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

[BobVance]

@santanu.basu

That redlands and sihong are looking good, how old are they?

They are both grafts on a So which was planted in March 2019. The grafts were made last spring (2021). The Sihong produced some fruit last year, but this is the first time the Redlands graft is producing. This site is by far my fastest (of more than half a dozen rentals) to produce. It is the one where the lawn grows quickly (weekly mowing vs 10-14 days for most properties). And as long as the trees keep putting on growth, they seem much more likely to produce. Here’s a post from earlier today where I went into more detail on that…

Jujubes- Our New Adventure

If it isn’t putting on any growth, I think that is the problem. I had trees I planted at 1 rental and they never grew much (4 growing to 4.5’ in 4 years). The soil there is a bit dry, with grass browning during the summer. I added fertilizer and top-dressed with mulch (year 4) and it still didn’t do too much. The only tree producing a few fruit was the one I planted a year later and worked a couple buckets of composted leaves into the soil (increasing water-holding capacity). Now, contrast…

@santanu.basu

BTW, do you see much of your jujubes being eaten by birds or rodents? Are the thorns any deterrence?

From his video, Roger Meyers had problems with birds. I haven’t here, at least with Jujubes (they are bad on sour cherries, mulberries, blueberries, etc). Sometimes, at some properties, I’ve had squirrels clean me out. But they normally ignore jujubes. Once in a while, they figure it out and then everything vanishes in a day or two. The 2-3 times it happened, maybe half the crop was done when everything vanished.

I didn’t notice any difference between thorny and less thorny cultivars- it all got stripped. Maybe the nasty thorns on Chico would be enough to act as a deterrent, but my Chicos haven’t been productive yet (they look promising this year).