Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) Cultivars in the United States

Jujube cultivars were imported into the United States beginning in 1908 by USDA agricultural explorer Frank N. Meyer and jujube seedlings were introduced as early as 1837. Now, jujubes are planted in a number of states including California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Tennessee, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. They grow well with high quality fruit in the south and southwest regions. Sixty-seven accessions were imported by F.N. Meyer in the early 20th century and all were planted first at the USDA Chico Station and then distributed to other USDA stations. The jujube research at Chico Station continued till the end of the 1950s. Jujube cultivars now in the United States are from several sources: Frank Meyer’s imports, introductions from USDA’s Chico Station, selections from across the states, recent imports by Roger Meyer, and others from China or other jujube growing regions in the world. From F.N. Meyer’s importation, USDA formally recommended four of them: ‘Mu Shing Hong’ (P.I. 22684), ‘Lang’ (P.I. 22686), ‘Shui Men’ (P.I. 38245), and ‘Li’ (P.I. 38249). Now, 'Li' and 'Lang' are the two dominant cultivars commercially available and ‘Shuimen’, ‘So’, ‘Mu’ (Mu Shing Hong), and ‘Yu’ are also available in small quantities. At USDA’s Chico Station, Ackerman and his colleagues selected/developed four cultivars: Chico, GI-1183, Thornless, and GA-866 before the station was closed in the late 1950s. There were also quite a few "cultivars" from across the country named after people or towns that could have been progeny of the 19th century imports, seedlings from the patent office jujube seed distribution in 1854 or remaining plants from Meyer’s imports, for example: ‘Abbeville’, ‘Redland’, ‘Sherwood’, ‘Texas Tart’, ‘Don Polenski’, ‘Fitzgerald’, and  ‘Topeka’. Jujube lovers exchange resources and name them without much testing or research. There have been some recent introductions from China and other jujube growing regions: ‘Shanxi Li’, 'Winter Delight', ‘Honeyjar’, ‘Sihong’, ‘Globe’, ‘Ant Admire’, ‘Black Sea’, etc. NMSU’s Alcalde Center also imported over 30 cultivars from China in 2011. There are a total of 60–70 jujube cultivars now in the United States. Most of them are not commercially available yet. Growers and home gardeners are requesting more diversified cultivar options. Regional cultivar trials and evaluation are desperately needed for jujubes. With its high nutritional value and wide adaptation to a range of soil and weather conditions, jujubes would get more and more popular in the United States.