Burnt Ridge made it good!

General Fruit Growing
#21

Yeah…he had to walk a log way to get where he was going…

#22

To be honest, the only thing I know about jujubes is that it’s mentioned in a Beatles song or something? I could be wrong…

#23

That’s a monster mulberry, what roots and branches! They sure made it good for y’all.

Back home in OK, we had a big mulberry tree in our backyard when I was growing up. I don’t recall eating any of the fruit, but didn’t know they were edible at the time. All I remember is that you never went out to mow wearing your white sneakers, or all the berries would stain your shoes. It was cut down a few years later because it was encroaching on the power lines.

I just got back from visiting there for a few weeks, and the stump is still there. I did plant a pecan bareroot not too far from it while I was there. Hopefully Mom and Sis will have some pecans in a few years, there’s a big pecan next door that can pollinate it.

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#24

Nearly every nursery that sells these Contorted jujubes describes them as a dwarf…

#25

I used to sit in a mulberry tree eating every fruit I could reach. I would be stained up one side and down the other. I can’t imagine you never tasted them.

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#26

My attitude towards mulberry trees involves saws and strong herbicides

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#27

They are a bit like apples but smaller and very sweet. When you dry them they are even sweeter and can be used much like dates, hence they are called red dates or Chinese dates.

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#28

Some are crunchy (Honey Jar, Sugar Can, Contorted), while others are better for drying (Lang, Tiger Tooth). Brix is usually in the mid/upper 20’s to low 30’s.

You can read this thread if you don’t mind being convinced to buy a few…

#29

those are our trees. Crazy-crooked right? We are in the process of creating whimsical braids/figures as well as tree growth-training with radical pruning techniques.

as @k8tpayaso and @BobVance mentioned, they are apple-ish in taste and texture. Jujus are generally not as juicy as apples, and some are particularly dry, but this could be due to regional differences and time of year the fruits are borne.
there are juicy ones, like sugar cane, honey jar, priest, r1t4, etc, which seem to be juicy regardless of location and time of year they ripen. And like apples, there are mealy ones and not-so-crisp ones. Also, like apples and pears, some will ripen better/ improve in flavor when ‘cellared’ or refrigerated for several days.
and as Bob mentioned, they are super sweet. At a minimum 24 in brix for tree-ripened fruits, and with the more popular ones often exceeding 30.
i see you are in kentucky-- England’s nursery(in Mckee, zip code 40447) made kentucky famous for arguably the widest array of jujube cultivars in usa, perhaps north america.

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#30

i think it is due to their gnarly habit and short internodal segments. Could also be due having been grown on their own roots. Airlayers are generally more runty than those grafted on juvenile rootstoc.

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#31

While you’re here…I didn’t remember your book telling at what temperature new growth on jujube freezes at. It was down to 27 degrees F last night (only the third time it was below 32 degrees this winter here in Gainesville Florida)…but this morning all the new growth on a half dozen or so jujube trees that have budded out with leaves look fine. I know your book says late freezes aren’t a problem for fruit production, but inquiring minds want to know. Meanwhile…I probably lost most my peaches and apples, and a serious setback to most my figs and some mulberries (I’m so over peaches and apples, but my wife insists they stay).

#32

I lost two trees to spring freezes. Don’t remember how cold it got but there was about 12 inches of new growth. Peach trees were also damaged and some killed.

#33

I’ve had mostly good results from BR. I’ve probably ordered more from them than anywhere else.

However, a couple of years ago BR sent several potted “trees”. I use quotes because these were the smallest fruit trees I’d ever received. The smallest was less than 12 inches tall and about as wide as a piece of yarn. The others weren’t much better. I was expecting bare root trees. There was nothing on their website indicating these tiny potted trees may be shipped in place of bare root. And the cost of them was the same as their much larger bare root trees. I sent them an email noting my disappointment. After a few back and forths, they did send much better bare roots. Since that time, when ordering from them I request they send ONLY bare root trees.

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#34

Wow, K8tpayaso, those are beauties! Thanks for sharing the pictures! It feels a lot like it’s Christmas time/my birthday when I open up my boxes too. How exciting! I bet you’ll be eating well from that mulberry by next year!

#35

Thanks Chris. I hope! I’m just a little leery of how it’s going to do because of the humidity here. Such a nice tree and I don’t want to be responsible for its demise. That’s truly cringeworthy.

Katy

#36

Oh no! I didn’t know that humidity could pose a problem for a new tree! Or is it for mulberries in general? Where are you located? We have scads of them growing wild here (Maryland/DC/Virginia), but I haven’t had a lot of luck transplanting them myself. But the ones I was working with were mere rooted twigs, so I think/hope yours will fare better! :slight_smile:

#37

We have the red mulberries growing wild here and some (or all) of the white ones are good. The M. nigra (Black) like the heat and less humidity. I’m in Texas but East Texas…not the desert part so I’m really pushing the limits. I have the heat I think but we’ll see how it fares. I may have to dig it up later and ship it west…:cry:

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#38

I see! I never thought of Texas as humid, but having lived in Louisiana, half an hour away from Texas, I know true heat and humidity from my time there… can’t be too different where you are. [quote=“k8tpayaso, post:37, topic:9873”]
I may have to dig it up later and ship it west…:cry:
[/quote]
Are you moving? Where are you/it headed?

#39

Not moving but I’d rather send it to someone else if it isn’t going to live here. Lol. That may be a pipe dream but I just really hate for nice plants to die.

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#40

OK, I get you now. That’s a nice thought. I feel that way too. I ordered a bunch of trees last year from another nursery which ended up having an address mixup… everything was right but the zip code and they ended up getting sent to some random place not too near to me; I tried as hard as I could to get the UPS to track them down and did basically everything short of driving hours out to the address (a large apartment building, apparently, and who knows which apartment they were dropped off at… that would have no doubt ended up as a wild goose chase) to try to track them down. UPS never could gather enough energy to care, as their policy is to give an answer within 10 days or two weeks or something (at which point the trees would likely have expired), and they never ended up finding the things or, apparently, trying very hard to do so. It still bothers me to think of those trees, which were likely never opened and most likely died; at best, they would likely have been opened by someone who received them inadvertently and probably didn’t have a use for them, without a yard, and may not have been interested in planting them if they could. Poor little things.

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