Bob,

Thanks for the nice report. Which one on the list that dry well for you?

Tony

They all seem to dry well. Size is most important. Tigertooth, Li, Winter Delight all do well. Lang is too small.

Nice report. I've had Li for 3 years and Sugar Cane for two. No fruit from either one. Li got two pea sized fruits, but disappeared before ever getting any bigger. They are about 12 feet apart and always covered in tiny flowers, though. Any tricks to get them to pollinate, or just wait until they're ready?

Also, I thought Lang was a larger fruit and used primarily as dried.

Thanks Rob. I would think you have pollination covered. Hopefully next year you get a good fruit set. Fwiw my ph is 7.8; I've read of people in acidic soil using ashes to increase fruit set.

Yes a lot of literature says Lang is large. Sam Powers in Houston says it's the largest of all Jujubes, he has a Hugh collection. Mine are 1.5 inches long, same as in the edible landscape and le cooke pictures. Sometimes I wonder if there are 2 varieties of Lang being sold.

Winter Delight looks like a real winner. Where did you find it? I don't see it being offered online, even at Roger Meyers.

When does it ripen in relation to So? My Contorted So have been ripening over the last 1.5 weeks, so it would be nice to know if WD would ripen before frosts (usually around the end of Oct).

In my first harvest, the So are pretty good. They've been in the 22-25 brix range and might get higher if I left them longer (I haven't let one get completely brown yet, just 80%). While they aren't strongly flavored, they are pretty tasty and I can see myself eating a bowl of them. I've found that they are partially freestone as well, since everyone in the family sometimes demands a sample. It's almost comical to quarter a fruit which is a third the size of an apricot.

Winter delight is one of the first to ripen, a couple weeks before contorted so. It was sold by a couple places a few years ago, just fruits and exotics, and a nw nursery; but was dropped, I don't know why. I think Englands plans to offer it soon. I have plenty of wood.

Thanks for sharing your report. Your have lots of jujube trees.
I only 2 Li. The fruit is kind of dry.

I think many so-called "Li" and "Lang" out there are just seedlings. My first Li was a tiny fruit that was dry and bad. I finally got one from Roger Meyer which is the real thing. Jujubes very easily sucker and my guess is that happened at the nursery itself so they were just propagating a rootstock sucker thinking it was Li or Lang.

Thanks for the great report! We agree on Honey Jar and Sugar Cane, those are my favorites. I don't have Winter Delight or Autumn Beauty. Sihong is also excellent for me. I get little fruit though, not sure why but my trees may be too closely planted.

Scott

Bob,

Thanks for the info! If you are willing to share some scionwood, I am definitely interested and willing to send some in the other direction. I tried to send you an email, but it doesn't look like the site is working (see below screenshot).

Edit: We've since connected on email without using Gardenweb, but I'll leave the pic up in case anyone else is having the same problem.

This post was edited by bob_z6 on Sun, Sep 28, 14 at 19:59

Hillrock, I've had a few great Li's & many plain ones. They seem to have a very narrow picking date; a day early or a day late & they're plain or mushy. They have to be like 80-90%brown; but not 70%; & not 95%. Other varieties like Sugar Cane, Winter Delight, Honeyjar, So, & Shihong have much wider windows of opportunity to pick. Honey Jar & Sugarcane even taste great completely green.

fwi when I was in Beijing last year I had jujube's at 2 places; they were the size of Sugar Cane; I didn't see any Li size jujubees

I agree with you about Li. Only a few fruit were crunchy, majority of them were dry. The high temperature and scorching sunlight in Dallas may also contribute to the tasteless of Li. I had lots of Li fruits were sun burned during August.
Here many like sugarcane and honey jay, I may have to try those. In China, there is Dong zao jujube, do you think your winter delight and dong zao are the same?

I don't know if dong zao and winter delight are the same, but they might be. Richard Aston in an article said winter delight is a 2007 introduction from china where it's very popular. And googling dong zao I see it's called "winter jujube". So perhaps.

Great Report! I've got tigertooth in the field that are 5 years old with still no fruit. They must like your soil/climate much better than mine. I started some tigertooth from root cuttings (mine are on their own roots) and they produced small fruit while in the 1 gallon root pruning container during the first season.

I the Redlands in your report Redlands #4? I just grafted a Redlands #5 scion to one of my fielded Tigertooth to try another variety this spring.

Thanks. Yes Redlands #4. I didn't know there was a 5! I learn something everyday, let me know how it turns out.

I read tigertooth does well in Florida, so maybe it needs more heat than you have in zone 7. Or perhaps tigertooth is a jujube that needs a pollinator, do you gave another variety also? It's certainly a prolithic producer here. Fwiw my soil ph is 7.8

Bob

Bob,

I think it has something to do with my soil or rain. Tigertooth is clearly self fertile. The ones I started from rootcuttings are growing in the same general environment (heat, sun, etc.) as the trees in the field the rootcuttings came from. The only real difference is the ones growing on my deck in rootbuilder II pots are being air pruned, growing in a medium, and get water whenever needed. My trees in the field don't get supplemental water and are growing in heavy clay soil. They are only 8'-10' tall. I chatted with a university professor who specializes in Jujube and his thought was the field trees were simply not mature enough to fruit. He thought the fact that my containerized trees were root constricted was what forced them from a vegetative state to a fruiting state early.

I'm impressed seeing your trees fruiting in 2 years.

I've come to believe Jujubes really like water. They'll survive without it, but they thrive, bear earlier, and have better fasting fruit with lots of water

"dong zao" or "winter jujube" is one of the best fresh eating jujube in China. I read that the leaves of the variety curled up during the summer.

bhawkins,

Thanks for the report!

I just emailed Cliff England about getting Winter Delight and he said: "with the weather events of last winter we lost many grafted trees and many other trees in the Orchard so it will be a awhile before we have Winter delight or Autumn Beauty"

Guess I'll have to wait:(

I have been trying to have success with Shanxi Li, I think I'll focus on Sugar Cane and Honey Jar for now.

Thank You for this report.
I am amazed that the Winter Delight and Autumn Beauty got the same ratings as Honey Jar!

I am interested in these two varieties.

When you have some wood, please PM me.

Thanks sasw. I don't know if I'd recommend autumn beauty yet it hasn't produced much; but I'm happy to send wood

Hello all, I just moved to Fort Worth TX and was looking for a great variety of Jujube to plant here. Thank you for your 2014 report on growing jujubes in Dallas, that is so very helpful!! Now I just need to find a good supplier of these hard to find fruit trees... Is Winter delight still wonderful for you? How about the others, and change of your list since 2014? Thank you, I am so curious about your experiences.
Candice

Hello Candice,

I'm in North Austin . Last year I was able to find Sherwood, GA186, Li, Lang at http://www.fanicknursery.com/

In the Dallas area I was able to log the following a while ago:

Nurseries selling Jujubes in Dallas area

Strongs nursery 1900 i35 E frontage road carolton TX 75006

Northaven gardens Dallas

Petal pushers in Cedar Hill

Oak Creek orchard grow them

Belt Line & 183 in Irving TX

1 mile south of 183

Try 183 N Belt Line Irving TX 76061

The owner is Vietnamese

Mile's Garden center in Southlake

Redenta's in Arlington

Doan's Nursery

622 South Belt Line Road Irving,TX

75060

If you ever make it to any of these, let me know if you find a Winter Delight.

I'm still looking for one.

Good Luck

Thank you very much!! I sure will let you know what I find.

My 3 favorites are Winter Delight, Autumn Beauty, & Li. Li is easy to find, others are hard

A close second group would be Honey Jar, Sugar Cane, Shanxi Li, Contorted. Doan's in Irving has great trees in Feb, including most of these. Be sure to call before driving, they're off on Vietamese holidays.

For various reasons I'd stay away from Lang, Tigertooth, Sherwood, Autumn beauty, Xu Zhou, & GA866

oops! I misspoke about top 3. Shihong is one of my favorites, Autumn Beauty takes too long to fruit

Just called Doan's, They don't have Winter Delight or Sihong. The lady said that they have Lang.

At least my baby Sihong planted last year in the wildlife area is still alive with no irrigation.

Thank you so much, this is very helpful information for me! I might try starting with a Shihong or a Li, then graft branches of Winter Delight and others as they become available or as soon as I can collect grafting wood. I really only have room for one or two trees yet am very excited about trying out the Jujube in my location.