Jujube Harvest

August 29, 2016

I am crunching on a sweet juicy crunchy fresh Jujube (Ziziphus Jujuba) as I am writing this post. It reminds me of a fresh apple just smaller. Jujube is a fast growing tree and quick to start producing fruit. I would say the only downside are the thorns. You have to be careful harvesting the fruits. Wait...the other downside is the birds love them as much as I do.

The plant has long sometime weeping branches, studded with fruits and thorns. Some variety have more thorns than others. Mine is the Li variety. Certain branches barely have thorns while others are a minefield of thorns.

I would leave the Jujube fruit to ripen and dry on the tree until they resemble the "Hong Cho"; the Chinese Red Dates of my youth, if not for the birds. As you can see the birds are quick on the harvest.

I have learnt to start harvest the Jujube once some of them turn reddish. They are ripe and sweet even if they are green in color.

The Jujube plants tend to send out many suckers or water sprouts. They tend to be more thorny that the variety plant we purchase. If you look at the picture below, you see the larger fruits on the left. On the right are tinier and more fruitful branches of the sucker branches. I am greedy. If I had missed trimming off the sucker earlier in the season, I leave the suckers to keep growing and enjoy the fruits.