Yes. There are some people who keep jujube in large pots.
Would a jujube tolerate heavy artful pruning to be kept ultra mini? I know fruit will be minimal, but Iām thinking of adding some fruit trees for fun in front of a garden bed and I figure if it makes a handful of fruit, thatās a win.
And follow up- since no one lists the rootstock they are on, Iām guessing itās all the same? Does anyone see why it wouldnāt tolerate a low heading cut like other fruit trees?
In China, some orchards they top the jujube trees to feet tall and still got load of fruits.
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The problem is probably less with the āheavyā and more with the āartful.ā
Jujubes seem to be pretty tough trees. Grafts will readily flower the same season they are grafted. Iāve taken a heavy hand to mine with the pruning saw ā taking more than half of a tree off repeatedly ā to no real ill effect as far as health and productivity are concerned.
The problem is that they are sort of unpredictable in where they will choose to put new growth (new primary shoots) after being pruned. There are rules out there, but I find them a little hard to follow and not that reliable: Jujube Training and Pruning Basics | New Mexico State University - BE BOLD. Shape the Future.
If you are not concerned with where the growth appears (because you are just going to head it down every season, like coppicing) then my guess is that it wonāt matter much and you should be fine. But if you are aiming to use pruning to train the jujube tree into a specific shape, accomplishing it is not as easy and intuitive as it would be with an apple or pear tree.
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Thank you. Iāll think about this and look at that link.
Does anybody have any experience propagating jujube rootstocks? I grafted 5 Jujubes, but got a lot of bleeding in the unions which has, so far, stopped 3 taking. I suspect all 5 will fail and I thought I would use them as rootstocks for next year by stooling them. Has anybody tried this/ any other propagation methods? And more importantly, does anybody know how I can stop/ avoid the grafts bleeding when I regraft next year?! My hunch is I grafted too early (18th of April in southern France), they had just broken bud with leaves roughly 1-2cm in size.
Root cuttings and pot them up individually to get a new plant. Try not to graft when your soil is saturated with water or during a long rain period. I usually graft my jujube like in early May with a week of sunny weather in the 70s with not too much rain
Tony
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Brilliant information! My Jujubes are currently rootstocks, I found a deal on āLiā plants from Italy and cut them below the graft. How much root do you reckon I need? I donāt have a lot to play withā¦ But Iāll give it a crack none the less!
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I usually cut the lateral root to 6 inches then bury about 5.5 inches below ground. The top 0.5 inch above ground will eventually form a sprout. Make sure you water them regularly to keep the pot moist but not water log.
Tony
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Has anyone seen this before or know what it is? Almost all of my Chico fruit have these black spots on them. I donāt know if it is a pest that caused it or if it is some sort of fungus, but we have had so much rain this growing season.
It might be insects - looks like what squash bugs do to my fruit.
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Most of my other jujube grafts leafed out within a week or two. Iād almost given up on this graft when I still didnāt see any growth about 2 months later. But then I noticed callusing at the cut tip of the scion and now a new bud is forming there (circled in the picture). The new growth would typically come from a dormant bud below the base of a side branch (where the arrow is pointing). Iāve never seen another fruit tree graft grow from the cut end at the top of the scion like this one. Just another example of how jujubes are special.
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I have jujube graft that was done in July that didnāt leaf out until late Spring the following year. Now I donāt remove jujube grafts unless the scions turn all dark and shrivel up.
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Iāve had that too, but what made this graft unique to me was the fact that it started growing from the cut end rather than a dormant bud. Maybe the picture doesnāt really show that clearly. Iāve seen before with jujube branches Iāve pruned that there will be new growth from the exposed cambium at the edge of the cut rather than at a node below the cut, so maybe this shouldnāt be such a surprise to me.
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Oh well thatās good, since squashbugs do not lay eggs inside fruit, but under leaves.
So these will still be edible, just ugly