Can someone tell me what might be going on with this Che plant, I have another that looks about the same. Planted in beach sand but I amend the soil 50/50 well composted compost and the native sand.
Hard to believe these Ches looking so bad, I have planted nearly 1000 other plants on the property and they are not exhibiting
Full sun, not blazing hot yet but its getting there.
Been in the ground since the end of last year. Havent ever applied any fertilizers to any of my plants. Maybe I should put some black cow on it as a fertilizer? Id rather it just fix itself and become adjusted.
For me, Che took forever to hold onto its fruit. My tree was almost 20 feet tall, easily that wide and over 12 years old.
Last year it held onto its fruit for the first time and they were ok. Nothing I sat out there gorging upon, but worth a nibble every now and again.
It is true that nothing touched the fruit, though. Squirrels tear my fruit from the branches well before ripeness and try everyone they can get their paws on (which is why I get no pears from my 2 pear trees)
Nutrient deficiency in plants is difficult to diagnose as they look similar. The good example is iron and nitrogen deficiency. Both cause leaves to turn pale green/yellow.
I think the plant in the pic is nitrogen deficient. The yellowing is total and from the older leaves up to young ones.
If it were iron deficient, leave veins should still show green and it start from young leaves down to older ones.
I have had a couple che trees for about 4 years.One of them has produced small green is flowers which eventually became yellow, and looks like a miniature Mulberry but only about 2 to 3 mm in size, and then they are dropped off. I actually tasted a couple and they were completely tasteless, like cardboard. The other tree was much more vigorous and became bigger, but never produced any flowers/cardboard fruit. However this year they both have produced flowers.Wondering if any of you have been able to sex che ! image|690x471
I havent eaten che yet…
But I’m growing them anyway… For one thing, i have room… @1930 yeah Im growing stuff and like you i figure it will be a real added bonus if times ever get tight.
I hope to find a good use for the fruit, im thinking either juice or jam? I like all fruits and cant imagine a fruit as bad as some claim… Ive even tried to eat osage balls lol and still hope to get the hang of separating their seed and roasting them like sunflower seed…
But yeah if my space was super limited I would rather some good hybrid or asian persimmons or improved american or even wild seedling MO conservation ones over che probably. Plus jujube, pear, and dont underestimate the disease resistant apples and frost hardy peaches & apricots and thornless blackberries…
But anyway I am hoping the che wood is good like osage orange…(the best wood for firewood and fence posts and bows and more). I have grafted several che to osage. I plan to airlayer che and grow on own roots too…, they say che suckers and forms a thicket on its own roots…, i hope it is a good wood that would be ideal for a firewood thicket like locust does… I need more good wood that suckers.
This is what my little Che looks like (got a fresh pic this morning)… May 29.
I started it last spring, early… and it grew, budded, leafed out… and then our nasty April 15 hard frost hit.
Wiped out all my peaches, apples, my concord grapes, even killed completely a Girardi Mulberry new start that had leaves and fruit on already… every bud above the graft died.
This little Che did similar, all growth at that point was toasted…
Several buds near the top died and never came back… about a month later, there were 2 buds just above the graft that grew again… so it had a hard start last year. By the end of last summer it was basically a 3 ft tall single stem, and that is how it started this spring…
So as you can see it has really made some nice progress so far this year.
I think this variety was called California Dreaming by Cliff at Englands Orchard… supposed to be seedless.
It is having to compete a little with some aggressive strawberries in my food forest
