North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Kieran &/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>]

Melissa,  Re "Zizyphus spinosa", I meant to add that just like a seedling 
citrus, a seedling pear, even a seedling apple tend to be spiny, so are 
seedling jujubes.  What humans do is take the mature wood from the top of a 
bearing tree, which has quit making thorns, and graft it down low onto a 
seedling rootstock.  That way you get a tree that acts mature from an early 
age, crops younger and never makes thorns.  When you go walking in the woods 
in Florida and find a spiny citrus tree, when you go wandering in the edge 
of the woods in Tennessee, and you find a spiky pear tree, you know you are 
looking at a seedling tree going through it's awkward stage.  This is 
another reason why grafting was invented.   Donna