Jujube Tree Seeds | Chinese Date | (Ziziphus jujuba)

Five thousand years of cultivation. The date that grows where dates cannot.

Ziziphus jujuba, the Jujube or Chinese Date, is one of the oldest cultivated fruit trees in human history, grown continuously for over 4,000 years and prized across Asia for its extraordinary fruit and unmatched adaptability. It produces small to medium fruits that ripen from green to red to wrinkled mahogany brown, with a flavor that progresses from crisp and apple-like when fresh to intensely sweet, chewy, and date-like when fully dried. It tolerates drought, alkaline soils, extreme heat, and cold winters to Zone 6, making it one of the most resilient and productive fruit trees available to North American growers. If you are looking to buy Jujube seeds or grow Chinese date tree from seed, this is the fruit tree that performs where most others fail.

• Fruit transforms from crisp and apple-like when fresh to intensely sweet and date-like when dried
• Cultivated continuously for over 4,000 years, one of the oldest fruit trees in agricultural history
• Extremely drought-tolerant and heat-loving, thriving where most other fruit trees struggle
• Tolerates alkaline, poor, rocky, and sandy soils where most fruit trees cannot establish
• Cold-hardy to USDA Zone 6, productive across a wide range of North American climates

Things you probably did not know about the Jujube

There are over 400 named cultivars representing thousands of years of selection. The diversity of Jujube cultivars developed through millennia of Chinese cultivation spans an enormous range of fruit sizes, shapes, flavors, sugar content, and drying characteristics. Round, oblong, pear-shaped, apple-sized, and thumb-sized varieties exist, some bred specifically for fresh eating, others for drying, and others for wine production. The depth of selection in Chinese Jujube cultivation rivals that of apple breeding in Europe and North America.

Jujube trees in alkaline soils often outperform fruit trees in more favorable conditions. Most fruit trees struggle in alkaline soils with pH above 7.5 because nutrient availability decreases. Jujube evolved for the loess plateau soils of northern China, which are naturally alkaline and calcareous. In conditions that cause decline in peaches, apples, and cherries, Jujube grows vigorously and fruits heavily without soil amendment.

The fruit is naturally shelf-stable at full ripeness. Fresh Jujube fruit contains very high sugar concentrations, particularly when dried. The sugar concentration in fully dried Jujube is high enough to inhibit spoilage, which is why dried Jujubes can be stored without refrigeration for months without quality loss. This natural preservation was central to Jujube's role as a winter food staple in northern China.

The seed requires scarification before cold stratification. Unlike most temperate fruit trees, Jujube seed has a hard outer coat that must be physically or chemically scarified before cold stratification can be effective. Growers who skip this step see dramatically lower germination rates. File or nick the seed coat, then cold stratify for 30 to 60 days before spring planting.

Growing Details

• Botanical Name: Ziziphus jujuba
• Stratification: Required, scarification followed by 30 to 60 days cold stratification
• USDA Zones: 6 to 10
• Soil: Extremely adaptable, tolerates poor, dry, alkaline, rocky, or sandy soils
• Light: Full sun required for fruit production
• Height: 15 to 40 feet
• Spread: 15 to 30 feet
• Growth Rate: Moderate, 1 to 2 feet per year

Plant it in full sun in the driest, most alkaline spot available and give it time to establish. Once it is, it will outlast and outproduce most of the other fruit trees on your property.