Need the total height to be more than six foot or it will not last long here. Will the HJ exceed that enough to be worthwhile?
Honey Jar will get well over 6ft. Mine has only been in the ground a few years and is already at least 9ft tall. I’ve considered pruning it back so I can pick the fruit on top more easily.
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You meant the total height of a full grown HJ tree? It will be well over that.
I thought you asked about the size of bare root HJ. If you can find a bare root tree in a large size ( 4’ of taller), you get a good head start. It will grow over 6 ft in 2-3 years.
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Bob Wells has 4-5 foot potted ones for $70. That’s a good start. Glad to hear HJ has some size. Going to complete that sale tonight.
A Potted jujube for $70 is a good price. When I bought my 4’ HJ, bare root, it was $65 and that was a few years ago.
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Was also thinking about Shanxi Li, but I already have LI. Do they taste any different?
Don’t know where you live.
@BobVance and I are in New England. We have said it several times that our experience with Shanxi Li has been similar. Although the fruit can be large, taste is subpar, texture is kind of spongy and it is not productive (lot of flowers, not many fruit).
I’m a little further south of Scott. Think I will skip it too. East coast is very specific in what does well here.
I’m in North Carolina, and I wouldn’t recommend Shanxi Li either. I’ve had some good tasting fruit on my tree, but so far never more than a handful. If you want another recommendation for the East Coast after Honey Jar, then Black Sea seems to be productive and good tasting here. Mine has fruit that are significantly larger than Honey Jar.
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They don’t carry it where I’m shopping. I’m going with HJ and Sugar Cane.
Yes, I was going to say that you’d probably have a hard time getting a 4’ Black Sea tree. HJ and Sugarcane are good choices.
It’s not a bad option if you are getting it during the summer when bareroot isn’t possible. But from what I understand, at this time of year, the Bob Wells “potted” trees are just bare root trees which are shipped with a pot and some potting medium (they recently got the trees from DWN and pottted them up). You may as well get a bare root tree from DWN for $20 less…
Good choices- I don’t view Li as much better than Shanxi Li. As NCDabbler said, Black Sea is also good. So is Russia #2 (very similar to BS IMO) and Massandra. So/Contorted isn’t bad and is quite productive and aesthetically interesting with pretty good fruit (not quite as good as the others listed above, but better than Li/Shanxi Li).
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They are repotted bare roots. Could be wrong, but I think they let them grow a year in the pot before sale. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
They pot up plants from DWN. The ones I got last summer weren’t any bigger than usual DWN trees (one was actually smaller), so they definately didn’t spend a year in the pot.
Also, I asked someone who recently visited and he confirmed that when he went to plant:
He also mentioned that Contorted (another name for So) was the largest one they had by far.
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I bought a ton of persimmon and asian pears from them late last summer. They had pretty good roots, but I could tell they were repotted bare root. Guess those had the advantage of 6-7 months in the pot. Maybe I should wait. Not a fan of bare roots.
Now thinking of trying out OGW instead. I looked at the link you sent and the picts of your order had pretty small trees, but their selection can’t be beat. What would you recommend from their selection as far as east coast production. Was thinking black sea and winter delight. They mostly offer the Ukrainian selections. Speaking of them. Do you know of anyone on the east coast that has tried the Ukrainian almonds? Englands made them sound promising.
They do have good selection. But, the size is so small that it takes forever and a day for them to size up. You may be able to speed the process up by ensuring that they are in full sun and get lots of water and fertilizer during the growing season. Over the years, I’ve mulched them and fertilized maybe once a year. And the Black Sea I planted in fall 2015 just started producing this past year (year #5). With attentive care, you may be able to get a few fruit on a 5’ tall “tree” by year #3.
I think you would have a much larger tree and quicker fruiting by planting a bare root DWN tree of any variety and grafting over it. That is what I’m doing this year for most of my additions. In fact, I’m going to see if I can speed up the process by getting 1-2 scions onto the newly planted trees.
If you decide to go with OGW, then I agree that Black Sea is the obvious choice for tree #1. It looks like they are out of stock for Honey Jar, Sugar Cane, and Massandra, which would all be good options for tree #2.
Of the trees they have in stock, I think your choices are:
1.) Autumn Beauty- by far the largest fruit, but not as crisp as HJ/SC/BS. While the quality isn’t top-level, it isn’t bad at all and if size is important to you, then this would be a good choice.
2.) Winter Delight- I’m a bit confused on this one. I’ve heard some good and some bad, partly because there a naming issue years ago (from OGW, I think). I’m growing Winter Delight (and “Winter”/“Dong”, which may be different) from several nurseries. So far, none have produced yet though, so I’m not really sure.
These last 2 are brand new. I just added each of them this past fall- the only time I would get a 1 gal jujube from OGW is if I wanted to add the variety. I’m going to see how fast I can size these up with attentive care…
3.) Confeti- opposite of Autumn Beauty, in that the fruit size should be pretty small, but it is reputed to be crisp and juicy. The 1-2 partially ripe ones that came in my shipping box seem to support that description. It also gives me hope that it would be a productive tree, as none of the other varieties from OGW had fruit when shipped (on 1-2’ plants…). It is also from the botanic garden in Ukraine, the same place which produced other productive cultivars such as Black Sea and Massandra, so it seems like a good bet.
4.) Empress Gee- The description makes it sound like it would have good fruit quality. And that it is a Korean cultivar gives me hope that it would be productive in our region. Bok Jo (another Korean variety) has been the most productive one I have.
Sorry- I’ve never tried to grow almonds, or really even read much about it (other than it is like peaches but with only the pit…).
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Just going small at first to see what they are about at OGW. Black Sea and two Ukrainian Almonds. Mamuang was also advising to buy the largest size because they grow so slow. Problem is no one has large. They all have the one to two footers for super huge prices. I’m starting to think I’m to poor to play in the jujube game.
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Your jujube tree might not grow that much the first year, but once it gets established it will grow much more quickly. I wouldn’t say they’re the slowest growing trees - pretty average in my estimation. And they bear fruit very early compared to most other fruit trees.
A couple of years after planting your first jujube tree, you’ll probably have root suckers coming up all around your tree that you can transplant and use as rootstock for more jujube cultivars.
The general consensus is that Honey Jar is best variety to have on the East coast in terms of productivity and flavor, so I think you’re right to wait for that one.
If you aren’t in a big hurry and want to save money, then you could have Fruitwood Nursery notify you when their $7 jujube rootstocks are back in stock. Rootstocks: Jujube Rootstock Once those are established, you can graft any variety you want onto it. I’d be happy to send you some scions next year if you choose to go that route.
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I already have a Li. The Li provides more than enough suckers. Also have two seedlings I got last year. Just never got around to learning to graft. I appreciate the offer though. I still have room for whole trees and that’s easier. My issue with the small trees are the deer. Even protecting everything their criminal actions still find a way to beat me out of money every year.