Che - photo from ediblelandscaping.com
I've recently been reading Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden, and one of the featured fruits is Chinese Che. Another Houston fruit grower said it performed very well for him, so I thought I would give it a shot. I actually saw a large mature tree today on a little side trip, and they really are very pretty trees. The fruit itself is described as tasting like a cross between a mulberry and a fig.
There aren't many sources for this plant. Most sources say that you need to get both male and female trees in order to get fruit, but ediblelandscaping.com sells a 'seedless che' grafted onto osage orange rootstock that is supposed to be self fertile. The one I saw to day was ordered from Edible Landscaping, and it was loaded with immature fruit.
I placed my order for the smallest sized plant (quart), and patiently waited. Edible Landscaping's online ordering doesn't send you a tracking number or anything, but the plant arrived in excellent condition few weeks later. It had been very carefully an well packaged. The plant looked good and was very healthy, but it was obvious that the graft was very young. I immediately planted it in a 3-gallon pot and watered it in with rainwater, and it has noticeably grown in the 9-10 days since.
I'm really looking forward to trying the fruit. Che is supposed to be a very drought tolerant tree with delicious fruit, that can also withstand freezing temperatures, which I think makes it a fantastic candidate for Houston. If I can keep it alive, I'll probably wind up moving it to a very large pot.
There aren't many sources for this plant. Most sources say that you need to get both male and female trees in order to get fruit, but ediblelandscaping.com sells a 'seedless che' grafted onto osage orange rootstock that is supposed to be self fertile. The one I saw to day was ordered from Edible Landscaping, and it was loaded with immature fruit.
I placed my order for the smallest sized plant (quart), and patiently waited. Edible Landscaping's online ordering doesn't send you a tracking number or anything, but the plant arrived in excellent condition few weeks later. It had been very carefully an well packaged. The plant looked good and was very healthy, but it was obvious that the graft was very young. I immediately planted it in a 3-gallon pot and watered it in with rainwater, and it has noticeably grown in the 9-10 days since.
I'm really looking forward to trying the fruit. Che is supposed to be a very drought tolerant tree with delicious fruit, that can also withstand freezing temperatures, which I think makes it a fantastic candidate for Houston. If I can keep it alive, I'll probably wind up moving it to a very large pot.
Package from ediblelandscaping.com
The plant came packaged very well.
Healthy looking che plant
Close up of the graft union.
