Roger Meyers Jujubes

General Fruit Growing
#1

I just received my jujube order from Roger Meyers and wanted to report on it. While I’ve seen lots of reports on the bigger nurseries (ACN, Dave Wilsons, etc), I haven’t seen anything which describes trees and rootstocks he sends out.

I ordered 50 rootstocks:
1.) It appears that he splits it into bags of ~10 (see the 5 bags below in the pic)
2.) From what I can see, the slips a few extra in each bag, as I got 11, 12, 12, 13, and 13.
3.) I’m not absolutely sure of the above, as I haven’t opened the bags yet to see the roots. Maybe there are just some rootstocks with Y shapes. If that is the case, it won’t bother me- they would be perfect to graft two types onto and give away as self-pollinating gifts to people who only want one tree.
4.) There is a great variety in calipers. The biggest was 7/16", while the smallest was 1/8"

The breakdown is as follows (size measured from near the top of the rootstock- some may be wider closer to the roots.

2/16"- 13, 21%
3/16"- 20, 33%
4/16"- 16, 26%
5/16"- 7, 11%
6/16"- 4, 7%
7/16"- 1, 2%

I’ve never tried to graft 1/8" caliper before, but I think it can be done. Past rootstock orders: Cummins (5/16"-8/16") and Raintree (~4/16"). Given how I was measuring near the top (the part which sticks out of the bag), the bottoms will in the 4/16"+ range for all but the smallest category. So, I’ll treat the 2/16" as a bonus, as there were 13 of them and I got ~11 extra rootstocks.

Three Trees-
Shanxi Li ($5 more than others)- 4/16" scion caliper and 12.5" of growth
Li- 4/16" caliper and 14" of growth
Honey Jar- 3/16" caliper and no apparent grown (2" scion)

I’m a bit worried about the Honey Jar, as it looks like the scion callused last year, but didn’t grow much if at all. It and the Li are for a Chinese co-worker, so I may give him an extra bench-graft or two in case it doesn’t take.

The Shanxi Li and Li are both small, but I bet they’ll put on good growth.

One thing I noticed looking at the trees is that he uses cleft grafts. That is comforting, as it is exactly what I’m planning to use and if he is doing that with all his trees, it must work out OK.

I’ll add more notes and pics as I open things up to start grafting and planting.

Note- this pic is cross-posted in the thread about how the cold part of the country is finally starting to see some warm weather (the 3 trees on the bottom are from Bay Laurel):

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#2

Interesting report, thanks.

#3

Bob

Your rootstocks are about the same size that the 10 Roger sent to me a couple years ago. I was able to do bark graft on 8 of them and the other 2 small ones I did cleft graft. All ten of them grew to 2-3 feet tall now. They did bloom the same season of grafting but I pulled all the flowers off to let them grow.

Tony

#4

What I want to know is, what are you going to do with 50 rootstocks? That could make one massive jujube planting.

Scott

#5

My original plan for 50 rootstocks was:
8- spread around my yard
12- 6 Chinese and Indian co-workers
10- for a nearby (.5 mile?) family friend- a Chinese family
5- parents
5- brother
10- potential rental property (which may or may not happen)

For any I don’t find a place for, I also have 20 3 gallon pots. Since I got more rootstocks than planned, I’ll probably need to use most of them. I see at least 4 other planting locations which will probably open up in the future- near the street when a large tree comes out, as jujube is supposed to be salt-tolerant.

To be grafted onto the rootstocks:
Winter Delight
Shihong
Autumn Beauty
Xu Zhou
Shanxi Li
Honey Jar
Ga866
Redland
Tigertooth
Kitaiski 2
Li #1
Li #2
Lang
Ant Admire
GI 7-62
GI-1183
Kitaiski-60
Texas Tart
Topeka
Porterville

I will also graft some So onto the rootstocks from my tree. In fact, I’ll probably make at least 1 So for each recipient, as it is a very pretty and compact tree with tasty fruit. I have Sugar Cane and Sherwood planted in the yard, but they are pretty young, so I probably won’t take any scions from them. The other 20 cultivars should be enough.

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#6

Cool! Sounds fun.

Jujubes are now on the top of my list for more room, I only have about 10’x20’ of space for all of my jujubes now.

Scott

#7

Scott , 10X20 is enough for several Jujubes

#8

But not for 8 of them! They just grow straight up.

Scott

#9

I bought 10 sprouts as rootstock from Roger this winter as well. The details of what I’m trying to do with them is in this thread Grafting Jujube

My rootstock were very similar to those Bob described above. I put mine in containers under lights. So far 6 of 10 have started to produce green leaves:

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I also used three root cutting grown Tigertooth as rootstock for grafting. The one in the foreground of the picture below is Globe W&T grafted to the Tigertooth that was about 1 1/2 growing seasons old. The next one is Admiral Wilkes grafted to Tigertooth the same age. It started leafing out first. The one in the back is Shanxi LI grafted to Tigertooth that is only about 1/2 growing season old. I thought it was too small to graft but one of the Shanzi LI scions I received was a good diameter match so I thought I’d give it a try.

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The rest of my scions are in the fridge waiting for the rootstock to establish.

Thanks,

Jack

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#10

Tony, I’m surprised that they are only 2-3’ tall after 2 years. I figured that they would be shooting for the sky.

Scott, the Chinese video linked in this GW thread says that they plant at 1.5-2 meters (5-6.5’) between trees, with 2-3 meter (6.5-10’) row spacing. Maybe they get more dwarfing due to a dry climate, but that equates to 32-65 square feet per tree, which means that (in theory), you could fit 3-6 trees in a 10x20 space (200 sq ft). Most of my new plantings, I’m putting at 5’ apart with 10-12’ row spacing. At least that’s what I’ll do in my very full yard. If someone has more space (like many of the people I’ll be sharing with), I’ll probably suggest about 10’ in a row.

ForestAndFarm, I didn’t get any Admiral Wilkes, as I was scared off by the “very last to ripen” description. I’ll be interested to hear how it does. I though about trying to grow some inside, but I decided to wait. I think the snow will be gone in the next week or so, given the sudden onset of spring weather.

#11

Bob,

That is exactly why I got Admiral Wilkes. I have an unusual application in that I’m using them for a deer management project. One of the reasons I started with Tigertooth is because of the late drop and I could find it on its own roots. My hope in the end is to have fruit dropping from late September through as late as possible in the year so the Admiral was on my list.

#12

Bob.

I did not give the Jujubes any special treatment at all. I may hit them hard with some Urea Nitrogen in a couple of weeks here to get them a jump start. The variety are: Shanxi Li, Li, Sihong, So, Sugarcane, Honey Jar, Lang, and Tiger Tooth.

#13

I should have mentioned I have 8 trees in the 10x20 area. That fact combined with only 6-7 hours of sun per day has produced too much vertical growth at the expense of fruiting.

Scott

#14

The 6-7 hours of sun may be the bigger issue. I like how Edible Landscaping’s website breaks down a plant into so many categories. All the jujubes are listed as only “fair” for shade tolerance. But they are Very Good to Excellent for Sun, Humidity, and Heat and good for Salt. Maybe near the road or driveway would be good locations?

#15

Its a trade-off, if you have more shade you need more open pruning and more room. I looked at Edible Landscaping and they rate apples as “poor” for shade tolerance but the apples around the jujubes are producing reasonably well. They are not as close together, though.

Scott

#16

I’ve noticed his rootstocks don’t have much roots, But if you pot them up, and if patient you can graft next season or one they actually start sprouting. Some of them will fail to sprout, and that’s why he throws in extras.

#17

I have a Shanxi Li that I planted about 5 years ago. It is barely 4.5 feet tall and the main stem is barely thicker than a standard #2 pencil, and can’t stand well on its own. I made the decision last year that it would be heavily fertilized this year and hopefully I can get some thickness added so that it will, in the very least, be able to stand without significant support.

It has grown in a very interesting way (it grew 2 feet tall, and because it is not able to support itself, the next foot or so is pretty parallel to the ground before it started upright again.

~Chills

#18

I received the scionwood from Roger late last week. I got home late that day and didn’t check the mail until the next morning when the kids got on the bus. At that point, it was ~27 degrees and had probably gotten down to close to 20 overnight. Hopefully this one time freeze won’t hurt the wood.

Here’s a pic of it. Instead of 10 sticks, I got 13, though 5 of the 10 varieties I asked for were missing. He did sub in 2 other types, though I already have scionwood of one of them.

It is pretty warm where he is in CA- I’m actually surprised he was able to cut wood at all at this point. For the month of Feb, only 3 days had highs under 70 degrees (and 2 days in the 90’s). I had incorrectly assumed that he would cut a bunch of wood earlier in the winter and take it out of the fridge as he fills orders. But, it looks like he collects it as needed.

Lesson learned- next time I will definitely ask him to send out the scionwood earlier- maybe late January.

Another note of interest- Roger apparently carries Autumn Beauty, even though it isn’t listed on the website (it was one he subbed).

Present(ordered):
Honey Jar (big caliper)
GI 762, Chico
GI 1183
Kitaiski 2
Li #2
Ant Admire (long and thin)

Present(sub):
Autumn Beauty
Sovietski

Missing:
Kitaiski-60
Texas Tart
Topeka
Porterville

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#19

Most of the sticks look dormant, but a couple are leafing out. In particular, Kitaiski 2 and Sovietski, which are both Russian cultivars. I wonder if they are earlier to leaf out in general. I’ll keep an eye on it in future years (assuming I get some takes).

Here’s Kitaiski2.

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#20

I ordered 10 and roger didn’t send me any extras as Bass got. I planted mine in containers immediately. So far 8 of 10 have at least started leafing out. It is too soon to know for sure if these 8 will take or to give up on the other two.