Bob,
I did not spray it this year. However, about 2-3 weeks ago 0, in the middle of a drought, I noticed a lot of jujube flowers esp. Honey Jar turned brown similar to your pic. These are not new trees but they are on raised beds so their roots are somewhat confined and cannot roam as freely as totally in ground trees.
I suspect my trees may need more water than an average inground jujube trees. I started watering each bed deeply about for twice. Since then, coincidentally, the browning of flowers have mostly disappeared.
Not sure what caused the browing but watering seemed to help.
Yes, I thought I remembered that you had raised boxes. Probably a good idea for 1-2 solid soakings per week when everyday is hot and sunny.
Iāve had to do very few lawns recently, as the lack of water has made most not grow very much. But, when I stop by I sometimes water the jujubes. One site that is always dry (the trees there were 4-5ā after 3-4 years, vs 12ā tall after 2 at a different site) and Iāve been trying to water it at least twice a week. It gets good sun exposure, so maybe I can make it productive with a bit of water. The fast-growing site only got watered once, but it was a pretty deep one, as I assume the soil has decent water-holding there.
Today was the first rainy day for a while. In preparation, I sprayed fungacide on my pluots and peaches yesterday evening. Hopefully it had time to dry before the rain hit.
From one online source (iweathernet.com, which seems pretty neat), we had 2.7" of rain today at my house and as much as 3.7 inches at some of the rental properties. Almost a monthās worth in one day. So, I donāt think I need to water for a few days, even with temps in the 90ās.
Part of it could be the trees naturally becoming more productive as they get older, but Iām seeing fruit on trees that havenāt been productive in the past. There could even be a couple small ones on GA866, though Iām not holding my breath thereā¦
Weather channel has a video on the next 3 months. Our area (Northeast in general) is expected to be much hotter than average in August, average in September and warmer than usual in October. Sounds like a good long season to ripen fruit!
Bob,
We got some rain yesterday but not as much your area did. Glad to hear we will have a long stretch of warmer weather than usual. I hope the forecast is.
I have watered my jujube trees during this drought and they have responded well to it.
I think they are using radar info to calculate rainfall. Iāll need to set a bucket out next time to see how accurate it is.
Even though my area got 2.7-3.7", my parents only got about 1" an hour East. And it looks like 1-2 miles off the coast in Long Island sound there was ~4.5".
I had my first vine ripe Honey Jar yesterday, pretty tasty but very small. This year I finally covered my jujube fruit and let them ripe properly, maybe they will taste better than in the past.
I wish we had that much rain. We got not even half an inch. This year, rain seems to miss us the south, the east and the west. Sometimes only 4-5 miles away. It is very dry here this year.
There is a large Vegas Booty graft on the GA866 which has even less fruit. It may have 1-2 tiny fruitlets, but it is hard to say. I donāt think it is the parent treeās (GA866) fault, as it also has a Dae Sol Jo graft which is covered in fruit.
Had my second vine ripe Honey Jar, I like this variety, this year this tree is prolific because I removed the big 4x1 pluot. Itās shading all the trees nearby.
I checked my record and I planted both of my Shanxi Li(from Rain Tree Nursery) and GA-866(from Tree Antiquity) in a spring 2021. Shanxi Li is more productive than GA-866.
Might still get a few when they first hit the market, as mine donāt really start ripening until late September (unless some start to ripen faster due to earlier set).
Last year I had almost enough jujubes to continuously eat them for 1.5-2 months. But, when speaking to my wife later, she was surprised by that, as evidently, I was often eating them between mowing lawns, sharing them at softball, etc, without them actually making it home. Or when they did make it home, I didnāt present her with a bowl of them - Iād just have a couple quart boxes on the counter and expected people would eat them when they wanted themā¦
So, having more production would be good, both for the rest of the family and to see how well I can store them for later winter consumption (last ones from the fridge were eaten in early Dec).
By my count, I have almost a hundred trees (13 Honey Jars) in ground (not counting a number of small ones in pots from grafted root suckers and seedlings). Just over half the in-ground trees are at the rental properties. Eventually, I could do farmers market or something, but I think that is still a ways off. If I can find a way to consume them year-round, that would up the quantity needed by 5X+. And giving them to friends would likely be easier than FMs. But, that is getting ahead of things- first I need to grow enough for my wife!
I posted about some Sugar Cane in the fridge for ~1.5 months in a ziplock. It was still edible, but I didnāt like what it did to the texture and there was an off-flavor (similar to what they (SC) had at harvest, but worse).
Iād be interested to hear if anyone else has a good way to store them. I think I saw that Tony was freezing them. Iām a bit skeptical that they would come out of the freezer crisp and crunchy, but am willing to test it once I have extras.
I also remember hearing about a special bag that one of the guys at the farmerās market was testing out for apples. Something about selectively permeable? Writing this made me go look for the name (I had emailed him later to ask) and it is https://www.modifiedatmospherepackaging.com. Iāll need to take a deeper look there.
Bob,
If you buy those bags, let me know how well it work for your jujubes.
I have stored apples in plastic bags with no holes and closed them tightly in the fridge for months. This year some apples were stored that way until May, No issue. The apples kept in a good condition that way all that time. NOT jujubes.
I do have concerns about texture if I freeze them.
Here (below) is what Cliff had to say about themā¦ he is in KY just north of me, so hopefully if that is what I actually have, they will do well here.
ā¦ Lang - Extremely productive and has large pear shaped fruit, which is red when ripe. Best when dried and made into jujube butter, but it can be eaten fresh when red ripe or can be substituted for apples in pies. Dries well but we prefer it fresh. One of the most productive here.
ā¦
All the pics I find of Shanxi Li onlineā¦ it has a more apple shape to it.
- Iād just have a couple quart boxes on the counter and expected people would eat them when they wanted themā¦
