Jujubes- Our New Adventure

Katy

You should freeze some for later use so there won’t be no last one of the season. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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My Sugar Cane is fan’s favorite, larger than Honey Jar and tastier in my friends’ my customers’ and my opinions.

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I will when I get as many as you do!!! :joy::joy::joy:
I’m catching up to you Tony!!!

Mine have been gone a long time… this was one late one and only one of two on this tree!

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So, how does freezing affect their taste and texture? I’m debating on freezing or drying a couple pounds. Cultivated Variety not known.

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Predicting frost tomorrow night, should I pick my only Honey jar? Or, do you think it can handle a light frost? Low temp of 40 is predicted. It has not colored up yet, still green, no brown.

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If frozen while fresh, freezing destroys their texture and the taste is bizarre. I do not know what freezing does to dried fruits. Generally speaking, I would just dry them rather than freeze them.

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This is zao cui wang. It can beat the taste of Honey Jar, but much bigger.

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My 2 nd year Massandra is limping along. It has 4 fruit on a very small tree.

They are ripening now, overlapping with Honey Jar. The fruit are small. I hope they get bigger down the road.

It tasted somewhat dry and a bit spongy. I don’t mind the taste but I mind the size of the fruit.

Here’s some comparison.
Massandra are small and long.
Honey Jar shape like a honey jar
Sugar Cane are the biggest ones.

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Fwiw, my Massandra in its first leaf gave me 3-4. About Sugar Cane size. Taste was a “B”, hopefully improves with age.

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That’s good to know.

My pictures were close-up so everything seemed large (even with a quarter there for a size comparison). In reality, my Massandra were tiny.

To me, any jujubes smaller than HJ are too small for my liking. I, too, hope Massandra’s taste will improve. Otherwise, it will have the same faith as Shanxi Li.

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My Massandra produced several fruit. They were probably about the same size as yours but I thought they were very good tasting. Two of the 4 seeds I had germinated and they are growing really well. The tree looks pitiful though. Not sure I can officially call it a tree. So far it’s one of those that if it makes it okay and if it doesn’t okay. It is early though…one of the first to ripen here.

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I officially done harvesting my 4 Honey jar jujube trees with a total of 10 gallon ziplock bags for the year. I kept 3 for fresh eating and the other 7 gallon ziplock bags freezed for year round snacks with SUPER HIGH VITAMIN C for boby health.

Tony

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Yesterday was planting day. We were so dry you couldn’t dig holes. We got 2-3 inches of rain on Friday so…

I planted out 14 seedlings. 7 contorted and 7 Honey Jar. Not sure what they will become but they can be grafted later. So I guess they will become a juju forest!

I keep thinking what will happen to all these when I die…bulldozer? I actually think the jujus are so tough it will be really hard to get rid of them completely!! :joy::joy::joy:

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Any ‘secrets’ to seed germination? Cold stratification? I want to try some seedlings…and I’ve collected a few seeds.

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No stratification needed. Plant the seed whole with the shell or crack it to get the two seeds out and plant it in May.

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These were all grown/eaten this year and the seeds planted

Li does not have seeds. Cracked and extracted from the shell seeds will germinate in 5-10 days usually. I planted some in August/September this year but I don’t expect frost/dormancy until mid November. I’m saving a lot of seeds to plant in February or March depending on my weather. I do have a big greenhouse that I could keep them going but they will go dormant at some time regardless. I’m not sure what mortality rate to expect with the late planting…I’ll find out!!

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just saw at the other thread that brought up sustainable farming. Evidently, @k8tpayaso, sustainable edible reforestation is what you’ve jumpstarted on your patch of mother earth. People may complain about jujus being hard to kill – and rightfully folks should complain – if the suckers are thorny and producing tiny and bland or sour fruits. But an own-rooted and good-fruited juju that is not too thorny and growing into an indestructible thicket of suckers is equivalent to a perennial and renewable resource that would provide for multiple generations.
the species puts a check mark on each and every relevant aspect/hot topic nowadays when it comes to environmental conservation, pesticide-free/sustainable farming, food crop diversification, and health consciousness:
does it need little water? check
does it need zero pesticides? check
are the trees low maintenance/needing little pruning/sustainable? check
are the trees productive on barren/inhospitable soil? check
are trees tolerant of temperature extremes? check
are the fruits nutritious? check
do the fruits have plenty antioxidants? check
are the fruits sweet? double check
is the lumber of high quality? double check
are trees long-lived with equally long productive lifespans? triple check

if industrialization and population explosion must proceed-- resulting in enormous carbon footprints and hungry mouths to feed, well, mass-planting with long-lived and maintenance-free edible tree crops is easily the most cost-effective and practical approach.

also quite sweet, fragrant, and pretty :wink:

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Don’t mess with my feelings :crazy_face:
For now I’ve only tried shanxi li, from my own tree, and probably lang from my friend (i dont count two tiny fruits of tigertooths last year). And I like it. When you say something like that I start to think how good other varieties are :thinking:

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RNo, Martin,
Often, the climate influence the quality of fruit. Recently, I saw a post from @castanea ranked Shanxi Li very high.

People in the humid east coast like @BobVance and I seem to produce spongy low quality Shanxi Li. Also, taste is subjective. What you like may be what I don’t like. If possible, try any fruit yourself and decide.

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My Black Sea fruit. Got the scionwood from a generous member. The graft took and produce two fruit. They are small. They have distinct pointed bottom.


The comparison is for Black Sea, Honey Jar and Sugar Cane.

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