Almost every person I know who first tasted che liked it. That’s at least dozens of people. I liked it the first time I tried it. The first time you taste it the main thing you notice is the mild sweetness and perhaps the unusual textures. Everyone likes sweetness, although it is insipidly sweet. It doesn’t mater what soil it is grown in. Che fruit flavor is limited by its genetics. They all taste like che fruit, Osage orange doesn’t taste good if you give it more nutrients and neither does che.
What happens to 90% of those who initially liked che is that every year they like it less, until after 3-5 years people won’t eat it at all, and many can’t even tell you why. My wife loved it when she first ate it and had maybe 4 or 5 fruit that first year. The next year she had 2 or 3 fruit. The next year she had one. After that she just quit eating it. Same with my son and many others. This is the exact opposite of jujubes where people typically start by eating a few and within 5 years are eating hundreds of fruits.
Of course not everyone likes che that first time. The single most common term used by those people is “disgusting”.
I will predict that if you like che when you first eat it, you won’t be eating it within 5 years. I’m right there with you in wanting to plant all kinds of fruiting plants but there are literally HUNDREDS of fruiting plants that have better fruit than che. I am focusing on planting those other better fruits instead of che. Are you planting goumi, sea buckthorn, mayhaw, honeyberries, hardy kiwis, kiwis, cornelian cherries, medlars, elderberries, loquats, tejocote (I don’t know what zone you’re in), cactus fruit, pawpaws, strawberry trees, thimbleberries, Chilean guava, etc etc. The list goes on and on, and every one of them is much much much better than che fruit.
@castanea , I concur with everything you said about che fruit. My tree is so productive and impervious to late frosts, and the fruit are so interesting to look at - I really want to like it, but I don’t think I’ve harvested and eaten any at all the past two years. I tried drying them one year, and that was awful. The sweetness mostly disappeared and it was like chewing rawhide. I’ve tried adding them to smoothies, and the texture ruins it for me. @1930 , I suppose you could try juicing them and throwing away the pulp. But there’s something particularly unappetizing about eating more than a couple of them, and they don’t grow on you.
“But there’s something particularly unappetizing about eating more than a couple of them, and they don’t grow on you.”
That is the experience of the vast majority of those who have tried che. I grew che for almost 30 years and heard that same story over and over and over, and experienced it personally myself, and through friends and family. I have had this exact same discussion about che with people since the 1990s. The tree is a great ornamental (unless you have it on its own roots and it becomes invasive). I wanted so much to like it.
I agree, che are beautiful trees. I get more questions about my che tree than anything else I grow (except maybe some of my kaki persimmons in late fall when they’ve dropped their leaves and they’re covered in fruit). So I guess che has some value as a novelty conversation piece.
I also agree with the necessity of growing a che grafted onto osage orange. Every year I prune mine back hard, and if I ever leave any branches on the ground and they get pushed into the soil by stepping on them or if they get covered by mulch, they root easily and send up suckers the length of the branch. Within a few months they can be somewhat challenging to pull up if I don’t notice them right away. I can only imagine what kind of suckering they would do if they were on their own roots. With that kind of vigor I don’t think che would ever be like jujubes or persimmons or pawpaws where you can fairly easily keep root suckers in check by mowing.
There really are dozens of fruit trees and shrubs you can plant other than che. The choice is not between che and nothing. The choice is between che and hundreds of other plants that have better fruit than che. Every time you plant a che tree you’re taking up space that could have been used for a jujube or a kiwi or grapes or muscadines or a nut tree.
No, we are not going to be wishing we had more che because we are planting other trees that are far better than che. You too can plant good fruit trees now instead of planting a bad fruit tree.
There’s a reason most animals will not eat che and most insects will not bother it. There’s something in che fruit that is not good for living creatures and that’s why the Chinese call it unwholesome. After you eat che for awhile you will understand.
I pity the pour soul who has to subsist on che fruit! I was reading about che in Lee Reich’s book Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden, and he says that in China they used to feed che leaves to silk worms to make a special silk used for lute strings, and the bark was used to make the yellow dye that provided the color for royal robes. So maybe I was wrong to call it a novelty. Maybe che will also turn out to have medicinal properties of some kind, but I’m with @castanea on this one - after growing it for the past ten years, I’m ready to replace it with something I appreciate more!
Che and Osage Orange are ultra hard wood. I would not mind having a thicket on my property of Che on it’s own roots. We have Osage Orange everywhere here. These hardwoods are very handy in my part of the world for many things. Never have I been successful in grafting Che to wild Osage Orange but It’s not for lack of trying. Many grafts have hung on a month or longer and got my hopes up but then failed. Forum members have been known to do some experimenting Che, mulberry, osage orange, fig grafting
It’s not just the taste. The taste is mostly just bland and boring. The larger problem is the texture and composition of the fruits. I’ve seen more than one person gag while eating a che fruit, not because of the flavor,but because of the odd tough segments that run through the fruit.
They don’t taste anything like figs. They taste a little like watermelon that has been set out on the back porch for a few days and the juices have separated from the fruit.
Pro tip - never believe anyone who is trying to sell you che trees or fruit.
There’s a hilarious video where a nursery had someone come to do an article on che fruit. The woman doing the article said the fruit was one of the best she ever tasted, or something very similar, but she ate only half of one fruit, then put it down and refused to finish it.
I recall the first time I tried mangosteen in Thailand. I did not eat one half of one fruit. I bought about 7 or 8 fruits, took them back to my hotel room, ate all of them in 10 minutes, then went back out and bought about 25 more fruits and ate all of them that same night. Then I bought more the next day.
I will take your word for it. Plus I notice no one is chiming in to defend che. Really it comes down to if they were any good more people would have them. I was considering it more or less just to have as an oddity. Like I said earlier, back to option B, Pineapple Guava.
Pineapple guavas are beautiful trees and delicious - marginal cold hardiness here in Z7B but they handle our late frosts like champs. I’m planting more of these.
(My husband just said “what are you laughing about?” lol)