Here’s my very young DWN Li Jujube sporting new foliage. Although I don’t have the hot summers typically needed to ripen this cultivar, there are searing “Santa Ana” winds in the early fall that do the trick.
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despite the fruits’ large size(one of the biggest, in fact), li ripens quite early, compared to other jujus that are smaller or not as good, taste-wise.
one reason why it is most popular.
In your climate.
where do you have yours?
should be early there too. Jujus will often take two or more years before their true characteristics manifest.
know people in so cal who actually have at least two mature crops in succession every summer.
I’m not new to growing Li Jujube.
As @MrClint is fond of saying, all gardening is local. Southern California has 9 USDA cold hardiness zones and several more microclimate zones determined by ocean-influence, soil types, evapotranspiration, and transverse mountain ranges. Patty S. is 4 miles east of me in a completely different soil type and a half step down in cold hardiness. @Lids is aeronautically 15 miles SE from me and in a completely different Sunset Western Garden zone. Another fruit growing acquaintance lives 7 miles SW of me in Leucadia in USDA zone 11a but struggles to get enough heat to ripen figs. And so on.
that’s unfortunate, but i guess that’s that
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Here’s a portion of the Sunset Western Garden Zone map for southern CA that might illustrate the point for you:
perhaps it is rude and dismissive to thwart your resignation(to your zone) with my optimism, it is just that i know many people who have far worse growing conditions(humidity, colder summers, etc) and much shorter growing seasons, and have had excellent results with li.
to be honest , i am still anticipating a good harvest for you some day. And if that is not the case, i veer towards blaming some other growing conditions/circumstances
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I’m going to have a great harvest, and I have no pessimism about my climate. Rather, the timing of harvests can very significantly among various zones in southern CA.
in our locale, li fruits are more flavorful when the nights start getting cooler, whereas those borne in the heat of summer are dry, even though just as sweet.
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thought i’d add this pic. Not sure how many crops you get from your li’s in your area, but in ours , li trees bear ripe fruits serially beginning mid to late july, which are gigantic but sub-par(taste-wise)brebas(sweet but bland and foamy), and just like figs-- are not as good as the main(but smaller) crops borne much later in the year.
in the pic, there are many in different stages of maturity.
li fruits that are borne in late sept up to november are smaller but make up for it by being more flavorful, crisp, and zesty compared to the bigger but not-as-good earlier fruits.
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My experience at my former residence in Rancho Peñasquitos was a few fruits in the summer and a main crop in our “indian summer”.
The Li grows slowly in my environment but continues to make progress 
…
Today I harvested the first fruit from the tree.
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haha, that site got it from us-- because that site is us 
Oh I see, you posted that photo on the Maricopa site August 18 2015 and then reposted it here on April 7 2016.
posted it late last year at the az permaculture site.
was surprised you found it, as that site has been down for months, and now bac with a different look, and had to reset our password.