Chico seems very thorny to me. I don’t want to get poke at.
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You’re buying grocery store fruit that was picked too early, stored too long, and possibly not grown very well either.
Fresh jujubes are crispy and sweet.
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Like @castanea said. I also want to add that you have missed out a lot.
I was someone who bought jujubes from ethic food markets. Most of the time were awful, just like what you described.
Grow your own or see if there is any member here you can buy home grown jujubes from. Maybe, @BobVance?
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When you can pick them at your leisure they are much better as mentioned. The small rootstock ones i grow now have as good a flavor or better than the large ones. The ones that taste like a Styrofoam date are completely ripe. It’s likely you will prefer them green or partially brown. They are between an apple and a date at that stage which is very tasty. Im going to have plenty to graft over they spread from the roots like crazy. Honeyjar is smaller but good.
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Many if not most trees that are very thorny when small have fewer thorns when they get larger.
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Don’t say that to a honey locust. But I agree that most citrus, many pears, and other trees and shrubs that have spikes on juvenile tissue tend to have fewer as mature adult phase plants.
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Is there a reason why?
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Yes, but it is a part of plant biology that is not very well understood. Most woody plants exhibit a very strong transition from juvenile growth phase to adult reproductive phase. In the juvenile phase, they tend to produce spurs and spikes to protect themselves. As adults in reproductive phase, they are generally large enough that protection is less needed while other tissue types are necessary to reproduce. Consider that a flower bud is a dramatically different tissue type than a vegetative growth bud. It makes a lot of sense that young plants would hold on to the ability to protect themselves while older and larger plants would not have that requirement and would not tie up resources producing spurs and spikes. Honey locust is an exception making larger stronger and spikier thorns as they age.
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I think both of these statements are likely true. Small seedlings are often quite thorny. Most of mine are still pretty small, so I’m hoping they get less thorny someday.
But, Chico seems to stay very thorny, even when a large tree. Most of my other jujubes have far fewer and/or smaller thorns than Chico. This isn’t just one tree- I have several Chico which are bristling with thorns.
I’ve seen very good ones as well, but there is a pretty sharp dividing line. If you see them for 1 to 3$ per pound, they are probably the Li which were picked green and are spongy. If you spend over $5/pound (someone posted a pic of ~$10/lb a while ago), you have a shot at them being decent. At least, this was how it was a few years ago, when my wife used to buy them in stores. If you want to confirm which kind you have, use a refractomer to test their brix level. If it is under 20 (or more likely, hard to even get a reading, since there is no juice in the fruit), then it is the bad ones.
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They are all sweet here i enjoyed li and lang as well. There were some slightly better ones like honeyjar. Don’t you figure thats just the Ksnsas climate since it was frequently 100 degrees this year? The green jujube with some brown were very delicious as well in a different way. Like a banana i like mine very ripe.
This year was good in a lot of places. We had more sunny weather than I ever remember having before. And jujubes love as much sun as you can throw at them- even Vegas levels, as Raf has seen, though that does impact the texture for him when it is 110F.
They are very good at that stage, but the ones sold in Chinese markets are often picked fully green, before they can build sweetness. I’m not sure if the texture is so spongy because they haven’t had a chance to fully ripen, or due to delays in shipping.
- fully green- not sweet enough- don’t even consider
- yellow-green- almost ripe enough to eat if there are no other options
- partial brown- many varieties are good here. Some need a bit more
- fully brown- even sweeter, but still crisp…my target
- even darker brownish red- even better, but if you wait too long it will start to lose texture
- brown and shriveling- starting the drying process…Clark’s favorite
And as I’ve noted in my posts, some cultivars can be picked earlier and still be sweet. I’ve picked a few mostly greenish Dong and Sandia and they are in the low 20’s birx, which is good to know if an early frost is coming (they are very late ripening). Honey Jar also can be picked a bit early. On the other hand, Xu Zhou and Sherwood need to be fully brown (and maybe wait a bit longer even…).
I think many of the bad ones in stores are picked in the 1st or (at best) second category. I tested the brix on them at 11, for the few I was able to get enough juice to get a measurement.
Keep in mind that in storage the fruit will sometimes turn brown. I’ve picked a bag of partial brown ones and when I went back to it later, they were all brown. So even if you find an occasional brown one in the store, that doesn’t mean it was picked fully ripe.
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Has anyone tried this one?
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Hello! I’m looking to graft some new varieties on my sugarcane and Li. I tried an unknown variety at the farmers market that had a rich caramel like taste, it wasn’t dried just ripe and fully brown. Have you or anyone else noticed this in any of your varieties?
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I never get honey bees, but I don’t get a few orchard bees occasionally show up.
The variety Yazoo Li has a caramel type flavor.
Looks like scion wood is out of stock right now but will probably be listed in a couple of months-
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Thanks so much! I appreciate your help 
Where did you find Shandong Pear jujube? I couldn’t find anywhere in the states.
I found it in the US.
I don’t recall who I got it from but probably from an individual grower in California.
Some people call it Li or Shanxi Li because it came from Shandong. Just from seeing your Shandong pear, this is clearly a top-tier jujube.
Omg this sounds so amazing. I want that one too now!