Ziziphus jujuba
Jujube
Common names: Chinese Date, Red Date, Chinese Jujube
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Hardiness
- Hardy down to −20 °C
- Pruning
- Feb–Mar
- Harvest
- Sep–Oct
- Flowering
- Jun–Jul
- Spacing
- 300 cm, rows 300 cm
- Water need
- Low
Photo: Javier martin · Public Domain · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
The jujube, botanically Ziziphus jujuba, is a small fruit tree from China, where it has been cultivated for thousands of years. In temperate regions it usually grows 3 to 5 m tall and has zigzag-shaped branches with short thorns and glossy, three-veined leaves that turn yellow in autumn. The inconspicuous greenish-yellow flowers open in June and July and are readily visited by bees and other insects. The fruits, 3 to 5 cm in size, are first green and crisp like a small apple, and later mahogany-brown and wrinkled like a date. They can be eaten fresh, dried, as compote, or candied. The jujube leafs out late, so late frosts rarely harm it. It loves warmth: in wine-growing areas and against a sunny south-facing wall the fruits usually ripen well, while in cool summers they stay smaller and ripen poorly.
Care instructions
Plant the jujube in October or March in the sunniest and warmest spot available, ideally against a south-facing wall. The soil may be lean, sandy, and well-drained, as it does not tolerate waterlogging. In the first year, water thoroughly during dry spells; later, rainfall is usually sufficient. Be patient in spring: the jujube often does not leaf out until mid to late May, so a seemingly dead tree is usually just late. In June, lightly scratch a twig with your fingernail: if green shows underneath, the shoot is alive. Two different varieties planted side by side will bear more fruit, although one alone will already set fruit. Remove root suckers around the trunk; on grafted trees these often come from the rootstock. From September, harvest the first crisp fruits that are green to brown-spotted; they are fully ripe in October.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
HarvestSep–Oct
FloweringJun–Jul
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
well-drained, sandy, loamy, lean
The jujube grows best in sandy loam or loamy sand that drains well and dries quickly in the sun. Poor, dry sites suit it fine, and it tolerates chalky soils as well as slightly acidic ones. It dislikes wet, heavy soils: on clay, mix in plenty of sand and gravel and plant it on a small mound so the water runs off.
Feeding
Light feeder
Months
Apr
The jujube gets by with few nutrients. In spring, a thin layer of ripe compost under the crown, lightly raked in, is enough. Mulch the soil with leaves or grass clippings, which keeps the moisture in and feeds the tree on the side. Too much nitrogen encourages soft shoots that ripen poorly for winter. In a container, give a little liquid fertiliser for flowering plants every four weeks during the growing season.
Pruning
Prune the jujube in late winter, while it is still dormant. Remove crossing, inward-growing and dead branches so that light and air reach the crown. The thin, zigzag twigs that fall in autumn together with the leaves grow back every year and carry the flowers and fruit, so you do not need to cut them. Remove root suckers and wild shoots at the base of the trunk all year round.
Overwintering
Mature jujubes are hardy and, in wine-growing climate, tolerate frost down to about minus 20 degrees without protection. Protect young trees for the first two to three winters with a thick layer of leaves over the roots and horticultural fleece around the trunk. In a container the root ball freezes through more quickly: place the pot against a sheltered house wall and wrap it up thickly, or move it into a cool, frost-free room after leaf fall. Darkness is fine there; water only occasionally.
Propagation
Methods
- Grafting
- Offsets
- From seed
Buy the jujube as a grafted tree of a proven variety, such as ‘Li’ or ‘Lang’. With own-root trees, you can separate a rooted sucker with a spade in spring and replant it straight away. Seeds produce seedlings that vary greatly and often bear smaller fruit; they mostly serve as rootstock. Grafting varieties in spring with scions taken in late winter is a job for practised hands.
For your garden
Grow Jujube yourself
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