In my experience Black Sea is easily superior to either HJ or SC, while Coco and Massandra are equal or better.
I would expect Confetti and Empress Gee to be superior to HJ and SC as well.
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To my tastes and in my climate, I would rank them as follows. All fairly subjective, as it merges a lot of qualities together such as growth, productivity, precocity into production and flavor, brix, crispness, firmness, potential issues (cracking in Xu Zhou, etc) into Quality.
| Cultivar | Production | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Honey Jar | A | A |
| Bok Jo | A | B+ |
| Xu Zhou | A- | B |
| Maya | B+ | A- |
| Massandra | B+ | A- |
| So | B+ | B+ |
| Sugar Cane | B | A- |
| Autumn Beauty | B- | B |
| Tigertooth | B- | C- |
| Black Sea | C+ | A |
| Russia #2 | C+ | A |
| Shanxi Li | C+ | B- |
| Coco | C | A- |
| Huping | C | D- |
| Li | C- | C+ |
| Lang | C- | D |
| Sherwood | D | C- |
| Sihong | D | C+ |
| September Late | D | B |
| Chico | D- | ? |
| GA866 | F | ? |
Edit: I noticed that most of the cultivars had good grades for quality, so I added a few which have made poor fruit for me to even things out.
I think for someone just getting into jujube, Honey Jar is the clear #1 tree to plant, at least in my area.
1- Precocity- I’ve got 11 Honey Jar trees which are 2+ years old and growing normally (across 6 different sites). 10 of the 11 produced by year #3 (most by year #2). No other jujube has been so precocious for me. Contorted/So and Xu Zhou are probably the next best, though I can’t say with too much conviction for Xu Zhou due to small sample size (one tree and one graft which both produced very early).
That 11 excludes 3 trees- 1 in dense shade which I am planning to move, 1 which had an unfortunate incident with a neighbor’s hedge pruner during year #2 and is now growing back, and 1 in a swampy area which isn’t doing well).
2- Honey Jar is good from the start. Some varieties like Shanxi Li seem to improve with time. But Honey Jar is good from first production.
3- Fruit quality- crisp and sweet. I’m not saying there can’t be anything better (the best So (like the 32 brix one from above) can be at least on the same level and maybe better if you prefer crunch to crisp or want more acid. And in past years, I thought that the best Sugar Cane might be a tad better with Russia #2 and Black Sea being on the same level. But, Honey Jar’s fruit is very good and should have wide appeal.
Precocity matters a lot more if you are just getting started. Now, once I’ve got dozens of trees producing (not all producing large amounts, but at least some), I can afford to wait a bit for either production (#1 above) or better quality (#2 above) from a new cultivar/tree. But, when you are first starting and looking at the tree, anxiously awaiting fruit, you really need something like Honey Jar.
So and Xu Zhou, and possibly Massandra aren’t bad options if you can’t find Honey Jar. But their average fruit quality is lower than HJ (Massandra is closest) in my area/experience.
Sugar Cane is reasonably precocious and productive, though not as much as Honey Jar. It is also very crisp, but it took a hit for me this year, both in producing some soft fruit, some low brix fruit, and the off taste, the last of which could be my mouth’s fault.
Can’t have a post without any pics…
Here’s some So from my yard and a Honey Jar for comparison. These So are good, but not on the same level as the ones I got from the rental yesterday. Their brix is also more typical.
This Honey Jar had the highest brix rating I’ve ever measured at 36. Of course, only recently could I measure above 32, so it isn’t surprising that new records are being set 
But, brix isn’t everything (once above a certain level). Even at 36, this HJ wasn’t at its best. The 28 brix So was the best of the 3, with the HJ coming 2nd.
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That was so so incredibly helpful. Thank you so much for that! I will definitely try to get honey jar!
I stopped by the property with the large Sugar Cane tree today (8 days after my last visit). There were more Sugar Cane ready (about 2 quarts) and the Li have been ripening as well.
Almost all of these Sugar Cane have good crispness. Not like the ones from a month ago where some were soft.
There are still plenty of Sugar Cane left, though I’m not sure how much longer we’ll have until a frost. Generally about Nov 1st, though the 10 day (through Nov 2nd) forecast doesn’t go any lower than 45 degrees.
Here’s a wider view of the Sugar Cane and Li trees. They are spaced about 10’ apart and have grown so that there isn’t that much space between them, but I can still get in between to pick, This is the Sugar Cane that I accidentally snapped 4-5’ of the leader off when trying to pick the high-up fruit. Today, I left other high fruit and will try to remember a short ladder next time I expect to pass by.
I’m not sure what it is at this site, but it sometimes has russeted jujubes. I don’t think I’ve seen that anywhere else. Last year, the So and the Dae Sol Jo were russeted. This year it is the So and a few of the Li.
The fruit still seems to be relatively good. These had good flavor, though their texture/juice wasn’t as good as the ones from a different property a few days ago.
Here’s one which I didn’t think I’d like. But it isn’t bad when they get completely completely ripe. I guess most fruit is good when the brix gets to 35…
The texture is still lacking (dense, not crisp, a bit tough), but it has enough juice to be tasty and has a bit of acidity to go with 31-35 brix fruit. The pit is also a bit large considering the size of the fruit. But, I found myself popping them into my mouth on the way home. It isn’t when I’d start with, if someone hasn’t had jujubes before, but it is still a good snack.
It is a bit more time consuming to pick, given all the small fruit. It was dark by the time I was done.
And here’s one from my yard. A good chunk of the Xu Zhou are done, but I’ve got one branch left which has some fruit on it.
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the SO JFE is the skin tougher than other jujubes lets say comparing to Honey jar? what i mean is i ate some jujube before and some have a tough skin that makes it not easy to eat comparing to something more crisp skin.
So’s skin may be a tad tougher than Honey Jar, but not by that much. But the flesh is tougher, than HJ. Sugar Cane is even more light/crisp than HJ. I should also be clear that the small jujube which I describe as tough was from the rootstock of a So, not the So itself. Sometime around 2016-17, I harvested a sucker from the rootstock and that is the small fruit I pictured above.
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Good point on HJ not being new. I meant more for the sake of the visible price tag. The “should I buy” justification debate plays a little different in the head a “jujube fanatic” compared to someone new to jujubes or someone who is just “ok” with them. I too have bought a tree and basically treated it as a scionwood source. 
It’s worth pointing out OGW has flat across the board pricing no matter what cultivar (at least for jujubes). $60 is the price for their 4’-5’ bare roots. $40 for their 1 gallons. $50 for their two gallons. Some cultivars may appear cheaper because they only have 1 gallons available for some and bare-roots for others. So the debate boils down to - how much would you pay to advance the fruiting age of your jujube?
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OGW shows sold out now. Four Winds Growers is the only place I see it in stock (for spring). Some places have not put up their spring listings yet though.
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I have the JF&E So, too (on its own roots)—put out just last spring, and it ripened four fruits this year. These were on the small side—the biggest being just a little bigger than one of the big “shooter” marbles—and I suppose that’s because it is a young tree. But I was surprised by how good they were. I let them get to the fully brown stage, and they were crisp, very sweet and apple-y, also surprisingly juicy. My Honey Jar got killed in the late freezes of 2020 and I only got a small sample from it, but these from So seemed every bit as good to me.
My only grafted survivor is Coco, which bloomed heavily but, despite the fact I left some rootstocks to bloom and pollenize it, it set nothing. Still recovering from the damage, I guess. (EDIT: I did get two cuttings from Coco to root this season; they are at the three-month mark and have shown roots at the drain holes but, vegetatively, they’ve done nothing save keep their original leaves.)
I got a few fruit from the rootstock jujubes, but they were, as expected, tiny and sour.
Yes, mine too. Very few jujube in my area taste great and are still crisp when they get fully brown but these did and they didn’t split. I’m looking forward to more of them.
Lol. It’s been a while since I’ve heard that! Surprising to find someone that can still relate…. My fruit was larger this year than it was last year.
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Does anybody have a good list of relative ripening dates of the different varieties?
I have a So Contorted from OGW. Looks like on own roots. It’s very tasty (sweet but not cloying, just a touch of acid) and I’d like to propagate it. Can try rooting some cuttings. If grafting, how would you add this to another tree? It’s growth habit is very different from my other varieties like HJ or SC.
I have one that went through September as well but can’t find it.
8-9 Black Sea
8-11 Sugar Cane
8-13 Autumn Beauty
8-15 Massandra
8-18 Coco
8-21 Lang
8-22 Shui Men
8-23 SiHong
8-23 Honey Jar
8-23 Ant Admire
8-23 Orange Beauty
8-28 Jin
8-29 Porterville
9-1 Li
9-4 Park
9-6 Sherwood
9-16 Kumme
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Interesting, for some reason I thought Honey Jar was one of the earlier ones. It’s the only one I have, still young and small.
In my locale Honey Jar does ripen very early but I’m sure weather has a lot to do with when they ripen.
My partial list
8/1 Sugar Cane
8/5 Honey Jar
8/10 Autumn Beauty
8/14 Black Sea
8/16 SiHong
8/17 Alcalde #1
9/1 Li
I quit after that but later ones were Redlands #4 and Xu Zhou. Orange Beauty was in the somewhere I think a few days after SiHong.
My weather will be a lot different from yours even though the zone is about the same.
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Honey Jar is one of the earlier ones. I had over 40 varieties extending into late October/early November. HJ is in the first quarter to ripen.
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I would and not just because I throw too much money at this
My reasoning is that jujube take way too long to size up from 1 gal to a productive size. With something like peaches, I would actually be OK using a smaller tree. I’ve planted 2’ tall peaches and had them reach 10’ by the end of the 2nd year. But with jujubes you are doing well to get a 5->10’ jump in that time (when starting with a nice 3/4" caliper tree), while 2’ may just be hitting 3 or 4’. And every year it remains small exposes it to potential animal damage. Not just deer, but at that size rabbits are a danger.
Honey Jar was available from GrowOrganic (a good source) as well, but it looks like HJ was the first to sell out there. Have you ordered from Four Winds before? Looks like generally positive reviews.
I’m tempted to get more, but I think I may stick with transplanting existing trees.
I brought the ladder and between reaching the high ones and seeing other in daylight I was able to get another 2.5 pounds from the Sugar Cane.
The Xu Zhou from a new graft have started to ripen.
Most are sill at least part green:
I’ve got at least 2 different rootstocks that produce small but usable fruit (and lots of it). Maybe I find them palatable only because I like jujube so much, but they aren’t bad- good brix and some acid, though the small size and large pit makes them a bit more work to eat. Not a problem if you are eating them while doing something else though (like a long drive, movie, etc).
Here’s one of them that is quite productive. I’ve grafted it in a few different places to see if it helps pollination. When I do, I put it low in the tree, as it can produce even in a lower-light situation.
My 2 Coco trees have both been pretty stingy setters for me.
Rooting green cuttings can work, but isn’t all that easy. I have 1.5 successes out of ~10 attempts from this summer. I see what you mean about So having a different (more bush-like) growth habit. I’d guess you’d want to graft low to the central leader. I’ve done the opposite- grafted other varieties to a So, letting it form a large bush
I think timing is pretty variable. Not only is it zone dependent, but at least in my area, it varies on a tree by tree basis. For example, some trees had little or no fruit when they would be expected to ripen (mid-late September), but are now fruiting a month later.
Here’s a So which didn’t produce anything when my other So (almost a month ago in the same yard) did, but is now ripening. It is the same branch pictured in the 4th pic of the 1st post in this thread.
Here’s another example of late ripening- a Honey Jar which actually had 2 crops- one in late Sept to the 1st week of Oct and another now.
This is about the difference between the first flush of HJ and SC for me. Roughly mid Sept for SC and close to Oct 1st for HJ.
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I had emailed OGW to ask if they were going to get more honey jar for spring. They replied:
There is a chance we will get more of the Honey Jar jujube in the spring season, and we have added you to the email waitlist. This will alert you as soon as the tree is available for order again.
Some other good options include the Ant Admire, Empress Gee, and Confetti jujubes. These produce large fruits that are very sweet, crisp and juicy. The Confetti is currently available in the 1 gallon size for $39.95 each. We expect to have the other two varieties available again for the spring season.
Which makes me feel like it’s pretty wishy-washy as to whether or not they will get honey jars this spring.
So now my current dilemma is:
Do I go ahead and order the bare root honey jar from four winds? I have never heard of them before, and do not know their quality. Also, I do not think I want to order the gallon size Confetti from OGW because the consensus in this thread is that it is worth it to get the bare root trees. But, should I wait for OGW to update their spring listings and hope they have a bare root honey jar? Or one of the other varieties they recommended in their email?
I have successfully ordered from Four Winds before, they are a well-known outfit for tropicals.
Interesting. I thought it was just me with the slow Jujube - Honeyjar.