Yesterday I saw that my small graft of Black Sea on the HJ tree has set fruit again this year.
Need to keep an eye on those few fruit so I can compare them to HJ.
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If they are anything like the late season honey jar set that I had last year, they will be good, but not as good as the main crop. Good chance they could be smaller too.
Left to right Alcalde #1, Alcalde #1, Baby Red, Honey Jar seedling.
Alcalde #1 does appear to be Autumn Beauty. Flavor and texture seem to be the same. Both fruits are excellent even though the fruit on the left has little sweetness, itās still a very good jujube.
The Baby Red is at peak flavor with sweetness, a little bit of acidity, and a very good texture.
The Honey Jar seedling fruit is excellent, better than Honey Jar. Itās not as sweet as HJ, but has better flavor and better texture.
This is the HJ seedling, which came from k8tpayaso
The seedling does have some vigorous thorns but itās a young plant so those may disappear.
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That looks less than 20% ripe. Have you waited longer to see if it gets even better? Itās also kind of funny that a fruit so red early on (and with Red in the name) isnāt red when ripe.
That looks like the thorns on my new large-fruited seedling. Iām glad you think they could disappear. I was looking at mine (maybe even bigger thorns) and wondering if Iād want to deal with them over the long term. Even bigger than Chico, which stands out here in terms of thorns.
Do you think that the above āPortervilleā pic from my last post look like a young Porterville or something else (Big Melon?)?
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I think it looks like the Big Melon. Did you get any āBig Melonā grafts to fruit? My real Porterville looked like typical Porterville even when small.
A lot of my nice fruiting seedlings have large thorns. I do hope they lose some of them with maturity.
Baby Red ripens funny. I didnāt get to taste mine because of the deer but they turn more of a pinkish color as they ripen. They definitely have a lighter color than the red brown we expect from other jujus. @castanea is that what you see with yours? I waited too long to pick and the deer made the decision about ripeness but it was interesting to see the color they turned.
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How Baby Red fruit looks is a poor indicator of ripeness.
In evaluating Baby Red fruit maturity, red = green. The redder it is, the less ripe it is.
If the fruit was red when ripe, they wouldnāt call it Baby Red (or āred in wombā). The red fades when it ripens. Itās only red when itās immature.
The fruit does go through a stage when itās ripening where it has a little acidity which is very nice and then goes beyond that stage when itās all sweet and thatās nice too.
The difficulty in evaluating fruit maturity can be when the red first turns brown. It can be difficult to tell whether the fruit is more brown than red. Sometimes it turns a lighter color, like in my photo above, instead of brown which is easier to see. The only important thing is that itās not red. Pink means itās starting to ripen. k8tpayaso
My new Porterville graft has some very small elongated fruit like yours. I donāt know if thatās how Porterville fruit starts when itās very small because I just donāt remember. But my new graft is definitely not Big Melon.
My older possible Porterville graft has no fruit at all again. Otherwise, both possible Porterville grafts look almost identical.
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Maybe more medium-largeā¦Still the largest fruit Iāve seen on one of my seedlings so far. And it looks almost ripe, which puts it a bit slower than Sugar Cane, but among the first to ripen- about the same as Autumn Beauty, which has a few fruit about this ripe.
Long thin thorns and lots of them- Iām very cautious around this oneā¦
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Did a week of vacation and returned to find my Lang fruit ripenedā¦ most are mostly brownish at this point.
This was supposed to be shanxi liā¦ but everyone seems to agree it is lang.
So farā¦ have to say not impressed with jujube.
These were quite dryā¦ had some sweetnessā¦ no tartness at all. Not really what i like.
I may have to get one if the varieties with some tartness to be happy with jujube.
TNHunter
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Chico is a good one with tartness.
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Lang is not one to get a good evaluation of what jujubes can be. Graft it over.
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My perception, and that of many other people, is that of the 50 best jujubes grown in the US, Lang is in the bottom 5. Even though itās supposed to be good for drying instead of fresh eating, itās still lousy as a dried jujube.
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Yup- sounds like Lang
From the one ripe one I had a week or so ago, I agree. But, Iād say there is enough variance and interesting flavor in the ānot tartā ones that they shouldnāt be painted with the ālang is sweetā¦lang is boringā¦all sweet are boringā.
You may just need to get a crisp one with some juice like Honey Jar, Sugar Cane, or Black Sea (or all 3ā¦).
Earlier today, I had a few Honey Jars and there is quite a difference between their flavor and Sugar Cane. Iāve been eating a lot of Sugar Cane, so the HJ was very welcome. They were ripe early, on a tree that had been transplanted this spring. The HJ was still crisp, unlike the Sugar Cane and most of the Coco (both of which are normally crisp, but it appears the transplant cut their water intake capability).
One other interesting one which Iām getting a larger sample of this year is Mei Mi. Relatively early and high brix. The one I tested today was 32. Iāll get some pics over the next few days. The last time I had this was 2 fruit in 2020 and documented below:
Since then, I grafted what I thought was Mei Mi (old graft with no label) in several places and also got some Mei Mi wood from Scott when he removed his shaded trees. Happily, it appears that I guessed correctly, as the fruit from those two grafts (or rather sources for grafts, as I made half a dozen of each) seems to match. The other graft that was nearby was Huping and it would be very obvious if I had grafted thatā¦It makes Lang seem juicy. 
I did actually make a few Huping grafts last year, in case I was wrong. At least one has a few fruit, so Iāll be able to confirm my initial distaste for itā¦
What is the best way to get the seed out of HJās for processing. Their so small and the seed is glued in there.
Do you mean getting the entire pit out, or getting the seed out to plant? For the 1st, maybe a cherry pitter? Iāve never tried it thoughā¦Best eating them fresh. If you really want to do this, it may help to partially dry it first.
To get the seed out, Iāve used vice grip pliers. Then, if the seed is stuck in half the pit, Iāve tried tossing it at the ground until it comes apart- attempting to pry it always seems to destroy the seed, at least with my clumsy efforts.
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Sounds like Jujube isnāt really for cooking. I tried to cut four sides off. Worked OK. Need bigger jujube I guess. Maybe my freeloading Li will fruit next year. Or sugarcane.
They look tasty to me, I probably consume them in 5 seconds, lol.
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They are my fiber, I just chew through them. They help my gum stay strong. Honestly, sometime they just broke as I crunch through them. I didnāt bother spit them out.
OK, I wasnāt able to wait too longā¦One side is still pretty light, while the other is half brown.
None of these were bad, in terms of texture. Sugar Cane was best, and Autumn Beauty was worst. While it didnāt have much crisp crunch, it wasnāt bad. Mei Mi and the seedling were in between.
While the seedling didnāt blow me away as being better than established cultivars, it was good enough that Iāll keep most of it growing as is. And if it improves any with age (or with letting it get fully ripe), it could be worth sharing.
Iāll be watching Mei Mi closely as well- high brix, relatively early season and decent texture is pretty good. Hereās a pic of the branch- it isnāt a heavy yielding variety like Bok Jo, or even Sugar Cane.
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Thanks for the recommendations allā¦
Being juicy would be a nice improvement.
Juicy and tart/sweet would be ideal.
My GA 866 set some fruit early but then dropped themā¦ no fruit from it in year 3.
I may eventually graft these two trees over with HJ and Chico.
I tried some lang jujube chopped up in cubes in a cup of coffee this morningā¦ it took the bitter edge off the coffee.
My wife and daughter have both tried the lang fruitā¦ and like me not impressed.
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