were you intending to grow li seeds for rootstock, or the customary wild-type seeds for rootstock?
we have at least 10 trees of li and have cracked > hundred li pits, but the pits are typically empty , and if seeded, the seeds do not germinate. Honey jar and sherwood have better batting averages, but far from the reliability of the wild-type variety used as rootstock(spinosa).
strong work! Have tried it on a few water sprouts(no hormones), but the wicked summers where we’re at seem inhibiting
I think they are li. The guy that sold them to me said they were “L-O-I, loi” have you ever heard of that variety? I will try to clarify the variety and what he was using for rootstock but, he is hard to communicate with.
seems like you obtained it from a vendor in Chinatown. It sounded like he was trying to spell it out as best as he can, but admittedly( and pls forgive me) as i couldn’t help but chuckle to the “l-o-i” with some lol 
kidding aside, it is probably a li, since it is hands-down the most common variety in america. Would you have pictures of the fruits?
and yes, “loi” jujube is unheard of
ha, you nailed it. they look like li. I am going to try to catch up with him soon. He says he grows white pear and I want scion.
I was trying to find contact info for Roger Meyer and found this instead.
Roger Carey Meyer, 70, born on May 17, 1945, in Long Beach, California, passed away November 22, 2015. He resided in Fountain Valley, California at the time of his passing. Husband to Shirley, Father to Dean and Allen. He was an active member of the Orange County Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers and an Alumni of California State University Long Beach.
I have no idea if anyone else is selling Jujube rootstocks, or has taken over what he grew, but thought this may be helpful to others searching for nursery stock.
rollingrivernursery is the only one have come across which sells rootstoc but a bit expensive.
Thanks for the link!
$15.00 does seem high for a seedling, but it is less then half the cost of a tree.
They have a variety of cultivars too.
you’re welcome 
Rollingriver does have a variety of cultivars, probably second only to england’s nursery, but their good varieties are often sold out as early as november. They now only have sugarcane, lang and li available at their website.
A little grafted Jujube from @Livinginawe sent up some suckers. The suckers had fruit when only 12 inches high. I planted a few seeds and now not only do I have the suckers for rootstock but also some seedlings.
Isn’t it fun to watch them hatch?? 
Absolutely, watching a seed come to life and grow is fun for me.
I have read most of the jujube posts on the site , but I am somewhat confused.
My interest is to grow rootstock hardy to my zone 6 . Wv. Location.
I have what was sold as ziziphus jujube seed.
Further reading says to use sour jujube for rootstock.
Ziziphus jujube ( Spinosa.) ? . ?
Then there is Z. Mauritiana ,which I believe is Indian Jujube ?
Possibly not as cold hardy ?
So , I need a recommendation of what type to plant for rootstock ?
Z. Jujube
or
Z. Jujube ( spinosa )
Is there a big difference in cold tolerance between these ?
What is the difference ?
Having a hard time finding good answers on line.
@jujubemulberry .others , have comments ?
Also I read somewhere that Z. Spinosa was compatible with Chinese jujube ,aren’t all the common jujubes available in the US.
Of Chinese origin ? Or not ?
Do I need to find Spinosa seed ?
Mauritania will not be cold hardy.
Jujube seeds aren’t true to type. I can’t say why sellers prefer sour jujube except for consistency of viable seeds in fruit.
Ziziphus jujube spinosa is what is typically sold if you find seed sellers.
Some other better tasting varieties have seed while others have empty casings where the seed would have been. You would be able to use these if a generous member shared some but they would not grow to type and may taste good or may not.
There are some Korean jujubes, of which Bok Jo is a very good example.
It could be that it is so productive here because the climate more closely matches the Korean area it comes from and presumably does well in.
There are also several Russia/Ukrainian varieties like Russia #2/Black Sea and Maya/Massandra.
I’m not sure how far back you would need to go before Korean and European varieties can trace their ancestry to Chinese origins.
Hi @Hillbillyhort, while you can graft jujuba/spinosa onto mauritiania, i agree with @Brace that mauritania won’t be able to deal with cold winters in higher latitudes.
And yes, there is a huge difference between the cold-tolerance of these two species. I have heard of mauritiana’s being grown in deep southeast and deep southwest, there is even one nursery in arizona that claims mauritiana’s being superior to jujubas in eating quality(both species may be grown there). While mauritiana’s are more juicy, i personally prefer jujubas over mauritiana’s by a wide margin. Jujuba’s can survive -20F(mauritiana’s will succumb to a prolonged 32F), and if you grow jujuba’s as self-rooted specimens, many will likely survive colder than -20F, as die-back won’t be a problem
since can regenerate from roots and continue bear desirable fruits. All of their suckers can simply just be dug up and given away/sold for top-dollar. Jujubes(being so tough) are actually more in-demand(and currently very rare) if growing on own roots. It is probably the only fruit species that carries a premium for not being grafted, even though the logistics of grafting entails cost of materials and cost of labor-- and made more expensive by graft failures…
anyway, spinosa-types(wild-type jujubas) are supposedly tougher than domesticated jujuba’s when it comes to cold tolerance and will make excellent rootstock to graft on, their toughness is a boon and a bane at the same time. Yes, being practically indestructible, they will present themselves indefinitely with plenty branches to graft over should die-back of desirable cultivars ensue due to cold weather. But it can be invasive, especially if main grafts die-back as this would stimulate suckering. While spinosa’s are of the same species as jujuba’s-- the taxonomists agreed to christen spinosa with that name due to the spiny growth habits.
some domesticated jujubas actually have longer thorns than spinosa’s, but it is not the longer thorns that will get you(mainly because you can see them), instead it will be the tiny acutely-angled hooks and glochid-like spines borne on spinosa-types.
Spinosa-types can have these tiny spines and hooks even on their deciduous/herbaceous(fruit-bearing) stems. A trait i rarely see among domesticated cultivars(Li will sometimes have these, but only occasionally as most of its herbaceous stems are spineless/hookless)
And being hard-to-kill and having long-reaching roots, will evolve into extremely long-lived thorny thickets bearing tiny, sour fruits. The other name of spinosa is acidojujuba.
definitely compatible, but there are at least 20 spinosa cultivars(and probably 100+ cultivars of domestic jujubas), and while compatible, little is known about long-term compatibility. Here in vegas, i grafted li onto a random spinosa-type seed that i grew for rootstock. Planted it at a friend’s yard several years ago, and while the li grew some 3 or 4 feet. The very spiny rootstock would always overtake the li-graft in growth and even when grafted it over with sihong(which usually dominates growth), both the sihong and the li grafts languished and the rootstock would keep growing side-branches, and much faster than the grafts(most rootstock will yield apical dominance to their grafts if grafts are on upright stems). Anyway, evidently just an isolated/individual incompatibility, but had i planted that in, say, Houston area where there is ample rain and wide open space, it can pose a serious problem as the spiny rootstock would dominate in feral or even semi-feral circumstances.
after all have written above, have to say that if you are in hurry to grow rootstock, yes, spinosa seed will be the most available and ready to use due to seed viability and prodigious fruiting of spinosa-types(this is what virtually all nurseries use to mass-propagate juju cultivars).
have donated spinosa-type pits in great numbers. While felt good about what convenience it provides recipients, also feel bad about implications. The most advisable would be to mass-produce desirable cultivars on their own-roots, which will not only serve as stand-alone trees that can regenerate from roots, but may also serve as rootstock for other desirable cultivars without being paranoid about future problems inherent to spinosa-types
Be very careful ordering jujuba seeds because all sellers will guarantee you that the seeds will be Chinese jujube and they will be some sort of mauritiana or other tropical jujube. This happens over and over and the seeds are almost visually identical. If the above links for seed is proven to be true Chinese jujube then use them. I personally have not found a proven source. I use many of my seeds for growing rootstock and I grow whatever cultivars I have for rootstock. Some people are adamant about having the true Z. jujuba spinosa but in the US there doesn’t seem to be any that are officially delegated as such so any wild jujube is used. @jujubemulberry made good points for an argument to use cultivar seeds and I have no problem grafting to cultivar seedlings.
@k8tpayaso is definitely the more credible source of info on this one, as i have never purchased seed from anyone(i don’t have to since have a surplus for my purposes, and no longer intend to use spinosa-types anymore due to reasons mentioned earlier). Yes, have seen at least 4 posters here who’ve purchased jujuba/spinosa seeds. germinated them, and then posted pictures here only to be informed the seeds are not jujubas/spinosas.
Reason why i said spinosa-type seed is “most available” was from my personal point of view/ practical experience, as many wild-type rootstock produce prodigious amounts of tiny fruits, than when dried,the paper-thin pulp can just be rubbed off to access the pit.
Whereas with domesticated cultivars, the dried fruits have thick tenacious pulp which require a bit of work to remove. The best way of course is to pick jujus when they have fully matured on the trees. then eat to isolate the pits, but will have to have many people do this with you if you want substantial amounts, and may still have to pick semi-rotting fruits on the ground which of course would be unsanitary eating. Have heard of folks soaking/fermenting over-ripe fruits into a slurry just so microbes can break down the thick pulp. It might be effective but probably very smelly.
on the other hand, anyone with experience making prune-o(using correct inoculants) could come up with juju moonshine as byproduct of extracting pits, haha
I collected a bunch of fruit last summer that were on the ground and had been chewed on by squirrels. I left them in a Ziploc bag to ferment to free the pits. They actually smelled good, like apple cider or wine fermenting. Made me think that making cider from jujubes could be interesting to experiment with.
