Jujube

I love this tree. This is the tree that inspired me to start my orchard and growing my own food.

Why???

This is a lazy mans fruit tree! After you plant and take care of it for one year, you can just walk away and it will take care of itself. There are Jujube trees in our neighborhood that have been around for decades that still fruit with no one taking care of them.

The United States government developed Jujube varieties in the early 1900s and released them throughout the south. Unfortunately, they were released with little information about the different varieties and how to maintain them. Their popularity diminished with large scale shipment of fruits such as the Apple. The trees continued to fruit even when abandoned during the worst of the dust bowl days in Oklahoma. Many are still growing where they were planted nearly 100 years ago while we waste water trying to grow other fruits that are less adapted to Texas. Go figure.

Here are some of the requirements for Jujube.

LOTS OF SUN
I mean lots. They love sun and the hotter the better. You are not going to fry this tree no matter how hot it gets.

COLD
Not only can they take the heat, they are very cold tolerant. The trees cold hardiness range from -5 to -20F. They also have a very small chill requirement of 100 hours to fruit.

FERTILIZER
Not required. These trees will produce about the same amount of fruit with or without fertilization. They can grow in the middle of the yard covered in grass and be fine with the grass stealing all the nutrients. Fertilization will increase growth rate so you can add some if you would like after the second year in the ground but it will be fine without.

PESTICIDES
None needed. The fruit has few to no natural pests in the United States. I have had a few squirrels and birds nibble at them. I have found a worm in one every now and then but it is rare. Those little assassin bugs get on them by accident sometimes thinking they are Tomato. They dont harm the fruit.

SPACE
These trees grow vertical by nature so you can put one in a very tiny spot and it will grow straight up. If you prefer a wider tree, just keep cutting the top branches down and it will start to spread out. Here is a tree that is about 25 feet tall and only 5-6 feet wide. I personally trim mine to be wider.

SOIL
No special requirements here. They like sandy soils the best but they grow fine in my heavy clay even with water-logging. Mine have already experienced a flood in summer and water-logging in winter/spring. They can also take both acid and alkaline soils.

WATER
Once the Jujube tree is established, it will only need 7 inches of rain a year to survive. I suspect it will need at least 15 inches to fruit and anything over 25 will be heavy fruiting. If you have a very well drained soil that doesnt retain moisture this may be a little bit more but they do send down a deep taproot.

SUCKERING
This tree will sucker just like a Crepe Myrtle. Just mow them down or snip them. Whatever you would do to your Crepe to keep it in check, you would do with the Jujube. Dont let the suckers grow because they are from the rootstock and will not produce the same fruit. It will be tiny and sour.

FRUIT

This is some fruit from the Li Jujube. They will get bigger and red sploches will appear on them. You can start eating them at this point but they will not reach their full sweetness until they are totally red. I like them best about half red.

This one is about to start turning red. You can tell when it starts to turn from green, to green/yellow and finally red.

The taste is similar to Apples but only a little. It definitely has its own distinct flavor. There is a very nice aftertaste that lingers in your mouth. Some of the fruits are very plain and others extremely sweet. It is important to know what variety you are eating because the fruits are broken up into two categories. One is fresh eating and the other is for drying. You can also usually dry the fresh eating varieties. If you eat a variety that is bred for dehydration, you probably wont like it fresh off the tree.

Varieties like Lang, are bred just for drying. I leave mine on the window edge outside during the summer and they are usually dried within 10 days. The insects leave them alone. They have a very different flavor at this point and people almost always compare them to a rich sweet date. You can buy the dried fruit at every Asian market in town but they are shipped from China and really are inferior in taste due to perservatives or chemicals. If you can get the dried fruit grown in the U.S., it is usually much better and chemical free. This is funny because China has better tasting varieties. They just nuke them with something.Wash them really well and see how you like them.


HARVEST
Another good reason to grow Jujube is harvesting. You can pick them by hand or set down a blanket and shake the tree. The ripe ones will usually fall.

*****IMPORTANT*****
Jujube fruit will lose their moisture during the heat of the day. If you plan on picking some, water the day before your pick if it hasnt rained in a long time. Then pick the fruit in the morning. The earlier the better. Many people are put off of Jujube because they pick one in the afternoon. Some varieties can literally have the consistency of styrofoam if you pick them when it is hot. The same fruit the next morning will be juicy and sweet.

The fruit will stay good on the counter for 3-5 days. If you put them in the fridge, they will be good for weeks. If you dry them, they will be good for over a year.

VARIETIES

I am only going to go over the varieties that you might find in the spring at nurseries or online. It is rare to find them after June in a nursery as they go quick. The wholesale resource I have for them is completely sold out this year.

Li:
Fresh eating variety. Plum sized. Sweet. Most popular in U.S.

Lang:
Drying variety. Elongated pear shape. Golf ball sized or bigger.

Sugarcane:
Fresh eating variety. Ping pong ball sized. Very sweet. Good moisture content.

So or Contorted:
Fresh eating. Similar to Sugar Cane. Extremely ornamental tree.

Sherwood:
Fresh eating. Weeping attractive leaves. Medium taste. Less than average yields.

GA866:
Fresh eating. Elongated. Good taste. Higher sugar content but does not reflect that in taste.

Honey Jar:
Fresh eating. Ping Pong ball sized. Extremely sweet and rich. Always very juicy regardless of pick time.
Hard to find.