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

I’m not sure- for all I know, wind may sometimes be enough. But I see quite a few small flying insects around mine. Even though they aren’t showy, they have a distinct (and pleasant) grape-soda smell, which I assume is designed to attract pollinators.

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Yes, I planted the trees in April 2016, & I’ll get decent crops from my Honeyjar, Contorted, and Sugarcane this year. Looks like i’ll also get some Li, Shanxi Li, Winter Delight, Autumn Beauty, & Chico. Only non producers might be Shihong, GA866, & Sherwood.

Autumn beauty is the surprise, took forever for the first tree to fruit, 5-6 years or so

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No surprise there though - they are famous non-setters!

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sad to hear about this. Was your hj a recently planted bare-root? While it is not a frequent issue with bare-root jujus, it is also not uncommon for large specimens to be received with proportionally small rootballs with hardly any fine roots/rootlets/roothairs. Only hope is for the specimen to be able to regenerate actual rootlets.
unfortunately, only way to find out is if it survives the peak of your summer.
if you have other trees, you could try taking a couple of scion wood from your struggling tree and graft to established trees. I have successfully grafted at 110F in mid june here in vegas(using stems which already leafed out), so probably have better chances in most other states other than desert regions of az, and ca.

just remove the existing leaves and let the graft grow from the node[quote=“Bhawkins, post:483, topic:515”]
Li, Shanxi Li, Winter Delight, Autumn Beauty, & Chico. Only non producers might be Shihong, GA866, & Sherwood.

Autumn beauty is the surprise, took forever for the first tree to fruit, 5-6 years or so
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i can’t help but suspect that some juju scions aren’t just required to be ‘satisfied’ with the amount of sunlight they are getting on the first year of being grafted, but also need some kind of feedback from the rootstock—that the rootstoc is also ‘satisfied’ with the amounts of daylight(and thus, food storage) the past year, or even the past few years. “Heat units” and variety of interstem and/or rootstoc may also play a part, but i think overall direct sunlight is the most important variable in the still-indeterminate equation.
@BobVance has indicated the rather long period of his contorted tree to start bearing fruit. Seems like certain jujus need to attain a critical mass(in development) relative to length of growing season-- with length of growing season being inversely-related to the size of critical mass necessary to get the tree ready for bearing fruits to maturity. And the inverse-relationship may be cultivar-dependent, which may explain autumn beauty being a laggard, even in relatively sunny and warm dfw area…

have grafted the above-mentioned jujus, and at least one scion(of each cultivar) fruited on the first year of grafting. But no doubt-- winter delight, autumn beauty, and ga-866-- even though capable of fruiting on the first year, the quantity is poor and the quality is questionable, as to whether or not they were already at their prime…

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Does anybody have suggestions for zone 7b, Richmond VA? It gets in the 90s during the day starting around June and stays that way though August. Is that hot enough for Jujubes?

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your summer temps seem ok for jujus. Best to situate your trees where they’d get direct sunlight from sunrise to sundown, or at least try to max it out.
good luck!

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I looked at my jujube blooms this morning. Some are dropping but some are getting “fatter” in the middle. Are those fattening ones setting?

Three of these are the “fattening” ones…

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Looks good Scott. Those little green center will turn into fruits.

Tony

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Cool! If things hold I will have a record set, quite a few varieties looked like that. I did major thinning-out of the planting in the last few years and maybe I am finally getting enough sun in.

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I recently put in some Jujubes TheGrog. I will let you know how they do (I live on the north side of RVA).

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This is a new bareroot and is growing slowly. I still have hope for it. No additional trees to graft to this year. Thanks for feedback.

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Finally all my Jujube trees set good fruits this year. I think the combination of hot summer, plenty of sun shine, fertilizer, water, and pollinizer both by hand and insects plus a native Jujube flowers.

Tony

Lastly, just wanted to add a cluster of 8 fruits of Wabash Petersen pawpaw.

Cheers,

Tony

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Thanks for the pictures Tony. Yours are a bit ahead of mine and I know what to look for next. I haven’t paid a lot of attention to them in past years, too busy putting out fires in the orchard.

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how i wish could grow pawpaws here!

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Raf,

Have you try to grow them in the past?

Tony

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i have never tried them, as quite resigned about them expiring in summer :sob:

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I can send you some seeds this Fall and you can stratify them and give them a try. Maybe one of them will tolerate the Las Vegas heat. I know that you will like the flavor and sweet custard taste of pawpaws.

Tony

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Maybe with some shade they might take off.

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Thanks for the generous offer Tony. I really appreciate it! We’re planning on having a trellis built with wrap-around wire mesh for filtered light where we could grow avocados/pawpaws/etc, but will probably be a while. Will surely take on your offer when the ‘crib’ is ready.

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Paradise Nursery - lol… “Get em outta here”. That’s my Donald Trump impression by the way. I’m seeing lots of little fruits on my trees this year. I’m very excited about them. Just need to get some more cages around the shorter trees. The bt* deer can’t seem to resist them! :rage:

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