How to Plant Jujube Seeds? A Detailed Guide to Sowing and Raising Seedlings

Jujube is a temperate crop with strong adaptability and a wide growing range. Long known as the “ironclad crop,” it is drought-tolerant and waterlogging-tolerant, making it the top choice of good variety for developing water-saving fruit forestry. So, how do you plant jujube seeds?

1. How to Plant Jujube Seeds?

Remove the shell of the jujube pit, leaving only the seed inside, soak it in warm water for 24 hours, then take it out and cover it with a damp cloth, rinsing it with warm water four times a day. Once most of the seeds have sprouted, they can be sown. The planting site should be plowed, given a base fertilizer and trenched, with a trench spacing of 65cm and a trench depth of 10cm. After filling the trenches with water, sow the seeds in the soil in spots, keeping a spacing of 20cm, and after sowing, fill the trenches level. Carry out field management well afterward, and by the third spring the seedlings can be transplanted.

2. Planting and Management of Jujube Trees

1. Fertilizer and Water Management

Depending on rainfall, water once each in mid-May, early June and late June, so that even in drought the seedlings do not suffer drought. After passing the slow seedling stage in late July, apply 150 grams of urea per plant in a hole. In addition, after the seedlings sprout and unfold their leaves, spray a foliar fertilizer of 0.4% urea plus 0.3% monopotassium phosphate every 10 to 15 days.

2. Pest and Disease Control

That is, in late May and early to mid-June, spray once each time a 2000-fold dilution of monocrotophos or a mixture of 50% clofentezine (Apollo) plus 50% methamidophos, which can effectively control pests such as red spider mites, mirid bugs and jujube leaf gall mites.

3. Inspection and Replanting

After the seedlings sprout and unfold their leaves, investigate the survival of the seedlings. Based on the number of dead and missing plants, replant seedlings with their soil ball in autumn or before bud break the following year. In addition, in the same year the jujube seedlings are planted, a false-death phenomenon of not sprouting sometimes occurs; the branches of false-dead plants are soft, and the bark is green and glossy. For false-dead seedlings, water and hoe promptly to encourage them to sprout and grow as soon as possible.

4. Preserving Flowers and Fruits

To make jujube trees bear fruit early and bear more fruit, first, pinch off the growing tips and top the shoots during the flowering period to reduce nutrient consumption. Second, during the flowering period, spray a solution of 10 to 15 mg/kg gibberellin or Zaohuabao. Each time, 4 to 5 weeks before the fruit fully ripens (the white-ripe stage), carefully spray 2 to 3 times a solution of 50 mg/kg naphthaleneacetic acid or 10 to 20 mg/kg fruit-setting hormone, with an interval of 10 to 15 days between sprays.

Jujube has a very high vitamin content and enjoys the reputation of a “natural vitamin pill.” It has the effect of nourishing yin and supplementing yang, and generally anyone can eat it. It should be avoided by those with excessive damp-heat inside, children with infantile malnutrition and parasitic diseases, those with toothache, those with excessive phlegm-dampness and abdominal distension, and those with a thick greasy tongue coating. In addition, diabetics should not eat much of it; and fresh jujubes should not be eaten in large amounts, otherwise they easily produce phlegm, stir up heat and damage the teeth.