Can anyone tell me if you have the same or similar experience?
For the past 3 years that I have grafted jujubes (on existing trees), some grafts would grew well one year and died the next year. This has happened to me 3 years in a row. I can’t tell why they did not wake up on their second year.
For example,
Dong Zao, grafted and leafed out in 2019. Died in 2020
2 grafts of Sihong in 2020 , both took. One comes back this year, the other did not.
I had two small trees that didn’t wake up this year. I really wasn’t surprised at them because their growth last year was marginal. They were both 2019 grafts that grew well in 2019. All my vigorous field grafts woke up growing strong this year.
All mine have been field grafts on existing trees. No grafting on rootstocks.
I have “grafts growing one year and dying the next year” happened to peaches a couple of times, too. But happening to jujube grafts 3 years in a row is frustrating.
I’ve definitely had that happen, especially when I first started grafting jujubes and I was doing a lot on one tree, as I didn’t have a lot of places to graft them. Maybe the tree had too many places it needed to divide its energy. I think I’ve had it happen since then too, but it hasn’t been as frequent.
Grafts which grew poorly are the ones I most commonly lose during the subsequent winter. One other thing I’ve done in recent years is to really focus on getting a lot of sun to grafts. I think that gives them both the best chance at growth, and at survival.
One other consideration (beyond harvest) is shading. The taller a tree gets, the more likely it will shade its neighbors and itself. Though if you only have a single row and they are in North to South orientation, it won’t be as big a deal for the neighboring jujube trees. But, once they get too tall, it will be hard for you to get up there to prune them, in order to keep them open enough that they don’t self-shade, causing lower yields, particularly in the lower parts of the tree. I’ve been pruning any that get over 10-12 feet to a non-vigorous side branch.
I suspect that could be true in an area with more sun like Vegas or CA. But in the NE, I think we need to give jujube a hand in ensuring that each branch gets enough sun to be productive. Keep in mind that for a number of years now the North side of my big So has been quite non-productive, while the South side makes 10X+ as much fruit. That shows that how much sun a particular branch gets impacts how much fruit that branch produces (ie not how much the entire tree gets).
Bob,
You made several good points. I need to check again if those dead grafts are from the trees that have multiple grafts.
I also did not consider shading. It could be because I only have 3 trees planted in a single row. They do shade each other a bit but not that bad as jujubes seem to have “airy” kind of leaves vs “dense” leaves. In my case, these trees have no other tall trees shading them.
Even a lot of small leaves add up. I think it gets worse, the older and larger the tree gets. I’ve already had to do quite a bit of thinning on my oldest trees. I’m not saying you need to keep them short- just that you (or husband…) may eventually need to get on a ladder if you don’t like how things develop.
I’ll be interested to see how taller trees do. For me, jujubes seem to take quite a while to get that tall. Last year, I think there were only 3 or 4 trees which got too tall and needed to be shortened (2 of them were at one rental where things grow fast…).
Sounds like an opportunity to plant another row
I think the rule of thumb with apples is that for NS rows should be spaced about 1.3X as far apart as you are letting the trees grow tall (13’ row spacing for 10’ trees). For EW rows, it required a few more feet (1.5X the height).
I initially typed my vague recollection, which was close but wrong, then decided to look it up:
Row spacing width.
North/south direction; 1.3 times expected or projected tree height. (For East/West row direction, use 1.5.) Tall Spindle limited to 10 ft. height.
I do have a few second year grafts died I the past. But I usually grafted 2 to 3 grafts of the same variety for insurance so if one graft died then I still have a backup.
Has anyone noticed Honey Jar having a tendency to curl its leaves? I noticed it today and when I checked out the other HJ in the yard (2 other trees and 2 additional grafts), all of them were like that. Most other varieties had leaves which were open.
Bob,
Thanks for your suggestion re. Row orientation. I have a small yard and the sunny spots are very limited. I had no choice but lined them up as I had space so their direction is more like southwest.
Unfortunately, I lined up HJ, SC and Shanxi Li in a wrong order of height. After 5 years, HJ is the tallest, followed by SC and Shanxi Li (the shortest). In this order, HS shades SC and SC shades Shanxi Li. If I flipped the order, the shading would be less.
It is what it is, like our football coach likes to say
My Honey Jar trees have always had a tendency to leaf curl. I think it’s much more prevalent in new tender leaves. I worried about it for a long while and now just take it as normal for them. I think they are trying to be “dainty”!!
I have two that I started last Spring… so this is year 2 for them. They started budding early April and below shows what they have done in the past 40-45 days…
2.5-3 ft of new growth on each limb/branch, top…
Before bud break, I put 50 lbs of compost and a half handful of organic balanced fertilizer in the root zone of each. I spread that compost out to about a 4 ft circle a couple inches deep around the root zone of each.
They are growing like weeds.
Is this normal ? desired ? or should I perhaps not give them quite so much compost next spring ?
Note… Mine are just starting to show little yellow/green balls which will unfold to be blooms soon.
Last year the both bloomed, but no fruit set.
In year 2, with them growing (perhaps exceptionally)… should I expect some fruit set ?
Wondering when you normally get first fruit set from Jujube ?
They are definitely responding with strong growth from the enrichment. Jujubes are capable of putting out huge growth spurts. I can’t speak to fruit set. I have yet to see a large amount of growth and a large amount of fruit at the same time. Also IMO jujubes tend to fruit more on older wood. So time will tell. As they age they will be more likely to set and mature fruit.
You are borderline doping your jujubes . As you can see that the trees push tremendous vegetative growth. Not sure if they will settle down and set fruit. They are happy growing for sure.
I hope your Shanxi Li will produce higher quality fruit for you than what I and @BobVance have gotten. I also have heard that G866 takes a long time to produce. If you have space, I would suggest you add Honey Jar and Sugar Cane for our east coast climate. They produce well and are tasty.
@mamuang — on the varieties I choose… I made those selections mostly from reading OGW and other Nursery descriptions of them, they produced larger fruit than most, and the nursery reported them as being sweet and flavorful. I found a few youtube video’s that seemed to back that up…
After purchasing and planting those in Spring 2020… I found my way to this growingfruit.org… and soon found out how folks here that have tried them, were reporting disappointing results (like you mentioned). So… just bad timing on that… wish I had gotten the good advice here, before making my selections.
But… the good news is… now I know… Honey Jar and Sugar Cane are on my list to try next.
We plan to sell our current Home and 10 acres of land in the next year or two (part of long term retirement plan)… so all this stuff I have growing here… will become someone else fruit when that happens.
I will get to Start All Over again, at a new location, and with a much better knowledge base on board for the varieties that I will start there. On JuJube… it will be HJ and SC next time around.
Did you leave the trees in pot outside during the Texas’s frozen tundra? If so, your trees may have been frozen to death, then. Jujubes are not as cold hardy as apples or pears, or even plums.
Yes, all were left out during polar vortex. I have a near dead HJ 2 yrs old in 7 gal container, no suckers either. Thought it would be the hardiest but Black Sea, Contorted, and Autumn Beauty proved to be hardier. These were purchased from various sources so I wonder if rootstock made a difference too.
