I ate a few Sugarcane jujube fruits today and they were definitely had a bitter taste in the skin. So HJ is more Superior.
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Yes, that isnāt bad growth from last year. My biggest seedling is about 3ā tall. And it was planted in 2018, so it is about 1 foot per yearā¦
Iāve never noticed a bitter taste from Sugar Cane. Iāve had a few so far this year, but they are just getting ready to start. I wonder if it is our climates that make the difference, or our taste buds. Maybe you are detecting something that Iām not. The reverse often happens with my wife. As someone who doesnāt eat any spices whatsoever (other than salt, sugar, and occasionally cinnamon), Iām pretty good at detecting any off flavors, which may be why I like very few foods. Or it could be a difference in the soil or weather. Anyone on the East coast had a bitter Sugar Cane?
Here is one of the first ones ripe. At the bottom of the pic, you can see one which cracked and a YJ has discovered. A few have cracks, but they mostly seem OK. I also ate one of them earlier today just to make sure 
edit: I ate a cracked fruitā¦not a YJā¦
The Bok Jo and Tae Sang Wang on the same tree donāt have any cracks. Probably because they are a couple weeks from ripening. At least the BJ is- I donāt know when TSW will ripen.
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Hereās a case study in how important water is to jujubes. I was mowing the lawn at a property today and stopped to consider just how little the jujueās there have grown.
I planted 6 in the front yard in March/April 2018. Of those, 2 struggled through the first year, one only leafing out in September. I replaced one of the 2 (and potted it up) with a Autumn Beauty from JFaE late that fall.
When I did so, I noticed that the soil was very dry, even a few hours after it rained. So, I dug a slightly bigger hole and mixed some compost into it, around the rootball from the potted tree (JFaE sends ~3 gal pots).
Fast forward 2 years and the AB is still at 4ā and has a couple small fruits. The 2nd struggling tree which I didnāt replace never came back the next spring. Of the other 4 trees, 3 are still there and about 4ā tall, with no fruit. One died to the rootstock this past winter and is growing back from the roots (slowly).
This summer I started putting leaf mulch around the trees every month or so, in hopes of improving the soil. In the past, I would add woodchips annually.
The area around the first tree was decorated by tenants. The maple you see in the background of the pic is to the North. These trees get almost all day sun, minus a bit in the late afternoon, when the sun goes behind the house.
Small Autumn Beauty fruit:
In the backyard of the same house, I put a single Sugar Cane. This one doesnāt get as much sun, but has grown better and is now over 6ā Note that it is near the fence where I blow the leaves each fall (keeps from having to edge along the fenceā¦). Iām guessing that the extra moisture from the rotting leaves has helped it grow a bit better.
Contrast this with the growth Iāve gotten at another property, which was planted a year later in spring 2019. The 3 jujus in the front yard there are already 8-12ā tall (the Contorted is the only one under 10ā). Not only is the soil nicer there, but the ground is pitched at an angle where all the rain from the street runs into the front yard. According to the neighbor, during heavy rains there is a storm-sewer drainage problem and there is small river between our two properties (the yard is pitched well enough that I havenāt noticed it in the basement).
The Honey Jar at the property with more water (over 10ā before I pruned it recently):
So plenty of water is the difference between 4ā tall and no fruit in 3 years (and 43% mortality) and 10ā+ tall with fruit after just 2 years. Sun-wise, both are similar. In terms of the soil, it is hard to say if the 2nd is just better, or better because of all the rain.
A few more pics of the fast growing ones:
So (the smallest of the 3 at 7-8ā, still has some fruit in year #2):
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I went out and tried a few Sugar Cane this morning. Some with total brown, others with partial brown. All tasted good. Not a hint of bitterness. Agree with @BobVance that climate has to play a role in it.
We donāt have intense heat in the summer.
Thanks, @k8tpayaso for posting Dr. Yaoās Statements. I donāt let my jujubes (or other fruit trees) getting very thirsty. They appear happy.
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All my jujube trees are grown in the sprinkler zones so they got watered every other day. Maybe age, sunny days, and water helped with production.
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Our productive trees get watered as much, or should i say-- as little, as professor Yaoās productive trees. The specimens i have that get less water, they do get runty and obviously not productive especially those planted in little cans.
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Like @BobVance has experienced, Shanxi Li dropped fruit at a higher rate than HJ or Sugar Cane.
I think I can understand when young fruit drop but when more mature fruit also dropped, it is frustrating.
In this pic, the jujube at the bottom next to a quarter was Sugar Cane. It did not dropped. I picked it for a size comparison.
The rest were Shanxi Li at various sizes, all dropped.
Sugar Cane and HJ can be eaten when partially brown like that. Shanxi Li was tasteless in the stage.
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bumper crops in nebraska!
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True, though I havenāt seen much drop recently. The big ones seem to be hanging on pretty well.
Today, I picked the first Mango Dong (WInter Delight) from JFaE. The fruit is huge:
I know you were worried about Winter Delight not being ready in time, but it seems to be fine. Only a few of my Sugar Canes have ripened so far, so Mango Dong/Winter Delight (at least the one from JFaE) looks to be an early/mid season cultivar.
I may have picked this a few days early, as the brix was only 18.5, with a mild flavor. It had good crunch, but wasnāt overly juicy. Iāll let the next one go a bit longer and see how it gets. The tree is both precocious and productive, with it holding more than a dozen additional fruit, in only year #2. The tree is basically a 6ā stick.
Hereās a size comparison against one of the large Shanxi Li.
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That is a big jujujbe. I agree that if it ripens for you now, it should be fine for me. So far, only my SC is ripening now. A stretch of cool weather we are having these days do not help,either.
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Here is my Winter Delight from OGW. This photo was taken in November a few years ago. They do not look the same as yours.
It looks like my Autumn Beauty, also from OGW.
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Winter Delight is pretty confusing. Iāve also got Autumn Beauty from JFaE, so it will be interesting to see how similar the fruit is to the āMang Dongā. This year, there is only 1 fruit on the Autumn Beauty though, so I may need to wait another year for more clarity.
And the Winter Delight I have from OGW and BR are too small to bear anything yet. Maybe OGW will be ready in a year or two, but Iām actually going to dig up the BR one from the rental where rabbits(?) have been setting it back (itās only a foot or 2 tallā¦).
It looks like both varieties produced some large fruit for you. Was the WD much later season than the AB? This is pretty early in my season, so that may be another clue.
Hereās a pic of more Mango Dong coming from the JFaE tree, which has a few more starting to color up.
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Iāve read everywhere that Jujubes require no spraying. So this spring I didnāt spray my jujube when I sprayed everything else. Jujube tree kind of stopped growing but looked healthy. I couldnāt find any bugs. Somebody here mentioned that it could be grasshoppers. I sprayed spinosad after that and the tree put on about a foot of growth since then. So Now I know I need to spray it next year. Hopefully I will have fruit next year.
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AB is ready in August (usually between August 7 and 14) continuing into September. WD is ready in late October or early November, continuing into December.
I donāt think itās too complicated. At some point OGW got the two cultivars mixed up and that mix-up has been perpetuated by others.
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Iām guessing those dates are for CA. I donāt have any jujube which ripen in August here.
So it seems likely that the Winter Delight/Mango Dong from JFaE is actually AB? I also have an AB from them with one fruit on it. Iāll pick one from each when it is ripe, but on first glance they are similar.
Any idea if the Dong/Winter from Chinese Red Date is the same as Winter Delight? Or is āWinterā a different variety?
I donāt think there are any insects which cause jujube to not grow. At least, I havenāt seen any here. I think it is likelier that it put on the growth because it either got some fertilizer, water, or sunny weather. Or likely all 3. When I first started, I got very little growth before I started watering and fertilizing (hard to control the sunā¦). This year I got much better growth, at least in the ones that I was able to water. The ones which got fertilizer without water still didnāt do much.
In future plantings, Iām planning to incorporate more organic material into the surrounding soil to help with water retention.
Looks good! How do they taste? I have ~6 on the tree, but none are ripe yet. It was a 1 gal potted tree from Burnt Ridge in 2018, and it finally sized up this year, reaching 5-6ā tall. That is actually pretty quick for one of the small trees, as I have some from OGW in fall 2015 which are still smaller.
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Yes, those ripening dates are for California.
The Dong/Winter from Chinese Red Date is not the same as Winter Delight. Shengrui has been asked that question both here and in the FB jujube group and her answer both times is ānoā. She is not familiar with the Winter Delight originally sold by OGW.
There are many Chinese jujube cultivar names that contain a reference to āwinterā.
The Winter Delight sold by JF&E sounds like Autumn Beauty. There is only one early ripening large jujube in the US that I am aware of, and itās Autumn Beauty.
Itās very easy to separate these two jujube cultivars if youāre growing both of them because no matter where you are, one is going to be early or even very early, while the other will be late or very late. Their fruit ripening times do not overlap even remotely. There will always be ripening differences in different climates and both AB and WD have some variability in shape and size, but they are still different enough with respect to both ripening and shape that they should be easy to distinguish if grown together.
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