Jujube

Ziziphus jujuba

Family Rhamnaceae

TreeZones 6-9

Botanical illustration of Jujube

Jujube fruits eat like tiny crisp apples in September and dry into something close to dates — one tree, two entirely different treats. Better still, it fruits without a spray schedule, ignoring the pests and diseases that make apples such hard work.

Famously drought-proof and heat-proof, it blooms late enough that frost rarely steals the crop, while bees, butterflies, and birds all find something to love in it. Hardy in zones 6-9. Give it a sunny spot with mowing room around it, plus a partner tree, and collect.

Where to buy jujube — 9 nurseries compared

  • Full Sun
  • Drought-tolerant · low water
  • Moderate growth
  • Excellent edible
  • Attracts bees
  • Attracts butterflies
  • 150-200 winter chill
  • Needs a pollination partner
Jujube — a print from the Plant Library collection

From the print shop

Growing jujube? Hang it.

Our Plant Library collection carries jujube — Ziziphus jujuba, print Nº 255, “Jujube.”

526 designsfrom $12.99white or black backgroundmatte poster, unframed

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Will it fruit where you are?

Enter your ZIP — we look up your USDA hardiness zone (2023 map) and check it against what jujube actually needs.

Hardy inZones 6-9
Winter chill150-200
PollinationPartner needed

Jujube · Common problems

Common jujube problems

Pests, diseases and weather to keep an eye on.

Pests

1 problem on file

  • Almost none in the US

Diseases

1 problem on file

  • Almost none — the low-spray fruit tree

Pollination

Poor pollination → low fruit set (plant a partner)

Jujube · Growing & propagation

Growing jujube

Light, water, soil, propagation and the season’s jobs.
What it needsThe details
Light
Full Sun
Water
Low once established

Famously drought-proof

Soil
Adaptable, well-drained

Thrives where other fruit fails · pH 6.0 - 8.0

Fertilizer
Light compost in spring

Overfeeding = suckers

Pruning
Late Winter

Minimal — remove suckers (it suckers enthusiastically) and crossing wood.

Spacing
10-15 ft

How to plant & propagate jujube

Propagate
Grafted, or from cuttings/layering

Seed won't come true

Jujube · Harvest & keeping

What you get from jujube

How long before it bears, how much it gives, how you know it is ready, and how long it keeps once picked.
Botanical illustration of Jujube
Years to first harvest
2 to 4 years
Typical yield
30–100 lbs
What you eat
Fruit
How to tell it is ready
Crisp-ripe when mottled half-brown

Fully brown fruit is entering its date-like drying stage

How long it keeps
1-2 weeks fresh

Months dried

Jujube · Seasonal care & spray guidance

The jujube growing playbook

Field-tested instructions for every job jujube asks of you, compiled from university extension guidance — in the order the season brings them.

While it is dormant

winter, before growth starts

1 job
PruningIn winter

Winter pruning: open the canopy but spare the fruiting spurs

Prune while the tree is dormant and leafless. Take out dead, damaged, weak, and competing branches with thinning cuts back to their base, and keep the center open on upright varieties so you can reach the fruit. Leave the short stubby fruiting spurs alone, and shorten secondary shoots to one or two nodes only where you want more branching. Jujube fruit hangs on deciduous branchlets that grow fresh each spring from permanent fruiting spurs on the secondary shoots, so a spur you cut off in winter is a crop you will not pick. One heading cut on a primary shoot stops its extension and turns the tree toward fruiting, while two cuts sprout new primary growth and expand the canopy.

As growth begins

early spring

1 job
FeedingIn spring

Spring nitrogen, measured off the trunk diameter

As growth begins in spring, apply 0.2 lb of actual nitrogen per inch of trunk diameter in a single application, up to a maximum of 1.0 lb per tree. First and second year trees do better on three smaller doses, a third of the total each month across the first three months of growth. Nitrogen is the nutrient jujube actually responds to, and scaling the rate to trunk diameter sizes the dose to the tree instead of guessing at it. Rate and split-application schedule are from Texas A&M AgriLife.

Just after bloom

as the fruit sets

1 job
What to watch forAfter fruit set

Scout the fruit rather than spraying a schedule

Walk the tree while the fruit is sizing and look for larval entry holes in the fruit from peach fruit moth, dark leaf spots from Alternaria, and bird or stinkbug damage. Treat only if you actually find a problem, because there is no routine spray program for this crop. Across twelve years of New Mexico trials jujube was almost disease- and pest-free, turning up only occasional peach fruit moth damage on fruit and an Alternaria alternata leaf spot at a single site. A calendar spray on this tree spends money and chemical against pests that are mostly not there.

Through summer

the growing season

2 jobs
WateringThrough summer

Keep water on the tree through fruit sizing

Once fruit has set and is sizing, irrigate through the summer instead of letting the tree ride out the dry spell. Drip irrigation and microsprinklers are both effective ways to deliver it and can double as fertigation (UF/IFAS HS1477). Newly planted trees, bare-root ones especially, need water two or three times a week until they are established. Jujube shrugs off drought, which is exactly why growers under-water it. NMSU is direct about the tradeoff: the plants are quite tolerant to drought, but for a premium fruit set and yield the trees still need to be irrigated in a semiarid climate. The tree survives either way; the crop does not.

PruningIn summer

Cut root suckers off at or below the soil line

Jujube throws suckers from its lateral roots, often several feet out from the trunk. Cut them off at or under ground level as soon as they appear, and keep cultivation, tilling, and digging away from the root zone. Root injury is what triggers the sprouting, so cultivating around the tree makes the problem worse rather than better. On a grafted tree the suckers come up from the rootstock, not from your named variety, so they will never bear the fruit you planted and only divert the tree's growth.

Harvest time

as it ripens, and picking

1 job
HarvestingAt harvest

Pick by color stage, according to what the fruit is for

For fresh eating, pick anywhere from the creamy white mature stage, when skin shifts from dark green to yellow-green and the first brown-red spots show, through to fully red but still firm. For drying varieties wait for fully red, then lay tarps under the tree and shake the branches or knock fruit down with long poles. The two uses want opposite ripeness. Fresh fruit is crisp and at its best before it softens or wrinkles, while sugar keeps loading into a drying cultivar right up to full red, so picking a drying variety early costs you the sweetness that made it worth drying.

After harvest

autumn, and putting it to bed

1 job
HarvestingAfter harvest

Cool the fresh fruit, and dry the drying fruit fast

Fresh fruit picked at first ripe holds two weeks or more at 40F without losing quality. If you are drying and your climate is humid, harvest at fully red and get the fruit into a dryer immediately rather than letting it hang. Letting jujube dry on the tree works in desert air but fails in a humid climate, where yeast and mold infect the fruit before it can ever dry down.

Jujube · Calculators & field guides

A little help in the garden.

Calculators for the figures. Field guides for the hands-on work.

Jujube · Yearly calendar

The jujube year, month by month

What jujube asks for, month by month.

Jan

No calendar activity is listed for this month.

MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Bloom
Prune
Harvest

BloomMay to June

PruneFebruary to March

HarvestSeptember to October

What each band means

  • Bloom — flowers open — pollinators working, frost on blossoms is the danger.
  • Prune — shape it now — cuts heal cleanly and structure is visible.
  • Harvest — picking time — check ripeness every few days.

These are the species' typical months — expect them a few weeks earlier in warm zones and later in cold ones. Watch the plant, not just the calendar.

Jujube · Ecology & uses

Ecology & uses

What it does for the garden, and what it is grown for.
Botanical illustration of Jujube

Ziziphus jujuba

Jujube in the garden system

  • Understory layer tree
Attracts
Bees, Birds, Butterflies
Moisture
Upland / dry
Deer
Browsed

Protect young plants

Origin
Introduced

What jujube is grown for

✓ Commonly eaten

Use
Fresh eating
Use
Drying
Use
Low-input orchards
Edible value
4/5

Harvesting & storing jujube

September - October.

Edibility, identification, and traditional-use notes here are general reference — not medical or veterinary advice, and not a claim that any plant treats or prevents anything. Medicinal ratings record how strongly a plant features in herbal tradition, nothing more. Never eat or dose a plant you have not positively identified. More on how to use this library.

Jujube · Varieties & cultivars

Best jujube varieties & cultivars

There are far more than these — the ones below are the named varieties of jujube people actually plant.

Named varieties of jujube differ in winter-chill needs, ripening time, hardiness, and whether they set fruit on their own — pick one that fits your climate.

14 varieties

Li

Also known as Li Jujube, Ta-Jujube

Partly self-fertile

Chill
100–200 hrs
Ripens
Late Aug-Sept
Zones
6-9
Disease
excellent (few pest/disease issues)
Size
10-15 ft small tree, nearly thornless
Pollination
self-fruitful; sets more and larger fruit with a second variety (e.g. Lang or Honey Jar)

large round, apple-crisp, sweet, best fresh — The standard beginner jujube: large fruit, self-fertile in NMSU trials (cross-pollination still improves set/size), and the most widely sold variety.

Where to buy ‘Li’

Story Thyme Farms may earn a small commission from these links, at no cost to you — it never changes what we recommend.

EtsyBrowse growers↗

Sources & plant identity

Know what you’re growing.
See where the knowledge comes from.

Botanical illustration of Jujube

Jujube

Ziziphus jujuba

The plant, at a glance.

Botanical name
Ziziphus jujuba
Plant family
Rhamnaceae
Growth habit
Tree · Perennial
Origin
Introduced
USDA plant symbol
ZIJU
Invasive risk
Low
Every garden is different.

Hardiness, size and timing vary with your cultivar, soil and climate.

Rooted in research.

University extension research, brought together with hands-on growing experience at Story Thyme Farms.

Explore Jujube’s sources3 reference links
for Jujube

Research from these sources

New Mexico State UniversityTexas A&M AgriLife

Publisher marks identify sources, not sponsorship or endorsement.

Questions

Jujube questions, answered straight.

Why isn't my jujube fruiting?

Most often: it has no genetically distinct partner nearby. Jujube is only partly self-fertile, so a lone plant sets a light crop at best — partially self-fertile; two cultivars set heavier crops. Plant a second, unrelated one nearby; two different cultivars, or a cultivar plus a seedling, is the classic pairing.

Will jujube fruit in a warm-winter climate?

Jujube needs roughly 150-200 hours of winter chill (hours between 32–45°F) to break dormancy and set fruit. Mild-winter growers should count their chill hours before planting.

Is jujube safe for kids and pets?

Jujube is commonly eaten and isn't considered toxic, but "commonly eaten" isn't a guarantee for any particular person or animal — allergies, quantity, and which part you eat all matter. Never eat a plant you haven't positively identified, and check with a vet before letting pets or livestock graze anything new.

When do you harvest jujube?

September - October.

Elsewhere

Where jujube sits in the library.

Where jujube sits in the library

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