Honey Jar and Sugar Cane Jujubes just became available!

[k8tpayaso]

I’ve been eating HJ for a few days and Chico. But my Chico is not very good this year. HJ’s are fantastic!

Katy

[Bhawkins]

Yes we’ll both eat & dry. My wife uses the dried jujubees year round for tea etc. My Chico is affected by my mystery illness (cotton root rot, too much nitrogen, ???) & I may not get those this year

[k8tpayaso]

That’s sad…maybe it will rally… my Contorted is kinda sad this year. I’m going to get soil samples and adjust (maybe when it starts raining again) and next year I’m going to feed them in February.

[Bhawkins]

I have 2 Chico’s I planted this year at another location, my office; next year I should be swamped with those

I really like the A&M soil tests, gives me guidance for fertilizers

[jujubemulberry]

that’s a nice bowlful worthy of a still-life painting @Bhawkins

you and @k8tpayaso are a month ahead of us here in vegas.

[BobVance]

your bok jo graft here also is proving to be very productive relative to expanse of branching(on its second year grafted on sc). The lone fruit it produced last year was very sweet and crisp btw, similar to mayazao and r4t3 in taste and texture.

That’s very encouraging. I took pictures this morning and was thinking that Bok Jo is growing like a weed (5’ tall, grafted a foot from the ground last spring) and has a very heavy fruit load, so it will probably turn out to be foul tasting

A pic of Bok Jo:

Speaking of not good tasting, here’s a pic of Huping. Scott referred to it as a “spitter” a year or two ago and I think I had a very dry one as well. This year it looks to be carrying a heavier load, so maybe I can dry a few. The shape is interesting- almost like a peanut (in the shell).

larger, roundish and dimpled fruits

Yup, that looks like my So. Here’s a pic of me with a handful a couple years ago. I’m interested in how this turns out. I’d offer to graft your variety, but I don’t know if you want to wait 3-4 years to know how it turns out Bok Jo is an out-lier in terms of early fruiting (as is Honey Jar).

Jujube fruit set if you don't have hot dry summers

My guess would be that when they are young, there is almost no self-shading. Then, as they get bigger, parts of the tree shade other parts of the tree at various points in the day and then none of it gets enough sun to set fruit. That is the problem with living in a populated area. I have the same issue- you can pay to cut down a neighbors trees (preferably with permission), but they will rarely agree to let you take down their house I’m starting to get more than the few initial fr…

Here’s a pic of my So this year. This branch isn’t that high off the ground and I’m a bit surprised it has this many fruit.

sept late is a good juju to have, especially if you like some tart to your sweets

That’s good to hear. So it is a bit like Chico? Hopefully it isn’t too late for me. September for you could be November for me, as I’m at least 1.5 months from any ripening.

But I also think cross pollination is an important factor as well

I can’t really measure that very well- I don’t think that there is anywhere in my yard (at least with any jujubes growing) that there aren’t at least 3 other varieties within 40 feet (often 10’). And the old So probably has at least 10 and probably a few more.

Honey Jar 6 feet away is loaded with fruits

My Honey Jar is pretty well covered too, but not on the same scale as Tony’s.

[jujubemulberry]

thinking that Bok Jo is growing like a weed (5’ tall, grafted a foot from the ground last spring) and has a very heavy fruit load, so it will probably turn out to be foul tasting

not foul-tasting , i can safely predict I didn’t get to test for brix but am confident it will attain 30+

as for our bok jo graft, it developed a strong upright earlier this year but was lopped off at the green tender stage by our howling spring storms. The old laterals produced a lot but also got de-fruited by recent stormy weather. Couldn’t help but continuously whine about year 2018, lol

I’m interested in how this turns out. I’d offer to graft your variety, but I don’t know if you want to wait 3-4 years to know how it turns out

just tell me if you’re interested grafting some burntridge’s contorted to your trees. As for the waiting, it is only painstaking if none of your trees are productive. Used to be overtly impatient with having to wait for named varieties to bear fruits, but now way more interested in developing new cultivars from seed than acquiring budwood of cultivars i never had. I mean, if just started planting jujus for the first time in my life this year, growing them from seed would be torture

So it is a bit like Chico? Hopefully it isn’t too late for me. September for you could be November for me,

sept late is more of a jujube tart than apple tart, while chico is the other way around. Apples supposedly diverged from juju’s parents millions of years ago, and chico happens to have acquired the same apple-tart genes passed on to apples from their common ancestor/s.

and yes, sept late does ripen here at around mid sept, but never say never @BobVance . You have been getting many of your jujus to fruit consistently where you’re at, so negatory anecdotes shouldn’t mean much to you

[mamuang]

Bought this from a Middle Eastern grocery store. Don’t know the variety. The clerk said they got them from CA.

All except the brown one tasted like cardboard, expensive cardboard
( $3.99/lbs). Texture was spongy and dry while tasted very bland. They made my Shanxi Li, which I complained that they were spongy and dry, tasted like Honey Jar.

I still don’t know what to do with the rest (over a lb). The brown one was sweeter and crunchier. But it was the only one.

For anyone who are foreign to jujubes, if you ate these as your first jujubes, you would not try another jujube again. They were that awful!!!

[tonyOmahaz5]

They harvested them way too early. Only Honey Jar picked early still taste very good.

Tony

[mamuang]

Tony,
I like jujubes but this ones are too much for me.

[k8tpayaso]

That looks like a lot of $3.99 to be that bad!!!

[BobVance]

I have 14 jujube trees in their 3rd year and only one seems to have a noticable amount of fruit on it (Chico).

Today, I noticed a 2nd year tree with 3 fruit on it. Not surprisingly, it is a Honey Jar. But, while precocious, Honey Jar isn’t a guarantee of early bearing- I have 2 other HJ from the same year and one from the year before which don’t have any fruit yet.

For anyone who are foreign to jujubes, if you ate these as your first jujubes, you would not try another jujube again. They were that awful!!!

That looks just like the jujubes my wife was bringing home from Chinatown. She likes them for some reason. She likes the ones I grow more, but the spongy ones are still acceptable.

That’s why when I first planted them, I thought it was just for her. Similar to goji berries…

[mamuang]

I have had similar jujubes from other grocery stores. These ones are particularlyhard to swallow literally. Does your wife eat them fresh or cook with them, please?

My 5 trees are young (ranging from 1-3 yrs old). So, I am inclined to believe that for young trees, having several varieties (8) to cross pollinate is helpful. All my trees are very close to one another, too.

[BobVance]

Does your wife eat them fresh or cook with them, please?

Just fresh. She would eat that whole tray in one sitting.

My 5 trees are young (ranging from 1-3 yrs old). So, I am inclined to believe that for young trees, having several varieties (8) to cross pollinate is helpful. All my trees are very close to one another, too.

It may help, but I have plenty of young ones close together (and in good sun locations) which don’t have any fruit on them .

[mamuang]

Maybe, I was lucky.

What about fertilizer? I followed @tonyOmahaz5’s suggestion and fertilized them this spring.

I used to think that jujubes like a tough condition so for the past two years I did not water or fertilize them. I did plenty this year.

If we lived close, I would deliver that tray of jujubes to your door for her.

[gsims1997]

From the market they have to be nearly all brown to be any good. I’ve had some really bad jujube from the korean market (H-mart). You’d think they’d know better than to sell them to people who know what a jujube is supposed to taste like.

[castanea]

They are Li. Not watered enough and picked too early.

[jujubemulberry]

they look like li’s from california. It has been super hot here in the southwest and li’s tend to be spongy and dry when ‘baked’, and even worse, when picked too early as @tonyOmahaz5 and @castanea mentioned. SC’s don’t lose the juiciness, but will taste somewhat bitter when subjected to >105F. Flavor may improve with refrigeration, but no so much.

a lot of $3.99 to be that bad!!!

it does look bad, and am sure it tastes just as bad, probably better to just let them dry further into dates to help concentrate the flavor and sugars.

[mamuang]

Thank you, everyone. The clerk did say most of their “ exotic” fruit are from CA.

It’s too bad that such low quality fruit are sold. If I gave these jujubes to my friends who never tried them before, they would have a real bad impression of the fruit.

[castanea]

They sell poor quality Li fruit even in California. I think there are many people who want jujubes and they’ll buy whatever is available.