is forgettable, in part because thatâs just how che tastes, and in part because the che genetics in the US is very small. They do have a few named cultivars in China but we do not have them in the US.
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Here is an interesting video First Che Fruit Harvest! - YouTube where it appears to have been grown like a tree and here Che - YouTube is another where it was grown as a bush and after watching this guys video Che - YouTube I grow impatient for my little trees to become larger and produce fruit.
How large are your trees and do you have male trees nearby.
I may have misunderstood but I am under the impression that having a male plant nearby will make the tree have a seed that is a pain in the butt to deal with, after watching the last video I linked too above Im thinking that this just isnt the case.
Im thinking that I need to get more male trees and plant them nearby my females so that I have bigger fruit.
Has this been your experience? If so how close do you plant your male trees?
Im really looking forward to these plants, Im hoping them will be another addition to my property that will stand the test of time in an area that is considered less than ideal.
Two of the che I recently purchased were evidently released from a school in Ct. There is a Ct late and a Ct early. The nursery that I purchased from did not seem to know much about the plant other than one bloomed early etc.
Id like to find the school and contact them to learn more.
Yeah the Seedless from Cliff will be seedless even with a male. And i was told the male does not really make the fruit bigger only it adds a seed to most types making it bigger because of the seed. And the male might make some types begin producing at a younger age, or heavier crops when young.
Once established it is best not to have male, but sometimes some may take 8+ years without a male. Or 3 yr with male to set some.
Yeah my trees are young and have not fruited for me yet.
2 to 4 year.
3 to 6 ft high.
So i have a ways to go.
I do not have a male. I grafted one but lost it.
I plan to try again.
That is interesting on the Ct late etc!
Id be interested to learn about them!
Some people complain that the fruit is not that flavorful and i am guessing full sun or climate may influence some types.
But my main plan is to use them for preserves and pie filling. Like mulberry or fig.
I am sure it will be great.
Perhaps dried too like mulberry!
I have a orange that people make similar complaints of, because it is super sweet but not as much acid. They say its insipid or less flavor. I love it. I like all fruit though! 
Male trees result in seeds in female fruit. If they cause the fruit to be larger, and Iâve never seen any evidence they do, the size increase is 100% due to the seeds. I grew che for almost 30 years. I had fruit this size without seeds. I had larger fruit than this at the top of the tree but couldnât reach it.
Thereâs no reason to have larger fruit anyway. It still tastes the same, which is not great.
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That is very cool. Almost unbelievable but I am not doubting you. Im sure you used in in some way whether it be cooking or what have you? Why did you stop growing it? 30 year is a big commitment.
Im gonna guess that you moved location? Thanks for posting the picture.
I hope I have the kind of luck that you had but with better tasting fruit
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I moved last year.
Before that I used to have 6 or 7 different che varieties and got rid of all but one, because they all tasted the same. And I quit eating any che fruit many years ago because it is one of the least palatable fruit I have ever eaten. The flavor is mildly sweet but bland, and the texture verges on disgusting. Most people like che the first time they try it (I did) but the more they eat it, the less they like it. I have never met anyone in real life who would eat the fruit 4 or 5 years after first trying it. When I went to the Nanjing Botanical Gardens in China in 1993 I asked to see their che trees and they laughed at me. They thought che was disgusting. They could not imagine why anyone would want to plant it.
On a related note, nothing would eat my che fruit - not birds, not rats, not squirrels, not possums, not skunks, not raccoons, not coyotes, not insects. Many people around the US report that critters will not eat their che fruit.
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I am very limited on what will grow under the circumstances that my property offers so anything that would appear as forgiving as Che, mulberries, jujube I need to make an effort towards.
Ive planted prob a dozen apple trees, about the same in pears, quite a few plum and peaches, persimmon and loquats to name a few. I dont expect much of anything from any of these trees with the exception of my hopeful loquats which seem adaptable enough as long as fireblight dosent set in.
Ill entertain any fruiting tree that will survive and offer something back even if it werent my first choice in fruit.
I understand your approach and what youâre trying to do. The problem with che is that many people consider the fruit to be unpalatable or inedible. Osage orange, the closest relative to che, also has fruit but no one eats them. If I were to make a list of the 250 best fruits in the world, che would not be close to being on that list. Offhand, the only fruits I can think of that might be worse than che are osage orange and noni.
And then when you consider the fact that many animals, birds and even insects will not eat che at all, it makes you wonder why they wonât. What do they know that we donât? The Chinese refer to che fruit as âunwholesomeâ. What do they know that we donât?
Occasionally I will put in an odd fruit and I was just looking at che. Glad I read your description. Think I will pass and go back to my pineapple guava idea.
Id bet that Che is not a great tasting fruit, if it were and its as disease/pest resistant as claimed we here locally would be planting/selling Plant city che berries instead of plant city strawberries but if you watch the video I linked to above as an example the man in the video gave the child a Che berry, she tasted it, had several moments to process the taste as the berries were passed around to other children and then she asked for another.
Children are honest, if it were insipid to her taste buds she would have said so right away.
Im hoping to have the same experience and its a shame that anyone else wouldnât be downright excited to also give it a try for themselves.
A hundred plus years ago human diet consisted of all sorts of foods that we wouldnât even consider eating today because the race has become downright spoiled.
Its fun to be spoiled but in a push come to shove situation as in our system finally collapses Im gonna be glad that I had planted as many che plants as I was able to get my hands on.
Supposedly from what I have read not only the berries but the leaves can be an important part of a humans diet? Id like to know more about all of this.
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It reminds me of the orange tree that is about 3 miles from my property, this is an amazing tree, the people that have it let me do as I please with it since they dont care for the fruit.
Ill eat the fruit but it definitely will make the mouth pucker, it is however excellent for juicing.
The greatest thing about this orange tree though is its cold hardiness, I have personally seen it in the low 20s a few nights in a row, I have heard it will get down into the teens every now and again and yet this tree dosent bat an eye.
No damage whatsoever that I have noticed. Im guessing its a true Florida native and has just adapted to whatever mother nature can throw at it.
This tree would be a huge benefit to own if all the feces on the planet hit the fan.
I have about 30 trees that I am growing now from its seeds, unfortunately even after several months they are still so tiny they are nothing more than a reminder that I simply will not live long enough to see any fruit.
I wish there were a solution to this. Im hoping that its either air layering ( which Im taking lessons on now with an aged horticulturist ) or grafting ( which Im still in the dark about )
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