Bob Vance was kind enough to send me some Jujube scions for grafting. While they are far from taking, at least two of them are showing sings of leafing out. The name tags were a bit hard to read for my old eyes, so I could have the varieties spelled wrong. When I did a google search, what I have as Shi Hong had a lot of hits as Sihong.
At any rate, Bob, do you (or does anyone) know anything about these varieties? I’m specifically interested in:
What are the approximate ripening dates,
Do you need to shake the trees to get the fruit to drop?
Are they thorny?
Are they morning or afternoon bloomers?
What is the fruit size and productivity?
Anything else you might know would be appreciated. I’m less interested in fruit taste since that is very subjective.
Thanks in advance
shi hong is the same as sihong. I think i have >15 varieties of juju’s including shanxi li, honey jar, and sugarcane, and i would say sihong is the best tasting. It is a bit like sherwood, being dense, but has a lingering aftertaste and sublime flavor which makes me want to skip dinner and just stuff myself with this juju by the buckets! It releases its pollen in the afternoon, which may extend to early morning. Studies have shown it has the highest pollen activity, although it is not as prolific as honey jar, shanxi li, and sugarcane. Could be that its pollen activity only benefits those varieties other than itself…
My growing conditions btw, are in las vegas, and it might bear differently in your locale. Also, juju’s seems to be moody at times, but generally, it will bear the sweetest fruits in late summer(they bloom and bear fruit in succession beginning spring). It is not as thorny as chico, sugarcane, so, or li, but will have some thorns which will catch your attention every now and then. When i planted mine, i wasn’t so impressed about its first few fruits(my plants were still quite small), but on the following year, the taste and flavor drastically changed that i couldn’t believe it was the same plant i am harvesting from. A fruiting 2 yr old sihong looks like this: http://forum.vpaaz.org/photo/sihong-juju?context=user
fruits measure ~1.5", but could be bigger since my trees are still quite young.
as for yoinashi juju, i have never heard of it, but i could presume it will be pear-shaped like lang. Or were you pertaining to the yoinashi pear?
forgot to answer your other query, sihong in las vegas will start ripening by late august, as you could tell by the date on the picture i posted.
Here, it will continue bearing mature fruits until late october or even up to mid november, at least before cold weather sets in.
The Yoinashi is an Asian pear, not a jujube, so I hope that isn’t really what got grafted to the jujube. I think that was the only non-jujube you asked for (“The yionashi sounds good if you have it. Just one scion is fine for that. I only have one branch on my asian pear that I am wanting to graft over. Thanks.”).
Bob
I think we got our signals crossed or something was mislabeled. I don’t have any pears but I know how easy it is to confuse stuff when your shipping scions out to multiple folks. I guess we will know in time if leaves form. That certainly explains why I could find no information on it.
juju scions look like chicken bones, and often with a pair of thorns at the base of the secondary shoot, if your scions are primary shoots.
Also, the buds of jujus are uniquely located inferior to the side branches(secondary shoots), not at the upper angle of the axil, which is the more common location in most other plants.
Yes, it was a short scion and I was just assuming everything in the bag was a Jujube variety. I just went out an looked at the variety and it is clearly not Jujube. I don’t have room to cut the rootstock again. It has only be a few days. I wonder if I can rip it out and get another scion in there before it is too late for the tigertooth root stock.
Jack
If it was only a few days, I think it does not hurt to re graft onto the same cleft. Just take your knife and go over previous cut a couple of times to fleshing it up a bit then insert the new jujube scion.
Tony
I think I see what the problem was- I was sending jujube wood to another person at around the same time and his name also started with J. He was the one who asked for Yoinashi (the above quote). I’ve sent him a message to see if the wood I sent him was missing the Yoinashi.
Sorry about messing up your graft. I hope that re-grafting (possibly after shaving it down a quarter inch) works.
Bob,
Absolutely no need to apologize. You were very gracious in offering me the scions. I probably should have looked at the scion closer and asked.
Well, I got around to re-grafting it today. I had some 5" roottrapper bags already filled with mix since squirrels killed the chestnuts in them. Just for the heck of it, I applied some rooting hormone to both of the Yoinashi pear scions and put them in the bags. I doubt they will root but you never know. The rootstock was real close to the soil and I couldn’t see any cambium but I went ahead and tried re-grafting anyway. I’m out of rootstock so I didn’t have anything to lose.
Bob,
I presume the one marked Redlands is Redlands #4, not something different that I don’t know about. Is that correct?
From this thread, I believe it is Redland #4. But it wasn’t specified anywhere.
Even if the graft doesn’t take, maybe the rootstock will send up suckers. My new rootstocks haven’t sent any up yet, but if the one you are using is somewhat established, then maybe it has a shot.
Thanks. It is possible that I’ll get new growth from the rootstock but it may be exhausted. This particular tree is tigertooth rootstock that I grafted with a Globe this winter. The globe leafed out but expended all its energy and died before the graft was accepted. A stem started below the graft and I let it go. When I felt it was large enough to replenish the roots with energy, I cut below it (only had about an inch above the soil) and grafted that pear by accident. So, if this Redlands #4 doesn’t take, the roots may or may not have enough stored energy to put up new shoots. I would estimate that about 80% of the time when the first graft fails I either get a stem below the graft or a new shoot from the roots with the container grown Tigertooth. I don’t have enough data to know what the chances are after a second grafting attempt.