…does anyone have experience growing jujube in NY?..zone 6A…near Poughkeepsie Dutchess County…I plan to plant Shanxi Li and Sugar Cane in the warmest full sun location on my property…any pollination issues?
@BobVance grows a few jujube varieties in New Canaan, CT. May be he can give you his expert opinion.
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BobVance posted a detailed update on jujube in the following thread: Jujube 2022 - General Fruit Growing - Growing Fruit
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…thanks…good info…good stuff
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I have been reading about the Jujube and would like to try some since I have a couple acres of open land with total sun exposure in a 6B zone. Are there any nurseries located in the Eastern US that sell seedlings? Would buying seeds be an option? If so where? It appears that they grow fairly fast and can bear quite early.
I am not in Eastern US but I do have seedlings. And seeds. That being said you need to realize that the seedlings are not always true to variety. I grow out a lot of seedlings and some revert to a small sweet fruit and some excel and make large really good fruit. The seedlings are a product of their parents just as our children differ from us. The one bonus of growing seedlings is that you can always graft them into whatever variety you want.
I’d suggest Katy for seedlings. It takes quite a while for me to get a newly planted seed to the point where it produces fruit- maybe 5-6 years with good care. And as Katy noted a decent amount (over half in my small sample) are not very tasty. I have plenty seeds I can share as well, but I wouldn’t suggest relying on it as your main method.
One jujubes get established and good sized, they fruit quickly. Getting small trees sized up can take some time though. I like to buy bare root trees in the 5/8"-1" caliper range to get them there quickly. But they are pricey and not that many places sell trees that size. Trees of Antiquity and Dave Wilson/GrowOrganic are the main sources.
You can do that with named cultivars too- I’ve done it lots, but always feel a bit wasteful. That’s why I planted quite a few Li, as they are one of the most common varieties you can find and the fruit isn’t bad to the point where you’d want to make sure none accidentally fruit (unlike Lang).
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Some seedlings are very precocious. I had a fruit on a 6 month old seedling this year and I’ve had some seedlings bear fruit as “yearlings” so to speak. Some varieties are more precocious than others. Usually the ones that have fruit at an early age are less likely to bear good quality fruit. However I had a few seedlings from 2021 bear some promising fruit this last year and many of those seedlings were from Xu Zhou parentage. Traditionally, Contorted (So) seedlings take a long time to bear fruit but will often have nice fruit. Honey Jar is hit or miss on quality and SiHong has a more likelihood of better fruit. I don’t have as many older Xu Zhou seedlings but they are very prolific with growth and precocious with fruiting. Time will tell at how good the seedling fruit is.
Maybe that is why I feel like it takes forever. Early on, a lot of the seeds I planted were So/Contorted (the first jujube tree I got, 12 years ago).
I also think jujubes size up better in your climate, with months and months of hot sunny weather. My climate may provide more rain, but irrigation is a perfectly adequate substitute for that, while it is tougher for me to supply extra light- big light bulbs or mirrors in the yard… 
I’m hoping that I can get things started a bit faster by growing under lights during the winter. Then they will have a 300+ day growing season for their fist year.
I have found that those started indoors will go through a short dormancy regardless. Perhaps you will have better luck with it but every seedling I’ve started indoors will drop leaves for a short period when moved outside. Only lasts a couple of weeks but I thought they all died the first time if happened.
…your opinion please…I have room for only 2 (perhaps 3) jujubes in what I consider the only ideal location on my property…(full sun and about 7 feet off a paved driveway… two (ordered Sugar Cane and Shanxi Li) would be 15 feet apart,…three would be 10 feet apart…I would be satisfied with 2 if there are no pollination issues but a third sounds better…would you suggest a third tree and what variety to compliment the two I ordered?..thanks
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I wonder if that is because of the drop in temps. Normally when I move plants outside, it is colder out there than inside. As long as they aren’t outgrowing their space (a good problem to have- maybe I would just adjust the shelve for them if enough need it), I can leave them under lights until late spring- maybe June.
From this paper, it looks like Sugar Cane tends to open its flowers in the morning, while Shanxi Li opens in the afternoon. I think they may still mostly cross pollinate, as the paper says that the flowers continue to release pollen for ~24 hours. But it would be better to get one or two more. In fact, no matter how many you have, you may always want one or two more…
Given that Sugar Cane is just a better fruit than Shanxi Li (IMO of course), I’d recommend getting another morning flowering jujube.
Of the somewhat commonly available ones, Black Sea/ Russia #2 and So are the best.
And then, I’d say to graft Honey Jar on top of the Shanxi Li, maybe keeping a few low branches. And maybe graft Bok Jo too, as it is nice to have such a precocious variety when you are first starting out.
Can you squeeze 3 trees at 12’? 10’ is about the lowest I plant at now, with ~12’ being preferred. Full sun, 7’ from the driveway sounds good. You are a bit over an hour to the NW of me, so while you may get slightly less sun, it should still be close enough. My first job out of school was at Poughkeepsie (right next door to you), but it’s been a few decades since I’ve been out there.
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…thanks much for all the information…decided to stick with 2 at 15 feet apart. …based on your recommendations, I modified my order and now will get Sugar Cane, and Russia#2…both AM flowering…they both sound like good tasting varieties…with this purchase, I think my fruit planting days are over…just not enough fruiting seasons left for me…but I have Asian pears, paw paws, sweet cherries, table grapes, blue berries…all mature or soon to fruit…and now jujube…hopefully in two more years, I can report on my first jujube fruit
I think that is a great move, regardless of pollination, with you getting two of the varieties with the best fruit and also pretty productive. I am a bit surprised that you were able to get both from the same nursery. The only that I can think of would be Chinese Red Date or One Green World, hopefully CRD. If you are getting from OGW, hopefully you can get a bare root tree, rather than their 1 gal pots. I’ve gotten very small potted trees from them before which take a while to size up for me. I haven’t gotten any bare root trees from OGW, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they are reselling someone else’s trees that way (Dave Wilson?), in which case it could be pretty good.
Unless you are pushing 100 (in which case the actuarial tables only give you about a year…), there is still time to plant. My father was over my house yesterday to dig up some kiwi, boysenberry and muscadines vines to transplant to their yard and he’ll be 80 next year.
And once the trees are mature, adding more varieties can be a very quick turnaround, especially if the graft grows well. In the last few years I’ve had fruit from several new grafts in the same year, with most producing the next year.
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The seedlings don’t really “revert”. The current evidence suggests that most, if not all jujube are obligate out crossers, so all seedlings are derived from cross pollination. If you let rootstock bloom, then many of the seedlings will be the result of rootstock pollen, since wild jujube tend to be really good pollenizers. If you only want named cultivars crossed with each other, don’t let any rootstock bloom.
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…the order was from Raintree Nursery…I just dropped the Shanxi Li and substituted Black Sea…the Sugar Cane was (Size Options: (Semi-Dwarf (4’-5’) and the Black Sea was 1 gallon.
…I think I screwed up…I assumed Black Sea was Russian #2…but here it says ‘Yalta #1 cv.’ …sounds like a different variety?..no?? …Yalta is on the Back Sea
Current price$49.99
SKU D211G
Ziziphus jujuba ‘Yalta #1 cv.’
The Black Sea™ Jujube originated in Ukraine’s Nikita Botanic Garden, on the Crimean Peninsula. It is renowned for its hardiness, large, chocolate-brown fruit with a sweet, crisp flavor.
From genetic analysis, Black Sea and Russia #2 are identical. I think you are fine.
I’m not sure how big the 1 gal jujubes from Raintree are, but I bet the bare root Sugar Cane will be bigger. But given that you have it in full sun, if you give it plenty of water and fertilizer hopefully it will catch up in a few years.
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Agreed. Choice of words was not correct terminology. And I have attempted to remove any blooming rootstock in my orchard (not an easy task with suckers) but impossible in my nursery since I essentially raise wild rootstock. 
. One of the things I try to figure out a solution for.
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The phrasing isn’t too bad- “Revert” as in the fruit being similar to the original wild fruit from before domesticated varieties were bred. Similar to apples, jujubes still seem to have lots of bad recessive genes that easily get expressed in seedlings. As opposed to peaches, which are often pretty good. It just makes a good jujube seedling more valuable
In the time I’ve been numbering & recording my seedling (starting last May), here is the cultivar mix:
I haven’t planted any Xu Zhou, just because Bok Jo seems so similar to it, but with better fruit quality. I’m also interested in seeing if the large leaf size carries over to its children.
Any idea how far the pollen travels? Several rootstocks produce passable fruit, so I’ve kept them around. But, that means I should probably think more carefully about the nearest seedling/rootstock when selecting which tree I use as a seed source.
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…so Black Sea, Russia #2 and ‘Yalta #1 cv.’ are all identical?..somewhat confusing