Tony, they look a little under ripe. I find them best when when they are dark red and easily come off the tree. At their best they are still just “alright”.
One tree is all you need, it is not a fruit that you can eat a lot of at one time. My small tree produced about 200 fruit and maybe 30 got eaten by our family and friends.
I grafted them two years ago. Last year they dropped all the fruits. I got the female scions from Strudeldog. I ate one that was real red and no white latex oozing from the stem and it was sweeter but the texture is hard to describe. Just like a thick jammy texture.
I’m kind of excited about growing osage orange for rot resistant posts. I’m hopeful that once I have harvestable size trees established that the stump sprouts will grow quickly enough that they’ll outgrow any competition (making management easy) and re-grow decent size posts in 15-20 years. I’m hoping to acquire and plant some thornless cultivars next year, particularly Denmark, Whiteshield, Park, Dawson, and K-3, cultivars which seemed to maybe be slightly more inclined toward better growth form for posts/timber.
As for che fruit, I’ve found myself eating 1 or 2 fruits each year. My children eat more. I like my tree, especially because it’s care-free and ornamental, but I sure wouldn’t want a whole row of them.
Ok thanks
Maybe just 2-3 for back up here.?
And the Osage orange in the fence post row, in the back lot.
Thanks
The texture is hard to describe. I thought it would be similar to cantaloupe, a firm consistent texture but it is not even close. I think it is more like biting into an orange slice, very juicy and somewhat fibrous, very sweet like overripe watermelon, but not as good, with a slight weird aftertaste.
totally jealous. I’ve got a huge tree, sets lots of fruit and drops it all unripe.
Scott
I have been growing Ché for several years. In Belgium, where I live, Ché will rarely ripen seedless fruit. Summers are just not hot enough…Only on rare occasions some fruit will reach maturity, the rest will drop from the tree like little orange peas. When the Ché is pollinated, the fruit stays on the tree and ripens along with persimmon and chestnut. Just making a point that Ché needs the summer heat typically found in either a meditaranean or a continental climate. In a temperate coastal climate Ché will drop its fruit before maturity, even on large old trees, when not pollinated. And about the much discussed taste…: I have wondered a long time about how to describe it and then it hit me! I would say that the most fit description would be “marshmallow”. Sweet, a bit chewy but without any destinct aroma.
This is my small che tree last summer. All the fruits falled for the second year.
My seedless che tree and fruits
“Teutonia” is C.kousa
Do deer eat the leafs on Che.?
Do I need them in a cage?
Another year, another mass dropping of small, hard, unripe Che fruit…
The fruit are smaller than a dime. The dropping started just after a large rainfall.
Scott
Me too… they fall on the ground.
how old is yours?
Also, where did you get yours?
Mine is at least 10 years old, probably 12 or more. It was originally from Edible Landscaping.
Scott
Mine came from Belgium i think and is grafted. 5 years old maby…
I have the same problem with poor quality fruit dropping on the ground. Alex at Papaya Tree Nursery let me sample some of their Che Fruit and it was awesome . He has both a male and female tree. He further advised that grafting attempts were not working for him.
Thats weird! Glad someone has good fruit though!!! Ive heard others say they had a hard time grafting che but ive done about 17 grafts and only had one fail but even it took initially but failed after growing 2 months, which is the best success rate ive had with anything ive ever grafted, pear success has been almost as good… Key is graft when leafed out…
An update to my last post in this thread…
98% of the fruit dropped from my Che… the remaining 2% seem to have more than doubled in size. (I didn’t notice anything remaining until I noticed a couple larger fruit on the ground).
These larger ones are not quite quarter sized, but close…
Scott
I’m wondering if Che will be worth growing for me, due to SWD. I would assume SWD would affect Che fruit. Depends on when they would ripen here. If it’s anytime before October then they are doomed. They might be ok after a good October cold spell though, like the raspberries. Anyone know when they would likely ripen for me here in west PA, zone 6a/5b?
They are really weird about ripening. In some areas they ripen in August(zone 9a California) or September (zone 8 Georgia). Here in zone 9b California they ripen mostly in late October and November. I think it depends on the rootstock, the soil, the heat, water and everything else. But it never matters anyway because no one will eat them.
Nurseryman in next county (6b, Kentucky) told me that they’re the last thing to ripen for him in October. I wonder if they’d have time in 5b/6a? We’ve got a Norris on its second year here, which held onto most of its little crop for about half a season, then finally dropped everything.
@Hillbillyhort Deer have left the foliage alone here so far, even though they’ve browsed on some neighboring plants. Actually, nothing’s eaten it yet—not even Japanese beetles.
