How to Plant Jujube Saplings? Detailed Planting Methods and Techniques

Jujube is also known as jujube fruit, large jujube, sour jujube, and guan jujube. After ripening, it turns from red to purplish-red, and the mesocarp is fleshy, thick, and sweet. How do you plant jujube saplings to get a good harvest?

1. Planting site preparation

Before planting, first dig a planting pit 80 cm long and 80 cm wide, and 60—80 cm deep. When digging the pit, keep topsoil and subsoil in separate piles. Place grass or straw in the bottom layer of each pit; in the middle layer, mix 50 kg of decomposed farmyard manure with the topsoil and backfill it, then backfill the subsoil. After backfilling, the planting pit should be 30 cm above the ground, or when backfilling soil, fill until it is 20 cm below ground level, then irrigate thoroughly so the soil in the pit settles, then continue filling soil so it is slightly above ground level.

2. Planting

When planting, dig a hole 20—30 cm deep on the planting pit, place the jujube sapling in the center of the hole, fill soil while lifting the sapling and firming it down. After covering with soil, it should be slightly above ground level. The planting depth should be the same as the depth of the sapling in the nursery; do not plant too deep (burying the graft union) or too shallow. After planting, form a circular tree basin 1 m in diameter around the sapling, water thoroughly to settle the roots, and cover the tree basin with plastic film (1 square m in size) to retain moisture, increase temperature, and suppress weeds. When digging pits and planting, use a line to ensure that after planting, the saplings achieve “three looks” in one line.

3. Fertilizing

After young trees are planted, 10—15 days before spring bud break, apply 1—2 liang of urea per tree diluted in 10 kg of water as a supplementary fertilizer. After that, repeat the operation once every month (irrigation plus supplementary fertilizer). The supplementary fertilizer should be applied 30—40 cm from the trunk.

Jujube contains rich vitamin C and vitamin P. Besides being eaten fresh, it can often be made into preserved fruits and candied fruits such as candied jujube, red jujube, smoked jujube, black jujube, wine jujube, and tooth jujube. It can also be used to make jujube paste, jujube flour, jujube wine, jujube vinegar, and so on, serving as a raw material for the food industry.