Thanks to the forum members including but are not limited to Scott Smith, Tony, Jujubemulberry, Bob Vance, etc., I am now a proud owner of Shanxi li, honey jar and Sugar Cane.
I chose the sunniest area which is next to the road and in the front of the house I made mounds and raised beds with a couple cubic yards of soil and ruined manicured lawn of hubby in the process.
I still could not answer his question, " what if you donât like the fruit?" Pointing out that I planted three, not just one of the fruit I have not tasted.
Just came in from my garden. My jujube are in full bloom now and the smell is great so there is always that.
Mine grow crazy fast in my poor sandy soil, can only imagine how fast they will grow in your setup. Mine have already put close to 3â of growth this year.
hj and sc have some of the most fragrant flowers among jujus.
and of all fruit trees growing in continental usa, i think only citrus are sweeter smelling.
like citrus, the perfume is amplified when humid, so thatâs another incentive for watering them by hand instead of irrigating.
and even more amplified when grown in an enclosed courtyard setting, adding a most pleasant dimension to the ambience.
as for the taste, i think you will like hj the most, then shanxi, then sc. And you could always topwork them with other varieties if not satisfied
Wow- you really went all out on these trees. There is no way I could do things that nicely and still plant as many as I do. My lucky ones get a couple logs or landscape laid down for a slightly raised bed, but now I basically take a few shovel-fulls of dirt out, plop the tree in, and spread woodchips around it. .
What spacing did you use? It looks like a decent amount- maybe 12â? You probably wonât have to as harshly prune them as I will likely need to. I used 5â spacing for my new planting this year. I added quite a few this year:
Ant Admire
Black Sea
Chico
Coco
GA 866
Honey Jar
Li
Massandra
Norris #1
Shanxi Li- 2
Sherwood
So- 3
Tigertooth
Some of these are dupes of what Iâve grafted. You can see that I like So a lot, since I got 3 more of them, even though it is already my most mature jujube. It combines good fruit with compact growth.
I think youâll like them. When I brought some into work last fall, I donât think there was anyone who didnât like the ones I grew. Crisp, super-sweet fruit- what is not to like? The ones grown by Roger Meyers in a hotter dryer climate didnât have the same snappy crispness to them, but I was a bit surprised to see that several people really liked them as well. And you can always tell your husband that you need a couple extra for pollination
Iâve noticed that the smell is like grape soda. Iâm not sure Iâd say it is the best, (I like the Satsuma plum), but it is nice.
Juju,
Wish I could have fenced in area but wonât happen. No one on the street has any real fence except for a new neighbor. It looks out of place with fence.
I definitely will graft more varieties on as these spots are the only full sun I have.
Bob, can you guess whom I would politely ask for jujubesâs scionwood
Those trees are only 7"ft apart. Also they look more impressive in the pic than in reality (best camera angle is in play here)
We have jujubes in Thailand. Some are tastier and juicer than others. If these jujubes taste similar to the better ones in Thailand, I will be very pleased.
Those look great Maumung! Very neat and tidy. Iâve tossed around the idea of a ting a jujube but always talk myself out of it. Iâd love to taste one prior to buying since they are expensive trees. They donât look particularly appetizing but Iâm willing to try anything. No one around here grows them that Iâm aware of.
Thank you everyone. There is always a great anticipation when one plants something new.
Speed, Jujubemulberry said some jujubes taste like apples. The Asian jujubes I had were mildy sweet, crunchy and juicy. As Tony said, these Chinese ones are sweeter. I think you probably will like them.
You can plant one and graft named varieties to it later (if it turn out good). Or plant one, and if you donât like it, treat it as an ornamental tree with fragrant flowers
incredibly better and way sweeter than the best apples(of course taste is subjective) weâve had.
and if a sense of permanence is important, an extraordinary apple could live and be fruitful for up to 200 years, but all those years you or your kids will be paranoid about blight, borers, etc. And other sudden- death or sudden-decline âsyndromesâ.
in china, where jujubes are always at risk for witchâs broom disease, there are many trees there still living today that are >1000 years old and still fruitful.
having removed disease-free jujus from china and transported to a sterile environment as usa virtually assures you of a tree which will approach eternity!
now, if anybody here would like to try but is held back by the price of grafted specimens, simply just buy a few juju seeds from ebay, plant them, and will send you choice budwood(seedlings grow fast) Will be volunteering that service for free for as much as my logistics could handle.
Juju,
That is very nice of you to offer bud wood. I definitely would take up your offer next winter. Thank you very much.
Does jujube needs any more or less watering than other fruit trees? We usualky have rain about once a week. There are time in the sumner early fall that it can go 3-4 weeks without rain.
it rains every week, and âat worstâ every 3 to 4 weeks ??
well then, iâd suggest you only water your specimens this year(just because they were planted bare-root), and never again for a thousand years, lol.
considering our growing conditions in bone-dry vegas, i strongly feel many jujus donât fruit well(they will live and be vigorous, but wonât bear much nor bear quality fruits) with too much ground moisture and humidity. One cannot control ambient humidity, but one could at least simulate the arid conditions in the desert by letting the soil dry out in-between waterings, especially those growing them in regions with cool summers.
i presume you were having the tropical mauritiana jujube, and not the chinese variety. If you actually like the tropical variety(and even if you donât, as with myself), the temperate juju is much better. Thereâs no contest.
Congrats! You jumped in with both feet and the head! I âthinkâ youâre going to get tons of jujube in a few years and donât know what to do with them after your annual fill of it.
One question though, whatâs the reason for the boxesâ diagonal set up? Visual esthetic or harvest accessibility? Or both?
Aesthetic or that what Iâve tried to do as itâs in the front yard. I lined them up several different ways and asked every neighbors who happened to walk by for comments. Most looked at me amused as they realized the level of my nuttiness. I even asked the neighbor kids who gave more honest responses
That area was low. When it rained,a small puddle formed. I had to mound the area and raised beds help make it even higher mounds. I considered painting the beds but quickly abandoned the idea. My neighbor could have me committed. Cedar is expensive around here so I went with white pine.
I made mounds and raised beds with a couple cubic yards of soil and ruined manicured lawn of hubby in the process.
