I planted my first two jujubes in an area that I mow almost like a lawn. Regular mowing seems to be a good way to manage jujube suckers, but the trouble with planting jujubes in areas that I regularly mow is that in my case those areas are too close to beds and other areas where the jujube suckers are a pain. So my question is what are the strategies you all employ for making jujube suckers as little of a problem as possible?
The rootstocks that the first two jujubes I bought came on (and the suckers of which I’ve since transplanted for additional rootstocks) send up extremely vicious hook and dagger thorny suckers. Are there thornless or at least much less thorny rootstocks anyone uses instead? That would make the suckers less troublesome.
I have a small farm, so I could choose an area for planting jujubes that’s far enough away from areas where the suckers would be most troublesome, but those are areas that I mostly manage for pasture or that I would otherwise only bush hog 2-3 times per year. Will jujube thorns even puncture tractor tires? Is that something I should be concerned about if I let the suckers grow for most of a growing season before bush hogging?
Any other thoughts on dealing with jujube suckers?
2 Likes
the only strategy could think of is to dig them up and start a mini-nursery using them as rootstock, or if not, just slash them as close to the ground(or deeper than the ground) as possible. Smaller hand shovels usually work well for decapitating.
there are relatively thornless juju cultivars growing on their own roots. Moreover, among wild-type rootstock used by nurseries, there will also be lazy producers of suckers, and there will be prodigious ones. Jujus, being quite hardy and trouble-free, are not as particular as conventional fruits when it comes to rootstock, so growers are likely to just raise roostock from seed(which explains the variability among rootstock).
Or they simply dig up suckers from actively producing rootstock, which was the late Mr. Meyer’s business model.
i currently have four relatively thorn-free cultivars on their own roots: vegas booty, vegas bounty, vegas sweetie, and sihong.
the first three i grew from seed(and named in a bratty way, lol), and the sihong obtained from another juju aficionado
booty and sihong are the least thorny, but perhaps simply because they are older clones.
i wish to establish a jujube grove some day where all the rootstock used are that of booty/sihong etc. Only trouble with sihong is that it bears viable seeds, so may ‘contaminate’ the land it is growing on with new cultivars that might be thorny. Booty seems to be sterile, but too early for me to tell .
also bought 5 cultivars from jfae, sold supposedly on their own roots, but have yet to prove the rootstocks’ identities as there’s just one that sprouted from a root cutting, and hasn’t yet fruited. We update its progress on this other thread. Will be poaching more root cuttings this winter.
6 Likes
Hi all- I have a few multigrafted Li’s and Lang’s in-ground and they’re doing well. There are a few 1-3’ suckers and I was curious if these might also have their own roots, or are just single stems sprouting from the main trunk. If the former, could I just take a shovel and separate them from the truck as viable trees? Any advice for this process (time of year, special care, techniques, etc)? Thank you.
1 Like
they are probably about to undergo dormancy, if not already dormant, so yeah, you could try driving a relatively sharp shovel in between the sucker and the mother tree and see if you could manage to uproot the sucker in a way that it will have viable root hairs. Watering the soil around the suckers would help soften the soil to ease pulling them up.
2 Likes
Thank you. Not dormant yet, but probably in a few weeks. (We’re still 70s here in Tucson.) One of these multigrafts is topped with one of your Vegas cultivars. Thanks again for that.
2 Likes
Happy to hear that @PaulMtree !
we hope some of them have produced quality fruit for you. Pls keep us posted with critique’s. And yes, we are equally happy with negative critique’s as well as positive ones since we’re hungry for data when it comes to growing conditions for the very reason that las vegas is NOT the center of jujube universe 
we have a few more seed-grown cultivars we’re curious about and the only way to find out is to broadcast them far and wide asap
1 Like
pull them up, send them to me. I’ll plant them. I’ll pay shipping.
seriously, you could pot them up or bare root them probably and sell or pass them on. for some of us thorns are not an issue and though I’d like good fruit from them, they’re likely to be nice even as a hedge.
2 Likes