So many of mine have been suboptimal…large multiple splits on the fruit but we’ve had a very hot dry year. They seem to take forever to mature and they seem to always taste a bit immature. However, I have not let one get solid brown yet so maybe they are better when allowed to completely color up. It’s a first year small tree that has been very productive for its size and they are pretty sweet and good even with imperfect fruit so I think it might have the potential to be really good. It would be nice to have a really late good cultivar.
it is one of the reasons why i eat them green, as they’re inclined to split, even in in our dry climate. Suffice it to say that xu zhou’s( like several elongated and pear-shaped jujus)will never be a viable prospect for commercial production due to fruit-split
li juju, still bearing fruit despite what appears to be a nutrient deficiency. Incidentally, i sometimes feel that nutrient intake(or lack of-- like in this case), is dependent on rootstock’s ability to assimilate, as this is the only li which presents with the problem . Trees nearby seem very healthy
vegas baby: fruits may be tiny, but quality is somewhat similar to sihong when fully-tanned. An excellent alternative as it seems “energy-efficient”, being able to produce fruits as an understory graft/ in shaded conditions
sherwood, often the laggard, but seem to be more tolerant of hot weather than other jujus, as fruits are more juicy. I guess it also helps that it is a late variety. Not a dense producer, but still advisable to grow if in desert conditions.
two photos of shanxi li below, often the largest-fruited(beats out autumn beauty, li, li2,globe, kuk jae, and redlands in size), but we find this subpar to autumn beauty and li in overall quality
and your trees, seedlings, grafts will be bigger next year. Increases your juju immersion–more suckers, uprights, laterals, and fruiting stems to watch. And more jujus to pop in your mouths, yay!
below, the root mass that got me greedy-- poached for several sizeable segments, as a root cutting from a supposedly self-rooted contorted would quickly determine if it is in fact on its own roots, if subsequent vegetative growth will be contorted
Raf, It would not be bad to clean up a little your pruning scissors
Is it possible to reproduce jujube in this way? Since I did not have much success with seeds, maybe I could try this way to get seedlings.
but those golden brown swirls and streaks fashionably impart a rust-ic look
kidding aside, yes, jujubes vegetatively reproduce this way. Many nurseries actually use suckers instead of seedlings for rootstock. Domesticated juju cultivars on their own roots are coveted because there’s no need to graft, and are not as thorny as the typical wild-type rootstock used by nurseries.
the first usa-grown and usa-processed jujube dates i have seen being sold here in las vegas. Quite pricey compared to those dried jujus shipped from china. Quite likely li cultivar .
IMO, sihong and hj juju dates should be prioritized by juju farmers
Thanks to @k8tpayaso for the tip re: jujus on own roots. So excited for below to arrive at our doorstep! And also curious about shanxi li, which has totally different description from what received from Mr R. Meyer…
and have to give loads of credit to JFAE for pioneering the mass production of self-rooted domesticated jujus. I foresee it being their “bread and butter” with their sales of jujubes.
[Order #16955] (June 1, 2019)
Product
Quantity
Price
Mango Dong Zho “Winter Delight” Jujube Tree - Own Root, 3 GAL, 3-4 FT
yes, they are, and copy-pasted below the delivery date. They only ship on mondays, which makes sense.
btw, with juju cultivars on their own roots, the seller wins because there’s no need to graft, which should help lower costs, and the buyer wins because there’s no need to worry about undesirable suckers.
the only possible caveat to this of course, is if the cultivar does not do well on its own roots, say-- sensitive to “cold feet”(in colder regions), as spinosa-type rootstock seems to be the most hardy— if not impossible to kill if it spreads out into a practically immortal thicket(which is a good thing that can also be seen as bad).
Shipping Date
2019-06-10
Our plants ship on Mondays. Please select a Monday and your plant will ship as soon as possible, weather permitting. Expect delivery in 3 to 5 business days. You will receive a UPS tracking number the day your plants are shipped.
@jujubemulberry how is your Contorted doing? Mine got a bit of a shock with our 19 degree temp after breaking bud. The top scaffold had to be cut back but it’s coming out from the next one down so it didn’t lose a lot of height. It has a few fruitlets on it.
forgot to add, several years ago we were successful getting hj to root using walmart-obtained rooting hormones, but the specimen was rather weak(perhaps due to the plant version of 'roid rage? not really sure), which only sent out a few deciduous fruiting branches(that didn’t blossom) and died after two or three years. Perhaps overdosed it or underdosed, i really don’t know
jfae evidently found the right combination of plant hormone brew specific to jujus-- considering that they are already selling them!
ours seemed to have suffered as well with our unusually cold spring. The month of may was the coldest have experienced so far. We never turned on the AC the entire month, which says a lot! Anyway, the contorted is alive and bearing some fruitlets, and did grow a couple of short uprights, but nothing of promise, so far.
There was an upright about to grow before the freeze but it didn’t make it through the cold. The upper branch that is growing now has been very weak growth but I’ve noticed an uptick in the last week on it and perhaps a new upright coming up. The rest of it looks okay…even the branches that were budded but the top branch took a hit as did several of my other young plants. The others were quicker to bounce back. So… time will tell. I think @tonyOmahaz5 has some Honey Jar seedlings that make it through his winters just fine. On my Contorted seedlings I had die back on about 50% of them…not to the ground but the upper branches. 50% are unharmed. My Honey Jar seedlings as a group did much better…80% or better are fine and most of those are last summer seedlings. Guess we will find out the toughies and the wussies.
