Bay laurel nursery has HJ, but they are not open for ordering until Sept. Tree of Antiquity has sold out of GA-866 and Li. How about this, go to the local Home Depot and get a Lang or Li, then graft over with HJ.
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I can wait for the season to open. thanks I’ll look at them
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Tree of Antiquity has Sugar cane too, but buy one tree there and shipping is a lot of money, so might as well buy from Bay Laurel.
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Your climate sounds great for them, I have “Lang”, “Li”, and “Sherwood” in KS for decades, a low of 20°F below zero and 114° extremes didn’t faze them. The one getting extra heat all summer reflected from a brick wall has grown twice as big.
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You can water them about the same as you would any fruit tree and they will be happy. In the winter, water just a few times-- water them well in the summer when it’s hot and dry. But they are tough trees and can take abuse, too. I have a Li, Sugarcane, and Sihong in New Mexico. The first year I planted the Sugarcane (bare root), it leafed out then lost all the leaves in a late spring freeze. I cut it back about 18", was sure it was going to die, but then just before fall it leafed out again. Now it’s year 2 and there is fruit on the tree already.
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I’ll hold out hope maybe they’ll pop back in spring. one or two scratch green above the graft line
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No need early on if the ground is staying wet in the spring. But, once things get hot, it is a good idea to water at least weekly, maybe more often if it hasn’t rained for a while and things are getting dry.
Another thing you can do is to amend organic matter into the ground when you plant them. Ever since I saw the video where Jim Dawson (Australlian grower) accidentally had his trees planted in pure manure and had them do very well, I’ve been planting jujubes that way, Not in pure manure, but I mix in up to 2-3 buckets (5 gal each) of composted leaf mold (looks like black soil) into the dirt that I dig to plant the tree. The sites where jujubes have grown well, don’t get quite as much. Between removing the sod and big rocks, the end result doesn’t really leave me with anything extra to get rid of. Having the extra OM means that there is more water-holding capacity near the roots.
Here’s a pic of one of the trees I planted from this spring. I just happened to be mowing there today and the young KFC tree got in the edge of the pic. It’s from Chinese Red Date. The other (larger) jujubes further into the background were planted in early 2020.
I think I watered maybe 2 times this year. But, aside from one period where we went a month without, there has been more than enough rain this year (lots of rot on stonefruit, even with repeated fungacide sprays). But that 2 times is because it is at a rental property. The trees in my yard generally get watered a lot more often, especially if they are at all close to the potted plants I need to water anyway (ones that are out of the way get ignored).
The trees from CRD weren’t as big as some I’ve gotten before (ToA and Grow Organic), but they had good roots and none had issues leafing out or growing.
Agree- if you are just starting out, the small OGW plants would really try my patience. They just take way too long to size up.
If your HD consistantly carries Jujube, then this is a fine option. If not, I’d say get a SugarCane and Shanxi Li from Trees of Antiquity. I’m not a huge fan of Shanxi Li, though it does have large fruit which isn’t bad once it gets going and it beats Lang, which is the other one available (a random seedling/rootstock beats Lang in my book). But, you can graft it over into better varieties and leave the Sugar Cane as is for a while.
Was there a frost after they leafed out? That is the one time I had newly planted jujubes die- when I received them in full leave from Florida and we had a frost 2 days later (late October). They came back from the roots the next year (2 of 3, as the 3rd was fine).
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a near frost - just below 40F. they stayed green after that and died as it got warmer out though, so, I don’t know for sure. the others never made a leaf.
thanks for all this info, and the suggestion where to order.
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Looks like Raintree has them for pre-order right now.
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I would say my conditions are more “extreme” than yours for heat and dryness growing in the high desert in southern CA. I am in the high 90s and over 100 for most of the summer, though my winters are warmer than yours. Jujube does great for us, it’s one of our best trees.
I’m also on a well so we need to watch our water usage because of drought here, and we only water once a week.
Jujubes do really good in full sun with mulch around the water line.
Sometimes you get a bum tree though and overwatering can be a thing. Sometimes winter can be too cold for little trees as well.
I have 4 jujubes, I believe I got two of them from a local nursery and then the other two from fourwindsgrowers.com. All have established well here.
Maybe consider what type of soil you have as well for possible issues outside of weather.
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what kind of soil will they want? it’s pretty decent soil, but I can always amend/add fill
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I just mentioned it as a possibility. Sometimes soil doesn’t drain well, or it drains too well, and can affect some plants.
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Here is my Autumn Beauty from One Green World, it’s under the apricot tree, tiny tree but it’s loaded.
I did give it a lot of compost because I thought it might not survive because the tree is so tiny. In fact, i just finally saw a tiny growth on the top.
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I live in extreme heat. Cold is not too bad as it rarely dipped below 30. Here we can get a whole month of over 100 degree and 90 days above 90 degree. Hot and dry just like the desert. Planted some bare root trees for the first time this year. They are pears. Soil is sandy type. Water them everyday for the whole week and then every other day. When it’s over 100 degree, it’s everyday. You will need shade cloth if the leaf is young and it’s over 100 degree. Use a ladder and shade cloth if there is no structure for hanging the shade cloth.
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that’s pretty much how I watered, accounting for rainy days in the math. no shade though. they’d been in the ground for 2 months before it hit 80F here.
I’m planning to fertilizer them 1 last time in Fall. They will get the best stuff. I cocktail my fertilizer. You should do the same and you should be good until next year.
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I planted a potted Bok Jo today.
Already has fruit, from sitting on my deck in a 4-5 gal pot:
It is taking the spot of a peach that died. It is in an area which stays moist for most of the year, so I didn’t use too much leaf compost. Just one 5 gal bucket mixed with the existing soil in the planting hole around the potted rootball and a 2nd 5 gal bucket on top.
Planting in this location is a bit of an experiment. It gets less sun than most of my other jujubes. But this year I have a good fruitset on the trees at one rental with a lot of shade, so I’m thinking it may work here too. Especially for Bok Jo.
The bush on the left is a Honeyberry and in the background is a black currant, both of which can take partial shade well. The small persimmon behind and to the left of the black currants is more experimental as well.
I expect the almost mature fruit will stick around, but it will be interesting to see if the fruit on the upper part of the tree which is just forming will stick and stay to completion.
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so they do not like or handle drought well? will it need the moisture because it’s potted? I’ve been watering them even though they never came to life. I might try different trees there if jujube like a lot of water once established. we have dry summer and I had thought they were good for that.
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No, it was potted because I didn’t know where I’d want to plant it when I harvested the root sucker and grafted to it last spring. This one grew very well and was over 1/2" caliper and 4-5’ tall, much much bigger than OGW ships. The amount of OM I add is more related to the spot I’m planting it than if it is potted or not.
I think Castanea mentioned earlier that Jujubes are very drought resistant. But jujube fruit is not, so they will need some irrigation during dry periods to produce well. If they get stressed, they drop their fruit, at least until they get old enough to have their roots reach deep down. Jujubes love sunshine and plenty of water, so someplace which rains every night and never during the day would be ideal 
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where I’ve placed them is full sun, I watered by hand this year but planned a drip line for next summer when it’s hottest. I may rethink trying again, if they need a lot of water to grow and produce I may as well try a different tack. I’m hoping for trees that can establish over a while and eventually not need it.
the early production is nice to hope for, but they may need more water than the spot I picked can give them
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