Last night in the middle east
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That is beautiful @SVM! Such a down-to-earth photo of an ancient fruit in the middle of urban modernity
Taking into account photo was last nightās, makes me think they were shipped from australia or anywhere from the southern hemisphere. Or maybe another species of jujube
Thanks for sharing 
Hello
Noā¦ they are localā¦ iām working in Iraq these weeksā¦
itās their season hereā¦ all corners have someone selling jujubesā¦ they are not too sweetā¦ but are nice tastingā¦
Have seen at least 2 varietiesā¦ these that are about 3cm in diam. and some smaller onesā¦
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love it!
Iraq allegedly is where the jujube tree which Adam and Eve, and the infamous serpent got acquainted. Or original fig/quince/pomegranate tree bearing the forbidden fruit, but definitely not an apple tree
incidentally, if not for their āsinā ā i wouldnāt be around typing this, haha
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Itās always fun to see those dark little fruits.
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have to say-- i canāt believe my filthy hands got hold of a scion of Baby red which am currently babying
taking into account already got hold of >60 cultivars over the years, adding this novel variety to our collection admittedly borders on greed. Or should i say, criminal!
anyway, big thanks to the generous members of this forum
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It doesnāt hurt that Bay Red fruits are very good once you learn when to pick them. Basically they color up like other jujubes do except that they have red where other cultivars have green. Once the red turns to brown, they are ripe. It also doesnāt hurt that they are extremely prolific and mature fruit over a very long period of time.
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have to say it is a cultivar more novel than contorted. There are multiple types of contorted in usa, but quite likely baby red is by its lonesome.
hoping at least one of our baby redās florets come to fruition!
also hoping its pollen is viable, and that the red gene is dominant, which would speed up production of other red-fruited jujus from seed, makes me curious if pits are seeded.
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I have never checked to see if they have seed.
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If the deer (or other critter) hadnāt gotten most of mine I would knowā¦ā¦. I will sure find out this year!!!
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Speaking of seedā¦ā¦ this is my new crop this year
Sadly none of my Xu Zhou seed germinated this year. I learn valuable lessons every year. Last year it was that you have to take good care of your seed even before you crack it. I have around >350 to pot up consisting of seeds of Honey Jar, SiHong, Sugar Cane, Contorted, Black Sea, and various others. Perhaps growing in the same area as Baby Red I might find a seedling that exhibits some color. 
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That is an awesome amount of seedlings. Good job!
If you donāt already know, I found out through genetic testing that Orange Beauty is a seedling of Sihong. I had thought that it was probably a seedling of Sugarcane or Sihong, but I had no records so I never knew.
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Itās very difficult to keep records. I have a whole tray of āUnknownsā which are seeds from unnamed seedlings, cultivar seeds that didnāt get put away in the right container, or any seeds that cannot be identified. It will be nice when the genetic testing gets less expensive.
I am now in the process of marking and cataloging the seedlings I have that have born decent fruit or have promising fruitlets. Last year was such a blur with horrible drought and an awkwardly timed knee replacement that I know some of the seedlings I have had some fruit that needs to be given a chance to see what it becomes but I have no idea which one is which.
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Sihong is well known as a variety that produces good dried fruit, and while Orange Beauty produces very good fresh fruit, it also has the best dried jujube that I have ever eaten. So I am going to watch the Sihong seedlings I got from you very carefully.
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@k8tpayaso is the undisputed jujube queen, hands down, right?
i remember clicking the like button on these pics just a few days ago, and it just feels good clicking it again
iāve evidently been offline/ out of commission the past several yearsā¦ Didnāt know thereās genetic testing for jujus?!?
contemplating the two cultivarsā eating qualities, the genetic relation does make sense to me!
there was a time i was casting aspersions on nurseries that sold us cultivars which did not seem to match the label names, but after germinating seeds in great numbers, i now admit the possibility of having lost track of which germinated from what cultivars, as we planted them in pots which may have mislabeled, or pots that lost their labels and which may have been placed in another row, or too close to another row(we have a row for sihong, a row for hj, a row for contorted, and a row for ant admire) so if youāve received a vegas-born cultivar, and told you it is from seed of any of the above-mentioned cultivars, there is a chance we may have mislabeled the seed source.
have to say am almost certain vegas lucky is a child of sihong, considering its characteristics and the row its original pot was placed atā¦
the contorted seedlings seed source should also be straightforward(either that or may have been another cultivarās fruit pit which was pollinated by contorted)
as for vegas booty, we planted random seeds in a seed bed(on the ground) where wandering roots from rootstock obtained from Mr Meyer/Lowes/burntridge would likely have access to, so thereās this possibility it was actually a sucker from a rootstock and not from a seed we planted. Have to mention that Mr Meyer sent us at least one self-rooted cultivar(silverhill). Anyway,
need to get that vegas booty tested genetically. If it is in fact genetically distinct, then it seems to have genes from both sherwood and sihong.
I have several Orange Beauty seeds growing in the trays and lots of SiHong seedlings. Some of my older SH seedlings are marked as being watched but by far the most on my list are from Xu Zhou heritage. They are being very precocious with some larger fruitlets growing on young plants. The actual XZ fruit however has a poor reputation for quality in my heat/humidity location. Interesting project.
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Question about Jujube growth.
Anyone getting lackluster growth out of Jujubeās? How much growth is reasonably expected per year? I planted Li and Lang on 3rd leaf and they seem to be slowest growers compared to all other fruit trees (e.g. apples, pears, persimmon, stonefruit). Leaves are healthy and they seem happy, except they grow slowly and trunk caliper seems barely nudging. My trees have not bared fruit, and fertilization regiment is identical to other trees. Maybe they dislike my clay soil?
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They do fine in clay soil.
Jujube growth patterns are not as predictable as most other fruit trees. You might get 3 inches from a two year old tree or you might get 3 feet. If you donāt see them growing on top they are probably growing roots. But how they grow also depends on how they are pruned and on the rootstock.
My Baby Red grew a few inches in its first 3 years and then grew more than a foot the 4th year.
If your trees look healthy you do not have a problem.
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My Shanxi Li and GA-866 bore fruit for the second and first year respectively. I think I gave them a lot of my own compost. Jujube and my avocado trees are the only trees that I gave them more compost.