PlantFiles: Common Jujube, Chinese Red Date, Chinese Plum, Chinese Date
Ziziphus zizyphus

I planted three 3-foot specimens (two Li's and one Lang) in spring 2005 (it is now November 2005). Although the plants leafed out nicely, they made no visible growth this first season. Indeed, now that their leaves have fallen, they look exactly the same as they did when I planted them. I've heard jujubes are slow growers, but this is ridiculous! Still, the trees are healthy and I'm very hopeful. Just be prepared for slow growth.

Be sure to get two varieties. Some catalogs say the jujube is self-fruitful but don't bother to inform you that you'll get better and larger crops with two different varieties.

Ordered one from Ty Ty nursery in Ga. ( will NOT be ordering from them again ) & planted it just over a year ago. Survived the winter & is alive ( that is about all that I can say for it ) recieved one as a gift from one of my church members ( he bought his in Calif. ) & it is doing great. The other one I ordered came as a bare root. It was about as big around as a pencil & had NO leaves/branches or any other signs of life. Planted it & it did survive the winter. The gift came in a 5 gal. bucket with plenty of dirt, leaves & branches. Also much larger diameter. Planted it & it's taking off & doing great. Used to live in New Mexico & know they grow great there. The Las Cruces University has a large example growing on their campus & there are several growing in Alamogordo as well.

This tree is hardy and requires pruning to keep it managable. The fruits are profuse and range in size from a quarter to about 2 1/2 inch. My family likes to eat them when they just start to turn brown. That's when they have the best combination of sweetness and moisture. They have the texture similar to that of a quince. The usual time to harvest them is when they have turned uniformly reddish-brown and a bit wrinkled. They can then be dried in the sun, in a food dehydrator, or in an oven with the pilot light on. They are very sweet and chewy when dried. That's why they are called Chinese dates.

In addition to the invasive roots, suckers and thorns, the fruit is extremely messy and difficult to pick up in grassy areas as they get so soft.

Birds do love the fruit however.

Long,curved thorns are very bad. Getting stuck by their large thorns is inevitable. New growth is spread through the root system. Mowing with puncture-proof tires on your mower keeps them in check, but new growth produces new,soft-leaved plants and sharp short thorns. Trying to eradicate the new growth is next to impossible without totally removing the roots.

CAN BE INVASIVE if you plant it in or near flowerbeds, but is easy to keep from taking over if you set out apart from anything else where you can keep the sucker sprouts mowed. Have done mine this way and it's not been a problem for the past 25 years. But don't turn your back on it for longer than a year or two or the suckers will grow into shrub sized trees and will be a problem. Also, this tree has a few thorns ~ not many, but a few long ones.

These trees are TOUGH. Mine's a small tree for it's age as my father planted it 25 years ago and my mother kept telling my brother and stepDad to mow it down until about six years ago. It's now about 20 feet tall and 6-8 inch trunk diameter. These will grow most anywhere except boggy areas. If planted in part shade, it won't thrive or fruit, but will survive.

The edible fruit are ovoid, about 1 1/2 to 2 inches long and green ripening to rusty red. Taste is reminiscent of an apple, but nowhere near as juicy. In zone 8b, fruit ripens by end of July or beginning of August.