I agree here. Deer like jujube leaves and small fruit. I don’t know that I’ve “lost” a jujube to deer but they definitely delay their growth. Mulberries are the favorite meal by far but plums and peaches are not far behind. Every young peach I plant is killed by deer because it won’t leaf back out after being stripped. Persimmons rank a bit lower than tender jujubes but they are harder to kill too.
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OK…Honey Jar arrived today from JF&E…good sized potted tree very similar in size to bare root Sugar Cane I got from Raintree…see both photos…potted Russian #2 from Raintree embarrassingly small…doubt it had much of a root system as it is barely holding on…not worth a photo…Ron
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this is the bare root Sugar Cane from Raintree I planted on 5/16…are these blossoms starting to form?..if yes, will fruit form with no pollinator and ripen by fall?..these jujubes are a far cry from sweet cherries / paw paws / persimmons in terms of getting fruit quickly…a pleasant change…the potted Russian #2 (also from Raintree) is barely hanging on…I really think it had virtually no roots in the pot…it has not grown at all for over 10 days now…I water it every day with the heat wave coming Tuesday…very disappointed in it
those are flower buds alright 
if its getting lots of sun may even progress to actual fruits.
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forgot to say, we bagged sugarcane flowers with n-95 filters several years ago.
while it produced some fruit they were tiny and didn’t mature properly… Could have been due to a flaw of our experiment as the bagged stems evidently got fried by greenhouse effect within the bags as well as compromised ventilation. It is difficult to test cultivars for self-fertility if already have several other varieties, so your case-study will have more credible results if it produces
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Yes
Probably;y not. Sugar Cane isn’t one of the varieties which fruits without pollination.
Of course, it is possible that it will get pollinated by the Honey Jar or the Russia #2. Even a small struggling jujube could still put out a few flowers.
But, even if it is pollinated, it is probably 50-50 at best (probably more like 20%) if it will fruit in the year it is planted. I’ve had it happen occasionally, but don’t expect it. If the tree is growing well, then there is a reasonable shot at fruit (still not guaranteed) in year #2. All 3 oft the cultivars you have are pretty productive, so I’d expect some production by year #2-3 if all goes well. Maybe a few extra years for the tiny one…
Give them plenty of water and fertilizer to keep them growing. The more growth you get initially the better. It isn’t like persimmons where fertilizer will cause fruit drop.
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I think that is how Prof Yao did the study (that I linked to in my last post) as well. One year they got
a few Sugar Cane fruit, but it was basically zero from the bagged ones. Only Redlands, Li-2, Autumn Beauty, Li, and Dabailing had significant production while bagged. There were another half dozen that had a few fruit, but not much. And then everything else produced nothing without pollination.
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thanks…maybe I get lucky with the Sugar Cane…certainly no other pollinators present here…the Russian #2 looks about the same as it did 10 days ago…also looks like if I missed one day of watering, it would just shrivel up and die…I wonder now if it had any roots at all in the pot…but overall, I’m happy to get off to a good start with jujubes…so much knowledge on this site…and perhaps the Honey Jar still has enough time to push out some flowers…looking forward to next year with Jujubes
Jujubes keep pumping out flowers for a while. One time I had a fast-growing Honey Jar (and a few other jujube at that site) and it kept flowering, but wasn’t setting fruit. I cut it back hard in early August (in preparation for a hurricane, I tied them to their posts and did some pruning) and it then set fruit. That was what gave me the idea for pruning excessively vigorous one to prompt fruit-set.
The fruit that set in August didn’t really have a chance to fully ripen, but the tree rushed things and got it mostly ripe by the end of October. It wasn’t the best Honey Jar fruit ever (maybe 20-25 brix instead of 28-35), but it wasn’t bad. Still worth eating.
So, I suspect that the Honey Jar will likely flower at some point this summer. Setting and ripening fruit is far less certain.
that’s an intriguing publication, and happy to see similar findings re: sugarcane
also intrigued that li can actually produce seed(?!)
was hoping it would mention if the seeds produced in the study were actually germinated/viable.
Seed occurrence(and more importantly–viability)vary between cultivars
while i can’t claim having worked with sufficient sample sizes to make conclusions, i think can report with some degree of certainty that large seed does not necessarily equate to higher viability
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I don’t think that the pits of fruit produced without pollination have viable seeds. I’ve never seen a Li with a viable seed. Most of the others which don’t need pollination are also closely related to Li, as noted in this jujube genotyping paper.
The only exception is Autumn Beauty (Qiyuexian). I don’t recall ever cracking those open, so I’m not sure about their seeds (with or without pollination).
yeah, which is why got a bit excited as to the germination rate of li in that study.
Critical to determne viability if seededness is reported, especially with varieties known to be sterile outright
You mentioned Redlands in the list of self pollinators. Some years my Redlands doesn’t produce seed in the pits and sometimes it does produce seed. Sometimes the seeds don’t germinate, sometimes they do. I have three Redlands seedlings from 2023 crop but found no seeds in the pits from this year. I planted quite a few seeds to get those three seedlings.
I have found a seed or two in Autumn Beauty but have never had them germinate. Same with Li.
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Very interesting. I didn’t realize that Li ever had seeds, even if rarely. I always figured that anything related to Li was either its ancestor, or Li was the pollen parent.
Seems like a variety generally failing at seed-production is a requirement for producing fruit without need of pollination. Or at least it is correlated.
You obviously crack open a lot more pits than I do. Especially for varieties I don’t really want to propagate. Have you noticed any other varieties which don’t produce seeds (or at a very low rate), yet still need pollination?
Pinggou may be one like this. I cracked a bunch last year, but didn’t find any seeds. Of course, it wasn’t included in the pollination study, so I don’t know if it requires pollination. I don’t have any locations with just 1-2 jujubes
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The two others that I can think of that have empty pits is Chico and Sawmill. I know that Sawmill does not need a pollinator as it is the only known jujube in its area and produces a heavy fruit load. I don’t know about Chico. Everything else I know has had productive seeds. I still have varieties that I have not cracked the pits.
But thinking about it I’m not sure I have found seeds in R4T3. And I remember that Taylor said that his Yazoo Li did not produce seeds. None of these may need a pollinator and if you think about it a lot of these seedling trees that are found would have to be self pollinating to survive in their locale. (I’m not including R4T3 in this situation). I’ve always thought there was a correlation between sterile pits and self pollination.
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Katie
How does Sawmill taste?
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Sweet, crunchy. I don’t remember it having much tart. It’s more consistent than Li and I don’t remeber it being dry at all. I haven’t had any in a couple of years. My little tree was eaten by deer and is taking a while to come out. Others can chime in on taste in their opinion.
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From the genetic testing paper, Sawmill was found to be closely related to Sherwood. This sounds like good evidence that while related they are not identical. In the pollination study, Sherwood didn’t produce any fruit without pollination. Of course, there is only one year of data and even the pollinated one didn’t produce that much. 15 fruit, if I am reading it right.
I have a Sawmill graft as well (thanks Katy!) and am hoping it doesn’t fruit like Sherwood either. Sherwood isn’t bad- I had some from a rental this year which were decent. It is a very dense crunchy fruit though, so not easy on the teeth…Also, the one I’ve had at home since 2016 (planted a year before the one at the rental) has produced lower quality fruit. And neither tree has produced very much fruit. So closely related to Sherwood isn’t a good thing to me
Chico is listed in the study in terms of AM/PM flowering, but they didn’t include it in the pollination test.
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Good to hear. The graft has grown well, but slowly. 
Bob,
Raf gave me a self rooted Vegas Booty and I cut a root and plant them both and now I have 2 Self rooted Vegas Booty. I heard somewhere that Vegas Booty is very similar to Sherwood is that sound correct? Btw, Icy Sugar aka Bing Tang graft took and growing now. So I have 4 new grafts that took; Baby Red, Pan Zao, New Improved large fruit Honey Jar, and Icy Sugar aka Bing Tang. Maybe we can swap Early Golden Crispy and few other that you have in your top 10 Jujube varieties. @BobVance
Tony