Quite some folks in Texas planted jujube trees in their backyard many years ago, say, in the 1970s. Jujube was considered a small, drought tolerant, with glossy leaves, twisted branches, and showing little fruits for wild life. Since it is only one tree, the tree may not bear many fruits.

But over the years, those trees grow large, not small any more. They grow to more than 2 stories tall. Even though this is only one tree, the tree still bear a lot of fruits. They are more than the birds and squires can manage.

So many fruits fall to the ground. Since there are so many, home owners may not have time to collect them. Some of them fall to the small area hard to reach. Then no only there are suckers, but there are many many little seedlings come up.

Now those jujube trees are considered large messy shade tree. Some of the homeowners had to cut them down since they are too large and messy.

I have not seen a mature jujube which does not bear fruits on its own. So most of them are probably self pollinating....

Most Jujube are grafted to a wild Jujube rootstock. Some call this "sour jujube". Wild Jujube rootstock propagates readily from the root system. New trees can start many yards from the main tree. One issue is that this rootstock tends to thicket and produce low quality wild trees with poor quality fruit if you don't keep the area around the tree mowed.

This usually is not a problem when used in landscaping or in an orchard. Since I'm using them in a wildlife application where long-term maintenance will be minimal, I find it an issue. I specifically bought tigertooth trees that are grown on their own rootstock not grafted for this reason.

I have a GA 866 and a Sherwood that are now 3 years old. The GA 866 does not get enough sunlight and is slowly dying. The Sherwood looks good. I was told by the nursery where I bought them that two different varieties were need for successful pollination. Since the GA 866 will be dead next season, I am going to try to graft two different varieties on the Sherwood.

I don't think the answer here is fully known. Its pretty clear most jujubes are self-pollinating, but whether another cultivar will help and whether a few varieties may in fact not be self-pollinating is not clear. Some people think Sherwood might not be self-fertile. I think it just can be stingy in fruiting, my tree didn't fruit in 10 years and it had 10 different pollinator varieties to choose from.

Scott

Also the research at New Mexico State indicates Sugar Cane may be a jujube that pollination will help, though it is partially self fruitfull