So u can grow Che fruit on horse Apple rs. I’ve never even heard of Che fruit. The knowledge of this community amazes me. It is like knowing someone with 500 years experience growing fruit in every part of North America. So does anyone grow Che trees? Are they difficult to graft? I believe I can find plenty of root stock.
Edible Landscaping nursery of Virginia has a variety named “Che Seedless” grafted onto Osage Orange. This looks like the way to go (I plan to buy one when I can find the extra money in my budget). Check out this nice video:
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I have had problems getting mine to fruit. Its about ten years old. It forms fruits every year and they drop off at dime-size. I am going to add a male to see if that helps. I have heard conflicting accounts on whether the EL tree is a special variety or if you just have to wait a long time to get fruit without a male.
Great Video Matt, lots of info. So Scott, is your tree a Che seedless as described in the video? It sounds like they didn’t want a pollinatir for their tree. It is interesting that the fruit looks somewhat similar to the fruit on an Osage orange. It also has a cotton seed interior. Would they cross pollinate if in close proximity?
Che (Cudrania tricuspidata) grafts readily onto Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) understock. I’ve tried putting it on mulberry (in the same family, Moraceae), with no success.
Takes several years of dropping fruits before it finally gets down to bearing and maturing fruits reliably. Mine dropped all fruit for several years… finally started maturing fruits the past 2 years.
So far as I’m aware, there are no selected varieties…everyone’s growing clones of mostly female trees… ‘seedless’ without a male pollenizer.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that they may occasionally ‘change’ gender, as has been described (and I’ve personally experienced) in mulberries.
Have a friend who’s grown them for decades… started out with a ‘male’ and ‘female’; both bore fruit, and when the ‘male’ died, there was no difference noticeable in fruit load or size on the ‘female’ without a pollenizer.
There’s no conclusive evidence that Che and Osage Orange will cross-pollenate, and claims of a hybrid, Macludrania, have largely been debunked.
Derby, I personally don’t think there is any special “Seedless” variety. There was a post over on GW where various people were describing their experiences with Edible Landscaping’s Che and some people got fruit in four years and some didn’t have any in more than ten. My tree is from Hidden Springs. Just Fruits also sells Che (aka Mandarin Melon Berry), if you read their description they imply all Che females can produce seedless fruit.
My tree may not be getting enough sun, its in a not so great spot. So I am hoping a male graft might prompt it to start fruiting. If it does start, I may remove the male in a few years and see if it keeps it up. BTW I also have a different Che female grafted to my tree, and neither hold their fruit.
Very interesting fruit. I did some research on it last night. Osage orange grows extrely good here to the point of being a nuisance , maybe it does also in most parts of the U.S.
I noticed that in the video they note the tree bearing fruit is possibly 20 years old.
Here is an interesting post, I don’t know if eyeckr post on this forum or not, I may give him a heads up.
http://citrus.forumup.org/viewtopic.php?t=8912&start=30&mforum=citrus
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Not saying it will happen to anyone else or that it was the websites fault but I followed the link and my iPhone crashed. Just a fair warning for others.
The seedless Che cultivar at the Davis GRIN repository is occasionally available for scionwood.
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Thanks for the tip Richard, it may be too late to transplant Osage Orange this year for rootstock but I may move some to the yard this fall. With the help of every one here I have 15 of 20 grafts take and I feel like it has opened a new door for me. The problem with grafting I realize now, is you always need root stalk and then you run out of space for trees and have to try to figure out ways to intensive farm the property you have.
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I believe @tonyOmahaz5 has tried to graft Che onto mulberry too.
Tony, what was the result? Did you try Red Mulberry? White Mulberry? Any takes?
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Mine is a beautiful tree that also drops it’s fruit when dime sized. The trunk is probably about 3-4 inches in diameter and the tree is only about 12-15 feet tall. I figured it was a watering issue, but I can’t prove it (and it doesn’t appear to have been the issue last year).
It is from edible landscaping and it about 8 years old.
Maybe this year…
Chills
Matt
I just bark grafted two seedless Che scions from Edible landscaping to a large 3" wild red mulberry understock a couple days ago. I will update in a month or so to see if they take. So far Osage Orange is the only rootstock for grafting Che.
Tony
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I was wondering if anyone try to graft an Osage Orange scion on a Mulberry and use it as an interstem and then graft the Che scion onto the Osage Orange. This would be awesome if it takes because Mulberry grows wild everywhere and a very hardy tree.
Tony
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Richard,
Yes , Morus rubra. The birds ate the fruits and they spread the seeds all over the fence line.
Tony
The back of my place has an area that I have allowed to grow up in brush. I took a look today to see if we had any potential root stock. Two Osage oranges just on the other side of the fence😁 but I found this, mulberry???
Jason,
Yup! Wild Mulberry. Maybe you will be the one to carry out the Osage Orange interstem experiment.
Tony
I suppose I could gather some Osage orange scion this winter and see if I can graft them onto the mulberry. I believe I have two mulberrys I could top work.