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  • From: "Idell Weydemeyer" <iwgarden@earthlink.net>
  • To: "'North American Fruit Explorers'" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Richard M.'s previous missive on Che
  • Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 12:09:11 -0800

Che here did not ripen unless the summer was unusually hot. However, I put a
cement sidewalk near the che and now the che usually produces fruit that
ripens instead of falling off in October.

I do not know of I still have a male che-- I had grafted one on.
One original che plant was grafted on Osage orange and had a lot of thorns
and the other had a different base--no record of what at this point. I keep
both che's cut back severely to about 7 feet with few side branches.

Idell in zone 9b-- I can see the San Francisco bay from my home--we have
cool summers and warmish winters.

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Dr. Lucky Pittman
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 9:32 AM
To: 'North American Fruit Explorers'
Subject: [NAFEX] Richard M.'s previous missive on Che

>From November 1999:

We have had Che fruit in for 7 years. Putin both a male and female plant.
Survived 14 below several winters ago. Blooms after frost; has not frozen
out in five or so years (am away from my notes), unlike our mulberry. No
observed disease or insect problems. Birds are a problem, have netted the
female. Disease and insect resistance similar here to mulberry and fig,
which are in same family (Moraceae).

Pollination is the adventure with this plant:
The male sets fruit but most of these fall off; a few of them will ripen and
be identical to female fruit. Male died to ground two winters ago; the
female still set a full crop of seedless fruit. The male grew back last
year, bloomed thisyear and acted like a female by setting the largest crop
of ripening fruit yet. (It may be in the process of some type of
conversion; time will tell.) Some debate has gone on for the need of a male
pollinator. I'm not sure that I had any less fruit without the male two
years ago. Our plants are on the far side of the field and hence do not
merit close observation; my kids eat most of the fruit with the birds.

Both our plants are grafted onto Osage Orange. Hence, if you know how Osage
Orange does on yours or similar land, this should suffice for your site.
A.J. Bullard let a single stem go up to 8-9 ft, and cuts all others off, he
has a nice form as the result. A number of our limbs on our bush are on the
ground.

Hidden Springs grafts theirs onto Osage Orange if I recall correctly; they
do not grow seedling trees of Che. If you mean they graft an unnamed
"seedling", they then are no different from any other nursery, to my
knowledge. Don't know of anyone who has selected and named superior
cultivars from the wild (somewhere in China?) My impression of the one
nursery that sells a seedless selection is that this if merely a female. My
sample size is too small to determine the value of two for pollination vs.
one female.

We are at 1800' zone 6, we rarely get into the 90s; we are on the borderline
for enough heat to ripen Che fruit. In a cool summer, defoliation in fall
will occur before last of fruit is ripe.

Ripe fruit has a strawberry color, knotty exterior like Osage Orange, tastes
a bit like pear and fig to us; sweet but not overly so. Strange in that
slightly unripe fruit leaves a metallic taste in my mouth.

In summary, an overlooked minor fruit. Well worth the effort to put in as a
carefree, dependable producer in our area. The Blacks at Hidden Springs
have made a jam with them. Lee Reich plans to include a chapter on this
plant in his second edition of 'Uncommon Fruits Worthy of Attention'.

Richard Moyer
East Tenn

-----Original Message-----
From: "Mark Blossom"
Subject: [nafex] Chinese Che

From: Mark Blossom >

Hello,

I am looking for information about Chinese Che fruit tree (Cudrania
tricuspidata).

Does anyone have experience on this fruit, or knowledge of it, or know of
sources for trees (other than Hidden Spring, who have apparently seedling
trees in their catalog), availability and characteristics of named
cultivars?

In particular, is it late blooming or resistant to frost on the blossoms,
and is it tolerant if periodic inundation? These questions are relevant
to my site, which is river bottom land in the Arkansas Ozarks, zone 6.
Any disease or insect problems in humid midwestern climate?

Thank you,

Mark Blossom

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