Jujubes- Our New Adventure

Bob,
Why do you stake the trees?

They tend to fall over when I donā€™t. Here are some from last year that leaned over after a storm. I was able to stake them up and all 3 have grown well and are producing at least some jujubes this year.

9/2/2021:

The tree on the far left has done particularly well. Hereā€™s a pic from a few days ago of the fruit on it. Note the post on the right. Without the post, this much fruit might pull the tree over, even without a storm.

So, most of the time I put in a post with the tree. For some reason, I skipped it at this site in 2020 and found myself adding the post in 2021. I like to add it at planting, as I can avoid the major roots and get it very close to the trunk. That way I can support the tree evenly, as opposed to having more distance, which can bend the tree and increase the chance of it snapping under heavy load (mostly a theoretical concern at this point, but could increase with heavier bearing).

Cliff England also recommends to stake jujubes:
Cliff_FB_09-03--2022

He didnā€™t know it at the time, but 2019 was his peak jujube year (at least for a while- he planted more this summer), as the next spring he lost most of his trees to 2 very late freezes (spaced widely enough that the trees started to recover in between).

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My trees would never be as productive as yours. Hopefully, without such fruitloads, my non-staked trees will hold up.

You are further inland, but could still get a windstorm or hurricane. You may be able to avoid staking for now, but if you ever have a fruit load and a big storm together, you may want to put some in quickā€¦

What a difference a year makes. Look at how green and tall that grass is in the leaning pic, which was taken a year ago yesterday. There are now big dead areas in that lawn and none of the grass is really growing. Itā€™s been almost a month since Iā€™ve mowed it. The only green areas are now little circles around the jujubes where I water.

This may be obvious, but the only way I know of to add a post after the tree is in ground is to use a digging bar (about 5ā€™ long and pretty heavy). Pick a spot and keep jabbing with the pointed end, while working it back and forth slightly (and hope you donā€™t hit a big rock too quick, which makes me start over in a different spot). Once you are deep enough, slide the post in and then wedge rocks around the post at ground level and drive them in with the flat end until it is secure. Or you could use cement, but rocks work pretty well and arenā€™t quite as permanent.

I moved some recently which had been in-ground for 7+ years and the only way I could extract them (short of a lot of digging), was to use a strap wrench and keep twisting, while gradually working it up.

Last year, we had a very wet year that ruined eating quality of my peaches and caused a lot of rotting of my nectarines.

Thus year is the opposite.

Since it has been so dry, I went overboard and overwatered my jujubes a few days ago by leaving the hose on too long. Now I start to see cracking on some Sugar Cane. HJ and Shanxi Li have not cracked yet.

Sugar Cane is probably the closest to ripening, which makes it more susceptible to cracking. Have you been watering them regularly (weekly?) or is this the first time in a while? Iā€™ve been giving mine a lot of water (like you, possibly too much when distracted), but havenā€™t noticed any cracking. Iā€™ve actually been watering some of the ones in my yard even more often- every ~3 days recently for the some (the ones closest to where I water potted plants). Iā€™ve made a particular effort to water the very large So, which has a massive crop. Even with a generally moist year last year, a portion of the crop was dry/spongy, while others were good. It is carrying such a heavy load, it could have higher water requirements.

I have watered these trees (on raised beds) once every 7-10 days depending on when I remember to do it. I am often distracted when I am in the garden.

Shanxi Li got the most water the last round but has had no cracked fruit. Besides ripening later, I think Shanxi Liā€™s spongier texture helps prevent (or lessen likelihood of) the fruit from cracking.

Cracked Sugar Cane.

Shanxi Li does not cracked easily but it does this a lot, brown up and dried up after the fruit sizing up for a while.


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Looks like they are getting close to ripe- you can see the brown circle around the stem. Maybe another week and you will start to see some brown on other parts of the fruit. As soon as that happens, I start picking. Later in the season, I can be a bit more patient for the brown to cover the whole surfaceā€¦

Yup- rather than setting fewer fruit, Shanxi Li sets a lot, then drops a bunch. But is it carrying more than it was last year at this time? Iā€™m pretty sure that mine is. Could be related to the extra sun, but I think that it being older is a big part too.

While I have posts for most of my jujube, I noticed one today which is missing one and is starting to lean a bit.

Honey Jar (own roots) leaning:

You canā€™t see it too well from the pic, but there is a lot of fruit on it.

In your last 2 pics, I see a lot of open lawn. Is that your neighborā€™s yard? If it is yours, you could fit a lot more jujube :slight_smile:

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My Shanxi Li set more fruit each year but ā€œmore fruitā€ for Shanxi Li is still noticeably fewer fruit than HJ or SC at the age.

The lawn belongs to my neighbor. My row of fruit trees are grown right on the border line. My neighbors (husband and wife) can easy pick fruit from branches go over to their lawn which my 7 fruit trees on that row do. They never do and never complain. I share my fruit and veggies with them.

In my town, 80 % of home owners do not have fence. For those who do, many are natural fences like rows of forsythias or other greeneries. All but one house in my neighborhood have no fence. The one that has, they want to keep their dog in.

A lot of rain?? Until today, there hasnā€™t been much rain at all, at least from mid-June on. There was one day in July (7/19, I think) where we had 3" of rain. Then maybe 2 more 0.3" sprinklings over the next 1.7 month. Then over the last day and a bit, Iā€™ve gotten another 4+ inches of rain. Some of the rentals only got 3", most got about 4" and my house got over 4.5".

And there is a spot not that far away in long island sound with 8.5". Even more impressive, I see a spot just west of Providence RI with 13.5".

I went out for a few minutes earlier tonight and while everything was (very) wet, I didnā€™t see any cracking yet.

Iā€™m also worried that there could be branch breaking, due the additional weight of the water, on top of the already heavy fruit load. Right before the rain, I tied up one such branch (a Bok Jo), but Iā€™m sure there are plenty of others. I passed by another Bok Jo which seemed that it was leaning a bit, but not much I can do about it, as it is supported about 8ā€™ up and there isnā€™t any more post for the top 6-7ā€™ of branch. I need to make sure to shorten ones like that during the winter. Well, it is always good to have more Bok Jo scionwood :slight_smile:

Yesterday, before the rain, I noticed a few ripe Sugar Cane. They were contained on only 1 small branch. I wonder if it is a limb-sport, given that the rest of the tree has only green fruit. The ripe fruit is smaller than most of the fruit on the tree. It was good, crisp, crunch, 27 brix and no after-taste I could detect (that Sugar Cane sometimes has). A few of the fruit were slightly less crisp, but still good.

The branch:

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What post number I wrote that? I must have been delusional!! No we have had a drought. Our heavy, soaking rain for the first time this year from Labor Day to yesterday. Otherwise, it has been very dry.

However, this year, I have watered my jujube trees more consistently like every 7-10 days. Never done this before. I think the trees look happier.

That branch of Sugar Cane is amazing. More often than not, I pick HJ and Sugar Cane and eat them before they turn totally brown. I am impatient and they taste good already at that stage. I wait longer for Shanxi Li.

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Oops. That was my fault. I was looking for your cracked sugar cane post to respond to and rather than scrolling up a few pages I used the search function. The only post I found (cracking vs cracked resulted in me not finding the recent one) was the one I responded to. Butā€¦it was September 2018 :blush:

Me too- Iā€™ve sometimes watered a few trees, but this year Iā€™ve done it more, including at some of the rentals.

Yes, I didnā€™t notice it right away, or I would have probably eaten it earlier. For it to be completely brown while the rest is completely green is quite a difference. I should go back from the pic and try to tag that branchā€¦

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@BobVance ,
Whew!! I was not that delusional after all.

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I did a more thorough check and found that one of my Sugar Cane trees had quite a bit of cracking, while the other one didnā€™t have any at all.

I picked the worst cracked fruit. Better that, than having yellow jackets on it. I had
one and it wasnā€™t bad- 18 brix, even though it was green. I picked about a pint and theyā€™ve all gotten eaten already (wife and daughter).

I think the reason one tree cracked is that it had a much smaller fruit load. The tree with the big load could spread the water among a lot more fruit, including a large number of Bok Jo on a graft and a bunch of the rootstockā€™s fruit near the ground.

I didnā€™t see any cracking on Honey Jar, but that could just be because it has such a large amount of fruit to absorb the waterā€¦

This is the Honey Jar which I staked up before the rain. It could have broken if I didnā€™t, as it was already leaning badly even without the weight of the rain.

This is the Bok Jo I couldnā€™t tie up, as the post is only about 8-8.5 feet tall. So, all that weight is unsupported and Iā€™m lucky it didnā€™t break. If I keep cutting back the top, I think it will eventually be thick enough to not be a concern.

While not as numerous, there are a decent amount of large fruit this year:
Dae Sol Jo:

Shanxi Li:

Autumn Beauty (well sold as Mango Dong, but I think it is AB):

Da Bai Ling and Redlands are also pretty big.

So from JFaE, planted in 2011:

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Bob, all those jujube trees are loaded. Congrats.

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@BobVance
I like your theory that the fruit cracked because they are closer to ripening. My Sugar Cane which is closest to ripening has so many cracked fruit, about 50% or or and most on larger, riper-looking fruit.

Not sure how much the number of fruit on a tree helps alleviate fruit cracking after long dry spell followed by heavy rain. My Shanxi Li has not many fruit compared to SC or Honey. The fruit are much larger but the texture often is spongier. Could that help them absorb more water?
Not a single fruit cracks on Shanxi Li . They have not ripened yet, either.

Honey Jar sets a lot of fruit, not ripen yet and no crack at all.

All my trees are side by side, raised the same way and about the same age (HJ is 5, the other two are 6 yr old.).

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Even my productive HJ, it is not as productive as your trees.

Iā€™m definitely not positive, but the hypothesis does fit both what Iā€™m seeing now (loaded Sugar Cane not cracking, lighter set one is) and what I saw earlier in the summer with a lack of water. Back then, I had some multi-graft trees with a mix of (lots of) small fruit (HJ, SC, So, Texas Tart, etc) and large fruit (Li and Redlands). The large fruit was starting to shrivel, while the small was fine. A lot of the minor shriveling recovered after watering, so it seemed clear that it was a water deficit I was seeing. I also had other trees (at the same site and others) where Li/Redlands were fine. By this, I drew the conclusion that jujube trees are ā€œfairā€ in their water distribution (each fruit gets X ml of water), but large fruit has a higher need for water. In trees with a mix, the numerous small fruit gets the water that the big ones needed and the big ones shrivel and drop, further fueling making them look even less productive.

Applying this to the cracking, if a tree has Y ml of water to distribute, it makes sense that having a ton of fruit to divide it among would result in a smaller amount for each fruit and thus no cracking (of less severe). I have more Sugar Canes at a few locations and will be interested to see what they show.

But, I agree that cracking is a bit complicated by both how ripe the fruit is and the cultivar itself. Some, like Xu Zhou are very susceptible. Of course XZ wasnā€™t ripe enough in this last storm to crack. Same for Honey Jar, which has cracked for me in the past, though less severely than Xu Zhou.

Thanks Tony- Iā€™ve got to get it across the finish line now- hopefully without the squirrels striking and devouring it.

Yours doesnā€™t look far off. This Honey Jar was planted in 2016, so it is in year #7 vs your year #5, so you should see even more production soon.

We count the year differently. My HC was planted in 2017. I did not count the year it was planted.

I count one year when the tree was in ground for 12 months. For example, Hj planted April 2017. It turned 1 year old in April 2018.

Maybe I count it wrong all this time? I count a treeā€™s age the same way I count humanā€™s age.