It’s strange but Honey Jar ripens first for me and then Chico. Autumn Beauty may be an early ripener but I won’t really know til next year. It got a head start on everything because it was kept in my house too long and came out of dormancy too soon and therefore bloomed before everything else. On another thread @castanea says Autumn Beauty and Black Sea ripen first for him. I think climate has a lot to do with it because like I said HJ is my first to ripen.
Katy
i agree, and quite productive. Makes one wonder if it really is massachusetts!
Don’t tell anyone. Our official state’s name is Taxachusetts 
We live right in the middle of it.
As people say, jujubes can survive and thrive in a very dry and not environment. However, It looks like it does not mind a wet condition, either as long as there is a lot of sun for it.
Thanks for people on this forum who advised me to give the sunniest spots to jujubes. So far, it has worked well.
Dae Sol Jo was one of two (Redlands being the other) early varieties suggested by Cliff England. I grafted it this spring and after growing 3+ feet, it set a single fruit around September 1st (pictured in post #592 of this thread).
I checked on it today and it never fell off, but has started to size up, the point where it could be mistaken for one of my soon to be ripe other varieties. Maybe it will make it all the way, which would mean that it could be pretty early if it set the fruit at the start of July, rather than the end of August.
I haven’t noticed astringent skin in any of my jujubes.
I noticed the same thing with the one I had today. It had a nice light and crispy texture, but wasn’t as sweet as I’d like. If I was to guess by taste, I’d say 16-18. Of course, I did pick it with only 15-20% brown, so maybe I jumped the gun a bit.
None of my Honey Jar, nor Bok Jo are ripe yet. The vast majority of So and about half of Sugar Cane aren’t either. I’ve been pushing things a bit by eating any showing a bit of brown (2-5 each day).
Bob,
So you think Dae Sol Jo could set fruit early and ripen early in a normal year (not the year of being grafted), right?
It is helpful hearing from you, @k8tpayaso, @tonyOmahaz5, et al about ripening time in your location. It is obvious that the order of ripening of the same varietie vary from location to location.
I have tried hard to let my jujubes turn at least half brown before I pick them. Eating them is very addictive. It is hard to stop.
The two that have not ripened for me are So and Massandra, both are in pots.
I visited Cliff England’s last week and his Dae Sol Jo were loaded with fruit, and tasted pretty good too! Seems like a variety that would do well for a lot of people.
I grafted Tae Souls Jo a couple years ago and it finally fruited this year and turned brown on 9-26-18. The fruit size is about the same size as Honey Jar, crunchy, a tad less juice than Honey Jar but similar sweetness as Sugarcane. So that put Tae souls Jo in the jucier category of Jujube like HJ and Sugarcane.
Tony
Hmmm, look like it may ripen the same time as SC or othervarieties I have, late Sept!!!
Need a variety or two that ripens anytime in Aug.
probably also helped that you fertilized it.
or that your soil-type is rich in mineral- nutrient solutes. Juju roots seem to be gradient dependent. Hard for me to envision it fruiting in dilute soil conditions.
much like it is difficult to envision to get a barrel cactus to flower in marsh conditions 
That was my hope, but with Tony and Cliff getting them in September, it sounds like it may be in the Sugar Cane window. I’m still happy with it so far- Honey Jar is the only other jujube which has ever fruited for me in the year I grafted it, so that indicates that it should be pretty productive/precocious in our climate. It’s also grown very well, something that often takes jujus a long time for me.
I glanced at my potted Massandra and had to do double take!!! What happened to the leaves!!!
We have not seen deer all year this year. They arrived last night, I guess. Some leaves on my Fuji were stripped as well. Anyone who said deer do not eat jujube, you have not met my neighborhood deer!!! They ate most of Massadra leaves and some fruit. So mad.
After years of less than satisfactory performance of my GA-866 I was about to regraft it to something else. Just when I decided to do this it has produced a decent crop…
The fruits are large and quite delicious. Conclusion: talk to your trees and if necessary scare them a little bit.
I would like to thank jujubemulberry for sending me some jujube samples to try. I must say that I was not impressed. Of the six varieties, I found the sugar cane and vegas candy to have the most flavor. Even then, they were better after they had shriveled somewhat. I guess that I am one of those people that want or expect some juice in any fruit that I bite into. If an apple was as dry and mealy as these were when I bit into them, I would spit it out and throw it away, no matter what the taste. Cardboard …That being said, after they started to shrivel, they at least were less dry and the flavor seemed to be more pronounced. I am drying the rest, as I believe the flavor will only improved. I will have to think about these for awhile. They were mailed Monday and arrived Saturday, while I was out of town, and only taken out of mailbox later in the evening. This could have been a contributing factor. Are there any varieties that are juicy, or are they pretty much all this way until they start to shrivel. I have no problem eating them dry if the flavor does improve, as I like raisins, dates and prunes. We shall see. I would like to thank jujubemulberry again for his thoughtful gift.
TFN
The 5-6 days would make a big difference in the freshness of the fruit. Nothing is as good as eating straight off the tree. And jujubes do dry fast and will dry naturally and they don’t have an apple’s shelf life. Of the ones I’ve eaten I would say that Honey Jar is the juiciest but you’re not gonna find one that will spray your face when you bite into it.
Katy
yeah, had the same exact sentiments when i first tried jujus. The expectation of being apple-like when it comes to amount of juiciness was another downer for me. It was a fruit i learned to love only on my second and third tries, and some cultivars i learned to love on the second or third year of growing them.
i didn’t like jujus on my first try because-- like you, i found them reminiscent of apples, but hardly any juice compared to apples. For some difficult to pin-point reason, there was this crescendo of heightened well-being when eating jujus that made me want to eat them more, and to eat apples less.
now to that stage where have actually stopped eating apples altogether, crazy that might sound! A point of no return. Even more crazy is that i actually like the relatively dry juju cultivars more than the juicier ones.
Those were so old. I would never call jujubes juicy but most are moist when eaten fresh. They start losing moisture the minute they are picked. I do not even eat jujubes that have been laying around for more than 48 hours unless I want a dried jujube. You get the best flavor and crispiness from eating fully ripened jujubes that were picked that morning. None of the good jujube varieties are mealy if picked ripe and eaten fresh. This is why I don’t mail jujubes to first timers.
Having said that, I totally agree with jujubemulberry that “there was this crescendo of heightened well-being when eating jujus that made me want to eat them more, and to eat apples less.” I now find jujubes to be superior to apples. It takes time getting used to the fact that they are a different kind of fruit and that they are not apples.
have to say i agree, as it can be a disappointment instead of an enticing invitation. Of course, preferences are an individual thing, and people will have set standards.
Honey Jar and Sugarcane in a gallon Ziplock bag in the refrigerator for at least a week or more and still have that sharp crunch and as sweet. These two are must have.
Tony
Tony,
How long can you keep them in a fridge?
For those who have a lot of them, do you dry them ? What is the best way to dry them?
