Derby,
I hope those nasty thorns did not make you bleed. I pruned 4 of my gooseberry bushes last week and their thorns got me pretty good despite I wore some working gloves. I think gooseberry thorns are meaner then roses.
Tony
Tony,
I crawled under some big multiflora roses and sawed them off at the base growing in the fence rows and when I got done with them I looked like I fought with a tiger. I found about 5-6 of them and still have one left. I should graft something good on the base but wanted no part of them by the time I got done. Left the tops there until they dry out because they were cutting me to pieces.
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Mine is from Edible landscaping and the fruits have never ripen in four years.
Winsorw,
How many hours of sun does your Che tree gets? I have heard the best location to plant a Che tree is in full sunny spot from morning to evening. I planted my two Che trees in full sunny spots. Hopefully, They will ripe fruits someday.
Tony
Thanks for the comment. I would say mine gets full sun but I live in PNW so my full sun may not always be full sun. Mine is about the same size as strudeldog but not as bushy.
It only bit me a couple of times, I put it in a pretty sunny spot but it does get some afternoon shade.
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A friend of mine used a big cable and puts a loop around the rose bush. Then hooks it to the tractor and let’s it choke down on the bush and pull it out. I have cut them out with my loppers but can bet that you are not gonna come out unscathed!
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The wild Osage orange cut me up a bit but I trimmed them up and grafted che to them the other day. Both OO are in very wet locations so they will grow like weeds. We will see how OO and che does on mulberry this year. I did a ton of grafts so we can put the experiment to wrest this year.
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Very nice Clark, I planted a OO sprout in my back yard. Every time I walk by it tries to jump out and get me, lol. It has been slow to leaf out. If I kill an OO sprout, it will sure hurt my self esteem.
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Jason,
Osage orange are great trees they would be even better if they produced edible fruit. I think the one you planted is something you will never regret. Glad I am able to help with the experiment. Mulberry and Osage orange are something we have plenty of here. I sure hope the research yields good results that benefit the group. Tony’s grafts look very promising on Mulberry.
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Strudeldog and others in the Southeast, does your che ripen in October? Mine dropped 2/3’s of all fruit several months ago but what is left is turning red. This seems early and I fear this is the start of another drop but the fruit looks nice and red but still hard.
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Mine ripened early October last year, I am afraid you may be right about dropping. Mine is covered again this year but fully green still
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This is what my fruit looks like right now.
In past years and also earlier this year the fruit that dropped would always turn orange and shrivel and then fall. These are large and red.
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Looks good.
Tony
Hi Mark,
Those do appear they will ripen. I am surprised so early as mine at least last year I don’t think had that color probably until mid Sept and I would say really early Oct until tasty ripe. They do stay red some time prior to ripe, but they should hit a deeper shade of red and slightly soften. I had lots of fruit so I kept testing them. Very bland and the white latex sap is not good at all on the hard ones, but like figs the latex pretty much gone when fully ripe .I know the one Just Fruits and exotics has planted in ground and I assume the one they sell the tree looks quite different in form to mine, but not sure when ripens. I have really only grown this one seedless type so really don’t know how much variation in cultivars there is, but like you stated when mine drop premature they kind of turn light orange and dry up. I am sure I might lose some close to ripe like yours, but it looks to me you will be eating some. Awesome!!
Your tree in the picture above looks much different from mine. Yours has vertical growth while mine just wants to grow straight out, no growth on the top.
Where is the source of yours? The one from JF&E sounds more like yours short tree with more horizontal branching and if memory serves me not as dense of branching and foliage either as mine
Edible Landscaping
Mine is grafted from ARS USDA scion, and I am sure they list Micheal McConkey as in Edible Landscaping as the donor, so thinking they should be same. I know mine is seedless and self fertile as I don’t know where another would be planted near me.
The seedless variety is interesting and I do wonder like many where it came from and if it was seed grown. Michael at edible landscaping may have said where he got it or if he grew it but I’m not aware of that. I would like to see the few naturalized che. This article about che is very interesting Che - Eat The Weeds and other things, too. Additional information can be found here Cudrania - Gardening in the Coastal Southeast. Male and females can be found here https://www.rollingrivernursery.com/products/948/205/fruit-trees/che-or-chinese-mulberry-cudrania-tricuspidata/female-che-detail. More information is here http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/che.html. I’m very interested in the tree but so far have been unable to make it work here.
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