Indian / Chinese Jujube?

Bought these jujubes in an asian corner market today.
I was thinking wow they have So jujube or something similar.
I was surprised when I took a bite and it was more crispy, more juicy, less hard and less sweet than a Z. Jujuba.
It’s almost like a big green Taiwan jujube(aka Indian jujube, Z. Mauritiana) but sweeter, denser and with more jujube taste.
I’m think if you cross a Chinese jujube with an Indian jujube, then this is what it would taste like.
Are there Indian jujube vareities from India that taste like this instead of like the big green watery Taiwan jujube?
Does anyone know what this is?

5 Likes

almost certain it is z. jujuba due to the yellowish tinge of light areas, and the speckled appearance and deeper tan of the darker areas.

if you are in a state where groceries are required to indicate country(state) of origin, that would also help identify.

and taking it further, if the pits have viable pips, you can try germinating and see what they look like as seedlings

2 Likes

It comes in a red netted bag like normal super market jujube with no label.
Yeah, I’ll save some seeds to germinate. It’s easy to tell Mauritiana from Jujuba.
I give them an 8 in taste from a 10 jujube scale, where store bought big green Taiwan Jujube is a 5 and my Chico and Black Sea are 9.

3 Likes

makes me think it is from california. Chinese jujubes come in red fishnet bags here in vegas, and labeled as california-grown

Can Indian Jujube be grafted onto Li (chinese) jujube? If so would it make that indian jujube graft more cold tolerant?

i have not tried it, but i do know they can be grafted to each other.

it is possible that a cold-hardy rootstock may confer some hardiness to cold(on grafts). Have yet to see literature about this though. Jujus(both tropical and temperate) are relatively new to the western world, that sadly for the most of us-- a DIY approach is the best-- if not the only reference available…

good luck and do keep us posted :slight_smile:

1 Like

I tried it once on tigertooth rootstock and buds pushed out, then died a week later. It’s my only jujube graft to fail out of about 20 jujube graft that I’ve ever done. Jujubes are very easy to graft. I will try again this year. Also jujube goes dormant in winter and Indian jujube does not so how will this affect the graft?

The only fruit tree I know of that is more cold hardy on some rootstocks is citrus, such as sour orange and C35. There’s probably not enough research on this subject. I grafted tropical guava on Psidium Guineense which is more cold hardy than tropical guava.

You need to try coco jujube if you give chico a 9. Coco is at least 2 above chico IMO.

1 Like

I know this is an old tread but if anyone is growing the Indian jujube, please post a photo of the fruits for me. I’m planning to air layer a large tree that is supposed to be the Indian jujube so I wanted to show the fruit photo to the owner of the tree so they will confirm it is the same.

There are several varieties of Indian jujubes. Some are round, some are oblong, some are light green, some are dark green, etc.

In my experience, Indian jujube leaves are larger than Chinese jujubes.

1 Like

Ok, thanks. I did hear back from another guy who saw the tree and fruits, he said it was the Indian jujube with the larger round fruits. Do you know if it tastes good?

Ironically I found several jujubes which I believe to be indian jujubes in china. Please let me know if these are not ber and are instead a different species (like Chinese jujube):

The fruit is good tasting. It is crisp and juicy almost like an Asian apple, not quite as crisp as an Asian pear. There is one largish seed in the center that is easy to eat around. Flavor is slightly sweet and slightly tart. Less tart and sweet than an apple, and quite balanced and refreshing. Definitely a fruit worthy of growing! I’m not sure if indian jujubes can be preserved in the same way as Chinese can (they get preserved right on the tree!)
The round ones are called 牛奶枣 “milk dates”. And the pointy are called 珍珠枣,“pearl dates”.






I should add that another grocery stores they clearly mixed several cultivars together as many shapes and sizes could be seen. Some taste better than others, but all are pretty good. I’d personally rather have an apple most of the time, but these are smaller and refreshing and they can be preserved easier (I think) and they grow easier (I think) so there’s some good attributes as to why to grow this over an apple imo

5 Likes

Does anyone know who would sell Indian Jujube trees?

I’ve seen them in nurseries in Florida and California since they’re more of a tropical variety

Yes, I found a guy who has a large Indian jujube tree. It had some fruits, but not ripe at the time so I didn’t get to try the fruits. It did not seem as large as the ones in the photo above, but still had larger fruits than any jujube I grow.

Some Indian jujubes are small, a bit larger than a pea. The small ones I ate were either sour or bitter or both. We cooked them with sugar making a dessert/snack out of them.

Taste is subjective. I have found most Indian jujubes sold in stores were picked a bit too early (like most fruit are). They were basically mildly sweet and crunchy. Unfortunately, it won’t make my top 10 tropical fruit.

Ziziphus mauritiana Jujube PFAF Plant Database.

I had read they were Hardy down to 5/6. Is this not true?

I’m guessing the site is mixing it up with Ziziphus jujuba because Mauritiana is evergreen and doesn’t go dormant in winter.

2 Likes

I see, thank you so much! I’ll say I enjoyed eating them from the grocery store but they aren’t worth building a green house for :joy: