Jujubes- Our New Adventure

No more potted jujubes. I planted them all in the ground. I got a total of 12 brand names jujubes inground with some are multi grafted varieties. I also planted 15 Honey Jar seedlings for trial last year. I will keep the best tasting fruits ones and top work the rest in the future. I wife wanted me to start drying them for cooking, making tea, and sweet desert during winter months. I will also freezed some fresh in a gallon ziplock.

Tony

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My Chico this year

Should be turning soon. One dropped off and I tasted it and it was horrible. I just the others have some taste and sweetness! :face_with_raised_eyebrow::face_with_raised_eyebrow::face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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@tonyOmahaz5 do you have Xu Thou? How do you like it? I had a green one drop off and tasted it and surprisingly it already had some sweet. It’s very prolific as a brand new tree. I hope it’s good!

Katy

Castanea said they taste very good with a sweet tart flavor which I liked. My Chico bark grafted to the large Sugarcane understock grew 2 1/2 feet in a month. Hopefully, it will set some fruit next year.

Tony

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That Chico is no “boy”…but BOY is it one impressive young jujube!!!

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Katie,
Those Chico look just like small green apples :grin:

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It’s doing well this year. I’m not sure how old it really is. I bought it from a nursery that has a jungle of jujus and a lot of them are in 15-20 gallon pots, some of them 6-7 foot tall. A lot are not labeled. It makes me want to take a bunch of them home and take care of them. So that’s this “boy’s” history. I also got a smal sugarcane from there last fall and was sure I had made a mistake getting it but it has just exploded with growth.

Yes, they do don’t they? They were soooo good last year. I’m hoping they are this year but our weather has been so different. Cool and wet last year—hot and dry this year.

Katy

Katy,

My Xu Zhou is fruiting for the first time this year. Hopefully, I will have the chance to taste them later on this Fall and will update the taste. Here is the photos from Cliff England website. "Xu zhou Jujube is from Shandong Province of China. He told me that it was a excellent tasting jujube.

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@k8tpayaso

Tony

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I got mine from Cliff this spring. It’s growing well and full of fruit for its size.

Katy

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Very nice looking and productive jujube tree.

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Wait to hear your and Tony’s comments on this varieties eesp. If it ripens in time for zone 5.

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I’m also way behind in terms of fruit-set. Maybe we in the Northeast need a reflective ground-cover to maximize the sun. Or big computer controlled mirrors :slight_smile:

Even getting the trees to grow seems hit or miss. Here are two trees which are next to each other (about 10’ apart) at a rental property. Both were planted in March 2017 from Trees of Antiquity.

Sugarcane, originally 9/16" and doing very well:

ShanXi Li, originally 3/4" and not growing much:

Of course, the 3rd tree in the line (a Li) was originally 1" caliper and has also done pretty well (maybe not quite as well as Sugarcane).

In the 2nd pic, you can see a failed bark graft on the ShanXi Li. I put one graft on each tree for pollination and backup purposes. The grafts on both of the more vigorous trees did fine.

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Here are the green jujube cuttings rooting trial. After several weeks they are starting to grow some tips. Not sure if any roots developed yet?

Tony

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That is exciting!!! Fingers crossed!

Katy

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We had quite a bit of rain overnight and there was a stiff breeze today. Evidentially, it was enough to start to push a 3 year old (planted March 2016 from ToA) over.

I quickly put in a stake and tied it back up. This is the first time I’ve had a jujube start leaning. I’d never read that they need staking, so while I’ve preemptively staked dwarf apples, I never bothered with jujube.

Bonus: On the bottom left of the first pic, a tiny black mulberry (Persian, I think) snuck into the pic. I grafted it to a mulberry which the birds planted for me. Maybe from the nearby (20-30’) Geraldi.

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Bob,
My Shanxi Li, planted 2016, is leaning. I assume because I planted on a raised bed and the roots have poor anchoring. Seeing your pic, I wonder if there are more to it.

I should stake mine soon. We had serious rain last night and this morning. Wind was not bad (10-15 mph). Per weather forecast, we will have rain all week this week. There goes my Surround protection :unamused:

mulchy, friable soil, especially on a raised bed is very good for most trees, but the downside is that the rooting of trees tend to get dislodged more easily. Jujus grown on our rock-hard caliche have withstood >80 mph storms common in spring and never needed stakes.
we simply plant them on very narrow but deep holes, often with the graft buried underground. The collar of hard mojave earth minimizes lateral movements.

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Now that you told me how deep I should have planted them, Raf :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Next tree, I will plant it deep.

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Bob,
How deep did you drive that pole down? My rocky soil makes it very difficult to do.

I have actually read this thread… but two quick questions.

I am planning to plant a few jujubes.

  1. Have squirrels been a problem for anyone or do they basically leave jujubes alone?

  2. What do people think of Honey Jar, Shanxi Li, and So as a lineup? Honey Jar because everyone seems to think it wins on taste. Shanxi Li because of its size obviously and generally favorable taste reports, and So because I like the idea of a contorted tree that makes good fruit.

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