2019 ASHS Annual Conference

There is a very limited number of jujube cultivars commercially available in the United States and Li as the dominant one. Both growers/home gardeners and consumers are frustrated with limited cultivar choices. We imported cultivars directly from China and collected cultivars across the U.S. After nine years of observation, some fresh eating cultivars in our collection are ready to be recommended to growers and consumers. ‘Alcalde #1’ is the earliest to mature, and has large fruit (>25 g) and good flavor which will be extremely valuable in marginal areas with a short growing season. It also does well in USDA zones 7a and 8a trial sites. ‘Sandia’ is a late maturing cultivar with excellent flavor and fine texture, suitable for zones 7 and up, marginal in zone 6. ‘KFC’, the most productive cultivar in the Alcalde trial, is a medium-sized, midseason fruit with excellent quality. ‘Honeyjar’, ‘Maya’ and ‘Russian 2’ all have excellent flavor, are early or mid-season and productive but with small fruit size (6-8 g) which will be suitable for home gardeners. The higher labor cost in picking small sized fruit should be considered in commercial production. ‘Sugarcane’ is sweet with medium sized fruit, good for both fresh eating and drying. ‘Li’, ‘Shanxi Li’, ‘Redland’, ‘Dabailing’, and ‘Daguazao’ are large-fruited cultivars, very productive with good flavor. These may be picked when fruit are partially or fully colored. Early picking before creamy stage results in lack of flavor.