We planted our one jujube in 2012 and it was merely a twig! We had looked all over the place for jujube trees and couldn’t find any locally, most online are outrageously expensive and we were about to give up finding one when a blog reader put me in contact with a guy in CA who sold me one. I wish we had bought a dozen!
It arrived as a bare root plant and we kept it in the well house for most of the winter, bringing it out on sunny days to get some light. We planted it in the spring and it was probably about 12″ tall.
Jujube
Today, it’s taller than I am . . my guess is it’s about 5-1/2′ tall. Each of the previous years, it’s produced three jujubes. They’re about the size of a cherry and have a seed about the same size as the cherry seed so we have not been feasting on jujubes.
Tonight we were out looking at the trees and something has been eating one of the three!
Jujube
The jujube are drought, deer and pest resistant but maybe no one anticipated the ferocity of Texas bugs. I know I didn’t! So . . 1 jujube for the bugs, 1 for Judy and 1 for Vince and since they were golden, they were ready to eat and eat them we did.
As I was walking away, I looked back at the other side of the tree and there were more jujubes! There must be a dozen smaller ones! I was so excited. They have plenty of time to get ripe before we have a frost. Our patience has paid off . . instead of three, it’s going to make probably close to 20 this year. We’re going to seriously look for more jujube plants to plant either in the fall or spring . . whenever we can find them.
Susan says
That sounds so exciting! I hope you can find another tree or dozen somewhere. What about the fellow who sold you that one?
kim webb says
Is it possible to start new plants from the pits?
I have never heard of Jujube’s until you posted about them a few years ago.
They must prefer a warmer planting zone.
Teresa Stonecypher says
I’ve never heard of a Jujube before. What does it taste like?
JudyL says
Somewhere between an apple and a pear – very small though – not much bigger than a cherry, to about the size of a fig.
MarilynS says
So glad the tree is producing! I only know about the candy that I loved as a kid!
Rebecca in SoCal says
I hadn’t heard of the fruit before you wrote about them, either, but just recently I saw them referred to as Chinese red dates. You can buy the fruit dried, I guess, but how much better to grow your own!
Sherry says
I feel your pain about the bugs. I live in NE Ohio and have been jealous of your fig trees because of our cold weather. This summer at a local farmer’s market, somebody from my home town had a fig tree for sale. He grows them in pots and puts them in the garage in the winter just before the first frost. He says they get a lot of figs. He was probably asking too much, but I am not one to bargain. If it is something I want, I buy it. Well, it was about 3 feet tall and had 7 figs on it. When I went out to water it next day, there was a grasshopper chomping away on one of my precious figs. I covered the whole tree with nylon net and believe me, it is a pain to take it off to keep it watered. We are having a drought now. Not sure if I will get any ripe figs this year. They are all the same size and hard as rocks. Keeping my fingers crossed. Thinking about removing the net and taking my chances.