On that score I don’t know if I would qualify for taste testing subject in that I’m certainly not picky as to taste. That being said when I was at the Brenham nursery tasting from small trees in less than optimum conditions I did taste some that I preferred over others. For instance sugar cane was okay but a completely different taste than the honey jar or Chico (that I ended up purchasing). So perhaps it is being able to taste them side by side that is discerning. And then taste is so individualized. I should be able however to determine how each grows in my area. 
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Wow Katy! That’s fantastic growth. I planted mine here in KY/TN border on March 25th and you have a good 5-6 more inches in growth since last time I visited my Orchard. I’ll make sure to get a pic soon and post here. Amazing and showing flowers already?!! I am really beginning to like this jujube KOOLAID!! I also saw someone post below about a coconut jujube. That really has me excited!!
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Did you say Coconut flavored jujube? Now, you really have me interested. So far I just have the Honey Jar that many others bought from EL this year, however I plan to add many more. Stone fruit is already starting to irate me. I like maintenance, pest free fruit trees best and so far…with “Koolaid” trees they seem a lot less troublesome.
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that told me you had a severe juju affliction-- when you drove all the way to brenham!
you got that right. Have to add it also depends on mood. Jujus can be eaten at a very immature stage(especially li, sihong, and hj ) when they are relatively green, but may also be eaten when wrinkled and dried and at any stage in between, so depending on my whims i could have a craving at 7 am for immature li’s, when they have this minty freshness that lingers in the mouth, or at noon pick them sweet and ripe but still crunchy and tangy, and at dinner time choose to have them over-ripe, super sweet and chewy, and at bedtime when really craving a sugar jolt, eat them totally dried up and wrinkly with a glass of milk. Quite versatile a fruit since the shelf-life is not just limited to the long shelf-life when dried, but the stages of edibility(while on the tree) are incredibly protracted.
also, ripe fruits generally don’t need to be processed with desiccators, unless in really humid regions, since the fruits will shrivel into dates on their own on the kitchen counter.
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has the subtle(not strong) flavor of grated coconut, and definitely has the texture. Also somewhat similar to sugarcane in taste, texture, even shape and size and growth habit, bearing smallish leaves, so casts a nice dappled shade.
exactly how i felt about conventional fruits when first started. Jujus are the only stone fruits that can grow here without being paranoid about ‘sudden death syndromes’.
have to admit though that am still giving apricots and loquats a chance(if those are even considered conventional). But our patience is definitely running thin with rosaceae stone fruits…
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Uh oh. Coconut flavored jujube. Why do people do this to their friends?
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I might have to try that one too… hehehehe
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Ahhhh…but what you don’t know is that Brenham also has the Blue Bell Creamery… the official ice cream of Texas!!
But I did get a nice tree…I’d love to go back. AND…(drum roll)… here are today’s pictures of Chico fruitlets
Kate
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i learn something new every day, thanks for sharing! I still remember people celebrating several years ago when they heard about blue bell’s intent to market their ice cream here. It was a brand unbeknownst to me at the time. Needless to say, i was one of the first to get in line 
those are fruitlets alright! Given their relatively deep coloration, there’s a very good chance they won’t yellow out.
can’t help but count our chic’s before they hatch, lol
the coconut flavor was not really outstanding, but it could be due to our dry-heat summers here. Coco is reportedly a favored variety in ukraine-- where summers are milder.
speaking of coconut, has anyone tried this yet? it is so addictive!
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Hey, I somehow missed these responses from April! Sorry about that!
Thank you, Raf and Kevin! I am soooo relieved to have healthy plants! I planted Jujus last year in a shady spot (I now know the error of my ways, thank you Raf!), and haven’t seen much growth or any fruit from them as yet, so I have been eagerly anticipating these little ones! Kevin, is yours pushing green yet? One of mine is taking off, the others are still showing a bit of growth.
By the way, Mamuang, the picture of your EL Honey Jar from this year next to the BR Honey Jar from last year is hilarious. How did you decide which one to keep? Just curious. 
That’s very generous of you! I may take you up on that, when my Jujus are going nuts and sending out seedling suckers all over the place in a couple of months, as I anticipate… I can dream, can’t I? I hope my take rate will be better than the first time I tried with rootstock from Roger Meyers about 4 years ago! Any tips on grafting jujubes? They have the hardest wood I have ever tried to whittle into a graft! A little tough for a beginner, I found. What types of grafts have been successful for you with Jujubes, Raf? Also, for mulberries?
Hi Anthony! Just wanted to welcome you to the kool-aid crowd (assuming you do add a jujube). Since you tagged me in your post I wanted to also be sure and let you know that even though I’m a card carrying, kool-aid drinking Jujube owner, its only been for a whooping 2 months, so I’m certainly not the one to ask about the best variety. As @k8tpayaso told you, @jujubemulberry is one of the local experts on the subject-even has a book about jujubes! As you’ve probably already seen, HE KNOWS JUJUBES. Others here do to, just not me. I always hate to see people who are new to growing fruit suddenly start doling out advice as if they are experts, and I didn’t want you to think I was one of those.
BTW, I am extremely impressed with what you’ve done with your small yard. There are people here with much more space than you who have a lot less trees and still complain about not having enough space. I’m lucky enough to have a little more land, but I too am starting to feel a little crowded. I think most of us tend to real capacity at some point because the hobby is so addictive! Anyway, I hope you get some of the jujubes on your list. From everything I’ve heard, jujubes are a low maintenance tree that produces a nice fruit to eat- what more can we ask from a tree?
Good luck!
kevin
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Thanks for the belated response, Chris. I, too, occasionally miss a post directed at me and I feel bad when I find it later and worry the sender thought I was a jerk for not responding. Anyway, it seems like you’re well on your way to the kool-aid club. Hope it works out well for all of us.
To answer your question, both of my jujubes have a good deal of growth. In fact, I was really impressed at how much growth they have put out and how healthy they look…until I saw @k8tpayaso ’ s photos (thanks for that, k8!). Bot they are doing well, and hopefully yours will too. Good luck.
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Thanks for the luck, Kevin! And yes, thank you K8 for giving us all inferiority complexes! 
I’m kidding of course! I love to see the lovely green growth you are getting! The photos and stories of success of others help to keep me inspired when things are not faring as well in my orchard!
By the way Kevin, this is an aside, but I noticed where you live, and I used to live up there too! I lived in Clarksville (i.e. Northern TN, close to Nashville and the KY border). Worked up in the forests up there too!
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Hi Kevin,
Up to 43 fruit trees now, just added a green crispy, sweet plum my mother-in-law grew from seed from a fruit she found outstanding. It does help to keep most of my addiction/collection in 25g pots or diy cedar planter boxes.
My theory on fruit growing is that almost everyone I know with large in-ground fruit trees complain that they only get 5 or 10% of their harvest and the animals get the rest or they fall on the ground and rot/attract rodents & raccoons. Dwarfing my fruit trees by limiting their growing space and pruning to keep them more compact allows me to produce several dozen to 120 fruit per tree (once they are about 3 or 4 years old). I am able to enjoy dozens varieties of fruit (some multi-grafts have 4 or 5 varieties grafted on) and have a harvest/consumption rate over 90%. I need to remain diligent about pruning, watering & fertilizing my in-pot trees, but it allows me to indulge my OCD need to collect more varieties.
I’m delivering 6 fruit trees, 15 blueberry bushes and a load of fruit, herbs and seedlings to my buddy up north today so I’m spreading my OCD to him. Crammed everything into my CRV and taking my older daughter with me for a father-daughter trip.
Based on this thread, I will be adding one or two jujubes for sure. Luckily my fruit tree guy owes me one tree so it won’t be too expensive to add to my collection.
Anthony
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Okay…okay… but it won’t stop the photos!!!
And let me say that I certainly don’t need to see any more pictures of cherry trees. Or apricots. Or anything you grow that is susceptible to fire blight because I can’t grow it here…
JK…I do love to see your photos too!!!
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not sure about being an expert. I guess to paraphrase, the term ‘local expert’ means an expert in one’s locale… So i simply have some know-how by virtue of my whereabouts, which happen to be favorable to jujus… Everyone else here who’s outside my locale have more expertise than me if i should move to any of their respective states. Say, if i move to dfw, TX i’d be referring to @k8tpayaso 's trees and use those as reference when anticipating growth habits/growth rates/productivity , etc since i’d be starting from scratch . She’s at least 2 years of experience ‘ahead’ of me, no doubt! So just about everyone of you are ahead of me, in your respective locales. Your posts give me(and every body else)plenty insight, when considering variances in growing conditions.
have to digress a bit here-- this thread isn’t just a congregation of energetic members, and neither is it just a thread of wit and humor, but also a forum of good vibes and forum courtesy. A thread of friendly, congenial posters who treat everyone as a peer. The juju koolaid seems to also impart an easy-going outlook
so don’t worry about it @MDfruits, it is no biggie, the thread is getting quite long and so easy to miss some entries. Conversely, if i have missed responding to queries, it is not because ignoring you, but simply due to my overlooking what i should have overseen…
just nudge me one more time, or more, lol
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Raf, we love your humility!!! And your generosity!
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I think I must be the last one to have their trees wake up. But, it is finally happening. The HJ’s were much more dormant than the jujubes which spent the winter in my yard, which are ahead by quite a bit. And the potted ones (a Sugar Cane and Honey Jar) from JustFruitsAndExotics are way ahead of everything else. They came out of the box with flowers…
A bud is waking up, just above the label:
A side view of another bud:
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you’re right, jujus have some of the hardest wood among fruit trees. Seems second only to certain persimmons(ebony). I actually recommend using grafting shears, as manual-grafting takes so much time, especially with something as hard as jujube wood. As for succesful grafts, i prefer using sugar cane as interstem, since it has this tendency to produce upright stems pretty quickly. Juju wood is generally strong and stiff, but sugarcane stems seem to be extra stiff, so even with heavy bearing of the grafts–sagging is kept to a minimum.
technically, the most ideal graft for jujus is on upright growth closest to the base, to minimize rootstoclk’s tendency to leaf out. For practical purposes, grafting to upright stems 3 to 5 feet above ground is most ideal, especially if worried about boisterous dogs/cats scratching/brushing against the grafts, or rabbits nibbling on the grafts, etc. Same-caliper wedge grafts work pretty well for us, and are our preferred method. Bark grafts also have good success rates, but we only use this if we’re being lazy and have plenty of thin, sub-par budwood.
same grafting options for mulbs, except that mulbs are much easier to cut and splice.
have bought"disposable" grafting shears from amazon.com at just12$, shipping included, and were pretty good, taking into account the three double-edged blades which equates to 6 blades, and may last us 3 or so years at ~200 grafts per year.
as for budwood, there are plenty of us here who actually enjoy giving them away. I typically have plenty of li budwood, and a good amount of contorted and several others, depending on local demand from las vegas friends…
actually selfish on my part. For the very reason that it makes me happy! Friends ask me why seem to go out of my way to do the legwork – digging holes and planting/grafting those extremely long-lived trees in their yards. I end up being philosophical saying it is truly worth my while, since my time on earth is limited.
My existence is finite, but hey, i could always broadcast/plant jujus! 
There’s just so much good about this species(health-wise, logistically, and environmentally) so a bit painful not sharing it with others…
just envisioning the likely scenario hundreds of years from now-- the great-grandkids of my friends’ great grandkids harvesting from those trees i planted-- well that is enough incentive for me…
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really encouraging that you manage to get your jujus to fruit, considering that in your region, they are early to bed(in autumn), but late to rise(in spring)…
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