i place a bid of 100 bucks for a 1" sucker if you’re planning to post it at eBay
my humble take is that it is better to leave them alone the entire growing season, and just wait until winter dormancy to remove from the pot to dissect the babies off.
last winter we repotted our first seed-grown cultivar(“vegas booty”) into a wide-mouthed metal basin and stuffed with friable sawdust/soil mix, in the hopes that any sucker which may develop would be easy to comb through and severed cleanly with little damage to both sucker and mother plant. And if no suckers grow this year, i will(painful as it sounds) conservatively butcher the root mass into several root cuttings and force them to activate their adventitious buds OR die. Maniacal laughter, haha
one instance in the fruit-growing world when a cultivar is actually more expensive and desirable, even though cheaper to produce since there’s no grafting involved.
a thicket of sihong or chico jujus on their own roots would be any nursery’s cash cow. Just dig up the suckers and sell straightaway. For top dollar.
I am doing fresh green tip cuttings rooting experiment of HJ, Li, Sugarcane, Orange Beauty from Castanea graft of last year, Autumn Beauty, Sihong, Dong, Shanxi Li, and Xu Zhou. I will use rooting hormones and cover the large growing pot with a large clear plastic bag or clear cups. I Will update in next few months and see if any of them root.
Could you elaborate how to collect fresh green tip cuttings, please? From new shoot, last year’s shoot, how long is each cutting, do you strip the leaves when rooted, etc?
I will use this year growth and cut about 4 to 5 inches long tips. I will make a small 1/2 inch scratch on one side of the bottom end and dip in power rooting hormone. The scratched area will form callouses and hopefully also roots. This method works well for the hardy kiwis that I did a few years back with Bob V. Scions.
This is a bit of a tangent, but I’ve had a problem with pine voles in my yard burrowing underground and eating the below-ground portions of my fruit trees. They don’t seem to bother with my jujubes grafted on to seedlings, but they did girdle a Tigertooth jujube right below ground level and kill the tree a few months after I planted it. I had mixed a gallon or two of gravel into the backfill soil when I planted the tree to deter voles, but they still went for it. That’s the only jujube I’ve ever planted on its own roots, but it makes me wonder if some cultivars are more appealing to voles than the typical rootstock seedlings.
that is an angle that definitely needs consideration. There’s also the possibility that some cultivars are only good as budwood and which may actually be better off being grafted to more hardy cultivars, which perhaps explains why many jujus are on wild-type rootstock.
i have seen a scientific paper doing exactly that(using green growth), actually using cells from leaves (of all things!) to generate tiny plantlets. Sadly, the tissue culture techniques involves use of some reagents we can’t obtain from home depot. Good luck and do keep us posted
Looking more and more like my HJ won’t set any fruit for 2nd straight year. All good. I’ve got patience.
I still have 100s of flowers but nothing setting. Getting a bit late I would think to have any fruit set. Kevin @thecityman I know we are almost identical climate. Same parrallel and you are just a bit east. You have any fruit set on HJ? Didn’t you have a few last season? I know @k8tpayaso has an abundance in that Texas . Who else purchased the HJ last year with us? @BobVance and @BobC? Would be curious to know how they are doing.
I bought my Honey Jar last year. It gave me a couple of fruit last year. This year, it is loaded with flower buds. Flowers just started to open. They will be in full bloom next week.
I don’t know if they will set fruit. I am hopeful. Honey Jar and Shanxi li are a couple of yards away. Their blooms overlap.
Hey Annie, Thanks for feedback. Those look great and you are even further north!!. Can you tell me a little bit about your pinching the tips? Like figs?
I guess same principal as pinch figs，to control vegetative growth and to reserve the energy for fruits setting. If long branches, take 1/3 off. My plant is very new so branches are only about 6inch long, so I just pinch the tip, aiming 2 fruits on each branch
Before I even saw your question, I just happened to be out inspecting both my jujubes today. I looked pretty closely and I didn’t see a single fruit yet. However, keep in mind that I actually got fruit off both of my trees last year (1 from 1, 2 from the other) and I’m 99% sure that they didn’t set by this point either. And just as @k8tpayaso says, they are still blooming big-time so there is still a good chance something will set. You didn’t mention anything but HJ- and I’ve forgotten, did you also get a Sugar Cane like I did? If so, has it set any? Mine hasn’t but it is still blooming as well.
BTW…what about growth, Zack? Both mine are absolutely growing like Crazy. I might even give Kate a run for her money with the growth I’ve seen the last couple weeks, and that is saying something!!! ha. I actually put about 2 handfuls of 10-10-10 granules around both my trees about a month ago, so I’m not sure if that is what created this spurt or if it is just typical 2nd year growth, but I honestly think my HJ has put on 2 feet in 3 weeks. Undoubtedly the fastest growing tree in my orchard right now-both of them.
Good news with all that growth Kevin. I have had some good growth as well.
I only had the HJ last year. This spring I added the “mystery” Jujube that is strongly considered a Sherwood on its own roots. Taste, size and appearance sure seem identical to a Sherwood anyways. The “mystery” Jujube has grown from 1 foot to 5 feet now since spring. Amazing growth. Probably too much. It’s in a tree tube and I think that has accelerated growth.
Maybe you had the fruit set (3) because they pollinated each other and reason I had zero fruit is I only had one Jujube tree? I don’t know but it’s the only know difference I believe we have. I also have fertilized it similar to you and don’t water it. Only water it gets is from Mother Nature. How about you? Water wise? My understanding was jujubes are drought tolerant so ever since I planted it the tree was on its own regarding water.
. Who else purchased the HJ last year with us? 