Jujubes do best in full sun and prefer exposure to the sun all day. If a solitary tree, and/or a tree in a pot, position it such that it faces north and is free from surrounding shade-casting trees or structures. If planting several, have the row(s) in a east-west alignment facing north. Trees are traditionally spaced 4-5 m apart within the row, and 10 m between rows, but we’ll cover more intensive, space-saving ways of planting in future posts. Jujubes can grow to 10 m high by 6 m wide if let go, but keeping them pruned to a height of 3-5 m makes management and harvesting easier.

Soil Preparation

As mentioned here, jujubes are hardy trees that will tolerate a wide range of soils and pH. They do prefer a medium-textured, deep and well-drained soil, and may respond better in a slightly alkaline soil (∼ pH 8) than in a slightly acidic one (∼ pH 6).

We may supply potted, leafy trees in the future, but for now all our trees are delivered bare-rooted and in a dormant (leafless) state. They are best planted out in winter whilst dormant as this allows time for the soil to settle around and anchor the roots. By the time the warmer weather arrives, the roots are better placed to extract nutrients from the soil, and the tree is able to respond more quickly overall.

If planting trees in the ground, try and prepare your soil ahead of time. Dig a wide, deep hole that is able to accommodate the sprawling roots. And yes, the roots do sprawl! There is no neat root ball comprised of a deep tap root with a compact and abundant growth of secondary roots, as you may be familiar with from planting other trees! Nor is the rootstock of a roughly uniform diameter as you’d also be familiar with! Rather, the rootstock comprises a thick, twisting main root that branches into several slightly thicker roots, themselves twisted in unruly contortions in and about each other. This structure could be three times as long as it is wide — or more! Having said that, some rootstock are at the other extreme, being quite compact and more manageable. It’s best to be prepared for all scenarios.

(Unfortunately it’s the wrong time of year at time of writing to show photos of the rootstock, but we will post some around August when we are preparing bare-rooted stock for deliveries.)

Another reason for digging a wide, deep hole is to turn compacted clods into a large volume of friable soil. As the roots twist at all angles there is every chance, in positioning the tree such that the trunk is straight, that some of these roots may protrude out of the ground if the hole is not deep or wide enough. Some roots just refuse to stay where you want them as you manipulate other roots into place and position the trunk, and you’ll find a nice deep — and wide — hole with lots of looose soil to hand will give you both the room and the material to position and weigh them down gently and make them behave!

Of course the bigger and deeper the hole, the more loose the soil volume, and the more room for those roots to grow into. The two-year-old trees we supply will usually fit in a 30 cm wide pot of the same depth, though some gentle manipulation of the roots can be required to make them fit. Based on this, we’d suggest your hole be at least 50-60 cm wide and at least that much deep.

When backfilling, make sure the soil is packing firmly around and under the roots, and don’t leave air pockets which will dry out and kill the roots. But don’t be too firm and compact the soil either. Roots still need air, but they also need maximum surface area in contact with the soil so as to absorb as much water and nutrients as possible. Bear in mind that as the soil settles the tree will be lower in the ground than when first planted. Compensate for that by planting about 5-10 cm higher than ground level, within a mound of topsoil. This mound will gradually settle and sink with the tree until flush with the ground.

After planting give the soil around the tree a good soaking to remove air pockets and help pack the soil more tightly around the roots. Assess this area every day and re-water if it looks to be drying out. If the soil is a well-draining type you can afford to water every day or so if it makes you feel better, but be more sparing if the soil is a heavier clay. Go with your instincts if you have good knowledge of how well your soil holds or drains water. Just bear in mind that the tree is dormant and an excessively wet environment around the roots can harm it. At worst this could lead to rot or a build up of disease. At best the roots will struggle to grow and feed the plant come spring.

If planting in a pot, a pot 30 cm wide and deep is a good size based on the thickness and height of the trunk when the tree arrives (the pots in these pictures are 30 cm wide), but the root sprawl in some cases could justify a 40 cm pot as the first pot. Some trees put on a massive growth spurt and literally double in height, and these too would also benefit from that size from the outset. This can’t be known ahead of time though. But these trees are tough and if you think they’ve outgrown their pots, whatever the size, feel free to ‘pot up’ then and there (keep the water to them more than you otherwise would so the soil and tree can resettle), or simply wait until they’re dormant the following winter and repot then.

Fertiliser

Jujubes are traditionally fertilsed with manure throughout Asia. If you intend to plant in the ground, and you’ve prepared the soil ahead of time, mix a good quantity of chicken manure through the dug up soil and leave it there to break down further until planting time. If planting in a pot, likewise mix chicken manure through the soil or potting mix first.

Apply a nitrogen feed when you see new leaves appear in spring, and apply a more balanced fertiliser or well-rotted compost when flowers begin to appear. A slow-release complete fertiliser tailored for fruiting trees and applied as per the label can ensure micronutrients are always available to the tree.

Suckering

The ability to grow new trees from roots underground and some distance from the mother tree is known as suckering, and jujube rootstock is well-known for this. If left unchecked on a young tree, rootstock very close to the trunk can take over the graft completely. If left unchecked around older and established trees, suckers can grow to full-sized trees themselves.

Rootstock generally has smaller leaves and more numerous, nastier, thorns than the cultivars. Rootstock can fruit but the fruit is small.

You can control suckers in potted trees by simply cutting them off with secateurs. If your trees are in the ground, mow over any small emerging suckers, otherwise cut more established ones to ground level with secateurs or other tools. It’s best to keep control to ground level, as attempts to dig them out will create more from the root fragments invariably left behind.

Jujubes can sucker metres away, but there is some evidence to suggest that trees in the ground when well-watered within the drip line are less likely to send out distant suckers — if the water comes to them then they appear less likely to go to the water. Still, exercise care if intending to plant in a garden or lawn as you may create tensions with neighbours or discover suckers coming up in places you’d never have thought likely.

Angiospermae, also called angiosperms, are the flowering plants. Flowers, when fertilised, produce fruit containing seeds.

The only other seed-producing group, the Gymnospermae or gymnosperms, produce seeds in cones.

Both angiosperms and gymnosperms are spermatophytes (seed-producing), but only angiosperms produce flowers and fruit, and fruits only form from fertilised flowers.

The jujube tree, Ziziphus jujuba Mill. is an angiosperm.

Flowers

Flowers are the sex organs of angiosperms, and can be male, female, or both (hermaphroditic).

Male and the male part of hermaphroditic flowers produce pollen (comprised of sperm-containing pollen grains), and female and the female part of hermaphroditic flowers produce ovules (comprised of egg cells).

Flowers are arranged in one of three ways, and a species is characterised by this arrangement. A species will always have:

• hermaphroditic flowers on the same plant, or
• both male-only and female-only flowers on the same plant, or
• male-only and female-only flowers on individual plants

The following illustration shows these three different arrangements:

The three different flower arrangements of angiosperms
Attribution: by Nefronus - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80317707

Dioecious Species

Dioecious species are those with distinct male-only and female-only plants. While about 65% of gymnosperms are dioecious, only about 6% of angiosperms are. Male-only angiosperms produce male-only flowers and female-only angiosperms produce female-only flowers. Dioecious angiosperms thus produce unisexual flowers. An example of a dioecious angiosperm is the weeping willow (Salix babylonica).

Monoecious Species

Monoecious species are those with either distinct male and female sex organs on the same plant, or, specifically in the case of angiosperms, flowers on the same plant with both male and female parts.

As with dioecious angiosperms, the flowers on monoecious angiosperms which are either male or female are also unisexual flowers. The flowers on monoecious species which contain both male and female parts are called bisexual, hermaphroditic, or perfect flowers.

The jujube tree, Ziziphus jujuba Mill.

The jujube tree Ziziphus jujuba Mill. is a monoecious species, and its flower is a perfect flower.

The Yellow River [Huáng Hé 黄河 (simplified Chinese) 黃河 (traditional Chinese)]
Attribution: Shannon1 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

The tree has been cultivated for over 4,000 years and over 800 cultivars exist today. (Though not here unfortunately!)

The modern jujube tree is descended from the wild, sour jujube Ziziphus spinosa Hu from the mountainous regions of northern China and still in existence today. Sour jujube trees with the largest and tastiest fruit were favoured and selected for, until over time a new species emerged, the Ziziphus jujuba with the fruit we enjoy today. There would have been wide variation of fruit size and shape from tree to tree, and continued selections at a regional level eventually produced trees that were still intrinsically Z. jujuba but with characteristics specific to that type and region. Today we call such trees cultivars and this localised refinement over many years and many parts of China is the reason for the many varieties available today.

The jujube tree was introduced throughout Asia, the Middle East and eventually Europe via the famed Silk Road. Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) recorded in his Historia Naturalis (Natural History), Book XV, Chapter 14 that the Chinese jujube was introduced from Syria to Italy by Sextus Papinius towards the end of the Roman Emperor Octavian Augustus’ reign, which ended with the latter’s death in AD 14.

From Italy the tree spread further into Europe, where the olive-sized fruit was enjoyed as a table dessert and sweetmeat. The fruit was also used to soothe sore throats and ease coughs, and large quantities were imported from Provence and the Îles d’Hyères in southestern France into Britain for that market. Lozenges in the shape of the fruit, made from gum arabic or gelatin, and flavoured with the fruit or fruit imitations were also called ‘jujubes’. By the middle of the nineteenth century the word ‘jujube’ had became synonymous with soft gummy confectionery and the connection to the real fruit was lost.

Seedlings from Europe were brought to the US in 1837 and 1876, and commercial cultivars were directly imported from China to the US in 1908 by Frank Meyer. Meyer sourced these cultivars from Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan Provinces (all major jujube producers), as well as from Beijing and Tianjin. Some of those ultimately made their way to Australia by 2000.

While jujube grafting was known to the Chinese at least 1,400 years ago, propagation was mostly from root suckers until the 1960s. Fruit from root suckers was thus the same as fruit from the mother trees. In the 1980s new varieties started to appear and grafting became a more popular technique for increasing numbers quickly. Fruit from root suckers of grafted trees is thus different to the fruit of the graft.

Jujubes are still relatively unknown in Australia, and even in the US though established there for much longer. China unsurprisingly is the world’s largest producer, harvesting 9 million tonnes of fruit from around 3 million hectares.

The spermatophytes are the seed-producing plants, of which there are two groups: the Gymnospermae which produce cones, and the Angiospermae which produce flowers and fruit.

Gymnospermae

Gymnospermae, also called gymnosperms, are the oldest of the two groups, and date from about 319 million years ago in the late Carboniferous period.
‘Gymnosperm’ is from the Ancient Greek γυμνός, gymnós, ‘naked’, and σπέρμα, seed: ‘naked seed [seed not enclosed (by a fruit)]’.

Gymnosperms produce cones, and include conifers, cycads, gnetophytes, and the sole surviving ‘living fossil’ of its group, Ginkgo biloba (the maidenhair tree).

Cones are the sex organs of gymnosperms. Cones are unisexual, either male or female. Male cones produce pollen (made of pollen grains which contain sperm), and their female counterparts produce ovules (which contain unfertilised egg cells).  Fertilised ovules become seeds.

Angiospermae

Angiospermae, also called angiosperms, are all flowering plants, and the earliest known fossil (of pollen) dates to around 134 million years ago in the Cretaceous period. The earliest known plant fossil dates from 125 million years ago, also in the Cretaceous.
Angiosperm’ is from the Ancient Greek ἀγγεῖον, angeîon, ‘vessel, jar, receptacle’, and σπέρμα, seed: ‘seed in a container (fruit)’.

Angiosperms produce flowers.

Flowers are the sex organs of angiosperms. Like cones, flowers also produce pollen (also comprised of sperm-containing pollen grains) and ovules (also comprised of egg cells). But unlike cones, which are only ever male or female, flowers can be male, female, or both (hermaphroditic).

Fertilised ovules become seeds enclosed by a fruit.

The jujube tree, Ziziphus jujuba Mill.

The jujube tree is a species known as Ziziphus jujuba Mill..
It is a spermatophyte, or a plant which produces seeds.
More specifically it is an angiosperm, or a plant which produces seeds in fruit from fertilised flowers.

Botanically, jujube is classified in the Rhamnaceae (buckthorn) family and Ziziphus genus. The word ‘Ziziphus’ is from the Persian word zizfum or zizafun, the name of a deciduous shrub known botanically as Ziziphus lotus, which is native to the Mediterranean and closely related to the jujube.

Carl Linnaeus, the father of binomial nomenclature, first named the jujube as Rhamnus zizyphus in 1753. Philip Miller in 1768 however regarded it as unique enough to warrant its own genus, and named it Ziziphus jujube, using Linnaeus’ species name as the genus (note the differently spelled ‘Ziziphus’ and the ‘e’ on the end of ‘jujube’). This changed to Ziziphus zizyphus in 1882 (note the different spellings), and again in 2011 to Ziziphus jujuba (with an ‘a’ on the end). You may see this written as Ziziphus jujuba Mill. in publications. This is because botanists append an ‘author abbreviation’ when citing botanical names, to signify who first named (’authored’) the species. In this case of course, ‘Mill.’ stands for Philip Miller.

The Ziziphus genus consists of about 40 thorny shrubs and trees distributed around the world’s temperate and subtropical regions. Some are evergreen and some are deciduous.

The jujube tree, Ziziphus jujuba Mill., is deciduous. Botanically, the leaves are described as alternate (a single leaf at each node along the stem, ie leaves alternate either side of the stem). The leaves are ovate (egg-shaped, widest at the base) with an acute (pointed) tip. The leaf margin (edge) is serrulate (of very fine serration). Leaves are a bright glossy green with three prominent pale green veins fanning out from the base.

Jujube branchlet and leaves
© 2018 Optimate Group Pty Ltd

Flowers are very small, about 5 mm across, with five petals of a yellow-green colour. They are botanically known as perfect or hermaphroditic, having both male and female parts.

Jujube flowers and leaves with ant for scale
© 2014 Blanca Valle

Botanically the fruit is called a drupe, a firm-textured fruit with a small stone inside. (Other examples of drupes include olives, coffee beans, mangoes and apricots.) The jujube stone contains two small seeds.

Jujube drupe fruit
© 2014 Helen Ellinopoullos

The fruit starts off green, but as it ripens red-brown splotches form across the surface until the entire fruit is a deep red colour.

Jujube fruit in various stages of ripeness
© 2014 Helen Ellinopoullos

On further ripening the fruit softens and wrinkles until it truly does resemble one of its names, the red date.

The Chinese red date
© 2013 Helen Ellinopoullos

Fun fact: We call jujubes ‘red dates’, because, well that’s what they look like, ie red versions of the dried fruit of the date palm. The Chinese on the other hand refer to the fruit of the date palm as ‘palm jujube’,  zōnglú zǎo 棕榈枣 (simplified) 棕櫚棗 (traditional) as palm dates look like their jujubes!

Chico jujube tree
© Kim Sau

This tree is a perfect size to use as an exercise in identifying both the graft and all four branch types of a jujube tree, so let us begin!

(Please consider this no more than a crash-course, get-up-to-speed article, as we will cover more detailed breakdowns of the branch structures and bud types in following chapters.)

First let’s zoom in on the lower trunk to examine the graft:

Graft on Chico tree
© 2023 Kim Sau

The union here would be hard to spot where it not for the strong contrast between the two woods. The scion wood has the beautiful mahogany colour of year-old wood, while the rootstock has the duller and more textured appearance of older wood. Having identified the rootstock, we now know the visible shoot is a rootstock shoot, which should be (and was) removed to prevent the graft taking over the tree.

The scion wood will increasingly become more dull and textured year-to-year as it ages. In a few years’ time it will be indistinguishable from the rootstock and the graft union will be very hard, if not impossible, to find.

And now to the upper trunk:

Young Chico trunk
© 2023 Kim Sau

At first glance you may think that the alternating nodes and slight zig-zag shape are the tell-tale signs of a secondary branch. However, the zig-zag shape is not that pronounced, and there is an additional clue that really tells the story — the presence of trimmed branches:

Trimmed branches along a Chico trunk
© 2023 Kim Sau

The trunk is actually a permanent branch (also known as an extension or primary branch) — the only branch type on a jujube tree from which conventional-looking branches grow flush like this. A permanent branch can grow both permanent and secondary branches, but new permanent branches will only grow from a permanent branch under certain conditions we will cover later.

These trimmed branches are lateral (along the side), which means they were the secondary branches.

Examining this trunk at a different angle reveals a new permanent branch growing at its extremity, unmistakable by its thick diameter and side-shoots:

New permanent/extension/primary branch on a young Chico tree
© Kim Sau

All new jujube growth, whether branch or leaf, is this vivid green. This very green, very soft branch will gradually harden and turn a deep mahogany red by autumn next year.

Let us now focus on these two ‘branches’ of this little Chico:

Flower buds on a fruiting branchlet
© Kim Sau

Those little buds in the red circles are always the most exciting to spot, for those are flower buds! Which means these ‘branches’ are really fruiting branchlets, and deciduous! Next winter these branchlets will fall off the tree en masse and create a frightening impression of a dying tree, but this is perfectly normal behaviour and nothing to worry about whatsoever.

Here are the (very young) buds in close-up — again with the same vivid green!

Flower buds on young Chico tree
© Kim Sau

And this being a fruiting branchlet means that this protrusion on the permanent branch from which it grows:

Fruiting mother branch on young Chico tree
© Kim Sau

is a young fruiting mother branch. This is not a recognisable branch, is it?! But it does contain many highly compressed buds and shoots. Mother fruiting branches slowly grow another millimetre or so each year until they eventually resemble a pinecone. This branch type produces primarily fruiting branchlets but a new permanent branch will also grow when the right bud breaks dormancy.

The nodes in some species are very distinct — bamboo nodes, for example, are the thickened rings between the stem segments. The nodes in other species can be harder to find if leaves or branches aren’t present.

Nodes are easy to spot on young jujube wood, visible as single, slightly raised bumps which alternate (change sides) along a trunk and branches — and even easier to identify when there is green growth sprouting from them:

Location of nodes along a Ta-Jan trunk
© Optimate Group Pty Ltd

 The nodes tend to blend into the thickening branches of older wood until they are hardly visible at all:

Node on an older Chico trunk
© Optimate Group Pty Ltd

Just as jujube trees are atypical with their four different branch types, so too are they unusual with their buds.

Jujube trees have two bud types at each node: a main bud and a secondary bud.

Main and secondary buds in a Shanxi-Li node
© Optimate Group Pty Ltd

Each bud type in turn may be of strong or weak vigour, and it is this combination of type and vigour — as well as position on the tree! — which determines which of the four branch types develop.

These combinations are summarised below, but following chapters will go over each one in more detail:

Main Buds on Permanent Branches

Permanent branches are the ones that extend each year and which make up the shape of the tree.

Strong main buds on the ends of permanent branches (ie strong terminal main buds) produce the extension growth that make up the shape of the tree.
Weak main buds on the ends of permanent branches (ie weak terminal main buds) produce fruiting mother branches (which look more and more like pine cones the older they become).
Strong main buds along permanent branches (ie lateral strong main buds) are dormant, but the top-most one will break dormancy to produce a new permanent branch when the terminal strong main bud loses vigour.
Weak main buds along permanent branches (ie lateral weak main buds) produce fruiting mother branches.

Main Buds on Secondary Branches

Secondary branches develop from permanent branches and have a distinctive zigzag shape.

Main buds along secondary branches are dormant in the first year but produce fruiting mother branches from their second year on.

Main Buds on Fruiting Mother Branches

Fruiting mother branches are comprised of highly compressed bundles of shoots. These shoots do not have leaves, but contain many main and secondary buds. As a fruiting branch grows a little each year, this cluster of shoots also grows in size, and with each passing year resembles more and more a pine cone.

Fruiting mother branches are not to be confused with fruiting branchlets, the only branch type which produces fruit.

Very strong main buds on fruiting mother branches can break dormancy to produce a new permanent branch.
Strong main buds extend the fruiting mother branch by a millimetre or so each year.

Secondary Buds on Permanent Branches

Strong secondary buds on permanent branches produce secondary branches (the ones with the distinct zigzag shape).
Weak secondary buds on permanent branches produce fruiting branchlets (not to be confused with fruiting mother branches — the branchlets are the ones on which fruit grows).

Secondary Buds on Secondary Branches

All secondary buds on secondary branches produce fruiting branchlets (not to be confused with fruiting mother branches) the first year. The main buds then take over this role from the second year on.

Secondary Buds on Fruiting Mother Branches

All secondary buds on fruiting mother branches produce fruiting branchlets.

There are four very different branch types — not all may be present on a very young tree under two years of age, but all four will always be found on older trees.

Recognising and understanding the role of each of these branch types helps enormously in the management of your tree. Each will be covered in detail in following chapters, but for now these four branch types are summarised below:

Primary/Permanent/Extension Branches
Extension branches are the thickest, longest and straightest of the four. They grow over many years and determine the shape and size of the tree.
Additional extension branches, as well as secondary and fruiting mother branches all grow from buds on these branches.

Permanent branch structure on a Silverhill
© Optimate Group Pty Ltd

Secondary/Non-Extension Branches
Secondary branches do all their growing in one year, and have a distinctive zig-zag shape caused by the alternating nodes changing the direction of growth. Fruiting branchlets grow on these branches in the first year, then fruiting mother branches develop from the second year on.

Secondary branch on a Redlands
© Optimate Group Pty Ltd

Fruiting Mother Branches
These resemble pine cones though they are actually branches of highly compressed shoots and buds. These are the branches from which the fruiting branchlets grow.

Fruiting mother branches on the permanent branch of a Ta-Jan
© Optimate Group Pty Ltd

A new extension branch will also grow from a fruiting mother branch when the right bud breaks dormancy.

Permanent and fruiting mother branches on a Shanxi-Li
© Optimate Group Pty Ltd

Fruiting Branchlets
Fruiting branchlets (not branches) are the sole flowering and fruiting structures on jujube trees. These are also deciduous, falling off every winter and growing anew every spring. They arise from buds on secondary branches and fruiting mother branches.

Fruiting branchlets from a fruiting mother branch on a Shanxi-Li's secondary branch
© Optimate Group Pty Ltd

Fruiting mother branches can produce up to ten fruiting branchlets in a whorl:

Whorl of fruiting branchlets on a Chico
© Optimate Group Pty Ltd