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Fruit growing guide
Jujube stones are moderately dormant and germinate promptly only after a moist, cold treatment. This guide covers Chinese jujube (Ziziphus jujuba); seedlings make tough, drought-tolerant trees and good rootstocks for named varieties.
Jujube is sown as the whole stone: a hard, 2-2.5 cm (about 1 in) stone that usually holds two seeds. Remove all flesh by soaking and rubbing in water. Jujube seed appears to be orthodox, so dry, clean stones can be stored at about 5 °C (41 °F).
Optional. Nurseries soak stones in sulfuric acid for 2-6 hours before chilling, which is not a home method. At home, the cold treatment below is enough.
Recommended. Keep stones in moist sand at 5 °C (41 °F) for 60-90 days. An alternative is about 3 months warm and moist followed by 3 months cold. Where winters are cold you can instead sow untreated stones outdoors in autumn and let winter chill them.
Not needed as a separate step: the stones take up water during the moist cold treatment.
Warm. Seed-testing labs use alternating 30 °C by day and 21 °C at night (86/70 °F). In the tropics sow pretreated stones at the start of the warm season; in temperate climates sow in spring.
Cover with 2.5 cm (1 in) of soil.
Deep pots or a nursery bed with sandy, well-drained soil. Use deep containers rather than shallow trays so the root can grow down freely.
Keep moist but not wet; jujube seedlings dislike soggy, poorly drained soil.
Not needed until emergence (germination is epigeal: the seed leaves come above ground). Then give full sun.
Emergence is slow and uneven, often spread over several weeks. Keep the pots moist and warm and do not discard them early.
Move seedlings to their final place while small, keeping the root ball intact. Choose full sun and well-drained soil; in India ber is planted in July-August into 60 cm (2 ft) pits, about 7 m (23 ft) apart.
In the first two years give nitrogen in three monthly portions in spring; mature trees need one nitrogen feed in early spring.
If you want a known variety such as Li or Lang, whip-graft it onto your seedling or a root sprout. In India ber is propagated as budded plants.
Jujube likes hot, dry summers and tolerates drought; late flowering helps it escape spring frost. In India the related ber (Ziziphus mauritiana) is the usual arid and semi-arid fruit tree and tolerates saline and alkaline soils.
Fair to good drainage matters more than fertility. Very alkaline soils above pH 7.8 can cause minor-element deficiencies.
Fruit turns from light green to red or mahogany brown and later wrinkles; it ripens between July and November depending on climate and variety.
Jujube can bear as early as 1-4 years after planting.
Chill jujube stones for two to three months and raise tough, drought-tolerant seedlings.
They are close relatives. Chinese jujube is Ziziphus jujuba; Indian ber is Ziziphus mauritiana, a tropical species grown in arid and semi-arid India.
No. Sow the whole stone after 60-90 days of moist cold treatment; nurseries sometimes use acid, but home growers do not need it.
Often the fruit is smaller and of lower quality. Graft a named variety onto the seedling for reliable fruit.
