Yeah. And we’ve been wetter than normal with humidity almost as high as the heat. Some of them are gas infused too…break them open to a bit of a pop or foam escaping from the split. It horrible BUT…the seeds seem to be in good shape and that’s worth growing them if they pan out as good rootstocks.
Sihong has been excellent this year and Redlands #2 is really good…better than Li. Many trees have a second crop coming on so I really can’t complain.
Fresh ripen, sweet, crunchy, juicy, yummy Honey Jar. I can eat them all day. Actually 30 as I picked my 6 HJ trees
Yours ripened already? Mine will be at least two weeks from now.
if there’s a silver lining to the black mold attacking your xu zhou’s, they help soften the pulp, if not consume it into nothingness, which would help you get to the pit more easily.
jujus that rarely split , say, sihong when parched it can get as tough as brown coconuts, making it difficult to access the seeds due to the additional armor of petrified sugars within the dense pulp
This is true…I just pinched them open and in most cases the pits just came right out. Much easier than most of the others.
On a lot of my SiHong when you bite into them the pit comes open and the seed isn’t viable. Some of them look to have another seed in the other side but I haven’t checked them yet. I’ve never had that happen more than just occasionally in the past. It’s pretty common this year.
it does occur with our sihong’s sometimes, and likewise with other cultivars. Have to say though it does not occur as often as you’ve indicated with yours. Couldn’t think of a definitive cause other than growing conditions
When shelling pits for seed Sihong has the softest shells of any I’ve worked with. Or at least these here do.
Do the jujube seeds require that extra work? This year I left a wild jujube fruit laying on the bathroom counter all the way from last summer until this summer. Typically I would have given more care, but I forgot about it, and so it stayed. It hadn’t been wet or anything, so it just petrified. Early summer, I decided to see if it would germinate. I think I cleaned off the shell and the petrified flesh, stuck it in a pot, and watered, and it came up just fine. No stratification or anything, which I thought was nice.
not really, if you have lots of pits to work with, seeds within the pips will bust open the hard shells. Or more likely, the shells bust open on their own after several days of being moist. The only issue with this is that the developing cotyledons and young leaves/bud may get trapped in the shells(like a helmet) which can cause inadvertent death if the shells get accidentally snagged or pulled, beheading the youngster. The bud may also get suffocated being confined in it.
youngster may/may not grow back from root sucker, but the chances of survival is obviously low with roots being so tiny
Many of the shells will have two seeds. Many times the seedlings will keep the seed hull over the cotyledons and won’t shed it with growth. I’ve gotten pretty good with the “c-section” required to remove the hull. I’m pretty sure the seedling with the trapped shell would not be saved. (And I’ve seen pictures of a lot of helmeted seedlings). So since it is important to me to get as many seedlings as possible I shell them. If I had more pits than I really needed I might just plant the pits. I’m am not to that point yet.
Sounds good. I assumed the pits would be something like plums or peaches, which seem to split open just fine with some moist stratification. Turns out that the wild jujube are even easier! 
I maybe soaked this “experimental” seed in water for 48 hours to soften the shell before I planted it. Idk. It was perfectly dehydrated with no mold or anything.
I happened to have a few ripened Sugar Cane and Ant Admire fruits today and tried shelling for the seeds.
I tried on two each. I didn’t get any seeds from Sugar Cane. One pit was empty and another had under developed seed. On the other hand, both Ant Admire fruits yielded good looking seeds. I’m just not sure if they are mature enough. They are cream color instead of the brown color I have seen from pictures online.
Unfortunately i havent been able to germinate light colored juju seeds @Z9gardener . Those look plump and firm though so maybe viable. From what observed, seeds that are well-tanned/dark brown and relatively hard(not leathery) are the most viable ones
Are the fruits to be well ripened on the tree with wrinkled skin before seeds are harvested from their pits?
I don’t know about Ant Admire but some are mature when the fruit is creamy with a little brown…still firm and juicy. Like Honey Jar and sugar cane. I have a wild jujube that I have to let the fruit get completely brown and start to get soft to get a mature seed. So I may be a variety thing. Most of the time though when a variety is really good eating stage the seed will be mature. I like certain fruits almost all brown before I think they are the best eating. I don’t know if that makes a difference but it might have to do with the sugar level. Just a guess on my part.
I have eaten fruit fresh and shelled the pits, planted the seeds and gotten a seedling so no stratification is required. However it is a lot easier to remove the seeds from the pit undamaged if you store them for a while. As the pit and seeds dry the seed shrinks a bit and is much easier to remove from its compartment.
Hi everybody! I think HJ is very good source to collect the seeds. I have HJ, Sugar cane and another one but just only HJ gave me seeds and I succeeded to germinate one of them.
Honey Jar fruit have a very high incidence of viable seeds. The pits are easy to crack and the seeds have an excellent germination rate. The seedlings will grow and survive better if planted in a mix that supplies food.
Agreed. In addition to the seed shrinking a bit, I think the pit drying makes it easier to crack with the vice-grips. When they are fresh, they are more likely to smush. I actually saved a bunch of pits last fall, then about 3 weeks ago I cracked and planted some (~40, which didn’t make much of a dent in the # I have).
The pits spent quite a while in a fridge, but that was mostly me just putting them out of the way- and they were hiding in a left-overs container (I’d hate to see actual leftover that were that old…). I planted 4 per pot and most of the pots have at least 1, and sometimes 2-3 growing.
I had my first undamaged juju ripen today. A somewhat small Sugar Cane. Like you, my Honey jar aren’t ripe yet. But, I’m looking forward to the next month. I’ll try to take good notes on each variety. Due to fruit drop, I think I’m down to between 20-25 varieties (from almost 40 with fruit at one point).
Wow- I’ve had juju’s crack before and they were still fine to eat. Not like what Xu Zhou does for you. I’ll have to keep a close eye on my Xu Zhou, so I can pick them as soon as they crack.
