Those mushrooms kind of look like hen of the woods!
Bob,
Imagine how much more productive that tree would be had it have enogh sun light?
Now I feel bad about chucking so many of them over the last few years. It is growing around the stump of the tree the neighbors removed. I read some online descriptions and it certainly sounds like Hen-of-the-woods. Iām not all that adventurous (even for store-bought mushrooms), but maybe my wife will want them. Anyone know of a good test to make absolutely sure of its identity?
Probably none. 
It could actually be the first Li to ripen for me, even though Iāve planted several Liās over the years. All the others had more sun and produced nothing.
I noticed another interesting thing today. I was looking at my Shanxi Li and thinking- wow there is a lot of fruit on that one branch, high up in the tree. When I looked a bit closer, I found an old graft union and a tag. It turns out that one of the old Bok Jo grafts survived after all. This branch isnāt as productive as the Bok Jo on the next tree over that Iāve posted a number of pics of. But it is still much more productive than the Shanxi Li that it is on. The fruit on the Shanxi is generally spaced apart by 1-2ā, instead of a few inches in the Bok Jo graft. But, the other Bok Jo graft is lower in the neighboring tree and probably has 2X as much fruit per area.
So, it seems like Bok Jo is naturally very productive, but there may be another component to the over-the-top production I am getting on the other tree. Maybe it is helped by pollination from the rootstock (which also sets a ton of fruit, even in a branch along the ground). Iāll have to try grafting both Bok Jo and the rootstock to some other trees, both alone and together.
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Maybe post your pictures over to this thread?
Iāve never found them in the wild before, and my experience comes from buying them at the farmers market. It would be nice for you if they were truly hen of the woods (never seen any other mushroom quite like them). I have to pay a premium of about $20/lb when I want to buy them.
Thanks- Iām interested e to see what the experts say.
Ouch! That means I just chucked at least $400 worth of mushrooms in the brush pile!
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I have two colorful books on mushrooms, but I still only eat 3 or 4 that I find. Have on in fridge past week Iāve not studied enough to be sure I want to eat it.
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Wow, what an amazing jujube! Where did you acquire this variety? I googled the name and it took me back to growingfruit.
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Iāve grafted it twice and not gotten it to grow. It looks beautiful!!
Yup- this one has produced each year since grafting. It was productive last year (not as much as this year), even when most of my other jujubes had almost nothing. But, as the post I made yesterday shows, it doesnāt seem to be as massively productive on all stocks (though it had a lot more than the host tree). @cousinfloyd has quite a few hanging on his this year, though I think it is his first time with it fruiting.
It is a Korean variety from Cliff England.
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Bob,
Your Bok Jo is amazingly productive.
Regarding fruit drop, I have had a lot of drops, too. More so than previous years. Not sure whether or not our very dry summer (an unusual environment that our trees may not be used to) was a factor.
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My Honey Jar Jujubes are loaded as usual. A must have jujube for starters.
Btw, Sugarcane is a tad bit bigger but I liked HJ much more.
Bonus photo of potted TamKam non astringent kaki
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Hereās a pic showing the relative productivity of the other varieties nearby. The closest is the rootstock, which is quite productive of mediocre fruit, which is growing along the ground. The Sugar Cane has some, but is spotty (some parts have almost none). And the Shanxi Li has even fewer, though some are quite large for the first time.
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I am surprised that your previous Shanxi Li werenāt large. I planted Shanxi Li because of its large size.
I look forward to trying them this year. We have had lot of rain recently and more rain in the future. Iād like to find out if all this rain will help improve its texutre.
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Yes, in the past, they were long and thin. This year, the few that remained on the tree (lots of early drop) are large and fat. Maybe the long thin ones were just what the tree does when it isnāt properly developed, but has to finish ripening it quick due to fall setting in?
Hereās one from a few weeks ago, with the wider shape.
In comparison, here is one from a month earlier, with the thinner shape:
Iām also very interested to see if it will be higher quality.
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One thing you might want to consider about Topeka for your zone is its very late ripening. Would that be a problem for you? Hereās something I copied down, must have been from NMSU: āVery late fresh eating cultivar. Too late for northern New Mexico.ā
What would be the notable differences between seedlings and suckers?
Suckers come from seedlings.
Then what did you mean to say jujube seedlings were preferred over and above? What are the other options?
I was also thinking, though, that seedlings might be preferred because they might not tend to sucker as much as if one selected for those trees that produced the most suckers. Although, on the other hand, I suppose one could select for those suckers which were least abundant.
I donāt know the answer, but I hypothesized almost the exact same thing a few years ago (I just did a quick search, but couldnāt find the post). Great minds
If you grow on suckers, the trees with the most suckers will be a majority of what you grow, making lots of suckers even more likely. You are basically applying a strong selective pressure, where non-suckering rootstocks wonāt replicate and the most prolific get get a boost. But, suckers havenāt been a big deal in my applications (most would get mowed, if I wasnāt looking to harvest them), so Iāve started digging them and potting them up for grafting next spring. Iām also growing seedlings, but that seems to be a very long process for me. Iāve got some which are 3+ years old and still only 2-3ā tall.
I suppose that you could look for trees that only sucker once in a blue moon and take those, but you wonāt get many candidate that way. I wonder if you can prompt suckering with root-cutting?
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