I dug up two jujube root suckers and put them in pots. This spring, bunnies munched them down to 6” tall. Still one of them flowered. I pinched off all flowers to save the tree its energy.
I only have one large jujube tree in pot. It is a Contorted/So. It was in ground for 4 years without growing much and never set fruit. So, I grafted it over to 5-6 varieties.
Out of frustration, I dug it up last fall and plopped it in a 15 gallon pot. This year, all varieties including So are blooming and I see some fruit set.
If you asked me, I would say, it was my root pruning (carelessly digging it up) that triggered the tree to flower and set fruit.
My Black Sea produced small, sweet but bitter fruit this year. Potted tree produced better than one in ground. Wonder if our TX sun, heat and drought just don’t suit this variety.
That sounds like the rootstock. My Black Sea almost did that, a sprout below the graft grew much taller than the graft in only one year. Fortunately I caught it when pruning and removed it but they can be easy to miss. A miss like that could have also happened in the nursery before you even got it… I had a not-Li that I think that happened to.
My Black Sea fruit looked like the fruits posted by other more experienced growers. Fruits were in clusters, teardop shaped and brown blushed on sun exposed side. First to ripen of all my varieties. Hoping fruit improve next year. Wondering if I should move the tree to a spot with more shade and water. I do see graft junction on my trees.
I’ve got a mislabeled fruit and it is globular like Li and Shanxi Li and Redlands #4 and so far it is still a UJF (unidentified jujube fruit) but Lang is pretty distinctive.
It’s definitely not sun or heat. I grew Black Sea in the California Central Valley for many years with temperatures up to 113 and heat was never a problem.
If you move it into tehe shade, fruit production and fruit quality will go down.
If the tree is not getting water though, that can definitely affect fruit quality no matter what the temperature is.
I tasted more ripe jujubes today, the Shanxi Li is no longer tasteless, this is a small one though, the Li jujubes were on the sour/sweet side, but edible. I think the Langs are sweeter.
I had my first full size GA-866, it’s so good, it’s like the ones I purchased from the farmers market. I think the trick is to pick them brown. I often don’t do that until this year. So glad I discovered the tulle.
It may not happen here. In fact all of my jujubes that are brown are sweet, I was very surprised about the difference because I’ve been eating them mostly green.
All 5 of the large jujube that I dug up have fruit in their new location. But, it is generally still pretty small, unlike some of the fruit from trees that weren’t transplanted. So, I’m not sure if they will be able to bring it to maturity or if it will just drop off.
Jujube wood is pretty hard/dense. But, like with other fruits, the presence of fruit seems to help bring branches horizontal, or even drooping. Here’s a Fuicuimi graft that was 30 degrees above horizontal. Now, it dips down and has a decent fruit-set. I never remove the black rubber tape from grafts anymore. I like how it lets me find them for a few years.
Note there was actually some rain in the above pic…
I think Autumn Beauty/Alcalde #1 dropped some fruit.
I’ve got posts for most of my jujube trees to help avoid them falling over, This year I’ve gone up on a ladder with extension pruners (loppers with ~4’ arms) to top some of them. I’ve been letting jujube get a bit taller than some other fruits, as I don’t need to worry about spraying them. But topping is still a good idea, as it can help with fruit set, as well as easier picking.
I have noticed that a 1/3 my Li baby fruits started to wrinkle and dropped off due to the hot temperatures in the upper 99s to 101F and lack of water. So I have adjusted my springler heads to water it. Hopefully this will help.
