smaller fruited cultivars usually tend to remain fruitful even as grafts in lower tiers, even with overhanging branches. Smaller fruited ones also tend to be the more precocious as seedlings.
hj is one such which does relatively ok even when partly shaded. However, the most productive ones at really low-light conditions, are even smaller-fruited, i.e. spinosa wild-types, lafleur, etc.
we’ve developed two cultivars(first-generation vegas-sown/vegas-grown) with relatively good quality fruits and which taste even better when close to drying into dates. And still waiting on three more juju seedlings to ripen their fruits. Posted some pictures of ‘vegas baby’ and ‘vegas candy’ on our webpage
hopefully a low-light producer will bear fruits at least the size of hj’s, and more productive than hj’s in part-shade.
incidentally, one of our seedlings bear minuscule jujus, which we christened ‘vegas cooty’, being the size of ticks They make good seed starters for rootstock because the flesh is so thin, and the pits seem to split so much quicker than domesticated pits, so no need to crack and simply sow the entire thing.
WOW! It is so surprising that you live 1/2 from me and are that far ahead. I closely examined mine today and it has nothing but blooms so far! BTW…sometime I’m love to see a full shot of your tree to see how it compares in size to mine.
BTW,I really hate to tell you this, but the jujube you were kind enough to give me has suddenly taken a bad turn. I did everything right…I waited last year until fall to plant it and kept it watered in the meantime. This spring it woke up and sent out lots of new green and has grown well for over a month now. But the last few days it looks really bad. All I can think of is I might have let it get too dry. It’s been really dry here for the last 3 weeks, but it didn’t start looking bad until about 3 days ago. I did water it then but it didn’t help. It’s sort of wilted and droopy and even yellowing a little. I hate to say it but it really looks like it is dying. I’ll feel awful if it does!! I also had an apricot die all at once in the last week, though I can’t imagine the 2 deaths are related. I didn’t use any sprays at all on the jujube, so that wasn’t it. Anyway, I hope the rain we got today will save it but I’m afraid it won’t???
I planed honey jar this February. It grew nice but then it wilted when weather got hot. I dug it up, to my surprise, it does not grow any new roots since I planed. Now I put it in big pot and under a tree. I have no hope for it.
You may try to remove some soil around it to see if there any new roots. If not, then you want to put it in the shade.
Thank you, I may take a look at the roots. I fear I can’t hurt it at this point because its too late. I feel really bad about it since it was a gift from @zazlev who had taken good care of it for some time!
All good Kevin. We all know trees are a fickle business and no guarantees. I will try and get a shot of the honey jar tree soon and post on here. The only thing I did different this spring was water it 2-3 times versus the past spring rain was all it had. I know its a drought tolerant type tree but who knows maybe the extra push of water made it set fruit better. Its also in its -3rd or 4th season now so maybe its just more prepared. Also, the mystery jujube of mine has a ton of flowers right now too and maybe that has helped with pollination and fruit set.
Thanks for letting me off the hook! You know, for all the various problems I have with fruit trees, I actually ery rarely completely loose one to death. THe exception to that is apricot trees which I’ve had die a LOT (I’m convinced its some kind of wilting disease). So that’s part of why I really hated to loose your tree.
BTW…didn’t you plant your Honey Jar the same year I did and several of us ordered them. If so, then this is its 3rd season now in case you’ve lost track. I only know because I put the plant month and year on my tags. Hope we both get a lot of jujubes this year. I really enjoyed them last year.
Literally lost everyone of my jujube trees last year. Froze to the ground below rootstock. Nothing but growth from the rootstock coming up now. That freeze was way late when the trees was loaded with new green growth. Sucks. Will have to get some more again some time.
sorry to hear that @zazlev … Quite a handful of us here are growing new cultivars from seed. Sharing scionwood has always been a good thing, but quite certain that sharing root cuttings/suckers of new cultivars will be the way to go. The above-ground stems could dieback, but new growth from rootball will be of the same desirable cultivar.
forgot to add, jfae sometimes sells self-rooted cultivars, which gets sold out quickly. Good thing is that a handful of us here already managed to propagate common cultivars as self-rooted cuttings.
the aim now is to broadcast USA-bred(seed-grown) cultivars and Chinese/Korean/Soviet -bred cultivars as self-rooted clones. While this still takes quite sometime to mass-produce, the deliberate intent behind it will inevitably be the standard practice for juju propagation
If the graft dies due to cold temperatures or other issues, the roots will produce a true to type fruit when it re- grows.
edit: Speaking of which, @jujubemulberry I have a honeyjar planted in a “bed” that I want to raise in elevation but don’t really want to re-plant the tree. Do you think that slowly building up soil around the trunk would be a wise move, or should I take a different approach?
unlike apples and peaches which can present with undesirable growth patterns, including possibly being short-lived as self-rooted cuttings or airlayers(due to low resistance to soil conditions or soil-borne pests/diseases, or perhaps due to clonal senescence), jujubes can be grown on their own roots as an “alternative” insurance policy. The dieback down to the graft due to a hard freeze (after leafing out) immediately wipes out the desired cultivar.
a self-rooted juju that dies back to the ground will sucker and re-establish the cultivar from roots(since the roots are the same species as the above-ground stems), so it will be a most desired effect of die-back. You never have to graft.
reposting our bare-bones tutorial below to encourage everyone to massproduce jujus on their own roots. It is fun and exciting, apart from extremely intriguing, especially when propagating cultivar clones that have been around for centuries! Cultivars from china were imported as budwood, and many are quite ancient. Getting stems to root is not easy(where am at), but possible, and once rooted, one can just poach root cuttings/suckers from the rootball on a yearly basis. I admit having some growth issues with an HJ i cloned several years ago which died due to unknown causes, (i think may have underwatered them at some point in the middle of summer–as young specimens with sparse rooting) butJFAE managed to root hj’s and the specimen obtained from them seems to be doing well after a couple of years on its own roots.
there aren’t many studies(if at all, any) about juju grafts and how to treat them, but taking into consideration jfae’s self-rooted hj, i don’t see any disadvantages of burying your grafted hj graft junction in earth. Dirt around the stem will serve as insulation, and if by some stroke of luck your hj graft roots out(having access to soil and moisture), you will have solid insurance that any dieback in the future will not equate to the death of the hj portion. Roots aren’t just thermally protected from a deep-freeze due to insulative properties of mulch and dirt., but they are also inherently protected by the anti-freeze effects of sugars and proteins that get stored in them in large amounts. The vast majority of a tree’s food depot is stored in the roots. An added plus is that(unlike juju stems which present with finite nodes on specific areas of stems) juju roots have microscopic adventitious nodes along their lengths, which make rootstock difficult to kill.
Of course we only want to kill thorny rootstock with small/sour fruits, but an indestructible hj rootball would be most welcome
If the tree dies to the roots every so often there isn’t much point of growing it, or is it? Jujube is hardy to zone 6 and the wild Z. acidojujuba (or Z. spinosa if you like) is hardy to zone 5. It is also more adaptable to the harsh conditions and therefore used in China and elsewhere as a good rootstock for the cultivars.
As to what “other issues” might be leaves me wondering…perhaps an envious neighbour sneaking to your property at night cutting your trees below graft?..jujubes are late shooters and any damage from the late spring frosts is rarely an issue.
No, I can’t see any advantage in self-rooted plants unless they are produced by tissue culture, but this is apparently not so easy and commercially non viable.
Apart from the fact that some cultivars may be weaker growers on their own roots and also less hardy, the beauty of grafting is that you can do it in any height of the rootstock and if you are not happy with a particular specimen you can regraft it to something better any time you wish.
They make good seed starters for rootstock because the flesh is so thin, and the pits seem to split so much quicker than domesticated pits, so no need to crack and simply sow the entire thing.
