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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] figs,mulberry and jujuge oh my!

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  • From: "Needham Greg" <needhamgr@hotmail.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] figs,mulberry and jujuge oh my!
  • Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2003 15:21:22 +0000

Rob,
Jujubes are one of my favorite plants! I have put together a modest collection over the past several years; here are some of my observations so far that might help:
I have a mixed planting of cultivars I hoped might succeed in the humid southeast and provide pollen for each other- Sherwood, Silverhill, Fitzgerald, Abbeville, Admiral Wilkes, Li, Honey Jar, GA866, Suan Tsao, and Sugar Cane. I also let a rootstock grow up for comparison. Each cultivar seems to have its own personality, so for example, in terms of which are more productive, each year since it was very small Honey Jar has put on all the fruit it could hold, while Sherwood (on its own roots) which is a couple years older is just now setting a few fruit. My Li usually has a very modest crop, though I have had it the longest, while Fitzgerald, Abbeville, Silverhill, and Admiral Wilkes will set an unbelievable number of jujubes. Vigor really varies too- Silverhill, Admiral Wilkes and Fitzgerald shoot up each year like crazy, but Honey jar and GA866 have been much slower (I should point out that it has usually taken a season of getting well-established for all of my jujubes before they really are happy and start to grow well). They like a lot of sun and to be fed and also watered if it is dry- this will help ripen a full crop! Once established they are pretty tough! My jujubes attract the most incredibly diverse collection of pollen- and nectar-hungry insects! We see all kinds of ants, miniature bee-like creatures, flies in all sorts of irridescent colors, and some insects so small I can't tell what they are...
It is a fascinating show to watch, standing among the jujubes on an afternoon and breathing in the grape soda smell produced by the flowers. Honey bees, etc. don't go near my jujubes, but the other little helpers do the job nicely. I have had zero problems with insects, disease or even birds eating the fruit, but my children and I eat all we can hold every year. Flavor varies among cultivars and with some tasting better at different stages- some need to be red-brown, others are good when just turning yellow, etc.
This turned into a long message as I was trying to piece together an answer to your question of how to get the tree to fruit better! I would say plant the cultivars that have been really productive for me (Silverhill, Abbeville, Fitzgerald, Admiral Wilkes, Suan Tsao, etc.) But I wonder if there is some pollination magic happening that I am unaware of? What if my most productive cultivars are able to be so because of pollen from one of the others? This is one reason I tried to plant enough different jujubes to make sure there was plenty of pollen for all. As for dwarfing, some of my plants grow smaller and others larger, though I don't know about the eventual mature size of any of them- to me it looks like GA866 will be pretty dwarfy.
I hope this helps! Besides my own experience, my source for info on jujubes (and the source for most of my plants) is Roger Meyer- thank goodness he has done so much work with jujubes, rescuing material from the Chico Research station (like GA866!) and writing his Jujube Primer and Sourcebook!

Greg
zone 7/8
coastal plain of North Carolina

From: rob hamilton <lostman_amiga@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [NAFEX] figs,mulberry and jujuge oh my!
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 12:38:50 -0700 (PDT)

I was going to wait till the SFF meeting next month to
ask some of these question, but maybe some people here
may be able to help as well.

Fig--
Has anyone tried growing different fig varieties on
Blackjack fig rootstock to see if it will dwarf the
growth?

Jujube---
How do you get the tree to fruit better?
What are the pollinators?
Has anyone tried a variety called "GA866"?
Can this tree be dwarfed as well?

Mulberry--
Has anyone tried to dwarf with Garaldi rootstock?

Che--
My che tree seems to be doing fine with a good flush
of leaves, but there is very little growth on it these
past two years. What can I do to help it along?

thanx

=====
--------------------------------------------
Zone 7b Atlanta, GA

Atlanta Fruits Club www.groups.yahoo.com/atlanta_fruits
North American Fruit Explorers (NAFEX) www.NAFEX.org
Southern Fruit Federation (SFF) www.NAFEX.org/SFF
Southeastern Palm and Exotic Plant Society (SPEPS) www.SPEPS.net

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