The Tropical Fruit Forum
Tropical Fruit => Tropical Fruit Discussion => Topic started by: Fiddler on November 20, 2021, 10:43:06 AM
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I've got two large "Thai Giant" Indian jujube trees that produce a lot of fruit every winter. I just wish they weren't so small! Most of them are somewhere between a large olive and a grape tomato in size. A small handful reach the size of a small apple.
Why are most so small and why do some get much larger? These trees are at least ten years old and seem healthy.
Is there anything I can do to produce bigger jujubes?
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Do you water the trees?
Also you could thin the fruit if you want larger fruit
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Girdling at bloom and then thinning?
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Girdling at bloom and then thinning?
Why girdle the tree? Girdling helps induce flowering, these trees don't need help
flowering
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Does the tree have thorns? If so you probably have the rootstock not the grafted top scion of Thai Giant. Most growers in my area prune VERY hard every year, down to a waist high stump. The smaller tree might limit fruit number and develop less but larger fruit. Maybe you could try thinning.
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Does the tree have thorns? If so you probably have the rootstock not the grafted top scion of Thai Giant. Most growers in my area prune VERY hard every year, down to a waist high stump. The smaller tree might limit fruit number and develop less but larger fruit. Maybe you could try thinning.
No thorns. In fact, I bought them in your neck of the woods, at the old Tree Haus nursery in Bokeelia. I used to prune aggressively, but haven't in a few years and these trees have gotten huge.
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Agree with Pineislander. We trim ours aggressively once or twice per year. Get medium to large egg sized fruits.
Girdling has helped with flowering. One of our trees is quite shaded, and doesn't always fruit heavily without influence.
My guess is fertilization at the right time, in addition to thinning, would encourage larger fruits.
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Girdling at bloom and then thinning?
Why girdle the tree? Girdling helps induce flowering, these trees don't need help
flowering
Many fruit trees are girdled to increase fruit size. For example, most sedless grapes are girdled at least once in the season (after berry set) to increase fruit size. Here is an article specific to jujube.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://horticulturejournal.usamv.ro/pdf/2015/art5.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjAh9Cqiar0AhVMQTABHcKfCi8QFnoECAwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0LksY1oHu4q72Q5MiAEo8o
Personally, I think they girdled the trees with too wide a girdle and would have gotten better results with a narrower girdle that would have been healed over approximately at the time of harvest. Grapes are only girdled 1/4".
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Does the tree have thorns? If so you probably have the rootstock not the grafted top scion of Thai Giant. Most growers in my area prune VERY hard every year, down to a waist high stump. The smaller tree might limit fruit number and develop less but larger fruit. Maybe you could try thinning.
No thorns. In fact, I bought them in your neck of the woods, at the old Tree Haus nursery in Bokeelia. I used to prune aggressively, but haven't in a few years and these trees have gotten huge.
Yes, I bought a part of the Treehouse property, near the front.
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Here is an article specific to jujube.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://horticulturejournal.usamv.ro/pdf/2015/art5.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjAh9Cqiar0AhVMQTABHcKfCi8QFnoECAwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0LksY1oHu4q72Q5MiAEo8o
Be aware the link is for the Chinese Jujube not Indian jujube. The Chinese type is more adapted to cooler zones.
Indian:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziziphus_mauritiana
Chinese:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jujube
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Here is an article specific to jujube.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://horticulturejournal.usamv.ro/pdf/2015/art5.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjAh9Cqiar0AhVMQTABHcKfCi8QFnoECAwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0LksY1oHu4q72Q5MiAEo8o
Be aware the link is for the Chinese Jujube not Indian jujube. The Chinese type is more adapted to cooler zones.
Indian:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziziphus_mauritiana
Chinese:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jujube
Maybe it was a leap in logic, but I assumed that physiological response should not differ much. As I recall, there are even hybrids between the two. I have been doing some experimenting on this myself and will report back if I find anything of interest.
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Here is an article specific to jujube.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://horticulturejournal.usamv.ro/pdf/2015/art5.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjAh9Cqiar0AhVMQTABHcKfCi8QFnoECAwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0LksY1oHu4q72Q5MiAEo8o
Be aware the link is for the Chinese Jujube not Indian jujube. The Chinese type is more adapted to cooler zones.
Indian:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziziphus_mauritiana
Chinese:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jujube
Maybe it was a leap in logic, but I assumed that physiological response should not differ much. As I recall, there are even hybrids between the two. I have been doing some experimenting on this myself and will report back if I find anything of interest.
In checking I saw that some work is being done on hybrids but not between the two species but only within the two species jujuba x jujuba and mauritiana x mauritiana. I like the Chinese type and even made some fantastic "mock dates" by cooking them in syrup and drying them. The Indian types are a nice crispy apple during winter but overripe so very fast.
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I believe this is the article that I read that mentioned the hybrid between the two species. I for one, would be very keen on testing such a hybrid here in Florida.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://cbgg.hapres.com/htmls/CBGG_1091_Detail.html&ved=2ahUKEwi7kdiwtK30AhXkSjABHf_6BdIQFnoECA4QAQ&usg=AOvVaw1Ww7j85YYg3qaFDTSOVvlY