Are you going to fill it with jujube? If so, it won’t be as hard of work as filling it with some other fruit trees. Or even worse strawberries- a lot of bending there.
That (jujubes) is what should be arriving soon for me. I wouldn’t normally plant in late December, but I ordered from GrowingOrganics and they ship as soon as they are in (12/21 according to the web site). Last year I planted from them on Feb 21st (still deep into winter) and they grew very well. But I’m only getting 5 of the ~20 from them, as it’s best to space things out a bit and they only have 3 varieties in stock.
Yes, some jujus will be there and persimmon I think. Maybe some blueberries. I have enough of the other types of fruit trees. I really enjoy the ones that don’t require much care!
I used to keep mules in a small pen ( here you have to strictly control what they eat or they founder) and I would haul piles of manure to my garden. I would shovel all I could fit onto a big tarp and then harness up a mule and slide it to the garden. I never over fertilized with it , there is so much organic material that just passes through equines.
I’ve never really had to be careful with the horse manure. Cow manure is always a richer fertilizer and then chicken poop can burn like crazy but as you say the equines just don’t produce as much nitrogen. It is good rich compost though. And it sure makes nice vegetables!
Bob, you’re going to be the one man juju introducer to the regular people. You keep filling your rental land with jujubes and everyone will want to rent from you!!!
had no idea there was another one that does that. I ordered a contorted on its own roots at jfae and will be delivered next week. All other nurseries tell you they ship in spring, so one tends to procrastinate making the order, and when finally decide to order the jujus already sold out.
The problem is the delay between planting and harvest. So far, other than a few berries, the only thing I’ve harvested at a rental is a single Asian pear.
I procrastinate about many things, but ordering more trees is not usually one of them. During the winter there is plenty of time to plan out what you want to do. In fact, I had things mapped out and ordered a month ago. Now, pulling weeds, eliminating animals, and keeping things properly mulched are things I tend to put off more than I should.
JFaE is a bit different, as they will hold until spring if needed. Grow Organic doesn’t hold anything- they just ship when they are ready.
I may get another Contorted from JFaE and a few more persimmons. But that is one I’ve been putting off, as the property hasn’t closed yet. I may pull the trigger on that once we’re a bit closer, as worst case scenario is that I can maintain potted trees for a bit. I probably wouldn’t have them deliver until mid March anyway.
But that property doesn’t have much space anyway. Just a few trees in front and maybe 1 on the side. When I mentioned this unfortunate fact to my wife she responded “You got plenty of space in the last one…”. Which is true- I have 13 trees planned for there (9 jujube, 4 persimmon, and maybe a couple muscadines). The previous owner had almost the entire backyard as a garden and a fig tree in the back corner, along with peach and pear out front.
one more wide gaping space you need to fill up there @BobVance . Myself have that ‘intractable itch’ whenever i see idle land like that.
any square foot of bare earth that sunlight manages to reach is equivalent to a square foot of photovoltaic energy wasted. And solar panels in the form of greenery/foliage is just impossible to beat — in output, function, and esthetics.
feel free to post your ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos here
speaking of bare land, have to thank you for the lead re: contorted juju on its own roots. We are actually planning on populating ‘virgin’ property with nothing less than self-rooted jujubes. Including the contorted that am so excited to get from jfae, will now have 6 self-rooted desirable cultivars that will be trying to propagate and broadcast to all and sundry.
when it comes to jujubes, sharing budwood is quickly becoming passe – sharing suckers/root cuttings/successful airlayers is the hottest new trend here in usa
I tend to feel the same way- growing lawn is a poor use of energy. Though it is generally easier (and more aesthetically pleasing) to keep mowing an area, than to let it go wild and then clear it again. One nice thing about the above yard is that there aren’t any tall trees around. Only the few medium ones to the North East which you see at the top of the picture.
What are the other 5 cultivars? The only other one I know they were selling was Tigertooth.
Glad to hear it- I look forward to receiving such suckers!
Actually, I tried to air layer So/Contorted this past year and in late fall when I looked, there were no roots. I guess putting a rock and some dirt on a low branch weren’t enough…
good those are on the northeast. They could be a thousand feet tall and still won’t be much of a negative impact considering their position relative to the yard.
as for the other 5 self-rooted cultivars, i have 4 vegas-sown and vegas-grown cultivars that bear good fruits.
unfortunately three of them are a bit thorny and small-fruited, and only have one that is not too thorny and luckily also big-fruited and of excellent quality. This last one we named ‘vegas booty’, and will definitely be the main cultivar to populate virgin property with. We’d be ok growing them as rootstock monoculture and just graft over with other desirable cultivars. Currently have a sihong clone(an absolute unicorn of a blue chip) from an out of state juju aficionado who miraculously manages to have some success airlayering jujus, while the loser typing this couldn’t get any to root-- thankfully could always blame the hostile climate conditions here
once managed to get an hj cutting to root using hormones, but struggled for a couple or so years then died of unknown reasons. Autopsy findings reveal nothing more than wispy root formation.
btw, also on the lookout for self-rooted sherwood to buy or trade, if anyone here lives in alabama/louisiana area, hint, hint.
their tigertooth is sadly out of stock, might be a typo as it says they have grafted ones
I think @zazlev has a tree on its own roots that suckers and he tends to think it’s Sherwood.
I think I’m going to have a good one…that seedling from Brenham is very sweet like Honey Jar. I’m calling it Texas Honey. Can’t wait for this year to see if these Sihong seedlings are any good. If we all get together we could make up a forest.
it does look like a vegetable garden, i agree. It is just that i was regarding it as an investment property and not actual extra yard space at @BobVance 's residence, with the thinking that a vegetable garden might not be practical to maintain, especially if the investment property is far away. And much easier to populate it with trees that don’t require much upkeep, and hardly any water.
you’re on a roll, already having an official entry to your texas series this soon! My vegas series took so much longer before could come up with one with decent quality fruits, having sifted through >100 seedlings…
as for your seedlings that take a long time to fruit, i may have already told you but just in case, juju seedlings that take a while to bear fruit compared to other seedlings in same growing conditions-- they generally have bigger fruits. The most precocious ones tend to have tiny fruits, so if the gestation period seems to be longer with some of your seedlings, at least there is that increased likelihood of something big
This sihong seedling hatched in January 2017 and has not bloomed yet…so I’m hoping it will be good. It has already suckered so I have two of them. It was one of the first seeds from Vegas and the only sihong seedling I’ve been able to germinate. I have high hopes! And of course it would belong to the Vegas series genetically.
