Jujube cultivars grown in the US

This is not a cultivar, but a brief discussion of the native Florida jujube - Ziziphus celata -

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And that is cool!!!

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Is pepper one of the TVA numbered varieties? I’ve got a couple, though they aren’t ripe yet.

R4T3:

R1T4:

I think Norris is also a TVA variety (R3T1, per my own post from 7+ years ago, which I had forgotten), but it looks to have more of a curl:
Norris_zoom_w_08-02-2022

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The Pepper I list is not a TVA variety. Pepper is a cultivar from China.
I know someone has named one of the TVA trees Pepper, but the Chinese cultivar probably predates the TVA tree.
This is the Chinese Pepper, which has a different shape -

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Looks like there may be another Chinese cultivar being grown in the US - ‘Shandong’.
Its unique characteristic is that when it dries, it is still very solid. This seems to be different than ‘Shandong Pear’, which is a very crisp fruit, but I can’t be sure.

These photos are from a grower on Facebook.


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This is a jujube being grown in Portugal zone 10.
I’m trying to find out more about it.

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Looks like a Valentines jujube. :gift_heart:

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Hi. You saw it where?

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It’s from a nursery… i will get one tree! Do you know what variety this is?

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Someone posted a photo in the Facebook jujube group.

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Yes, i already know the nursery where they have it and already contacted them to buy one tree… do you know what variety this is?
Thanks!

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No, and the guy who posted the photo does not know what it is either.

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Another cultivar grown in the US is ‘Nitra’ which is supposed to be a seedless cultivar, but sometimes produces seeded fruit. Flavor is supposed to be similar to Li.

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Nitra is a town in Slovakia and the old big jujube is growing near the central square. The fruit is small
and not very good, always with the stone. The one on the picture doesn’t correspond to it.

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More on Alcalde being the same as Autumn Beauty. Both of mine have just ripened together. I don’t have photos of the fruits—oops— but I did compare the seeds.

Top: Autumn Beauty
Bottom: Alcalde

And both cracked:

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Hi. Do u know the name of the nursery that sells the heart-shaped jujube? That looks so nice as a fruit.

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Hi. Sorry they dont sell it. Its a big tree they have.

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I’m impressed with the evenly split pits! What method do you use to crack them? I’ve tried a couple of different ways, ultimately settling on light tapping with a hammer. But I always end up with the pit in pieces, and sometimes a damaged seed.

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I’ve cracked literally thousands of these so I’ve gotten better. The way I’ve found that does the least damage to the seeds is to use vice grips. I use heavy duty dog nail clippers to snip off each end. I’m basically making each end of the pit flattened and I don’t necessarily open the seed capsule doing this. Then I position the pit between the jaws of the vice grip upright between the jaws. I adjust the vice grips to give only a slight crush when squeezed. If this doesn’t cause the pit to crack then I tighten the vice grips slightly—like a quarter turn and then squeeze again. I keep this up until the pit cracks and it will nearly always crack lengthwise. At first I used the vice grips across the pit but I have found that the seeds are less damaged when placing the pit in the grips lengthwise with the ends I have flattened with the nippers resting on the vice grip jaws. Sometimes I have to use the dog nail nippers to remove pit material to release the seed from the pit capsule. It’s very easy to damage the seed.

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Thanks for sharing! I’ve used a bench vise before. But too much damage to the seeds. I’ll have to try clipping the ends first and see if that helps.

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