The start, just over 3 years ago (mid-2015), was where a couple of years working to identify something that would work on the property that met a few basic criteria.
- Must be almost indestructible
- Must be able to survive in an area that has some salt.
- Must be able to be almost self managable
- Must be able to handle drout
- Must be able to survive as the poor soils are improved over time
- Must be in high demand
You get the idea, I was looking for unicorns and pots of gold at the end of rainbows but I found it, Jujubes. Jujubes are grown widely in China, they grow in poorer solis (but perform better, the better the environment - as you would expect), are self pruning, drought tolerant, in high demand in Australia which has a large Chinese community and is counter cyclical the the seasons in the northern hemsiphere (and cant be imported fresh - yet!), This promise was one of dig a hole and wait for the crop to appear.
The Naive horticulturist, thats me, To almost everyone else, they knew it was a fantasty but off I went, a history in the information technology industry is all I needed. Time for fences and holes ...... oh, and at some point a website to tell my story and ideally, educate Perth to this "new" fruit and all of its benefits.
Suffice to say, it was a disaster but it was the start of my journey - one which is still young and is still one full of errors, learnings, corrections and moving forward.
I am writing the start over 3 years from my first 60 trees going in the ground - which I think I killed all but a couple, great start. Update from the Naive Horticulturist on that in the next update :).
Take care and if you have any questions on Jujubes, myself, the area we are in, please do drop me a line.
To a great tomorrow.
Mike
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