Jujubes- Our New Adventure

One of the problems with low light is if you never get that load of fruit one year your branches will never bend down. So you are stuck in a bad cycle of vertical growth. I had that problem with my low-light pears which I finally solved with bending; most other trees solved it themselves like your jujubes are doing. In fact a problem I have now is things bending too low, I am trying to keep the trees above the deer but the deer are still getting a lot due to overly heavy branches getting too low. I have lots of poles and other supports to attempt to defeat as much of that as I can.

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Tony,
I have one potted jujube, a multi grafted on a So. Ii is in a 15 gallon pot, not big enough for this 4 years old tree but it has to stay there for the time being. I usually water it well everyday as I keep the pot in full sun.

A few days ago, I did not water it well. By the late afternoon, I saw some fruit shriveled. (Bok Jo?). So I watered the tree as soon as I saw that. In 2 hours, the wrinkles on the skins of those fruit were gone.

I water all my inground jujube trees for a while now as we have had a drought. I think it helps the trees hold on to their fruit. With the trees are well-hydrated, they wonā€™t dropped too many fruit to save the rest.

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One year I gave my jujube trees more water, the fruit was really bland. Now I donā€™t care, the small ones that are shriveled, I just compost them. There are still plenty jujubes that are bigger this year. I have to make sure I give them extra compost. The trees that I did give extra compost did really well.

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When I first learned about jujubes, the tree was praised for its very drought tolerant. Somehow, I had it in my head that it needed little to no water.

I have realized that while jujubes are indeed drought tolerant, they perform noticebly better when they get sufficient water, particularly, in the midst of a drought.

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We have drought here too. They are grown in container. But for some reason this year my jujubes are unusually sweet.

I think the thing is that jujubes donā€™t like the clouds that accompany the rain. They want water without the inconvenient lack of sun. Maybe they are native to a place where it only rains at night? :slight_smile:

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That is an interesting theory, Bob, moisture and sunlight for prosperity of jujubes.

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They have some odd similarities to date palms. Date palms need a lot of light and heat to mature fruit properly, but they also need a lot of water to mature fruit. Date palms can survive in hot arid climates with little water, but the fruit suffers, just like jujubes.

More farmers in Thailand are growing date palms, never thought we could have 30-40 years ago. They are growing well. Thailand has plenty of heat and sun.

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Hereā€™s from a farm of a friend of my sister. Sorry for the off topic. I am amazed we can grow them in Thailand.


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Talked to my brother tonight, he has some jujube trees in the ground, but they all dried and small, only about 10 jujubes per tree that are big. Iā€™m very surprised that my trees are loaded. My Shanxi Li jujubes are the size of a small apple. Heā€™s in a very dry and sunny area too. I donā€™t know what I did right except for the compost.

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Fabulous. I wish I was there!

Water, fertilizer, and sun.
Surprisingly, many newer growers are still leaving out one of those.

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Hereā€™s a weird bit of information about Bok jo -

ā€œThe genetic distance between Bokjo and three cultivars
bred in Korea was 0, and Bokjo appeared to be close to
Panzao from China, with which it shares similar fruit
morphology. Accordingly, Bokjo and Panzao are consi-
dered closely related; Bokjo was used in the selective
breeding of Geumseong, Mudeung, and Wolchul.ā€

Genetic Variation Analysis of Jujube Using ISSR āˆ™ 205

How can Bok jo share similar fruit morphology to Panzao when they appear to have completey different shapes?
This is what Panzao looks like every time I have ever seen a photo posted online-

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It doesnā€™t surprise me that Bok Jo has been used in breeding. Iā€™ve been planting seedlings from it too :slight_smile:

It combines massively productive, precocious, above average fruit size (not as big as Li, but bigger than HJ), decent crisp/crunch (not quite HJ though) and sweetens up well. If I could only grow 2 kinds of jujube it would be Bok Jo and Honey Jar. Iā€™d have to think more about what would get slot #3ā€¦Maybe Russia 2. Mei Mi would probably get it if I can ever get it to produce more than 2 fruits (though they were 2 very good fruitā€¦).

Wow- Iā€™d like to get some Panzao wood. It looks like a giant stepped on a pumpkinā€¦Not only does it look neat, but its related to Bok Jo, which already puts my expectations for it pretty high. Do you know if anyone in the US has it? Iā€™m not sure where you found that pic- I canā€™t even find it online.

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That is the best photo I have yet found of Panzao jujubes . I donā€™t recall where it came from but I think it came from a Vietnamese oriented site. If you search Chinese language sites you can find many Chinese nurseries selling Panzao and some also have photos. It has become very popular very quickly in China. I wonder if the Chinese bred it from Bok jo or if it is a sport of Bok jo.

I have heard rumors that someone in SoCal in the Vietnamese community has it. I am following every lead I run across to try to find it. In addition to its other good qualities, it is supposed to have fine grained flesh like Chico.

Hereā€™s a Panzao photo from the web site below-

https://min.news/en/food/fdfbd994a8409734bf398a1843be0251.html

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Looks like a keeper if We can find the wood source. Maybe @SoCalGardenNut in California can help finding it in Orange county on Bolsa St. There are lots of Vietnamese live there.

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This is the store I bought my lychee and long an trees, itā€™s at City of Industry, my friends at work told me about it.

The store in Garden Grove didnā€™t have much selection.

One of my Chinese friends sent me this link about Panzao. I donā€™t speak or read Chinese language so I have no clue what in this link.

https://www.baidu.com/from=844b/s?word=čŸ ęž£&sa=tb&ts=0&t_kt=0&ie=utf-8&rsv_t=0bddEPjkLWqEry5g0ftRDbmQ%252BFc9njl%252Fm1ERWBKLLxTVqleTAby72MuV8A&ms=1&rsv_pq=9072775108054170305&gpc=&ss=100&sugid=131947171048253

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Great videos in the link, thanks! :+1: