Jujubes- Our New Adventure

Here’s what someone posted about Indian jujubes (Ziziphus mauritiana) on Facebook - “I went to India and found this fruit sold in Mumbai. I could finish 2 kg in half an hour. Divine! Apple is nothing compared to this. It is crispy, juicy sweet but not too sweet without any sour taste. Next thing I wast boarding a plane to Hyderabad and from there to Rajahmundry. Bought several trees and brought them to Africa. They had fruit in no time though they were only 50 cm high. It is some kind of ziziphus. We have it here in the bush but they are tiny and sour but still people like to eat them here. This ones are the size of apples and were called appleber in India.”

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I can eat a kilo of them, too. I can eat more of those jujubes than I can eat apples but woud not say to forget apples.

The popular kinds are about the size of a Shanxi Li or bigger and picked when skin turn light green.

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mauritiana seems to be as underutilized as chinese jujus. Perhaps due to it being similar with chinese jujus-- there are so many varieties but only a handful are worth growing.

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Finally my Honey Jar set fruit. The tree was planted in April this year.

Meanwhile, Sugar Cane flowers like crazy, not a single fruit set. Shanxi Li has not flowered much. No fruit set, either. Both were planted last year.

This is with help from me using a brush to help cross pollinate so often,

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HJ sets several fruit.

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You will love them!

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Congrats! My Li from last year has not brought but one fruit to near maturity this year and it bore several last year as a newbie. It is blooming again now so maybe. My Lang has NO fruit and my So (Contorted) has NO fruit. So (Contorted) does have a few blooms now but Lang does not seem interested. I’m glad to see you have fruit!

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Glad you have fruit too! One is better than none!

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Fortunately, this new HJ has at least 10 fruit. I just hope that Sugar Cane and Shanxi Li set fruit, too. So far, flowers on them turned brown.

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Yes, same here. :confounded:

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we’ve had grown/purchased >100 trees over several years, and despite our sunny desert conditions here, there were some which were productive on first year when planted bare root(or grafted on same year) but did not fruit on second year. Some were potted and some were not. Not sure if we overwatered(or underwatered), or put too much nitrogen-rich compost or too little, but all jujus will ultimately be consistently fruitful in our growing conditions. Some are just stubbornly poor producers-- but for the long haul, will bear almost on a yearly basis, even if just sparse. I expect for your trees to follow that trend. You are in a much better zone than @BobVance , @Chills, and of course @mamuang and @tonyOmahaz5 . Am sure they have had their share of on and off zero-production(like myself) in their respective areas, but the trends in their trees’ productivity averaged out to positive.

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Not sure what Lang is going to do. It’s not blooming or actively growing at present but the growth on that tree has been awesome. It’s pushing six feet and well filled out. So I’m not too concerned. The Li is got more upright growth going on and is blooming again…last year at this time is when it set fruit. So is blooming and setting some fruit now… it is just coming out of a growth spurt. Honey Jar growing and blooming at same time and setting more fruit for a later harvest. Chico growing and blooming. It’s fruit should ripen soon I would think so maybe a second crop from that one. So actually I’m well pleased. Li is my only second year bareroot and it has made up for its lack of progeny with lots of growth. :grin:

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I would not be so baffled had Sugar Cane not bloom so profusely but set not a single fruit, so far. I’d rather see growth and no flowers.

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Must have made the difference. Lots of new growth for my 1st year HJ and a nice recovery from a deer strike but not even close to any “fruit set”. Lots of little flowers. Maybe brush pollinating and more jujube trees is needed. However, I think @thecityman has multiple first year Jujubes and don’t believe he has any fruit set either. Most likely it just needs more time. Subsequent years it should develop into setting fruit… Hopefully. I need to get another Jujube tree or two to accompany it anyways…

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matured/seasoned juju wood grafts will generally bear flowers even in the most hostile conditions(drought and other stressors as recent bare-root conditions or recent grafting, etc), and will just drop them if the plant is not ready. It is almost a given that leaf production equates to flower production. So really intriguing to hear that @k8tpayaso 's lang did not bear flowers, since i found it to be the case with some of our lang’s as well. Seems to be the only cultivar we’ve grown that is ‘capable’ of bearing leaves with no flowers at their axils.

Even seedlings as young as 2 years of age will already be bearing flowers, and from @k8tpayaso 's first hand accounts, some seedlings will bear flowers on the first year of the seeds being sown. Incidentally find it amazing that a fruit tree with a productive life of several hundred years actually starts blooming at 1 or 2 yrs of age-- from seed. One of the few fruiting plants i know capable of doing that

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If you visit our weblog, you’d be pleased with the old juju tree we’ve been watching for more than a decade. I estimate it to be 20 yrs of age, and almost certain it is a li. Seems like it was not too fruitful on just one year, but was pretty much productive at every annual photoshoot. We plan to take a pic of that tree on a yearly basis during summer when it is fruiting. For as long as we can, for as long as we live here, and for as long we’re living, lol
sorry to post the for-profit(admittedly) weblog-- too cumbersome to search and repost the jpegs here.

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Actually my Lang did flower early and even set a fruit here and there that dropped off but no flowers this round when every other juju here is at it…

May 26

(Would anyone doubt that I would have photographic evidence?? :flushed::flushed::flushed::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Katy

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Lang has been a slow grower at both sites for me, though the deer helped with that for at least one of them.

Deer pruned Lang:

Edit- I had the wrong pic for the deer pruned Lang and have updated it.

Blurry lang from the other location- isn’t doing much better (and was very slow to leaf out in the spring):

A Li from the same site which is growing much faster:

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fwiw here in Dallas, on my second year trees: Sugar Cane, HoneyJar, Contorted So are loaded with fruit. Li has a medium set. Surprise was Autumn Beauty with a dozen fruit, my first AB took 6-7 years to start to bear. Shanxi Li & Chico have a few fruit.

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So what is the Autumn Beauty fruit like. I’m trying to decide what I want to expand with next year… :blush:

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