10/1/2019

1

Jujube, flowering and

fruiting habits

Shengrui Yao

yaos@nmsu.edu

505-852-4241

NMSU Sustainable Agricultural Science Center

Oct. 1, 2019

Jujube- Chinese date

• Family: Rhamnaceae (buckthorn family)

• Genus: Ziziphus

• Species: Ziziphus jujuba Mill.

• Wild jujube: Ziziphus spinosa

• Indian jujube: Ziziphus mauritiana

• Edible part: drupe fruit, pit with up to 2 seeds

inside

ClassificationSame species with varied tree forms, fruit size and shapes, and

maturity date. Cultivars are all by selections. Almost no hybrid cultivar yet.

By uses: • Fresh eating

• Drying

• Multipurpose (Both fresh eating and drying)

• Processing

• Ornamentals

By maturity date:• Early (70-90d)

• Mid-season (90-110d)

• Late (110-130d)

Multipurpose Plants

Fruits– Fresh eat

– Drying

– Processing

– Culinary uses

– Drinks

– Wine

– Medicinal uses (including seeds)

Wood: very hard

Nectar plants (?)

Adaptability

• Wide adaptability to soil and weather conditions

• Late season startup-leaf out in late April or May at Alcalde

• Heat and drought tolerance

• Precocious, reliable crop, and long-live plants

• Varied tree shapes, fruit shapes and sizes

• Winter hardy in NM (-20˚F?)

• NO insect and disease problems (so far)

Avoid late cultivars in northern NM and high elevations.

Drought tolerant!

90 years in dryland at

NMSU Tucumcari.

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Old jujube trees in China

Jujube King: over 1000 years old

Shoot structure and fruiting habit

•Primary shoot

•Secondary shoots

•Fruiting spurs

•Fruit bearing shoots

(branchlets)

Flowering and fruiting

• For jujubes, branchlet growth, flower bud

initiation, blooming, setting fruit and fruit

development occur at the same time within the

same branchlet. (Nutrient competition!)

• Jujubes finish flower buds initiation,

blooming, setting fruit and fruit mature with

one growing season.Definite Inflorescence: Cyme, dichasium

Fitzgerald

Primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, quinary…

Flower initiation Blooming process: ‘Lang’- morning type

6am, 7am, 8am, and 9am

10am, 11am, 12pm and 1pm

2pm, 3pm, 4pm, and 5pm

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Fig. Cultivar Lang hourly blooming process

HortScience 50: 839-845.

Self fertility/self fruitfulness

• Self pollination cultivars: Li, Li(2), Redland,

Daguazao, Alcalde #1, Xiangzao, and

Dabailing.

• Popular cultivar Lang was not self fruitful.

Fruit set of jujube cultivars

• Cultivar

• Weather conditions (temperature and moisture)

• Cross pollination

• Insect activities

• Nutrient competition (vegetative growth)

• Cultural management (girdling etc.)

Propagation

• Root suckers- only if the mother plants are

from root suckers.

• Grafting: widely used in nurseries. Use wild

jujubes as rootstocks.

• Cleft grating, bark grafting and whip/tongue

grafting work well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFLwOWe0KQ4

All About Discovery!

New Mexico State University

aces.nmsu.edu

™

• Very limited pest and disease pressure in the

Southwestern U.S.

• Fruit cracking/splitting is common in the U.S.

• Other major pests and diseases in China:

peach fruit moth (Carposina niponensis Walsingham),

witch’s broom, rust, fruit shrunk, anthracnose

etc.

Pests and Diseases

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All About Discovery!

New Mexico State University

aces.nmsu.edu

™

• Depends on cultivar

• Weather conditions: precipitation near maturation

• Irrigation regime

• Spray Ca

• Can cause serious problem in some years

Fruit Splitting/cracking (physiological/water management)

All About Discovery!

New Mexico State University

aces.nmsu.edu

™

Pest: peach fruit moth (Carposina

niponensis Walsingham)

All About Discovery!

New Mexico State University

aces.nmsu.edu

™

• Leaf spot disease at Los Lunas, NM in 2019

• Pathogen: Alternaria alternate

All About Discovery!

New Mexico State University

aces.nmsu.edu

™

Witches broom: • Cause: phytoplasma

• vector: leaf hoppers

• Removing tree to eradicate it.

All About Discovery!

New Mexico State University

aces.nmsu.edu

™

• Mainly in humid areas, not common in the Southwest

• Can defoliate trees

• Spray fungicide

Rust Disease

All About Discovery!

New Mexico State University

aces.nmsu.edu

™

• Bacteria disease (Erwinia jujuboura)

• Can cause serious losses

Fruit shrinking

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All About Discovery!

New Mexico State University

aces.nmsu.edu

™

Fruit Anthracnose

Fungal disease

All About Discovery!

New Mexico State University

aces.nmsu.edu

™

• Vitamin C 200-600mg/100g fresh weight

• Cyclic adenosine monophosaphate (cAMP)

• Triterpenic acids

• Antioxidants etc.

Jujube nutrient contents

Comparing nutritional constituents of apple and jujube products

• Vc: vitamin C.

• cAMP: Cyclic adenosine monophosphate.

Moisture Calories protein lipid Carbohydrate Cellulose CaO Vc cAMP

% kcal/100g % % % % mg/100g mg/100g nmol/g

Fresh mature jujube 73.4 99 1.2 0.2 23.2 1.6 14 200-600 10~200

Dry mature jujube 19 308 3.3 0.4 72.8 3.1 61 12 20~500

Candied jujube 18.6 315 1.3 0.1 77.2 2.1 43

Fresh mature apple 84.6 58 0.4 0.5 13 1.2 11 2~4 <0.01

Fruit Nutrients

• Vitamin C is not heat stable which will be oxidized during

drying process.

• After sun-drying, 95% or more of Vc will be lost during

drying process.

• Heated drying, microwave drying and freeze-drying will

preserve more Vc than sun drying.

• Processing with cream stage fruit/fresh fruit preserves

vitamin C well in the final products.

• While other nutrients can be more stable during processing.

Vc content changes after cooking

Cultivar Treatment Vc content Vc preserved%

Dabailing Control 291.5 100.0

Dabailing Steam 253.4 86.9

Dabailing Pie 141.8 48.6

Shanxi Li Control 290.5 100.0

Shanxi Li Steam 255.0 87.8

Shanxi Li Pie 151.3 52.1

Daguazao Control 289.9 100.0

Daguazao Steam 255.0 88.0

Li(2) Control 305.3 100.0

Li(2) Steam 261.4 85.6

After 20 min steaming, fruit still kept 85% of its original Vc content

while after baking at 350°F for 1hr, fruit had roughly 50% of its

original Vc content.

CultivarsFresh eating:

• Alcalde #1

• Sandia

• Honeyjar/Maya/Russian 2

• Sugarcane

• Li/Shanxi Li

• Redland

• Dongzao

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Alcalde #1

• Earliest cultivar at Alcalde (excellent for the

marginal regions, good for other regions).

• Big fruit

• Precocious and productive

• Good quality

Honeyjar• Small fruit

• Excellent fresh eating quality

• Precocious and productive

Maya• Football shaped, good looking fruit

• Excellent quality

• Small/medium size

Russian 2Small fruit

Excellent fruit quality

Precocious and productive

Very suitable for home gardeners

Sugarcane

• Mid season

• Sweet fruit, medium in size

• Good for both fresh eating and drying

KFCShiny and bumpy fruit

Very precocious and productive

Good quality

Mid season in maturation

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Li• Large fruit, mid season

• Productive and good quality

• Performing better in southern NM than north.

Redland

• Bigger than Li at Alcalde

• Productive

Sandia

Super fresh eating quality

Not very precocious

Zone 7 and up

Marginal in Zone 6

Dongzao

• Late cultivar

• Can be stored for 2-3 months

• Super fresh eating quality

• Dominant fresh eating cultivar in China

Varied by locationsSherwood produces well in Los Lunas and Leyendecker Center

Jing 39 and an unknown did well in Leyendecker

KFC and Pitless did well in all three locations

Lang produced 15 lb at the 2nd year after planting at

Leyendecker

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Jing 39

ChicoDonut shape

Fine texture

Tart flavor

Drying cultivars

Need more time to evaluate• Lang/Don Polenski/Thornless/Ed Hegard

• Junzao

• Sugarcane: mid season

• Sherwood: late cultivar

• Jinsi series/pitless?

• Xiang

• Sihong? Never produce heavy yet

• Huizao/Junzao-dominant one in Xinjiang area

Dry jujubes: big or small, all has its own uses.

Pitless Xiang

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Jixin

Ornamental cultivars

• So

• Dragon

• Mushroom

• Teapot

http://horttech.ashspublications.org/content/28/4/557.fu

ll.pdf?ijkey=DdYI7VH4QvtsxQd&keytype=ref

Dragon

So

TeapotMushroo

m

Processing cultivars

• Jujube processing is almost blank in the U.S.

• No recommendation for processing cultivars yet.

Jujube harvesting and drying

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Fresh eating Dried Fruit

Dried fruit

Candied fruit

Mooncake

filling

‘Zongzi’

Juice and wine

HoneyBaked or smoked In soup, porridge and tea

Jujube uses in the U.S.

• Fresh eating

• Ice cream, fruit salad, or fruit nut mix

• Jujube cake, pie and tea

• Jujube butter, pastry filling

• Replacement of raisin or palm date in baking

• Simple ones: steam the fresh ones or boil the

dried one for 15-20 min.

Pitted fruit and fruit rings References

1. Yao, S. 2012. Jujube, Chinese date in New Mexico. NMSU H-330.

http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/h-330/welcome.html

2. Yao, S. 2013. Past, Present and Future of jujube, Chinese date in the U.S.

HortScience 48(6):672-680.

3. Yao, S. 2014. Jujube grafting. NMSU H-335.

http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/H335/welcome.html

4. Jujube grafting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFLwOWe0KQ4

5. Yao, et al. 2015. Jujube flowering and fruiting in the Southwestern U.S.

HortScience 50:839-846.

6. Huang et al. 2017. Jujube cultivar vitamin C profile and nutrient dynamics

during maturation. HortScience 52: 859-867.