Jujubes- Our New Adventure

@castanea,
Have you eaten either of those two varieties?

Like Bob said, I hope they are not the renamed varieties.

Your Black Sea looks smaller than Honey Jar and that is indeed very smallā€¦is the stone also very small?
Some of my seedlings that I graft onto produce fruits twice the size but they are very thorny therefore not interesting for further propagation. How would you rank Black Sea thorniness?

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I have not eaten either of these two new cultivars.

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Hi is the Shanxi Li worth getting. You have previously mentioned that you thought it was spongy. Just wanted to get your thoughts about it. Thanks.

The honest answer is ā€œnoā€ for my area. Results may vary depending on several factors particularly climate. I have Shanxi Li since 2016, as a a large sized bare root tree.

It has a few serious cons to me:
Unproductive
More fruit drops even at a later stage of maturity
Subpar taste (dry and ā€œspongyā€ ) including the ones I ate yesterday.

The only pro is the fruit is large but I would take a much smaller Honey Jar over Shanxi Li any day.

I donā€™t dry jujubes so I donā€™t know how well it will work out dried. Dried jujubes are used in culinary.

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Ok. Thanks.

Harbin,
This is a small graft that is producing 5 small fruit. The first one I tasted was very sweet. The seed was proportional to the flesh.

The 2nd one was in the pic. Unfortunately, it got mixed up with several other ones that I picked. I could not tell which was which.

Next time another Black Sea ripens, I will taste it and report. I hope next year, the fruit size will get bigger as the graft gets stronger.

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Here is the line up.

@Harbin , the Black Sea is nice and sweet. Turned out I have a dozen of them. A couple are almost a size of a Sugar Cane. That gives me hope for next year.

Of these, Vegas Baby tasted poorly and had little flesh with a large pit.
Shanxi Li were still not good even the totally brown ones.

Taste very good - Black Sae, Sugar Cane, Honey Jar.
OK - Massandra
Subpar - Shanxi Li
Poor - Vegas Baby.
Hope Massandra and Vegas Baby will improve over time. Not much hope on Shanxi Li in my climate,

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Wowā€¦vegas baby is really tiny.
I grafted honey jar to my Li this year. Graft took but growing very slowly. I think I have to graft it further up top.

Sorry v. baby has been a disappointment.
Only reason give it away is if one cant get sihong to bear fruits in oneā€™s area, since it is the closest thing(at least before i got vegas lucky to fruit) to a sihong date when dried as dates. It is also an option for people whose yards are too crowded and shady since it is very productive even when grown in low-light conditions.

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I have question marks next to a few of the varieties here because they were grafted quite a while ago and the tags fell off (or degraded). From the grafting notes, Iā€™m 90% sure of the cultivars. Iā€™ve emailed Cliff, hoping to hear back form him if my pics/descriptions match what he has seen.

I thought that Massandra was better than OK and probably in the Sugar Cane, Honey Jar, Black Sea/Russia #2 tier.

Iā€™d also put Mei Mi in that same tier, though it isnā€™t very productive as I grafted it 6 years ago and this is the first time Iā€™ve noticed any fruit. Even now, there were only 2 fruit on the entire branch. But, one of them maxed out my refractometer (32+ brix) and it had a bit of tartness that went well with the high brix. I may graft it to another tree to see if I can get it more productive.

Huping was pretty bad from a texture standpoint. Flavor wasnā€™t great, but not objectionable. If I was setting up tiers, it would be:

Best:
Sugar Cane
Honey Jar
Black Sea/Russia #2
Massandra
Mei Mi

Very Good:
Autumn Beauty
Bok Jo (based on past years)
So/Contorted

Eh:
Shanxi Li (based on past years)
Rootstock from SC (based on past years)
Russia #4 (just sampled first couple)

Poor:
Huping
Rootstock from So

Not ripe yet:
Bok Jo
Shanxi Li
Sherwood
Tae Sang Wang
Coco (would have had ripe ones already, but something ate themā€¦more left on tree)
Li
Lang
Allentown
Xu Zhou

And another 5-10 where there is only 1-3 fruit on the tree.

The same thing happened to me with Black Sea. I thought it wasnā€™t setting any fruit, then noticed the first one on the tree in the 2nd week of August (but only 1). Now, Iā€™ve had 5-10 ripen, with a few more left. Either it hides itā€™s fruit well, or it doesnā€™t take very long from flower to ripe. My tree was in a 1 gal pot from OGW in Oct 2015. This year it got to 5+ā€™ tall and had fruit for the first time.

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Me too! Even in my high heat it is sweet and juicy. The few Sherwoods I have had have been really good. Chico is always up there at the top but this year (very wet year here and not as hot) it did not seem as goodā€”not as sweet and a bit of a bitter after taste. My favorite this year has been SiHong. Massandra was right up there with it.

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@jujubemulberry,
No need to apologize. I am grateful that you are very generous in sharing several scionwood. I think the taste and size can improve as the graft matures.

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@BobVance,
This is my second year Massandra. The fruit is still not in the same league as HJ, SC and BS but the size has increased. Since you like it, I hope the taste of mine will improve next year.

In my Z5, Honey Jar jujube is the best tasting jujube of all my 10 or so varieties. My six fully grown HJ are super productive trees and they really like the every other day lawn water sprinklers. They are so crunchy, juicy, and sweeter than Sugarcane. Massandra is good but not even close to HJ. I hopefully, my Sandia and Halina grafts will produce some fruits next year so I can compare them to HJ next year for the next top spot.

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@mamuang thanks for the photo and comparison. Let me ask you one more question: is Black Sea thorny or not? I am trying to identify those crimean jujubes: Massandra is with almost 100% certainty ŠšŠøтŠ°Š¹ŃŠŗŠøŠ¹ 60 (Chinese 60) an old variety that has been introduced to NBS in 1953 from China.

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Harbin,
My Black Sea is a foot long graft so it wonā€™t show much thorns.

I believe @BobVance has a Black Sea tree. Hope he can help answer your queston.

My new pup LOVES jujubes!!!

A couple from my second crop of Mango Dong Zho (winter delight) from JF&E. Very good. Where does it fit in the Winter Delight issue?

This fruit came from a rootstock seedling. Sweet, tasty but small. Took forever to ripen thoughā€¦

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Katy,
You dog is very cute and has an excellent taste in fruit. My sisterā€™s dogs have eaten all kinds of fruit. That was the first time I learned that dogs eat fruit.

Well, not only I want to know where your Winter Delight fits in, I want to know which is correct Mango Dong Zho or Mango Dong Zao? Is it the same variety with different regional pronunciations?

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Massandra is very good to me in Dallas if itā€™s been brown for 3 days; half brown ones are blah. This tree was supposed to be a Black Sea, Iā€™ll try again.

Coco is a nice surprise, and the tree was loaded year 2. Distinctive coconut taste. Unique.

Iā€™d give my Winter Delights a B+, same as my Shansi Li; hopefully it will improve in future years.

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