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  • From: Lee Reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Richard M.'s previous missive on Che
  • Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 06:08:33 -0400

I leave the plant outside, I think, until about November. It can tolerate the
cold here even beyond then but once the leaves are off, I move it indoors
with other plants, into a very cool basement where winter temperatures are in
the high 40s. I could even pull the leaves off and move it indoors sooner. I
move it back out sometime in April, preferably before any growth begins but
not so early that roots will be damaged from cold. The treatment is pretty
much the same as I use for my potted figs and Morus nigra.

Lee Reich, PhD
http://www.leereich.com/
http://leereich.com/blog.html.

Books by Lee Reich:
A Northeast Gardener's Year
The Pruning Book
Weedless Gardening
Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden
Landscaping with Fruit






On Mar 13, 2011, at 8:54 PM, John S wrote:

> Lee, I am growing mine in an outside sheltered spot in zone 5b. I am
> curious how you determine the time to bring in and put out if you would
> share. I may have to use this strategy here to backup the plant I have.
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
> --- On Sun, 3/13/11, Lee Reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com> wrote:
>
> From: Lee Reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com>
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Richard M.'s previous missive on Che
> To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Sunday, March 13, 2011, 8:18 PM
>
> I did put a chapter on Che in my book update, now called Uncommon Fruits
> for Every Garden, which was published by Timber Press in 2004.
>
> I've grown che for a few years, but grow it in a pot that I can overwinter
> indoors. I am in the colder part of Zone 5 in NY and don't think the plant
> would survive winter cold here. I have ripened the fruit and, to me, it
> tastes sort of like a combination of fig and mulberry. I have a male and a
> female, but am still not sure of the pollination needs.
>
> Lee Reich, PhD
> http://www.leereich.com/
> http://leereich.com/blog.html.
>
> Books by Lee Reich:
> A Northeast Gardener's Year
> The Pruning Book
> Weedless Gardening
> Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden
> Landscaping with Fruit
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mar 11, 2011, at 12:32 PM, Dr. Lucky Pittman wrote:
>
>> 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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