To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] "Wild Sour Jujube"
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2011 15:27:13 -0600
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