You can PM me in early October.
I was planning to leave my small jujube alone to sink or swim, but gave in and covered them in snow before the deep freeze to see if they would make it. First night was -16F by 10pm, -26F 4:30am, -29F sunrise (propane tank froze up), high of -10F (ish), -21F by 9pm, and then -18F the rest of the night.
This honey jar got hammered. HJ + (-29F) = banana splits.
Oh no! I would think covering it in snow is the best thing you could do against our dry cold spells its hard since it had sun right before the cold storms im sure. How far up was the damage?
The splits are from about 3" up to 7" from the ground. Very far below the snow cover, so Iām surprised unless the damage occurred prior to thatā¦or I didnāt get the snow up against the trunk very well.
Wow that is horrible
Once the jujube bark splitted from the cold then that part of the trunk wonāt make it. This will happen to a young tree because the bark is not thick yet by age. I had this happen to me in the past.
Sorry to see the poor Hony jar with splitting trunk skin. Could it be helpful if you cover it with a grafting tap or any kind of tree wound bund cloth to tie it around , let it recover from the splitting? I have seen a tunk at the low part of a young tree had covered around with dry grass ropes in a very cold climate( Northeast of China or Canada, just not very sure where I had seen). Hopefully, It could survival!
Iām not sure? I could try it. It was just the first year of grafting last spring. I have two other honey jars about 30 feet west of that tree that appear to be fine. I think this one that split was maybe slightly less protected than the others. If this split jujube would regrow from below the splitsā¦and above the graft, then I would be ok with that.
A little update on my jujube. The -29F that hit me this winter was tough on 3 honey har jujube despite covering them with snow. One is regrowing from close to the ground. Another one split open close to the ground. The third appeared to be dead and the bark looked discolored so I pruned it back. I was maybe a bit quick to prune back the third as it was green insideā¦so Iāll see if it tries to wake up.
A vigorous rootstock that I had not grafted yet, partly because it was a nice looking thorny tree from hell, survived. I might graft something to the top of that and hope for warmer winters ahead.
That was a crazy cold night of -29F in Omaha also around February 13 or so. Most of my Honey Jar jujubes are 10 plus years old and at -29F will be a major cold hardiness test for them all. So far none of them are waking up yet and only a few seedlings leafed out. Hopefully in about 2 to 3 weeks then I will know how much cold damage with that -29F low. I will update the result then.
That sounds more like a zone 4ā¦ ā¦do you keep spare scionwood in a fridge?
I can definitely report that just like snowflake I had a honey jar that split horribly and I doubt that itās going to push any budsā¦
I had debated wrapping the bottom 18 inches or so in parafilm, maybe I should have tried that
I forgot to collect some for insurance. Ugh. I hate too loose your Halina variety.
After the honey jar split, I wrapped it tight with grafting tape but it didnāt save it. I might have waited too long (a couple of days) or it wasnāt going to workā¦not sure.
Donāt worry, Iāll send it again if you like.
I think my three honey jar might be coming back from the base after the brutal cold snap this winter. I think these are curled honey jar leaves? IIRC, the rootstock leaves were much smaller. I had grafted close to the ground last year, and late fall I piled some dirt up around the base of the trees. Maybe that was enough to save just enough HJ wood above the graft.
I am cheering for HJ for you fellow Nebraskan!
Thanks Tony! I hope so. They sure seem like HJ leaves. The one that split was coming back up from well under the soil level and I didnāt think I covered it that well. I will be very happy if it worked.
Iām in zone 6, but we had zone 5 lows this last winter. Our lowest was -14.
I had 3 potted jujubes killed by winter cold (-14) and 2 severely damaged. The pots were heeled in but there was no protection above the soil line in the pots. On all 5 the rootstock appears to be OK and is sending up sprouts.
I have dozens of potted jujubes and most were not damaged at all. The two cultivars that sustained the most damage were Autumn Beauty and Dae sol jo. I had one DSJ die completely above the graft and one AB die completely above the graft. I also had one DSJ sustain serious damage and one AB sustain serious damage. Both have put out tiny leaves and sprouts that will probably die soon.
So, 4 out of 5 damaged trees were DSJ and AB. Iām guessing they may be less winter hardy than many other jujube cultivars. I was surprised to see AB get damaged because it hardens off very early, probably the earliest of all my jujubes, and it is listed as being cold hardy to zone 5 in China.