One thing I’m doing with the jujubes that I cannot or will not eat is to make jelly. I have a steam juicer that works wonders with appropriating juice for this but you could probably do the same with a little water and cook down the fruit. I cut mine in half or smaller and steam extract the juice. I then use the low sugar pectin recipe for apples. Sometimes I have to either cook it a bit longer or add a bit more pectin for what consistency I want. If it doesn’t gel enough then it becomes syrup. (I tried once cooking the fruit minus the pits and skins until it gelled but evidently jujubes are not themselves a great source of pectin so now I just add the prepared pectin.)
It is really good and some of my friends that have been gifted with it claim it to be their favorite jelly. Takes a few jujubes to get the juice but it’s worth it if you have a bunch you’re not going to eat.
The steam juicer really helps in that respect because it steam cooks them and adds minimal water. Takes a lot of the jujubes over several hours to get the “juice” but it is very flavorful
Thanks to untimely rain(sarcastically speaking), I picked 4 lbs of Sugar Cane on Sunday and about 6 lbs today. All have cracked. Some fruit have multiple cracks, others a few. Some became fermented. Others are edible. There are more on the trees. Look like there will be more rain, too. Oh, well.
Turned out the Black Sea graft is on SC tree. Too bad, I did not graft it on a larger limb. The graft was slender and produced about 10 small fruit. I have to wait to taste them tomorrow because I already ate way too many SC while picking .
While I was not happy with the cracking, I found a very nice jujube variety. It is an unknown variety (lost tag) on a Shanxi Li. It looks just like Sugar Cane but smaller. It tastes sweeter than SC, crunchy and very sweet. Definitely, not a Honey Jar.
I don’t recall what variety I grafted there. Will take pics tomorrow for your experienced growers to help me identify it.
Yesterday I ordered Empress Gee, Autumn Beauty, and Winter Delight from OGW. Shipping cost is reasonable for ground. One question I have is when do they actually ship for fall 2022. Do they ship right away or wait a bit later.
I picked some more Mei Mi, this time from a different graft on a tree that hasn’t gotten as much water. The fruit is smaller, but still good.
The Autumn Beauty on top was from a more irrigated tree had decent texture, almost as good as the Mei Mi, but a bit less crisp. The higher brix Autumn Beauty was from a tree very close to the mostly un-watered Mei Mi and its texture was more lacking. Not bad, but a bit softer.
Even with cracks, these Sugar Cane had top-notch crunch, crispness, and juice. The triple crown of texture, though SC favors juicy and a bit lighter in crunch, while Honey Jar is a bit more balanced in the 3.
I’m in England, not sure I can call them. That’s ok, if I get an email from them I will ask my daughter to come back and bring it inside the garage. I usually don’t get fruit trees until Dec or Jan from either Grow organic or Raintree nursery.
Black Sea is a tad sweeter, Both have good crunch. I tried but was unable to get enough juice to brix. @BobVance I bow to you for your ability to brix these jujubes. I mostly have failed.
He’re a pic I took earlier today and was planning to start the 2022 conclusions thread (though it is a bit early still). All 4 of these jujubes had good texture, though Sugar Cane has the most crisp juiciness.
Sugar Cane and Black Sea are easy to get brix readings from. It gets a lot tougher if you are trying to do it for Huping or Lang.
Just cut a thin wedge and squeeze it over the refractometer. If that doesn’t work for some reason, just make the wedge thin enough and smush it onto the sensor plate. In either case, I’ve found that you can get the clearest reading if you hold it up under a florescent light.
I should mention that I’ve only just started to get Black Sea (one site). And have only gotten a few Honey Jar, even though the one in the above pic is pretty ripe. I’ve got entire trees of HJ (and in good sun too), where there isn’t a single fruit with any brown.
Extensive drought in Europe from March till July has made an impact on my jujube trees. Fruit set was good but fruitlets have stopped developing until the first rains in August. As a result they are lagging behind by 3-4 weeks and may not ripen up at all because of cold september. Some trees that managed to find some water in summer have a decent crop. Here Halina:
Your fruit did not crack bythe first rain after the drought?!!
My cracked badly even after the 2nd and 3rd rain. Today, I saw cracking on Shanxi Li for the first time. It has rained several times for the past two weeks.
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