BACKGROUND:The successful management of jujube trees depends on maintaining a balance between reproductive and vegetative growth. In general, heading cuts of trunk stimulate rather vegetative growth, but could decrease flower initiation. This study was conducted to establish a heading-back pruning severities at planting in the one year old 'Daeneung' jujube whip nursery tree by investigating vegetative growth and fruit yield. METHODS AND RESULTS: The heading back pruning severity was assigned as 5 different ranges as follow: one bud (TR-10, heading back pruning was 10 cm above the ground), three buds (TR-30), five buds (TR-50), seven buds (TR-70), and nine buds (TR-90) were left of scion. The number of buds on whip trunk was correlated to the central leader length and increment of trunk cross-sectional area, negatively, and to the tree height and canopy volume, positively. The yields in the TR-50 treatment were higher about 2 times than other treatments. The fruit diameter was not significantly different among the treatments. CONCLUSION: These results indicated that the optimum location of heading-back pruning in one year old 'Daeneung' jujube tree was 50 cm above the ground as evaluated by the balance of reproductive and vegetative growth.