I’ve read everything I can find here on jujube. I plan to order more for spring, and try again. I feel that I failed to get them established properly!
my place is extreme cold winter, extreme heat summer, short season and no rain at all in summer.
how much/often should I water new bare root plantings? they will be in full sun, truly brutal desert conditions.
which will survive the very cold winter the best? I ordered HJ and sugarcane and have concerns about their ability to handle the extremes in cold and heat in a year.
other posts have suggested a lot of good places to order from; I will probably need to get them in ground in a brief window in April, any earlier is frozen ground usually and any later will be no rain and building heat.
I’m at 2k elevation: is the full sun possibly a reason my first batch didn’t make it?
two peaches and two chestnut crabs planted very near to them did well and took this year, but the jujubes never leafed out, or leafed out then seemed to dry up despite watering.
edit to add; in eastern WA USA
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I planted 4 bare root jujubes this Spring, and the So and HJ leafed out but never took off. They look like this.
But the two sugar canes are thriving, one even bearing fruits
I water all of them the same but they all seem to grow differently. I’m hoping the So and HJ are building up their root and will thrive next year.
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Did you buy yours from One Green World, they sent me 3 small containers, I gave mine a lot of compost, this year all 3 have fruit. My garden is heavily planted, so there are shade everywhere.
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yes two of them, they arrived in January, leafed out while heeled up then died promptly when put in ground in spring.
two others from where I can’t remember, I’ll have to look it up. never leafed out at all, just dead sticks now. all were about 4 to 5 feet tall on arrival
the ones that leafed too early look just like @Fishsauce 's first photo, but brown and dead leaves. the other two are bare sticks.
I planted an in a full sun spot, plenty of water, mulch on top around with no competition
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Maybe it’s best to give them a bit of shade in the beginning.
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I don’t know if I have any spot that’ll shade them at the start. I need to find a different tree to plant in that full sun area then too, I chose them because they like full sun and do ok in drought (once established).
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Where are you?
Everyone has a different idea as to what extreme heat and extreme cold are.
What kind of soil do you have?
None of your questions can be accurately answered without this information.
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Spokane. US zone 6, cold winter, hot dry summer. I’m 2k elevation. we get over 100F for a week or two in summer, lots of chill hours over winter. it’s apple-growing region.
soil is silty loam amended over the last few years with some mulch. other trees nearby with a bit of shade did fine. my sunflower patch is right near these and are doing well.
usually if you click on someone’s username, you can see if they include location and zone, I only figured that out recently (mine has pnw/zone 6 there)
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Just put something next to the permanent spot to shade it.
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Jujube do well in places much hotter than Spokane. Places like Las Vegas. I’d be more concerned if the warm season is long enough. But they also do well in New Mexico where it can get cold and season is short.
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In the jujube world you have neither extreme heat nor extreme cold. There is nothing remotely brutal to jujubes. Those are non-factors. Your trees do not need shade in the summer if the trees are given adequate water.
You have good soil.
So the only thing you need to do is water your trees during the summer. For the first year that should be at least once a week.
If you are asking questions where climate is relevant, that information should be included in your OP. We should not have to go looking for it anywhere. PNW zone 6 does not tell us where you are, how long your summers are or what your high temps are. It’s difficult to grow jujubes in many parts of the PNW zone 6 because summer temps are not hot enough. Luckily you are in a part of PNW zone 6 where summer temps are adequate.
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I would also give it extra water when it’s really hot.
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that’s what I had thought! we are high desert, it should be perfect conditions. I’ve bought 4 and none survived, before we even got into summer heat.
other things planted in the spot have done well (annuals) previously, so the soil is ok. I want to grow jujube but now I’m concerned at the cost, if they’ll fail again, and ways to get them established that I may have done wrong.
should I be watering a lot when they’re freshly planted, from bare root? should I maybe order potted? and were these good varieties for here.
we are a little bit cooler than, say, lowland Nevada, but still dang hot in summer. and dry. it’s not PNW, it’s inland of the cascades so we do not get rain like that or cool cloud cover. we are high desert.
also I’m wondering if there’s a better place to order from that’s reliable for others. along with considering the regimen of establishing the plants at the start. when to plant, water needs. all that
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One green world didn’t come as bareroot, they were in tiny little pots, but I was worried they were so tiny they would die, that’s why I gave them lots of compost.
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How much are you watering is the next thing to specify. In a dry sunny year I can water hundreds of gallons to one tree and barely see any growth beyond june the dry soil will disperse and evaporate the water very fast. in a wet year growth can go on through to fall. I think you should try heavy mulch and heavy watering. setting up a barrel with a drip emitter or buying a water bag of 30 gallons or more maybe worth trying.
I would plant bare rooted plants in early winter when i know rain is there. i know some would say they dont grow anyways till spring but i think the roots put out small hairs if not more while dormant.
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I got got 4 of my jujubes from 3 different sources: Womack, Stark Bros and RainTree. The HJ and the fruiting SC get about 6 gals of water a week since they are in very sunny locations. The So and 2nd SC get about 2 gals a week. The two SCs just seem more vigorous given the same treatment as the So and HJ…somewhat random.
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I usually do 5 gallons a week, more if it’s hot less of it’s raining. a water bag is a good idea! I already have the spot mulched
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I’ll likely have to wait to order until fall for the spring shipping. I don’t see honey jar anywhere yet, sugarcane of course sold/not in season
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I think you have excellent conditions for jujube trees if you can just get them going.
Very small jujube trees often die their first season in the ground and it’s not always clear why they do. It may be because of small root systems. And sometimes the grafts will fail on really small plants.
Larger grafted trees in their first season in the ground sometimes do not even leaf out. That problem is becoming more and more common. My guess is that it is because the growers let the roots dry out during the packaging and shipping process. When jujube roots are exposed to air it should only be for very brief periods (less than 30 minutes) and any time they do dry out a little, the roots should be soaked in water for at least 5 minutes before planting.
The problem with buying potted plants is that they’re often very small and even if they live they take a few years to really start growing. One Green World trees are good if you can buy their larger ones but their small ones take a lot of time to grow up.
Most larger grafted jujube trees being sold in the US come from Dave Wilson wholesale nursery in California. If you can get one that does not have dead roots, they are good trees to grow out.
It’s hard to know how often to water trees in the ground without seeing them and the soil they are growing in, but once a week is probably the minimum. Twice a week is probably the maximum.
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I water twice a week for the first month or two they’re in ground, then more or less depending on weather/heat
I had read so much about the conditions they liked and it seems like they are a good fit
I had a pear tree that didn’t leaf out this year as well- different part of the property. I wonder now if they’re not all doing this, waiting a year to wake? it’s horrible not to know though!
two of the jujube did leaf out then die back.
I am hesitant to buy from ogw as they responded so poorly about the pear tree. I’ll definitely appreciate any suggestions of where to look for HJ and sugarcane jujubes this fall
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