Jujubes- Our New Adventure

[BobVance]

@mamuang

Where will I put them?

Do you have a compost pile in between the trees? If so, maybe a 2nd 4x4x4 box in between a couple trees, preferably in the back yard. If you don’t have a compost pile, it is worth considering- we really reduced the amount of garbage (probably by more than half), as well as how heavy and smelly the garbage was.

My yard is a bit bigger, so I originally put the pile in an area which was worst for trees. Now that trees have come down, the pile isn’t actually a bad spot. Maybe I’ll plant a jujube right in the pile and see how it does

@SoCalGardenNut

I have a tiny yard, 1/8 of an acre.
… I have roughly 70+ fruit trees. That’s on top of 160 roses, and over 100 peonies.

Wow!! What spacing do you use? I have some rentals that are about the same size as your yard. At one, I have:
6 jujube
1 persimmon
1 black currant
1 sour cherry bush
2 figs
1 blackberry bush

Compared to 70 trees and 260 flowers, that dozen plants is nothing. I’ve contemplated adding up to 4 more jujube there, but that would really max it out. Unless I remove the hedge in the front…Then, maybe 4-5 more jujube, but I suspect tenants would complain about a loss of privacy if I was to remove the 8’ tall hedge.

Back to jujubes, I had a very nice surprise today. I was looking at a graft on a seedling which was producing and noticed that some of the fruit was from below the graft union (about 2’ up).

Moonlight graft:

Seedling fruit:

The seedling fruit looked a bit like the graft’s at first glance, but you can tell the difference. I also see a couple other seedling fruit further from the graft. So, it looks like I’ve got a seedling with relatively large fruit.

None of the seedling fruit I’ve tried so far has been any good. But, I’m not sure how many of what I thought were seedlings were actually suckers (I sometimes lose track). I know at least a couple were seedlings.

For those of you growing seedlings ( @k8tpayaso ), what proportion seems to produce decent fruit? Large fruit? Most of my seedlings have been from So, but I do have a few Honey Jar and Bok Jo ones as well. Based on the shape, it seems most like Bok Jo, of the 3 (I also have some random though, so I can’t be sure).

[SoCalGardenNut]

When I was in the Bay Are I read the spacing has to be more, but since I came down to SoCal, I saw a Dave Wilson video and decided I didn’t need much spacing. But I don’t really want a lot of fruit of each variety either, I only want about 20-30 max of each plant. Plus I espalier my fruit trees around the perimeter of my wall.

Here is a few pictures to give you an idea.

So the spacing is about 3 feet?

[Susu]

This jujube I started from a Sugar Cane pit few years ago. It had slow growth in the beginning. This year it really shot up. It’s close to a 6 ft fence and reaching 6 ft now. It’s close to a rain garden and I think this summer it finally found the good soil that we filled the rain garden with. Put on tons of growth. At this rate this will give me more fruit than my Li that I bought as a full size tree and still not producing anything to speak of…

[tonyOmahaz5]

Hopefully this sugarcane seedling has some tasty fruits but 85 % of the time the fruits are small with large seed and taste not so good like its parent. Fyi. I grew out 20 Honey Jar seeds the last 6 years and only one tasted good and the 19 were not so good so I top worked them to Bok Jo, Russian 2, and more Honey Jar. Fyi.

Tony

[Susu]

Yes I’m planning on keeping one branch of this and then grafting it to another variety. What’s a greatly productive and good tasting, hopefully somewhat early ripening variety that you would recommend? Open question to tony plus everyone!

[tonyOmahaz5]

Honey Jar jujube ruled in my z5. Earliest to ripen with brown color fruits, the most crunchy and juicy of all the jujube varieties, and so sweet even still in green stage. No bitterness tasting of the skin like sugarcane for me. Bob Vance @BobVance and I are in agreement of growing these 3 best varieties . I have about 30 jujube trees in this order 50% are Honey Jar, 25 % are Bok Jo, 15% are Russian 2, and 10% are other varieties.

Tony

[BobVance]

@Susu

What’s a greatly productive and good tasting, hopefully somewhat early ripening variety

@tonyOmahaz5

I have about 30 jujube trees in this order 50% are Honey Jar, 25 % are Bok Jo, 15% are Russian 2, and 10% are other varieties.

That seems like about right to me. I’d get started on grafting over the Li as well as the seedling

The seedling I mentioned above has 2 leaders. At one of them, the seedling kind of took over the graft (Bu Lu Shu) and I was going to cut it back. Now that I see it has reasonable fruit size, I think I’ll wait a month a see what it tastes like first. The one negative is that it has a decent amount of thorns, though they aren’t that big. I wonder if that is a general characteristic of young plants that it could grow out of?

[k8tpayaso]

@BobVance

what proportion seems to produce decent fruit? Large fruit?

It is not a very large percentage but it may well depend on the cultivar and more time will tell. I have a few over 100 SiHong seedlings right now and they seem to take a long while to produce fruit. I have two now that have produced a nice sized fruit. One of those has ripened and the fruit is good. The other one has not ripened yet. These are all potted and I don’t know what size the fruit will eventually become but both are close to sugar cane size now. There are 5-6 more producing small fruit. I have about 15 XuZhou seedlings and about half are already producing fruit. Most of the fruits are ~honey jar size and have good flavor. This is a horrible year here to evaluate anything though because of the extreme heat and drought. (I complain but Vegas is even worse) I have basically tried to keep everything alive and the fruit has either ripened before maturity or dried before ripening. Honey Jar seedlings seem have a low percentage of producing good fruit. All this is just my opinion……

[SoCalGardenNut]

I’m thinking of getting Empress Gee, any opinion on this one. I might get another one, maybe Autumn Beauty, when these are available. I’m still on the fence about Black Sea, I really don’t like small fruit, Chico, and Sugar Cane. What about Confetti?

[TreeGuy]

Hello, is there a tree source for Bok jo that anyone knows of?

[DennisD]

So how many years does it take for these seedlings to produce fruit. I have 5 HJ seedlings and no experience in their growth to production timeframe
Dennis
Kent, wa

[k8tpayaso]

It varies. I have some 4-5 years old (not sure of that age because my HJ seedlings are not marked as to what year planted and are all mixed up together) that are just now bearing. HJ seems to take a long time to bear. I had one bear good fruit last year and it was one planted out in my orchard that was probably 4-5 years old. It did not bear fruit this year…had a very hard year this year and many trees dropped much of their fruit.

[DennisD]

Thank Katy
I notice you are in Tx where you most likely have dry summers like we have here, I have read that jujubes require a lot of water to develop good fruit. How do you manage yours in your climate? Do you water regularly once they set fruit? I am trying to decide on the best place to plant mine. Sun or partial sun?
Please advise
Dennis
Kent, wa

[BobVance]

@k8tpayaso

100 SiHong seedlings right now and they seem to take a long while to produce fruit

@k8tpayaso

HJ seems to take a long time to bear

@k8tpayaso

about 15 XuZhou seedlings and about half are already producing fruit

Sounds like most seedlings take quite a while and Xu Zhou is just fast. That wouldn’t surprise me, as Xu Zhou fruits pretty quickly. In past years (when fruiting on a new graft was more rare for me) it fruited right away a couple times. And the Xu Zhou tree was also very quick to fruit. But, the quality isn’t top-notch- only OK texture and the sugar level is a bit under many others, though it can get good if you really let it ripen. Of course, letting it hang long can be problematic, as it is the most crack susceptible jujube I’ve seen.

@DennisD

Sun or partial sun?

More sun the better- afterall, they do well in Vegas. You just may need to water as well…

[k8tpayaso]

I have too many trees to water all of them. We usually get enough rain most years to suffice. This year was extreme drought and I had large trees showing bad stress and I did water the large trees most stressed. I mainly focused on my young trees that I transplanted last year and this year to keep them alive and when I get a year like this it is to keep everything living…not just to produce good fruit.

To answer your question……full sun if you have it. If you have a few trees water them as needed. (There are about a hundred in my orchard over about 2 acres and several hundred potted ones in the nursery. I had to ration this year……)

[tonyOmahaz5]

Well Katie, you just trumped Bob Vance @BobVance and I in total jujube trees combined to around 150 or so. I crowned the Qeen of jujube.

Tony

[DennisD]

Thanks Katy and Bob @BobVance
Very helpful, this may be our driest summer yet no rain in about 2 months, I have one very sunny site left where I can plant these little guys that we grew from seeds that Bob gave us, so I now know how best to get them planted

Dennis

[BobVance]

@tonyOmahaz5

Well Katie, you just trumped Bob Vance

I’m betting she has a lot more land than I do Between my 0.55 and about 2 acres from all the rentals my distributed farm is about 2.5 acres. But a lot of that is houses…

She’s also been very busy growing seedlings. At some point, I’ll be retired and can spend a bit more time on this and would be interested in growing a bunch.

@k8tpayaso

I have too many trees to water all of them.

Since I’m growing them at a number of properties, I saw a massive difference in outcomes and I think one of the reasons is how much moisture they have access to. So, even before he lack of rain this summer, I had decided to water more based on what I saw last year.

So, each time I go around to mow the lawn, I water trees. And a lot of the properties are near the others, so even if a property doesn’t need mowing (especially due to the non-existent rain), I can give it some water if I haven’t done so in the last week or so.

I agree that it takes too long (at least for my patience) to just water 100 trees.
But recently, I’ve found that I can move the hose to a tree and let it run while I do some weeding, move it to the next tree, weed some more, move to the next, etc. That way I accomplish 2 things at once, rather than just staring at the water come out the hose. And I have more than enough weeds and untidy areas that need work. The only watering that actually needs full attention is the potted plants. And they don’t need as much water (just more often), so I can speed through it.

[SoCalGardenNut]

I’m thinking of rooting HJ, Shanxi Li, and GA-866, just for the fun of it. I just successfully rooted 4 Double Delight roses. If they die, they’ll die, no harm done. I’ll try grafting too, but much later like Jan/Feb.

[k8tpayaso]

@BobVance

But recently, I’ve found that I can move the hose to a tree and let it run while I do some weeding, move it to the next tree, weed some more, move to the next, etc. That way I accomplish 2 things at once, rather than just staring at the water come out the hose.

Yes, I do multitask when watering and I have a couple of 5 gallon buckets with a hole in it that I fill and let it soak in while I’m off to other trees. But the massive amounts of water that an 8-9 foot tree needs not just to survive in 105° but produce proper fruit is difficult to achieve both in time and in water volume. (Especially when it is planted on a slope)

@tonyOmahaz5

total jujube trees combined to around 150 or so. I crowned the Qeen of jujube

To be perfectly honest I do have mainly jujubes but there is a bunch of persimmon in my nursery and in the orchard I have fig, persimmon, mulberry, apple, peach, pear, plum, elderberry, and one lone pomegranate. Oh and muscadines and blackberries. And asparagus. . I am plant poor.

But they didn’t ration my water and that is a good thing……

But yeah……. I have hundreds of jujubes.

And I still work 40+ hours a week at my job……. Well I did until I had knee replacement this August. (It’s been a CRAP year!)