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

figured i post @BobVance and @castanea 's juju scion progress here, plus a boat load of gratitude :slight_smile:. The Orange Beauty seems more precocious but not as vigorous as Bok Jo when grafted on sugar cane. Bok Jo produced plenty flowers but no fruit set.

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Iā€™ve got about 40-50 Chico fruit that are growing well. Iā€™ve got about 30 small Honey Jars that are looking good. What few fruit set on my So and Lang have all aborted and I have 1 deformed fruitlet on my Li. I am hoping for a second bloom and a few fruit on each. They have been growing well in lieu of fruit I guess.

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What is Bok Jo?

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Iā€™m glad itā€™s growing well for you- I bet youā€™ll get fruit from it before I do. I made 5 successful Bok Jo grafts, but a couple were on newly transplanted rootstocks, so they havenā€™t grown that much yet.

Here is a pic of 2 on top of a Shanxi Li which I planted a year ago. It looks like there was plenty of tip dieback, though Iā€™m not sure what caused it. I think it will continue growing, but it was probably set back a bit.

Most of the other grafts have the same issue, though many are to a lesser degree. Even the host tree has some dead (or partially dead) leaves at the tips.

I did get vigorous growth out of a rootstock growth from an old Sugar Cane. A year or two ago, it had some growth issues, probably from me growing it in a pot. Once I planted it, the rootstock sent up some growth, which I made a 5 backup grafts to. Itā€™s surprising to get the strongest growth from a graft which is less than a foot from the ground and shaded by a fence.

Itā€™s a Korean variety from Cliff England. I have no idea what it is like. Same for two other varieties, KukJae 1 Ho and Tae Sang Wang.

I also grafted TVA R4T3, TVA R1T4, and September Late.

Notes from Cliff (2nd hand):
R1T4 - Huge fruit producing spurs straight wood insignificant thorns.
41mm long x 30mm wide. Long barrel shaped sweet crunchy fruit of the best flavor. Early to ripening

R4T3 ā€“ Good tree form large amounts of fruiting spurs, Attractive tree.
66mm x 22mm. Very large pepper shaped hooked fruit. Very sweet fruit with long thin seed. Medium season. The best of all great flavors.

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I was out looking at my jujubes today and they are doing their usual early July thing ā€¦ dropping the flowers. :frowning2: I do have a few fruits forming but its more or less the usual super-spotty set at this point. This is still on my backyard planting, the more sunny front yard trees are taking a long time to get going as they were pretty wimpy to start with, and the deer did some big chomps on them last year. This year I have a dedicated sprayer of deer repellent sitting in the garage which I am regularly hitting any of the vulnerable stuff with.

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that happens to some of our recent grafts too, during windy and a significant net increase in temps. The stems typically bounce back next spring.[quote=ā€œBobVance, post:506, topic:515ā€]
KukJae 1 Ho and Tae Sang Wang.
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here is our webog on the korean cultivars we recently acquired.

kuk jae and tae seoul jo are already fruiting, hopefully to maturity.[quote=ā€œcastanea, post:505, topic:515, full:trueā€]
What is Bok Jo?
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still not sure what it will be like, but something youā€™d get budwood of if we find fruits ok :wink:

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That would make sense, as the effect was worst in the sunny area next to the driveway. And our weather moved from too cold to hot pretty quickly.

I canā€™t tell which from the pic, but it looks like the Kuk Jae 1 Ho is either damaged or starting to ripen. If it is ripening, it is a very early season variety, especially since grafting would tend to move it later.

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I hand pollinated all my Jujube trees this year with a wild jujube rootstock flowers plus the winds, hot sunny weather, and insects. So far I saw some baby fruitlets of GA-866, Winter Delight, Dong, Lang, Tigertooth, Zhou, Tae Soul, Li, lots of Honey Jar and Sugarcane.

Tony

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that was damaged by windy weather, unfortunatey, but it does seem early due to the graft-lag

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Juju, how large does contorted (so) get? You once said you though there might be multiple versions of contorted being sold. Is there one that is more dwarfing than the others? Thanks.

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i honestly donā€™t know. I am actually observing @BobVance 's budwood, which hoping to exhibit differences in fruit and flowers. The blooms were similar, so still waiting if the fruits would be different.
from what have observed a 15 yr old contorted in this dry desert tops off at ~15 feet and forms wider canopies at that height. We have 6 contorted trees(started as grafts close to the ground) and all of them slowed down in vertical growth at about 12-14 feet. We also have several grafts on other trees(grafted high), mostly on liā€™s, and have seen rapid growth, but li wood tends to sag at ~10 feet, so not really sure.

and yes, contorted seeds will sprout, so not impossible to have variants.
in our conditions, hj seems to be the most dwarfing. Chico can grow 10 feet tall in two years(grafted on SC), but also has a tendency to sprawl, so notching apical buds of upright growth will encourage a bushy habit, bearing fruits just inches from the ground.

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Could you please explain the notching of apical buds? Thanks

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meant to say removal, and not notching, of apical buds of upright stems(central leaders). Trees wonā€™t get any taller, and will re-assign apical dominance to the laterals.
the technique involves grafting low, and perhaps amending with high nitrogen fertilizers on first one or two years, which will encourage growth of long laterals, then literally beheading the upright stems, and continue doing so whenever they show up for several years.
the laterals tend to thicken with this technique, and since fruits are primarily borne on laterals, where fruiting spurs are formed with age, the conferred apical dominance on the laterals prolongs the laterals lifespans and productivity. Juju laterals are primarily semi-deciduous, and those borne low typically regress and get shed as upright stems grow more laterals higher up. This is only if apical buds of such upright stems continue growing/ not removed.

couldnā€™t find my other post about this, but this link is a replay of how jujus can be grown like bell peppers. The pic is at the bottom of that link, so need to scroll down. This technique applies to any juju, not just contorted or chico. Chico happens to be the best candidate for this practice, because its upright stems tend to arch down and sprawl.

Important to add that this practice will only work if you are growing your ā€˜dwarfsā€™ out in open fields, with no nearby trees or structures to cast shade.

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Thanks. Thatā€™s what I intend to do and have done with almost all my fruit trees. I want to be able to get to the fruit!!!

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WOW! That is mind boggling!

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the possible glitch is that juju branching is a bit trickier to identify compared to other fruit trees, so just need to differentiate laterals from upright, as some horizontally-oriented branches are actually upright stems and some vertical or diagonal stems are actually laterals.[quote=ā€œmamuang, post:516, topic:515ā€]
I want to be able to get to the fruit
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you donā€™t have to grow your jujus ridiculously low as shown in the picture(bad for your lumbar spine!). We prefer to nip apical buds at about 7-8 feet high, as long as we ascertain all the laterals are getting plenty sunshine. If remember it right, there are some tall trees near your jujus, so best to let your jujus max out the height that is still within your reach. As shown in the pic, the jujus are very productive at such small sizes because there arenā€™t any tall structures or trees around.

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Thanks for the tips. No tall trees near those 3 jujus. Definitely will keep them no more than 7-8 ft tall. I have kept my cherry tree at 6 ft tall using this method.

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you can ply that route and observe. If production wanes(say, due to trees along the sunā€™s horizon getting bigger), you wont have much choice but allow your jujus get taller so they could regain the amount of sunlight they were getting prior to the decreased productivity.
the trouble with jujus is that they leaf out very late, so always the risk of not getting enough sun. It is an advantage against late frosts, but a disadvantage due to decreased period of photosynthesis, especially in northerly latitudes where summers are short

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Thereā€™s a really cool video on youtube ā€“ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_oX4Pqgut8 . Shows the guys using long wooden poles to smack the branches - climbing around in the trees too. Personally I want my trees to get as big as possible.

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Can anyone explain to me why grafts sometimes only put out the deciduous branchlets instead of a real shoot? Is it just because the scion came from a side branch or is there some other reason? Do they put out an actual shoot the next year? Thanks very much.

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