Jujube research station and repository in Taian, China

I was sure I posted something about this visit previously, but if so I can’t find it, so here are a few photos. China has multiple repositories/research stations focused on jujubes and this is just one of them. I don’t know how many they have in total.








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Awesome sight!

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Do you need to ask for permission ahead of time to visit a research station? Which one you visited?

Nice pics. Love to try those.

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I wish my jujube’s set fruit like those…

Scott

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Yes, you need to have permission to visit.

It is - 山东省果树研究所

In English it might be called the Shandong Fruit Tree Research Station.

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love it!

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Wow!

They use landscape fabric almost as aggressively as you do.

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I think they are putting it to better use than I am!!! :joy::joy::joy:

I think professor Yao is from Shandong. Did she used to work there? Is that what gave you the idea to visit?

She did work there at one point, and our host asked me to say hi to her when I got back to the US.

But she was not the reason I went there. I went to see the chestnut repository, which is next door. There are at least 4 or 5 jujube repositories or research stations in China, but there is only one chestnut repository and it is a phenomenal place. It was just lucky for me that it was next door to the jujube station so I got to see both.

In the photo below you can see jujube trees on the left and chestnut trees on the right. I am not in this photo, but my travel buddy from Oklahoma is. Our host, the professor who runs much of this research station, if not all, is the tall gentleman who is 3rd from left. His daughter attends college in the US. The most important guy may have been the guy second from the end on the right, because he was the only one who had a map of the chestnuts, and they have more than 400 different cultivars. In the background you can see condo complexes which will eventually be extended through this area which will force them to relocate the chestnuts and the jujubes to a location further outside the city. The land is becoming too expensive.

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Wow!! I wish Oklahoma would do a research station I think it is the perfect Jujube climate!! Maybe we need to contact the governor! :slight_smile:

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That’s a great idea. Even better if it helps folks in Kansas and Missouri. The Oklahoma chestnut grower in the photo also grows jujubes.

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That is nice! Yeah we need to get some friends in high places to copy what NMSU is doing over here in the KS MO OK AR TX area this area sure could use more jujube with our frost prone springs! :slight_smile:

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