It took me a bit of 2024 to get the 2023 season written up. I was working in it on New Year’s eve, but didn’t make it. For the last few weeks I’ve been taking advantage of warmer than usual winter temps by doing some transplanting and preparing for spring. But, winter now looks like it is really here, as it not forecast to get above freezing for the next week (low of 14F).
The weather in 2023 wasn’t as good for jujube as it was in 2022. Several varieties dropped their production significantly. Even so, the trees were a year older and overall production increased from 300 to over 500 lbs. Which may sound like a lot, but I have over 100 jujube trees of varying ages. About half in my backyard and the rest at half a dozen rentals in several neighboring towns. Some of the trees are quite young, with a few even being planted this year. Though I’m not sure why I’m still planting more when picking the ones I have already takes so much time… 
The top-producing tree was a Sugar Cane that was planted at a rental in 2017, with about 55 lbs. Last year it was the #5 ranked tree with 20 lbs. While the tree has grown very large and is quite vigorous, 55 lbs of fruit was probably too much for it. The fruit didn’t lose too much in terms of size, but it didn’t get the same high brix that it had in the past. In past years it would always be in the 20’s, often 25-30 brix. This year, there were times the fruit was brown, yet still only 15 brix. Depending on weather, and how much fruit was still on the tree, the brix gradually rose, getting into the low 20’s.
The large, 12 year old So/Contorted yielded only about 25 lbs, down from 50 lbs last year. But, that number was depressed some by my not keeping up with picking it. Once ripe, So fruit tends to fall very easily and I probably lost 5+ pounds from this tree.
A few varieties really dropped off in terms of productivity, likely due to the reduced amount of sun this year. Chico, Mei Mi, and Shanxi Li all stood out for their decreased production. For trees/grafts in less than full sun, the production sometimes went to virtually zero. I don’t have tree-by-tree data for everything, but the other large varieties, such as Li, Sihong, Da Bai Ling, Redlands, etc, all seemed a bit lower-production as well.
The BV1 seedling also dropped in production to zero, but that could be explained by the young tree being cut to within a couple feet of the ground for scionwood. Hopefully next year it resumes production, as it grew very well in 2023, to over 6’ tall.
I tested branch girdling for the first time this year, with very mixed results. It does seem to prompt heavier fruit set. But, there are two main issues:
1.) Many of the branches then snap off at the point where it was girdled. It seems that weakening the branch, then having heavier fruit-set makes for a bad combination.
2,) Even when the branch didn’t break, a number of the girdled branches produced a high incidence of soft, worthless fruit.
There were some successes. One girdled Honey Jar branch at a rental had a lot of good fruit, that was ripe earlier than any other Honey Jars. The girdled branch of GA866 actually ripened a few fruit, though it wasn’t all that great in terms of quality. I’ll probably experiment a bit more with partial girdles in the future, but it doesn’t seem to be a straight-forward solution.
To gauge brix levels in jujubes, here is a scale I posted earlier this year:
Jujube Brix:
15- yuk (cardboard from Chinatown can be 11-12 brix)
20- OK, I can take it, but would like more
25- Not bad to pretty good
30- Great
35- Top notch, best
40- Not sure how much higher there is to go from best
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Early season Jujubes (starting in late September):
This year the early jujubes were much more mixed up than last year. Last year, there was a more set sequence that I saw replicated at different sites. But this year, each tree seemed to have it’s own scheduling.
Sugar Cane- always a great, crispy texture. A lighter crisp than most varieties. The main potential issue is the bitter taste that some people notice in them. But, it seems to be hit or miss which people notice it. At one time I thought that it was possible that some years it was present and not in others. But, I was giving people samples of jujubes this fall and one guy had a strong dislike to a Sugar Cane, while I didn’t notice any bad flavor in them. Aside from that, and the one tree that had reduced brix (down to 15 from a normal range of 25-30) when it overproduced (55+ lbs), there is a lot to like about Sugar Cane. In addition to starting the season early, like many varieties, it continues to produce jujubes on new growth. I was still picking Sugar Cane right up to the end of the season, around the start of November. Early, productive, crisp- great texture, mid-sized fruit, quite sweet, but a bit more balanced flavor than some jujubes.
overloaded tree:
normal Sugar Cane:
Coco- Seems very much like Sugar Cane, to the point it may be a synonym. Fruit, ripening season, and susceptibility to cracking match.
Honey Jar- In past years, Honey Jar would be at least several weeks behind Sugar Cane. But this year, some of the HJ trees were right with SC. Honey Jar is a pure sweet jujube and makes for a good change of pace from Sugar Cane. HJ is a relatively small fruit and very productive. Early in the season (May/June), Honey Jar trees are noteworthy for having folded/rolled leaves. They have a crisp texture, with a bit denser crunch than Sugar Cane, which has a lighter texture. One person (from CA) mentioned that Honey Jar loses texture quickly there if not picked at the right time. Here, it is a very wide window. The only time I’ve seen it lose texture, other than cracking from the rain, is when I had a tree that was too tall and I kept forgetting to bring a ladder. They must have been brown for at least 3-4 weeks before I finally got to them. Even then, some were OK, and a lot had been damaged from cracking, due to rains when they were ripe. Early, very productive, crisp/crunchy, small fruit, very sweet (normally 25-35 brix). Anyone who wants to start growing jujubes should start with this tree.
Fuicuimi- My original Fuicuimi tree hasn’t been all that productive. But two grafts of it have done well, so I’m not sure how to classify it from a productivity standpoint. Especially since one of the productive grafts was at a site with limited sun, something that should have greatly reduced production. The shade did delay ripening by over a month, which turned out to be a nice bonus- crisp fruit in early November. Conversely, the original non-productive tree is in a pretty good spot and has only produced a few fruit. Mid-sized round fruit. Crisp, sweet (25-30 brix), with a lighter, tender texture. Top-tier quality.
Black Sea- Great texture, fairly neutral sweet jujube flavor. While Sugar Cane seems to reduce brix and maintain size while overproducing, Black Sea seems to maintain brix (upper 20’s) and reduce size. It is normally pretty small to start with, slightly larger than Honey Jar. Top-tier quality.
Confetti- Very much like Black Sea. I’ll be watching in future years to see if I can notice any differences.
Mei Mi- Another great texture, early season variety. Mei Mi has a bit of extra flavor that I really like, but it also has a couple big negatives. It cracks easily and isn’t very productive. The rainy weather this year reduced its production to almost nothing. I think it would be a great variety in a sunny area which doesn’t rain a lot near harvest. Or maybe in a greenhouse.
Autumn Beauty- Largest fruit size of the early ripeners. Yield was down quite a bit this year, especially lower in the tree and in a tree which was getting a bit overgrown (self-shading). In fact, one large graft (almost half a tree) produced almost nothing, after being reasonably productive the previous year. It also got some sort of a rot, which is fairly uncommon for jujubes (so far…knock on wood…). So it probably isn’t the best variety for rainy areas. I find the fruit just decent (normal sweetness, OK crunch, not super-crisp), but I’ve heard praise for it both online and from at least one person I shared the fruit with, so maybe there is more to it than I see.
Massandra/Maya/Moonlight- From what I’ve been told these 3 cultivars may be very slightly different. But from what I can tell, they are so close that they might as well be the same variety. Tsao also seems very similar. Elongated, with a somewhat dense crunch, one of them (a Maya) was ripe in the early season, while other trees (another Maya, plus Massandra and Moonlight) were ripe in the early-mid season. All 3 seem to be the most crack-resistant of jujubes. For example, a given rain storm cracked half or more of the ripe fruit from susceptible varieties, but only a few percent of fruit would crack on Massandra. I consider the fruit good, but not quite at the top tier. I also find the long pointed pit a bit annoying, as it is easy to break the tip off with my teeth and I don’t really want to eat sharp pits. But overall it is a very good cultivar, especially with the resistance to cracking.
But this pic does show that they do sometimes crack a bit…
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Early mid-season (starting in first half of October):
Li- Probably the most commonly type of jujube grown in the US. Large fruit, which means it takes a bit longer for trees to come into production. Normally, the fruit has a reasonable, middle of the road texture. Not super crisp, but a decent amount of crunch. But this year a lot of my Li trees had soft fruit. Not all of the fruit, but anywhere from 20-80% varying by tree and site. I’m not sure what caused it and it doesn’t seem limited to just Li, but affected many of the larger fruited cultivars. Aside from this year’s soft fruit, I consider Li to be a decent, but not too impressive cultivar. The older trees can become somewhat productive of large, OK quality fruit.
Many of the other large cultivars don’t seem different enough from Li to get full writeups:
Allentown - Can’t tell fruit from Li. Also had a lot soften.
Da Bai Ling- reasonably precocious for a large fruited cultivar (a newly planted tree
had a couple fruit), but productiveness has been limited so far). Very large fruit.
Redlands- Similar large fruit
Dae Sol Jo- A bit more precocious than Li. Maybe slightly better quality than Li in past years, though this year I couldn’t really tell the difference.
Tae Sang Wang-Similar large fruit, but possibly more productive (I only have 1, so it is hard to draw a firm conclusion)
Talihong- Similar to Li, but maybe an extra hint of tart.
Yazoo Li- Very similar to Li
Hetian Jade-I thought it was like Li last year, when both new grafts produced several large fruit. This year, neither of the 2 small grafts produced anything.
Talihong:
Dae Sol Jo:
Da Bai Ling:
Redlands- from girdled branch that broke off:
Ant Admire- Very non-productive for me. Even when girdled, it didn’t produce much. Quality ranges from poor to OK. Not good for my area.
Early Golden Crispy- Very good. Top quality crunch and good flavor. Medium sized fruit. Seems to keep it’s crunch in storage pretty well.
Huping- Not very productive. Iffy quality, probably more suited for drying than for fresh eating.
Bing Tang- One of my favorites. Top quality fruit with good flavor. Is susceptible to cracking. Reasonably productive, mid-sized fruit with great texture.
Orange Beauty- I still don’t get great production or texture from this variety. I still have hopes for it, given what others have written, so I put a few grafts in a couple very good locations and they grew well. So maybe next year I will have something good to say.
Russia #4- Not to be confused with Russia #2/Black Sea. #4 is very lacking in texture to the point that it is quite noteworthy. In past years it was very productive, but made very little fruit this year. I only have one graft of it (for obvious reasons), so I’m not sure if it was just the location of that graft (low on the North side of a tree that has gotten tall and dense) which contributed to the lack of production this year. Either way, I didn’t really miss it.
So/Contorted- Productive and interesting zig-zag branches. Starts fairly early in mid-season, with OK/good fruit. But very late in the season (end of October), some of my So produce top quality fruit- dense, very crunchy , high brix, and some acid bite. It’s strange how fruit from the same tree and in the same year can range from “just OK” to great. The fruit from the below pic was above average, but not great. Note the fairly empty “seconds” box- So seems pretty good about not cracking.
Here’s a pic from when it really started to get good. The large ones with the speckles are really good. The small ones are more like the mid-season fruit.
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Late mid-season (starting mid-October):
Bok Jo- The most productive and precocious jujube. Mid-sized fruit, with decent crunch, but not top-level crispness, so the fruit is good but not great. But it is consistently productive, even in years when most other jujubes are not. One year, when weather was cloudy and my trees were younger, Bok Jo was the only one which made more than a few fruit. The leaves seem larger than many other jujubes- maybe that helps it capture enough sun in marginal climates.
At one site, where jujubes haven’t done especially well yet, Bok Jo was the only one with a full load. Sugar Cane had some fruit, with So and Li having just a few.
While not the worst cracker, Bok Jo is no better than average in terms of crack-resistance.
Pingguo (Chinese for apple)- Medium to large, very high brix (highest I’ve seen is 40 brix). Very good flavor, but not the best texture- firm, some crunch, but not hard or crisp. A bit like Sihong in that they both have great flavor and OK texture. When I get a good one, it is one of my favorites. Some production, but a bit on the low side. I tried cracking some seeds from it this fall and didn’t find anything inside.
Bu Lu Shu- It was pretty good last year in a relatively small sample. Rather than making more, it actually made almost nothing. I’ll keep it around to see if that changes, but it may not be a great one for my climate.
Chico- Interesting flavor with some tart kick. I do like the flavor, but here are my complaints about Chico:
- 2 of my 3 Chico haven’t produced more than 1-2 fruit in any year, in 6-7 years. The 3rd, in almost full sun has produced more, but below average amount.
- Texture- not soft, but lacks sharpness
- Needs to be fully brown to taste good, but cracks easily with rain when close to ripe, so it can be a bit of a challenge
- A lot of the fruit produced was small and pitless (no stone). To some it might be a feature, but it irritates me, as I would prefer to not eat the seeds (no idea about how safe it is, and don’t like the texture).
I suppose that Chico is like Pingguo in that both have interesting & good flavor, fairly low production, and only OK texture.
Churchpoint- This one is growing on me- very small, with an especially intense color. Many have a hint of tart, with an interesting flavor. Very few were impacted by cracking. Crunchy with some crispness. Maybe I could have put this one into early mid season, but even though it started earlier, I picked most of them in the 2nd half of October.
Grey- small to mid size. I’ve read it is good for drying, which makes sense, as it isn’t all that good for fresh eating. Not very productive here either.
Lang- One of the worst jujubes to eat fresh. Even worse than Huping and Grey. Decent size though, so it is fine for drying. It’s gotten to the point that when picking I toss even undamaged Lang into the “seconds” box to get dried. Not worth growing for fresh eating.
KFC- Pretty good, but doesn’t reach the top-tier. I also noticed rot spots where one fruit touched another. It does seem to be quite productive of mid-large sized fruit. If you consider it a large fruit, then it is probably the best quality of the large fruited jujubes. The texture of the skin can be a bit bumpy, but that doesn’t impact flavor.
Shanxi Li- Large fruited, similar to Li. A bit later season. Production dropped a lot this year. Shanxi Li always appears to set a ton of fruit, then drops a lot before it gets too large.
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Late season (end of October):
Sherwood-Can take a long time to come into fruit. The tree at home (planted 2016) produced some fruit, but it wasn’t particularly good. The one at a rental (planted 2017) produced a bit more, though not a heavy load at all. The fruit from the rental was much better. Even the good Sherwood fruit wasn’t really to my taste, as it is very hard and dense. Some crunch, but not too crisp. But the sugars got up pretty high, with many into the mid 30s, so it was still good eating.
Vegas Booty- First time it has produced for me. Very much like the neighboring Sherwood (the one at home, where the fruit wasn’t very good). The girdled part of the branch produced more, but I got a few from the ungirdled part.
September Late- A graft on the Sherwood, which ripens about the same time, with similarly low quality (8 year old tree at home), just a slightly different shape.
Texas Tart- A very interesting variety. Small fruit, and only borderline texture. But what it does have is very very sour fruit. This year the amount of fruit produced may have overwhelmed the ability of the tree to ripen it and similar to the Sugar Cane mentioned above, the brix was lower. Last year’s brix was significantly higher, with some in the low 30s. Even at 32 brix, it is only borderline palatable, kind of like a lemon-drop. At 20 brix I only ate a few wince-inducing fruit. But I have high hopes for this cultivar as a potential parent. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that the seedlings get the productivity and some of the sour from Texas Tart and the size and crispness from one of the other nearby varieties (Sugar Cane, Dae Sol Jo, etc). Even if I don’t get lucky on all counts, the results could be pretty neat, as there aren’t that many sweet-tart jujubes out there.
Sihong- This was a bit of a down year for Sihong. In the past, only one of my 3 trees with it was productive. That one still set a decent amount of fruit, but the quality was lower and a lot of the fruit shriveled prematurely and even the ones that didn’t weren’t very good. It could be water-related, but most of the other varieties on the same tree were fine, particularly So, Fuicuimi and Sandia). It looks like I really need a sunny year for Sihong to shine.
GA 866-I’m proud to report that I finally got fruit from GA 866, after just 8 years. 
I had to use branch girdling, as I think that was the only branch that got fruit (there may have been 1 fruit on another branch, but I don’t think it made it to harvest). The fruit was OK, but nothing special. Moderate crunch, not especially crisp. Like a smaller, thinner Li. I know that some people in CA love GA866, but this is one variety I don’t think people outside of high-sun areas should plant. For me, it is about 10% of one tree. So, with 100+ trees, that puts it at about 0.1%, which seems about as much as I’d want of it…
Xu Zhou- This cultivar is massively productive, rivaling Bok Jo, even in down years like this one. The problem is that the fruit is pretty mediocre, leaving me with lots of iffy (not great crunch and moderately low brix, often in the low 20s) fruit. It is also susceptible to cracking, which would normally lead me to pick any close-to-ripe fruit before a rain storm. But in the case of Xu Zhou, the fruit really needs to get fully ripe to get the brix up to an acceptable level.
It appears that Xue Zao is just a spelling variant. I graft it onto a Xu Zhou branch and the fruit was identical.
One good thing about Xu Zhou is that it seems to keep pretty well. It isn’t great to start out, but doesn’t get worse as fast…In fact, I just tried some which has been in the fridge for more than two months and it was edible. Not great, and half a dozen of them was plenty for me, but I think it is probably in the best condition of what remains of the 2023 jujubes. They are still relatively firm, though the texture has that wet quality jujubes get when they are on their last legs. I’ll probably see if my wife wants to eat them and if not, maybe I’ll dehydrate them.
Tigertooth-I mostly grafted over my Tigertooth, but the few fruits I got from it match my experience in past years- iffy texture, on very late season, poor quality pointy fruit.
Dong/Sandia- Finally a late season jujube I can say good things about. I was worried that Sandia/Dong wouldn’t ripen this year due to the reduced sun, But it just made it. Here’s a pic of Sandia at one of the rentals, where I picked it in the dark (probably stopping by after a fall softball game). The leaves had already fallen, but the fruit was very good, with a crisp, tender texture. As opposed to the late-season So fruit, which is crisp and hard/crunchy and Sherwood which is mostly just hard/dense.
Sandia also kept pretty well, as I think I finished the last of it 3-4 weeks later and it was still very good.
In past years Sandia seemed to get ripe slightly before (maybe a week) before Dong. This year, both were about the same, right around the first frost.
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New, but too small a sample to say much:
Chao Yang- I just grafted it this past spring, but it already produced half a dozen fruit which were pretty good. Not very large, but decent crunch and a hint of tart.
Baby Red-Very visually appealing, but I must have gotten the timing wrong on picking them, as the fruit wasn’t great texture nor very sweet. I’ve heard it can be tough, as the fruit starts red, then changes to more brown when ready. I only had 3 tries, as it was a new graft.
Here’s a pic from way before they were ripe.
Dragon- I’ve had the tree for 4 years and the 1 fruit I got from it this year was the first. Not notworthy, at least not yet.
Kima- Round medium small fruit. I had a few this year and they were OK, not particularly good or bad.
Elk Grove- Early/Mid season, distinctive fruit. They are very dense, maybe even denser & harder than Sherwood. I do like them better than Sherwood, but need a bit more sample before I really make up my mind on them.
R1T4 & R4T3- Very poor production this year and the few I had were not noteworthy.
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When I say that it was a less-sunny year, I actually have some data. I had solar panels installed on my house back in 2015, so I have some long-term data for my location.
While the April through October numbers don’t look that bad, down 6.3% vs 2022 and 2.5% from the 8 year average, the months with the worst reduction were the prime jujube months of June through September (jujubes get started late, so it is close too June when they are fully leafed out…).
Looking at June through September, 2023 was 13% under 2022 and 10% under the 8 year average. Now, I know that KWH generated isn’t a perfect comparison for light levels needed for plants, but it at least puts some numbers behind my hunch. 2 of the previous 8 years were close to 2023, being only 1-2% more sun.
I should also mention that another potential flaw in this methodology is that solar panels are expected to slightly decrease in output each year, though I haven’t seen too much of that so far. It seems the natural variance of year-to-year sun is far more than any slight drops in efficiency.
Worst yield reduction in cloudy summer: Mei Mi. Bu Lu Shu, Ant Admire
dishonorable mention: Autumn Beauty, Chico, Shanxi Li, Russia #4, Sihong
Though the 3 with the worst reduction were not all that productive even in a good year. In a cloudy year they become virtually ornamental- maybe 1-2 fruit on a large branch.
Worst Crackers: Mei Mi, Bing Tang, Sugar Cane, Xu Zhou
Top fruit quality: Honey Jar, Sugar Cane, Black Sea, Bing Tang, Early Golden Crisp, Sandia/Dong
Honarable mention: So (would be on the top list if consistent), KFC, Churchpoint, Pingguo/Apple, Bok Jo (massively productive), Maya/Massandra
If you are just getting into jujubes, I’d recommend starting with Honey Jar. It is productive and precocious, so you don’t need to wait long for your first harvest and the fruit quality is top-notch. The fruit size is the one drawback I see, which honestly isn’t that big a problem if you are picking for yourself. Picking 500lbs of them, would take way too much time though, so I can see why it isn’t a common commercial variety.
I’d like to be able to suggest Bok Jo as the second tree to go with the Honey Jar for pollination. It’s productivity makes it a great tree to have in my climate and the fruit is pretty good, even if it doesn’t make it into the top tier. But to get it you’ll probably need to graft.
