Honey Jar was the jujube I most wanted until it fruited this past summer. The fruit was half the size of my sweet cherries and dwarfed by these nectarine.

{{gwi:61056}}

Don't think of it as a tiny nectarine, think of it as a huge blueberry :-) My Honey Jars are cherry-sized.

Scott

Email me your address, I'll send some wood

Bhawkins @ airmail.net

I'd like to hear more thoughts on jujube size. I've only had lang jujubes (which despite their reputation as merely a drying type I thought were very good fresh) and just one or two sherwood (which didn't seem to be as good as the lang). Both were about the same size, about the size of a small-medium fig or a decent wild persimmon. There were two or three good bites, plus gnawing the rest off the pit. Looking at fruitnut's picture, though, or even thinking about scott's cherry-size fruit, it's hard to imagine such jujubes being worthwhile. I've liked the jujubes I've had, but they haven't been super intense. To me they seem more like something I would enjoy in apple kind of quantities (as opposed to something like raspberries or even cherries.) What I'm really wondering is whether these smaller jujube varieties can be worth growing. Is there that much of a difference in taste between varieties, Scott, that the sacrifice in size (especially when there's a pit in the middle that makes eating it a lot more difficult than a blueberry) is worth it? Does anyone else have a case to make for the smaller jujube varieties?

Floyd, blueberries are low sugar, low acid, mildly flavored, and they are a lot smaller than jujubes. But, people still like to grow them. The point is each fruit has a unique kind of taste and that is ultimately why they are liked. Size is one factor, but its not everything. Jujubes have a unique apple/date flavor that I like a lot. Personally I prefer the small Honey Jars to all the other varieties in terms of taste and thats why I like growing them. Its also why I like growing Wickson crabapple which is a similar size.

If you want a large excellent jujube get a Shanxi Li, it is nearly as good as Honey Jar. Both of those are much tastier than Lang.

Scott

Just to confirm, Shanxi Li and Li are two completely distinct varieties, right? How do you think they compare, Scott? I definitely noticed the date/apple flavor in the Langs. I'd want to plant more jujubes even if Lang were the best of the best. Anything better than that, I'll be that much more eager to try.

Here's a dumb question: how do you eat the small jujubes? Is the pit just as big? Do you put the whole thing in your mouth and chew the flesh off the pit kind of like eating an American persimmon full of seeds?

I had a couple of jujube picked right off the tree this January, a seedling tree no less. So of course they were dried. I thought they were way better than anything I had this past summer. But I really only had fruit off Honey Jar and Sugar Cane and this on first year just planted trees. So those two are very precocious and prolific, I actually thinned the fruit. Sugar Cane was twice as big as Honey Jar and just as good.

If they didn't ripen in July and August I'd be more interested. The fruit is very sweet but to me has very yucky flavor compared to the stone fruit I have ripening at the same time. So now I wish I'd have gotten a Lang and gone for dried fruit. It could also be that I was eating the fruit too green. Take my observations from the standpoint of a novice.

I'll know more this year if Sherwood, Li, and Shanxi Li fruit.

One more thing, mine all cracked in the rain. Small skin cracks but enough for the ants to step in.

This post was edited by fruitnut on Fri, Mar 22, 13 at 11:37

Hi:
I am also looking for some scion wood. Bought a well established (3 feet tall) unknown variety that has not flowered for me yet. I would love to graft something worthwhile onto it.
Anyone willing to spare me some wood. Willing to pay.
Tried this Roger the Jujube King guy site, but I guess I am too late for wood from him.
So please let me know if you can help.
Appreciated.

I haven't grafted mine yet. I'll check how much scionwood I have vs. what I need to graft. If I have extra, I'll contact you and share what I have.

I have a Sherwood and a GA 866 Jujube Tree in N. VA. I planted them last spring, so no fruit yet. They are leafing out so, there is still hope. When do they bloom?

Thanks.
Looking forward.