Tony, when you say Shanxi Li was a lot more fruit, do you mean fruit size or total number of fruits?
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Cousinfloyd,
The size of Shanxi Li fruit was double the Li.
I just check on my Honey Jar jujube and it is still producing fruits. It is definitely a keeper.
Tony
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Thanks, Tony.
Double the size of Li sounds huge. I have one fruit on a first year Shanxi Li graft this year, but itâs not even as big as my average Li. The biggest fruits Iâve seen so far have definitely been Li. I like the size of Li, but I hope to see some double that size, too.
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Cousin,
I found a couple of photos on Shanxi Li and Winter Delight for you from a California gardener.
Shanxi Li
Winter delight
Tony
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li is almost identical to shanxi li in tree growth and fruit appearance, taste, and sizeâ at least where am at.
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liâs thorns seem to be a little bigger, and it seems to be the only difference
those winter delight pics sure piqued my curiosity. I have seen a picture online labeled as winter delight which appear so differently⌠Really intrigued if my winter delight variety will bear fruits similar to that pic or to the other picture i have seen, which is more bell-shaped, and not the inverted bell shown in those pictures.
Sugar Cane and So have both ripened fruit for me, even though we have had a few nights in the 30âs. I donât know if it is because they ripened after such temperatures or not, but So was better (sweeter and less dry).
I am hoping for the last few to ripen before the weather returns to those colder temps. ( we set 2 record warm temps this week)
Scott
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I sure wish I liked jujube at all. They grow like weeds here in Phoenix. Im sorry but I dont see what you guys see in them. Nor do I know anyone else here that wants to grow them. Is this a thing of the person in Hawaii lusting after growing a apple? Wanting what one cant have?
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Are the ones youâve tried crisp, with a touch of juice to them? Or are they sweet, but dry and spongy? I think a big part of why I like them is the amount of water mine get. My wife is Chinese, so she likes even the dry spongy ones (shudder). I gave out samples to several people at work this year and got positive reactions from everyone. A couple people asked me where they could buy more.
i canât say everyone initially naive to jujubes learn to like them on the first try(myself includedâbut i blame it on store-bought jujus i got initiated to, and not homegrown), but like your accounts i have similar results with my homegrown fruits, as the feedbac is surprisingly positive for most i introduced the fruits to. Even more exciting is that they are looking forward to plant their own trees, having learned that jujus are extremely fruitful yet 100% pesticide-free and require little water and thrive on neglect. If i were a billionaire, i will buy everyone who has a yard a jujube tree. A grafted juju is generally more expensive than other fruit trees, but bearing fruits more nutritious than oranges and kiwis, and for several hundred years, the initial cost and the minimal upkeep(if any), already paid for itself in exponential terms.
probably for the younger generations to appreciate, who are likely subject to more challenging droughts, blights, fruit moths, late frosts, etc.
Bob,
My exposure to eating them has been somewhat limited, and maybe thats the issue. I had some fruit off a tree in my growers nursery that was either Lang or Lee I think. Spongy and dry. Ive bought some from the Asian grocery and they havent been much better.
So what cultivars are the ones worth eating?
Get a Honey Jar. It has texture like an apple and taste like a date.
Lang is supposed to be for drying, so that could be why it wasnât any good fresh. I also remember Roger Meyers saying that if they are short of water, they take it from the fruit, so you may need irrigate to keep them at their best. A third thing to remember is to pick them before they are 100% brown/red. Once they get to that stage, they start to dry on the tree. They are interesting dried (my wife likes them a lot that way), but I much prefer them fresh. Dried, they are like a big raisin.
My wife used to get them from the Asian grocery store all the time and they were horrid. 10-12 brix and spongy. I planted the first tree mostly for her, not expecting to want any for myself. But, getting crisp fruit with 22-30 brix makes a big difference.
So (a dwarfing variety with zig-zag branches) was the first one I planted and the fruit has been very good. That is what I was giving out to co-workers, as it is the only one I got more than a handful from. Sugar Cane and Honey Jar both gave me samples for the first time this year. Both were very good and crisp, with SC being a bit less dense, Both were 25+ brix.
Scott, I remember you saying good things about ShangXi Li. I know it is supposed to be bigger than most others. How does the taste/texture compare to Honey Jar?
explains your stance towards jujus.
li and lang are the most common varieties for now, and what loweâs and home depot, and most other nurseries sell, so it goes without saying that the fruits being sold in most asian grocery stores arenât the good ones.
lang, most especially is a curse when eaten fresh!
The Greensboro friend that sent these photos to me wrote: âI think the photos should put to rest any doubt that jujubes are difficult to grow around us. Besides cutting back the suckers that grow around the base, we do absolutely nothing with our Li Jujube.â The tree doesnât belong to him, but I think heâs been harvesting fruit from it for about three years.
My latest guess as to why others in the eastern US havenât had the best fruit set is that trees just need to reach a certain size and level of maturity before they fruit heavily. I did get a similarly full crop as the Li in the photos from my Sherwood tree this year, which I planted as a second year from grafting tree in the fall of 2008. My Li is younger than my Sherwood and hasnât give me a lot of fruit yet, but the quality has been excellent.
awesome pics and provenance!
quite amazing that li is just as fruitful in moist and humid regions as they are in desert conditions. And i agree, jujus fruits improve in taste as the trees get bigger. Radically better on a year-to-year basis, sometimes.
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Thats âmusic to my eyesâ 
While Greensboro is not Maryland it means I can do better. My trees are 12 years old but I think they lacked sun where I had them. I already have one new jujube in a sunny spot and hope to get several more going for next year.
My take on most reliable varieties at this point is Li, Redlands, So, and Honey Jar are all pretty good of the fresh-eating ones.
Great paper. I might try them next summer.