Growing Jujubes from seed (and general Jujube feedback)

Carefuly cracking and removing the Jujube seed shells worked great for me. 100% sprouting quote and it took only 2-3 days. With this particular tool, which englush Name I dont know, its easy to open the shells Carefuly step by step..

Just bought this Ziziphus plant In a local vivero. Can anyone identify it by the pictures?
Greetings from Uruguay!

I've lurked for awhile, but I just signed up for an account so I could let you know. Those round jujube seeds are actually grown for the seed, not the fruit. (The name spinosa is another clue) That is why they're available to buy in a pack. They are typically cracked and then boiled to make a tea. It is used in Chinese medicine to help with insomnia and is supposed to be calming for children with ADD. There is a region in China that grows a lot of that herb, but I don't know if the fruit part is typically eaten or not. It seems like a lot of the varieties for eating fresh have long pointy seeds, although I think I have purchased dried ones with round seeds. I'm guessing perhaps those are ones for drying. My Chinese relatives (I'm not Chinese) tell  me that some are not meant to be eaten as a snack, just dried and used in tea or soup. The dried fruit boiled in a tea is also traditionally used to help with insomnia, and I think anemia.

http://www.itmonline.org/arts/zizyphus.htm

Reference and recipe (for using the seed herb) in this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Wisdom-Modern-Kitchen-Recipes/dp/073821325X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=ancient+wisdom+modern+kitchen&qid=1551648792&s=gateway&sr=8-1

I purchased some dehulled Jujube seed from Foxgreen Farm / https://jiovi.com In July 2018 (about a year ago) which I planted almost immediately into a tray in the greenhouse.

Being located in New Zealand, this was mid winter.

Germination rate was about 50%, pretty good by my experience with imported seed and the feedback from other growers.

A year on I have about half left alive, about 20 - 30cm tall in 3 litre pots (do the math imperialists, see how you like it...)

Of these about half are single stem and the rest are multi branching from ground level, there is obvious variation in leaf shape and colour

Having attempted and lost purchased Jujube trees in the past, growing from seed seemed like it would improve my chances at lower cost.

I'm tempted to plant mine out this coming spring but the destination location is rather harsh and out of site / mind and I'm afraid they might get a little neglected and then swamped by weeds so I'll probably wait another year. Or do half soon but in a closer and more monitored location....

Having never even tasted a Jujube I have no fixed expectations about what I might get out of all this.

Whoo, time for an update!  

My original "Li" cultivar plant bought in a pot at an Asian grocery in 2014 has now had six summers in the ground, and five winters.  It is at least 14 feet tall, but so slim and flexible that I can bend the top parts down into my reach without damaging it.  This season for the very first time it made perhaps half a dozen fruit, but due to my road trip to Portland I only got three fruit picked and two of those had been found by the ants, who where merrily burrowing in.  Since I do not have a pollinator, the seeds are indeed hollow, empty, and thus sterile.  I am very pleased with the fruit; it is very sweet and has a nice crunch, although the sort of woody mouthfeel that is the signature of ripe jujube fruits takes some getting used to.  

I wrote elsewhere in this thread about finding feral jujube bushes on the property of a friend.  I haven't had a lot of luck germinating those seeds either, but fortunately he hasn't had much luck poisoning his jujube patch.  He was sounding more determined this summer so I dug up several small trees at his place and planted them in buckets.  Didn't get much root ball and some of them died, but I have one really healthy/happy bucket tree now and another that seems still to be alive, if only barely.  My plan is to grow them out a bit in the buckets and then transplant them to my orchard, in hopes that they will serve as a pollinator for my Li.  

I have three apple trees that I planted at the same time as the Li jujube that still haven't made a single fruit.  They are healthy looking and I am sure it's just a matter of time, but my conclusion is that jujubes are better suited to my conditions than apples.  So I do need more!

I planted 2 Li Jujubes here in 8a Central Texas. I can tell you with 100% confidence that these are the best trees i have ever grown. I love the looks of them. It looks like the tree could be in the moviie  "A nightmare before Christmas". It is so beautiful in a dark kind of way. The branches come out at a 90 degree angle from a single vertical trunk..  The leaves are green with no browning or evidence of disease or stress.

Pick any other tree i have to compare to. Paw paw, peach, pecan, persimmon, walnut, plums  etc. The jujube is perfect in comparison.

Thank You Sharon for those very interesting informations. I am definitely interested in the medicinal use of jujube as well. Healthy medicine for curing Insomnia or add like conditions are a good thing to have access to.

The jujubes that grew from the seeds (on the pictures) didn't grow particular much in the first year but therefore survived inside pots somewhere in my Garden without taking care for a whole year!

The jujube tree I had bought in a Vivero and planted into my garden also didn't grow particular much. (The people in the Vivero didn't know what kind of jujube variety they where selling... the leaves look different then those from Dan's trees

I won't give up on my Jujube plans that fast...  

This Winter I will be in my beloved Garden in Uruguay (there will be summer then ;) and see if they grew more. I built a little tree nursery so my young trees are more protected.

Anyone have advice for me?  I'm planning on moving a young jujube, out of a shady area where it isn't producting flowers or fruit and into full sun.  It's been grown from seed, is 3-4 years old, eight feet tall, nice and sturdy.  

I plan on putting it near its two little brothers.  If moving is liable to be a failure I'll just take it out. Is it worth the trouble?

Jane Reed wrote:Anyone have advice for me?  I'm planning on moving a young jujube, out of a shady area where it isn't producting flowers or fruit and into full sun.  It's been grown from seed, is 3-4 years old, eight feet tall, nice and sturdy.  

I plan on putting it near its two little brothers.  If moving is liable to be a failure I'll just take it out. Is it worth the trouble?

Move it when its dormant. Zach weiss told me a story about sepp holzer in regards to tree planting. He said spectators(volunteers, homeowner, etc) literally cringe when sepp is relocating trees. He seems very ruff with them. The rationale is that if the tree can't take a little abuse, it's not worth having.

We had to move a dozen trees when my earthworks were done.  It had to be done in late spring. We had no choice. I was surprised at the success rate. Any losses were my inability to keep them watered thru the summer. These were 3 year old trees. They just got to what i consider stable. Relocating means its now a new planted tree and needs the care (watering) of a newly planted tree. I did not stay on top of it.

There's a reason why earthworks comes first. Lol. I learned it real good.

Jane Reed wrote:I'm planning on moving a young jujube, out of a shady area where it isn't producting flowers or fruit and into full sun.  It's been grown from seed, is 3-4 years old, eight feet tall, nice and sturdy.  

I plan on putting it near its two little brothers.  If moving is liable to be a failure I'll just take it out. Is it worth the trouble?

I don't think it's worth the trouble, nor necessary.  My jujube took six growing seasons to produce its first fruit.  I have not read that Jujubes are unusually demanding of full sun, or that the time it took my tree to start fruiting is unusual.  Many fruit trees need five-plus years to start bearing fruit.  I have a couple of apple trees the same age as the Jujube that haven't flowered yet, plus another that's flowered several times but not yet produced a fruit.  It just takes time, is how I see things.  I wouldn't dream of moving my trees and risk losing them after all these years of patient waiting.

When i researched the tree, i had read that it will not fruit in shade. If anyone has first hand knowledge please give it. Mine is semi shaded. I found out after planting. But in my case the tree shading it will come down. Its probably coming down either way.

I was fairly sure sun was necessary.  The 2 little brothers, which are only a little younger, have already produced some flowers and tiny fruit.  The big shrub is in the shadow of my 2 storey house in the a.m. and gets filtered shade for the second half of the day. Even shrubs and trees that are tolerant of shade won't perform well under those conditions.  They may grow well but fruiting, I believe, will always be very sparse.

Is there something I should know about moving a jujube in particular? Has anyone done it?  I agree with the above poster who advised to wait till it was dormant.  I also imagine a severe pruning will need to be done prior to digging it up.  

I've found this thread very helpful as I plan to order some jujubes for this fall, so thank you!

I'd love to hear any updated experiences with varieties. I'm going to plant two trees in my food forest area. Information about the different varieties can be somewhat hard to find.  Anybody have experiences to share in a Midwest climate with the following types?

Chico
Li
So Contorted
Shanxi Li
Autumn Beauty
Winter Delight
Black Sea

I'd be inclined to select Li and So for my first plants as the most common, well-established types. I'm also intrigued by the possible cold-hardiness of Winter Delight (we're zone 6b but in a frost pocket). Probably my biggest consideration is that if any of these plants are going to be more vigorous (and thus hard to keep to a dwarf/semi-dwarf size), I'd prefer to avoid that type. But I'd be grateful for any experiences.

I purchased seeds from Jvovi and followed their instructions. They are doing great!

Jeffrey Strong wrote:I purchased seeds from Jvovi and followed their instructions. They are doing great!

Hi, Jeffrey, do you mean you have great germination rate? I didn't notice Jiovi site and ordered jujube seeds(unhulled) from an esty store. I cracked them open and most had bigger seed and a small empty one. Seeds have been cold stratified 6 weeks so far and I am about to plant them. If none of them grows, then I will try Jiovi next time.

How many minimum inches water per year can a jujube survive (even if it goes dormant from drought that year)?
How many inches water does it need to fruit?

I have 2 Jujubes in pots as I haven't figured out where to plant them yet.

They are spiky little things, but despite that, when the deer broke into that garden area, they seriously chewed them. So I would say that deer proof isn't a characteristic unless they're safer when larger? That said, the images in the link below don't show spikes - do my fellow permies have spiky or non-spiky Jujues?

However, the larger and healthier of the two plants has put out quite a few blooms this year. The seeds were from a local farm, so I was hoping they were from a cultivar that would manage in my ecosystem, but my homestead has cool nights.

This website seems to have some good info: https://gardenoracle.com/images/ziziphus-jujuba.html
Totally not my ecosystem, but the site seems to have write-ups on many drought tolerant plants.

A vendor at our local farmer's market sold Jujubes and I planted some from seed.  I got about 12 seeds out of the pit with a hammer/pliers.  Tough fruit pit!!  Most of the seeds germinated immediately and then the varmints started eating them.  It was insane.  There were all sorts of interesting plants all over the garden but something had a taste for jujube leaves. (not deer, we don't have them in our garden).  Only two survived the onslaught of critters.  They were slow growers but now finally about ten years later we're getting good fruit set.  Unfortunately a lot of them are high up on thorny branches.

I have a question.
It's the second season I'm trying jujube, which supposedly drought resistant, can not cope with my climatic conditions and despite being irrigated and mulched, they just cannot stand the sun. I suspect they are "drought resistant" in gentle climates. I again planted two this time: GA866 and Honey Jar. GA866 has died and is regrowing from the roots. The other one also seems to be done (after producing several small 1 cm diameter fruits) and is also regrowing. Do you know if the rootstock will produce any fruits that make sense? I'm not going to keep it for grafting, because grafting was 100% failure in my orchard.

Here is a university site for all things Jujube.  https://jujube.nmsu.edu/  

Does anyone know if a jujube needs a pollinator to make fruit? I bought some plants from a woman who dug up some established sprouts that came up around her 30' tall mama tree. They've been in the ground for 6 years are growing slowly, spreading and flower every year but so far no fruit.
We've got friends close by who have the same size trees who get loads of fruit every year. I'm a bit discouraged and wonder if anyone's getting fruit from just a single tree?