Jujubes- Our New Adventure

[BobVance]

I got a small Maasadra which is about one foot tall has flowers on it.

Keep in mind that flowers don’t always (or even often so far for me) lead to fruit. Virtually all of my jujube’s had flowers last year, but only a few fruited. I did get one fruit from Massandra, which was very good. i don’t recall it too well, but it was sweet and crunchy. I’d like to do a head to head comparison between it and Honey Jar.

My jujubes have started flowering in the last week. Even some of the recent grafts- I think I noticed some on Zhou Chui Wang, Priest, Dae Sol Jo Dae Chu, and Qiyue xian earlier today, This year, I noticed that the thicker jujube wood did much better than the thinner ones. I think I struck out entirely on a few of the smaller ones, while I’ve gotten better than usual growth from the big ones. Some of last year’s grafts which didn’t grow much didn’t make it through the winter, so I’m happy to see a foot of growth from some of the bigger ones, rather than just a few leaves on the stems which fall off each year.

below are the rapidly developing fruits took a picture of a couple weeks ago

That looks like the (single) Massandra I had last year. Good to know that maybe I got the real thing (from OGW in Fall 2015).

[jujubemulberry]

glad to hear they didn’t mess up your order. Getting jujus to fruit in your region evidently takes so much longer than here, so getting the wrong variety makes the uncertainty more painstaking!

[scottfsmith]

I have about a dozen different varieties flowering now. I’m hoping for more than the couple fruits I have gotten for the last dozen years. Several are in more sunny spots, we will see if that helps. I’m already starting to imagine what other fruits I can put in the jujube spots…

[mamuang]

@BobVance, I know that Massandra may not set fruit but I could dream I’ve used a paint brush to help with cross pollination.

My jujubes just started to flower are Massandra (earliest), then Honey Jar. Within a day or two, it’s Sugar Cane and Shanxi Li.

Last year, Honey Jar (just planted), Sugar Cane (2nd year) and Shanxi Li (2nd year) all had only a few flowers and set a few fruit, quite disappointing.

This year, all seem to have lots of flower buds. Maybe, it’s the case of trees are more maturing (even though they are still young). So is the only one that does not have a lot of flower buds and flowers have not opened yet.

I grafted Jin, Dong Zao and Autumn Beauty this year. It’d be a big surprise if they flowers this year.

@jujubemulberry I got a Massandra from Burnt Ridge.

@scottfsmith, I am conscientious about sunny spots for jujube so I just put the pots next to the existing trees. It should help with cross pollination, too, I hope.

I’d like to hear from everyone about the tastes of the varieties you guys are growing. I could graft more!!!

[BobVance]

My jujubes just started to flower are Massandra (earliest), then Honey Jar. Within a day or two, it’s Sugar Cane and Shanxi Li.

I noted the first open flower on 6/15. I think that is a bit earlier than in some past years, probably due to the very warm and sunny weather we’ve had for the last 1-2 weeks. Quite a contrast with the long cold spring. I’m not too concerned with getting earlier flowering- I hope we are past any chance of spring frosts. After all, today is the first day of summer.

Last year, Honey Jar (just planted), Sugar Cane (2nd year) and Shanxi Li (2nd year) all had only a few flowers and set a few fruit, quite disappointing.

I think you did well to get a few fruits in year #2.

This year, all seem to have lots of flower buds. Maybe, it’s the case of trees are more maturing (even though they are still young). So is the only one that does not have a lot of flower buds and flowers have not opened yet.

Yes, for me the production really took off one year for my So (the oldest jujube I have). It always has a lot of flowers now and was the first one I noticed opening this year. GA-866 has a few flowers, but seems pretty sparse. Maybe that is part of why it is reputed to be a shy bearer- jujube’s only set a fraction of the flowers, so if there aren’t many flowers to start with, there won’t be much yield.

I grafted Jin, Dong Zao and Autumn Beauty this year. It’d be a big surprise if they flowers this year.

I think there is a good chance you’ll see some flowers. But I think that actually setting fruit on new grafts is reserved for the Las Vegas area. I did have it happen once though on a Honey Jar graft (6 fruit that same season).

I’d like to hear from everyone about the tastes of the varieties you guys are growing. I could graft more!!!

I haven’t seen a massive difference in taste, like you see in apples. The bigger difference is in texture.

Crisp & Lighter- Honey Jar and maybe Massandra (it could be in the next group)
Crisp & Denser- Sugar Cane & Sherwood (Sherwood may span this category and the next one)
Hard/Firm- Shanxi Li
Spongy- Li from Chinese grocery store (which also don’t have much sugar- maybe 10-12 brix vs 20-30 for the others)

I look forward to trying more and being able to develop a better answer.

One which did have a different flavor to me was Sihong. I only had a small bag of them which had been off the tree (not my tree) for a bit and started to soften. I’m not sure I can describe it well, but it had an interesting flavor which was distinct from the other varieties I sampled at the same time (same source). I added a couple Sihong trees this year from Cliff England. I’ve also heard that Coco and Chico have different flavors and am looking forward to both of them.

[jujubemulberry]

got a Massandra from Burnt Ridge.

good thing about massandra is that if fruits present as slender and pointy, would be good reassurance that it is likely massandra, since there are more curvy jujus than there are slender and pointy ones.

Autumn Beauty this year. It’d be a big surprise if they flowers this year.

re-acquired autumn b early this year, but this time from ogw, and now almost certain that the autumn b i received from @Bhawkins is the real mccoy, since the 18" bare-root i recently bought from ogw are bearing similarly shaped fruits, and similarly sparse in fruiting. While autumn b can be precocious as recent grafts or recently planted bare-roots, even three yr old 5 ft tall grafts won’t bear as much as other cultivars. Autumn b does produce relatively big fruits, and has flesh that is quite dense like sihong and sherwood.

the upright stem(center of the pic) below is one such autumn b graft with just a few fruits relative to unit volume of stems. Relatively large barrel-shaped fruit at 7 o’clock is stereotypical of the cultivar.

below is a pic i took from a lower level which shows hj fruiting profusely compared to the same upright autumn b stem directly above it(the same AB stem i posted above). HJ evidently more fruitful than the AB which actually casts shadows on it.

[jujubemulberry]

added a couple Sihong trees this year from Cliff England. I’ve also heard that Coco and Chico have different flavors and am looking forward to both of them.

hopefully sihong bears some fruits in your location. Prof. Yao of univ of new mexico seems to enjoy it as much as we do as posted previously by @k8tpayaso .

Coco is similar to sugarcane, and i surmise it will produce better fruits in regions with mild summers. Chico is the most apple-ish and apple-tart of jujus, but way sweeter!
Sihong tends to develop a complex, similar-but-different french prune flavor as fresh fruit; way before it actually dries up into a date, which makes it different from many other jujus which typically just have apple flavors as fresh fruits. Needless to say, sihong dates are hard to beat. We luckily grew a sihong-like cultivar from random seed and excited to rate its overall performance and productivity. And even more excited to broadcast subsequent suckers/root cuttings to all and sundry.

[mamuang]

Raf,
How rall are your trees? I don’t want mind to be over 8’ tall. Is that possible?

[jujubemulberry]

we actually prefer them tall, at about 10 -15 feet tall(we badly need shade during vegas summers).
unpruned, they won’t get much taller than 15 feet in vegas conditions and simply just branch out to form canopies which droop when laden with fruits, so fairly easy to harvest. Fruits that we can’t reach are actually preferred by the birds, so we pretty much feed and let feed

you can keep them at 8’ tall here(in fact, hj can be kept at 8 inches tall here and kept fruitful), but full sun is a must to keep the laterals fruiting and metabolically relevant. Laterals that end up being shaded by apical growth will slow down in caliper-growth, and the fruiting spurs won’t be sending out as much deciduous fruiting branches as time goes by. Laterals are actually semi-deciduous, and regress and shed when not getting enough sunlight. If jujus aren’t so precocious in your area, it is primarily because they need to get tall enough to escape shaded conditions. Jujus need to get as much direct sunlight on their solar panels. Will post yearly pictures of laterals over several years as soon as they find them on my hard drive.

[k8tpayaso]

I have a new SiHong this year from England’s and it is growing well. It had no fruit set so far but still has a few blooms. I also have a small viable SiHong graft. I have wanted SiHong for a long time but unable to find it. Was really glad that England’s was selling it this year. While looking for the SiHong a couple of years ago I found my second to own jujube—a Chico. It produced a few fruit last year that were fantastic. It is my most productive tree so far this year. Most of the fruit is on the older branches though. Some fruit on new growth but very little compared to the amount on the oldest branch. So even though jujus can be precocious as a young tree I think they might prefer using their mature state to produce. Pictures that follow show this older portion of the tree. The fruit load on newer branches is really spotty.

Katy

[mamuang]

CI really want to find out what varieties that would ripen in time in New England. You and @jujubemulberry won’t have to worry about this issue but I think @BobVance, @tonyOmahaz5 and I do need to take this into consideration.

Varieties like Sihong, Coco, Chico, will they ripen in time here, I wonder.

[mamuang]

15’ will be way too tall for me. I probably will top them off at 8’.

[tonyOmahaz5]

Well after seeing Chico photo from Castanea. I wanted one and here is the bark grafted one on a large Sugarcane understock.

Tony

[tonyOmahaz5]

Here is my largest 9 years old multi bark grafted jujube with seven varieties. It is about 12 feet tall.

Tony

A good size trunk.

[mamuang]

Per England Orchard nursery, Shihong needs long, dry summer. That ends my hope. The only thing I could do is to buy fruit (not tree) from you or @jujubemulberry when you have enough to sell :)

[mamuang]

Tony,
That’s may be the route for me to go. No more new trees because I have no sunny spots. Have some success grafting jujubes this year give me encouragement to graft more.

[BobVance]

Varieties like Sihong, Coco, Chico, will they ripen in time here, I wonder.

I’ll let you know when I get them to set fruit:

• 2 Sihongs this year
• 1 Coco from OGW in fall 2015
• 1 Coco from Burnt Ridge this spring
• 1 Chico from Burnt Ridge in 2016

15’ will be way too tall for me. I probably will top them off at 8’.

They don’t grow that fast for me- I bet you can keep them in line without too much pruning. My 6 year old So is a big bush- about 7’ tall.

Per England Orchard nursery, Shihong needs long, dry summer. That ends my hope. The only thing I could do is to buy fruit (not tree) from you or @jujubemulberry when you have enough to sell :)

I saw that and am still giving it a try. One of them I put on a South-facing hill which can get a bit dry. The other (as a control to the test) is in one of my raspberry rows. Not that I’d be opposed to buying jujubes from someone in the forum, while waiting for my trees to do their magic.

[mamuang]

Bob,
You’re the man (with a mission). I will wait to hear from you. Ripening time and taste is what I would like to know esp. for someone who live quite close to me. Thanks in advance, Bob.

[mamuang]

So is supposed to be dwarf, from what Just Fruit& Exotics says.

My Shanxi li seems to grow vertically quite fast. Both Shanxi li and Sugar Cane are in their 3 rd year, Sugar Cane is bushier. Shanxi li is taller.

[k8tpayaso]

I’m hoping it will do good here. Bob Hawkins says his does well in Dallas area so I think it will. We will see…

I have gotten three more from England’s this year—Jin Chang, Xu Thou, and Redlands #4. While they are only small trees ~2 1/2 to 3 foot trees the Jin Chang has two good sized fruit already and the Xu Thou fruit is small but numerous. Didn’t you say you grafted Jin this year? I don’t know how long it takes these fruit to mature but they are growing pretty fast it seems to me. I don’t know if that might not be an early producer. Here’s a photo of Jin fruitlets here.

As opposed to the size of the Xu Thou fruit

Jin might work for you.

Katy