If you want to get the rootstocks this year, you should contact Roger right away. I tried to get some from him last year and was too late- on March 8th, they were already leafed out. I’ve got an order in to him this year (placed back in October) and expect that he will probably be shipping soon.
Are root suckers just as good as seedlings for rootstocks?
I am trying to stay away from the wild rootstock for my wildlife management application. The wild root stock tends to propagate via the root system and you can easily find new sprouts 20+ feet from the tree. This is not a problem in a home or orchard setting where you can mow regularly. Trees propagated from wild rootstock tend form thickets of low quality. So, I purchased TIgertooth grown on its own roots. I’ve been propagating it through root cuttings and just started grafting other varieties to the tigertooth as rootstock.
I did my first field grafting last year. I use a Whip & Tongue graft to graft to graft Silverhill to Tigertooth (Silverhill may or may not be the same as tigertooth. I’ve seen conflicting information). I then used a bark graft to graft Redlands#4 to TIgertooth.
Both of these grafts were successful.
As I mentioned, I’m propagating my Tigertooth by rootcuttings for rootstock and growing them in root pruning containers. Last fall after they went dormant, I stored them in my unheated garage until they had enough chill hours and then brought them indoors and put them under lights. I have 3 of them. Two of them are 1 1/2 growing seasons old and the third is 1/2 growing season old (Root cutting take a long time to produce top growth and my growing season is half over by time the do).
I decided to graft all three. I waited until they were well leafed out before attempting to graft them. I grafted one Shanxi Li, one Globe, and one Admiral Wilkes to these Tigertooth rootstock. Since I found a good size match for each, I used a w&t graft. The Shanxi Li was on the small side for grafting but I tried it anyway. So far, none show any signs of success. I grafted them on Feb 8th so it may be too early to make any judgments.
I also ordered some wild rootstock like Tony. I plan to container grow these and graft them in the containers. The roots were pruned back pretty hard and I had to prune some a bit more to fit the containers. After theses recover, I plan to graft other varieties to them. After the grafts take, I plan to increase the height of the containers, score the trunk above the graft and apply rooting hormone and then fill the extra height with mix. I’m hoping the wild rootstock will keep the tree going long enough to produce roots above the graft. If so, I’ll cut them off above the graft and have trees growing on their own roots. This is sort of an experiment for me. So far only 2 of the 10 wild sprouts I got have shown signs of leafing out. Give the root trauma, I plan to let these recover and grow a bit before trying to graft them.
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My impression is that seedlings aren’t often used for jujube. Roger Meyers mentioned in one of his videos that most of the seeds (at least from named varieties) are not viable.
That leaves root suckers as the main method for making more jujube trees. But, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing- as you are clonally replicating the rootstock (as is done with most apples for example). At least it is good as long as you liked how the original one grew 
Dr. Shengrui Yao, New Mexico State University has a youtube video on grafting jujube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFLwOWe0KQ4
My skills are not as advanced as most here so this video was helpful.
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That was informative and rough to watch, can’t believe that finger did not get cut off.
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I watch that video about 3 or 4 times the day before I graft Jujube. There are lots of little things in there.
I think it is more borderline zone 5, at least until large enough, its why I’ve decided to try this year the one that is sold on its own roots since most grafted plants have become rootstock for me.
Kleckner
I read somewhere that you have try Autumn Beauty. How is that try doing? How far are you from Omaha. I got about 9 varieties here and so far so good. Majority of them growing on the south side of my house for the Micro climate and no North wind.
Tony
Forestfarm, I’m wondering what the latest is with your jujube propagation projects. And next year or whenever you see how your attempts to get your grafted jujubes to root above the graft go, I’ll be very interested to hear about that. I hope that works for you.
I grafted 3 containerized Tigertooth started from root cuttings this winter. One was pretty small for grafting and never took SHANXI Li on tigertooth. The second is Globe on tigertooth. The rootstock was a reasonable size on this one. It leafed out but is now beginning to wilt. A single tigertooth branch started below the graft. I let it grow to feed the roots hoping the graft will eventually rebound. So far I have not given up but am not hopeful either. The third one was Admiral Wilkes on tigertooth. It took off quickly and has done very well:
As for the trees grafted in the field last year, I won’t know for a few more weeks what this year will bring. I’m probably two to 3 weeks from leaf-out on my jujubes in the field.
I took more root cuttings from my tigertooth trees in the field again last year. So far, there is no sign of taking but that is not unusual. Sometimes I don’t see top growth until June or later. My success rate with these root cuttings is fairly low. If I try a dozen I may get a few that make it.
I got some wild (sour) sprouts from Roger Meyer to experiments with in containers. 8 of 10 are leafing out. I want to see them fully reestablish themselves in the containers before stressing them again with grafting, but I hope to do that in the next month or so.
That is where things stand right now.
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NOTE: It may not be clear in the picture, but all of the top growth on that Admiral Wilkes on Tigertooth is above the graft.
Jack,
Down the road, can you update me how the Globe jujube taste. I want to add on more good jujube varieties to my collection.
Tony
If it takes, I certainly will. Right no I’d say my chances are less than 50/50 with the globe. But the Admiral Wilkes is looking real good.
I had been babying the Globe but decided to give up today. I’m glad I did. There was no sign of bonding between the rootstock and scion when I tore it apart. I cut it off below the graft but above a new Tigertooth branch that had started. I had good green cambium so decided to regraft there. I plan to leave the tigertooth branch in place as a nurse branch. If the globe graft fails again, I’ll at least still have tigertooth root stock that I can try to graft again later in the field.
juju’s are quite responsive to grafting. True that grafting involves a little bit of skill, but among fruit trees, juju scions seem to get by on the slightest of cambium contact. Only problem is that jujube wood is very hard and tough.
which is why would rather graft using the tiniest of twiglets… Here’s a pic of one of the tiniest grafts i got lucky with. Grass around it is bermuda, for scale. Too tiny to have used my wide-bladed grafting shears…
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Juju
Good luck with the little guy. Watch out for rabbit because it will be gone in a second. BTW what is the understock and the variety of the graft?
Tony
Hi Tony, the understock is the rootstock sucker(wild type ‘spinosa’ used for nearly all nursery-grown jujus), which pops up every now and then, and here and there. The scion twig is the variety sihong.
I currently don’t get rid of them, and simply decapitate close to the ground and graft with tiny scion twigs from my preferred jujus. Our yard is fenced with concrete block and the lower part of the gate has a wire mesh grid, so no rabbits(so far). Rabbits/hares are not too common around here in vegas, but i do see them in areas closer to the mountains/periphery.
it is the amorous feral cats which usually end up disturbing the smaller plants, as they chase each other around and tussle and tumble over the yard as they fight/mate
I’m around 70 miles north of there, Autumn Beauty is the one that survived so far, around 7’ tall, no fruit yet, I have a rootstock nearby that flowers at the same time, so maybe some time will get fruit, plan to plant my tigertooth nearby, too.
After a couple accidents with grafting knifes, I made this simple grafting tool that gives a perfect cut.
The idea is to line up the device on the scion or rootstock, and then wack it with a small board. I cut the scion first and put the cut end in water. As soon as I cut the rootstock, I put a drop of water on the cut. You don’t want your scion or rootstock cut to dry out (but dab them dry just before joining. I only do whip grafting without cutting a tongue and have a high success rate. Also, I cover the whole scion in parafilm tape, sometimes wrapping the joint with electrical tape OVER the parafilm to get a more secure graft, finishing off with a piece of aluminum foil over the black electrical tape to reflect sunlight heat.
I realize that most of the people in this forum are very adept at grafting, but I spent several years and lost 90% of my jujube and persimmon grafts (everything else is easy) before I used this “cheaters” device.
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