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

I am very new to growing jujubes here in the Baltimore region. I have a Sunflower2 beaming photons through a skilight into my north facing living room. Software is very advanced. But now Wikoda has put out Sunflower 3. Maybe you could train one to deliver extra hours of sun to your jujubes :blush:

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I witnessed some great black wasps (thatā€™s what I believe theyā€™re called) pollinating my jujube flowers today. I saw on last yearā€™s flowers much smaller parasitic wasps on my jujubes as well. Same with ants and flies.

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Hey there! I hope you guys and gals are all safe on this crazy times. Just joined this nice community and looking for some answers and help from experience jujube growers if possible. Bought 3 jujube trees from tytyga nursery and they came very healthy (sugar cane, Sherwood, Georgia) planted them 3 years ago and they havenā€™t grown much. Took them out last year and replanted them with more soil and this year theyā€™re growing good! Also installed a watering system attached to my sprinkle system that goes off 3 days a week for 30 min. I have new and strong branches coming on all three trees and flowers also. The sugar cane has like 30 fruits on them but just last week theyā€™re turning yellow and wrinkly on me :(. I was so excited to finally try a fruit after 3 years. I did spray them with sevin (liquid) two weeks ago but also installed the water system same time. Not sure what caused the tree to drop or kill the fruit. Maybe itā€™s a fertilizer efficiency too. I live in SWFL and I think I am zone 9 or 10. Back home, Europe, jujubes would grow like crazy and with no care at all. Not sure what I am doing wrong. Also Sri Lanka weevils are eating my leaves like crazy so i go out and kill them by hand daily. A tytyga rep was very helpful and suggested I fertilize the trees with 10-10-10 and spray them with water and a little fish soap. Please any help is very appreciated as these are my wifeā€™s favorite fruit and reminds us of back home.

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More pics

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This is the sugar cane one. Only got 1 fruit from this tree in 3 years and 0 from the other 2.

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I donā€™t know if this is your whole issue, but Sevin is used to thin fruit, such as apples. That is, it makes some of them fall off.

I donā€™t think I would want to spray it on jujubes for several reasons:
1.) Potential impact on fruit-set (I donā€™t know if it has this impact on jujubes, but if it does it with other fruits, it is worth being cautious over)
2.) It is a insecticide, so it is always good to limit their use when possible
3.) At least where I am, jujubes havenā€™t had any insects to worry about. From what I understand, it is different in China and it sounds like you may have something eating a few leaves, but I think starting with an insecticidal soap would be better.

Itā€™s hard to know for sure, but Iā€™ve been fertilizing a lot more in the last year or two and my jujubes seem happier for it. Much more fruitset this year. From the pic, it looks like you have very sandy soil, so it may need fairly constant fertilization.

Also, if you just replanted them this year, then it could take some time before they are established enough for a crop.

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Thank you Bob! Iā€™ll try fertilizer tomorrow and stop spraying sevin or anything like that. Will continue to kill those white weevils by hand i guess.

@RoniSWFL,
Check out this article esp.!the suggestion about using an inverted umbrella to catch these weevils.

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/sri_lankan_weevil.htm

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One thing I would like to mention it the nursery you bought your tree from. Ty Ty may be one of nurseries that has very bad reputation over the years. Long story short, you are unable to read their bad reviews anymore due to a lawsuit.

I would say, you will be very fortunate if all your jujubes from Ty Ty is true to its label.

Buy from reputable nurseries so you donā€™t have to wait 3-5 years to find out you get the wrong varieties.
Nurseries list - #110 by Poncho65.

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Hey Floyd, thanks for the info!! Sounds very promising, as my Sherwood has been a total disappointment for my area. Any idea where can I get some scions? And whatā€™s the best time to graft? Thanks again, Roni.

I have had the same experience with Bok Jo. I grafted it in 2017 and it has been productive in 2018, 2019, and so far this year. Hereā€™s a current pic. It was by far the most productive last year, which was a very light year for everything else (other than one rootstock sucker, which produces so-so fruit).

Here it is today:

I grafted it to a few places this year and was hoping to spread it everywhere next year. I had one roostock that really grew well. Until a few days ago when a deer strolled through. The ONLY thing it ate was the new Bok Jo (and maybe the tops of a few tomato plants). Hopefully it can recover to supply me with some wood for next spring (Iā€™ll keep one of the 3 leaders and use the others for scions).

Note the deer repellent Iā€™ve since placed just to the right of the treeā€¦

I didnā€™t know anyone else from the board was growing Bok Jo. Did they say anything about how it has performed for them?

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@BobVance I am starting to grow jujubes in CT too. Sounds like Bok Jo is the winner for CT grower which I need to buy tree next year. Do you have to spray GA3 for the tree in your pic?


These two trees are Li (on the left) and Lang (on the right). They are located in Middle Tennessee (z7a) and are the reason that I became interested in Jujubes. Iā€™ve watched them for the past 14 years and they set a good crop every year. Iā€™ve never seen any pest issues with them, and they donā€™t get any sort of irrigation, fertilization, or pruning (other than mowing which knocks down the suckers).

Iā€™ve rooted a bunch of cuttings off of these and notice that the type of branch that I root plays a big role in how soon they fruit. For exampleā€¦ the easiest stems to root are the ā€˜primary shootsā€™. But, they donā€™t ever set fruit the following year, and most of the time donā€™t even produce flowers. But when I root a ā€˜mother bearing shootā€™, they often produce fruit the following year, even when they are still very small.

I have a Li at home thatā€™s been in the ground 3 years. Itā€™s 7 or 8 foot tall, and nicely branched. But, this year is the first time itā€™s flowered. No fruit though! Iā€™ve not yet had any of my 6 trees at home fruit (Li, Lang, Honeyjar, Shanx Li, Sugar Cane, and GA866).

So, Iā€™m curious about the difference. One thought is light. My non-fruiting (but flowering) trees at home all get good light throughout the day. The two older trees in the photo are on the north side of the building, and get some shade during the hot afternoon. Alsoā€¦ the potted rooted cuttings that Iā€™m growing are on the east side of a building and are shaded all afternoon and evening. But, those that were taken from ā€˜mother bearing shootsā€™ fruit anyway. Maybe there are multiple factors such as light, shoot type, and who knows what else!

Most of you are probably aware of thisā€¦ But if youā€™re wondering about the stem type terminology Iā€™m using Dr. Yaoā€™s descriptions found here: NMSU: Jujube: Chinese Date in New Mexico

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It is still a small sample size. All of my production has been coming from a single branch. Iā€™ve been trying to figure out is it is the cultivar, rootstock, situation of the specific tree, etc. Thatā€™s why Iā€™m pretty excited to hear that someone else is seeing such production out of Bok Jo.

I just went back and looked for older pics and found one from 2018.

10/11/2018:

I also found this from 2019. Itā€™s hard to tell from the pic, but it seems like the fruit is much smaller at almost this time of year. Iā€™m interested to see if that means it ripens earlier this year.
Last year, it was ripe around the 1st of October.
July 30, 2019:
Bok_Jo_07-30-2019

September 7, 2019 (you can see it wasnā€™t as heavy a crop as this year- just more than any of my other jujus):

Oct 2, 2019 (I had already started picking by this point. You can see a few more ripe ones waiting):

If it ripens earlier this year (as it seems on pace to do), that will make 3 years in a row that it has gotten earlier. Maybe the better established/healthier (Iā€™ve been fertilizing more), the earlier it can set fruit, which I assume can lead to an earlier harvest (maybe).

Let me know if you see them for sale and Iā€™ll buy one too! :slight_smile:

I think youā€™ll need to graft to get one of these, at least for the near future. Assuming that deer-damaged tree pulls through, I may have a bit I can share, if you have an established tree/rootstock to graft to.

This is the first year that Iā€™ve sprayed GA3 and I skipped the above tree (and a few others), as I felt it was already doing well, so why mess with it. Others that have decent fruit-set without GA3: Contorted/So, Honey Jar, and Xu Zhou. You should be able to find So and HJ commercially, so that would be a good place to start. Sugar Cane isnā€™t a bad 3rd one to add, as it makes good fruit and is reasonably productive (just under the above list).

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we have the same hobby :wink:

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I did a quick search and not many nurseries carry Bok Jo.

Thanks for the offer. But I am very new to fruit tree growing. In fact this is my first year growing fruit tree :smiley:. I have Lang and sugar cane right now. But want to grow more types. Grafting is in my ā€œto-tryā€ list but donā€™t want to waste your scions.

Well, I see from your profile that you are in 6b/7a. That probably puts the chances of you being within 10 miles of me over 50% (for those from other states, the 7A part of CT is along the coast, mostly on the SW part of the state). Which means you could be within range of my travelling grafting service :slight_smile:

Actually, I did that for a co-worker a few years ago. Stopped by with a bunch of scions, parafilm, rubber tape, and a blade. I grafted the first 5-10, while he watched and then had him do a few. At the end, I left the rest for him to practice with.

Who knows what next spring will be like (I couldnā€™t have predicted this springā€¦), but Iā€™d be willing to do something similar for you or any others in the area. Even if I end up without Bok Jo, Iā€™m confident Iā€™ll have So and Honey Jar, as So is my oldest tree and Iā€™ve probably planted 10 Honey Jars, between home and the rentals (every property needs at least one HJ!).

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Thanks for the tip on Bok Jo. I have it (in 4th leaf this year) but it is in a bad spot so I canā€™t blame it for not fruiting yet. Iā€™ll put it on the list for a sunny spot.

This year as usual almost nothing on the jujube fruit set for me. It looked like I would have a bit more than usual but fruitlets dropped.

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And we know yours is the real Bok Jo, as you sent me your leftover wood to graft 4 years ago! Just like I sent Raf a bit that I had left over. I think he immediately got fruit, while I had to wait for the next year.

Raf, has Bok Jo stood out in terms of productivity, or are most cultivars just loaded where you are?

There is still time for everything to drop, but Iā€™ve been pretty excited about mine so far. I think Iā€™m up to 40 varieties with fruit now, though Iā€™ll be thrilled if I actually get to sample 25. Itā€™s probably a bit late in the season to expect fruit which is forming now to ripen.

Maybe GA3 will help you next year. The other thing Iā€™ve been doing (aside from planting in near full sun when I can) is either thinning out the ones with too many branches, or pulling some of the branches down to horizontal. Either option opens up the canopy. And at the rentals, Iā€™ve been spacing them 10ā€™, compared to the 5ā€™ I used in my yard.

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