2023 Persimmon Grafting

You have some dandy looking growth there !!!

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Everything has lined up nicely this year at that spot. The weather has really helped. More rain than usual at the right times, and more consistent temperatures. Not like normal. :joy:

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This is a Journey persimmon I grafted utilizing Barkslip’s Hot Calloused Pipe method. This is my first time grafting persimmons, so I am pretty happy with how it calloused up. Now I just need it to leaf out.

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@Beetree … nice persimmon patch…

You wont have to walk far to gather many varieties. Good luck !

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Thank you! I gotta get in there and put some better protection on the smaller ones soon or it will be just those two bigger ones (deer…lots). I’m kinda surprised they hadn’t gotten em yet. :crossed_fingers::crossed_fingers:
It was a similar situation to yours. All these wild ones were already in place with good root power. Hopefully a candy store in a few years at both your place and mine.

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Today… i got out early… and treated all my new fruit trees (at our new home location) to 10-14 shovels full of compost… followed by a fresh 3 inch layer of partially composted wood chips.

They should be in good shape for late summer and fall.

This included…

2 crowns of elderberry
2 apples novamac earlymac
2 pears … kieffer, improved kieffer
1 mulberry silk hope
4 persimmons… kassandra, nakittas gift, ws8-10, IKKJ

We had a long dry spell… then a few good rains.
That little IKKJ has put out some nice new growth recently.

This nakittas gift is growing beside / under my much larger kassandra… but it is coming on out now and looking good too.

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When you do a side graft like these, how do you secure them once they have grown several feet and are vulnerable to high winds?
I’m asking because I have one that is two years old and growing well, but I am pondering the best way to secure it as it’s quite a distance from the main trunk. So far I have it splinted but that may not be enough. Thinking about cutting off the shoots going vertical to reduce exposure.
Dennis
Kent, wa

Part of the reason I like the side graft is that I can leave a section of stem/trunk above the graft and use it as a stake. I place my scion partly with this in mind. Ive been using plant tie type velcro for securing the scion’s growth to the sacrificial trunk. I like it because you can get it tight enough without worrying about girdling, and of course its easy to adjust, relocate, and eventually remove. In cases where the original stem is too small diameter or too short, I wind up adding a stake. You need a much beefier stake though, since it doesnt move in concert with the tree. When I remove the graft tape, Ill usually bind the graft with a couple of wraps of the same velcro.

Ive generally found one year of this this training and support is sufficient for most of my grafts. 2nd year is probably more of a stake situation since youll want to cut above the graft to allow that to heal over. Also the scion will usially be growing enough by that point that the original stem is no longer sufficient.

Sometimes judicious pruning is the only and best way.

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THHunter, I tried my first bark graft 4 weeks ago and no buds have formed. Did it fail or is there any chance that they may still take?

The bark was very thick so maybe that I didn’t get the alignment right (?)

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I’ve tried regrafting a multi stem rootstock twice and both attempts seem to have failed. This was a Rossy that I was pretty sure had been killed by cicadas, but now think it may have been at least partly KSDS. Both attempts at grafting have appeared successful, but then suddenly died back almost overnight.

I’m also seeing black streaks/flecks in the remaining leaves. The remaining graft is a hybrid but is starting to die back as well.

After the first failure I had done a postmortem on the grafts and I saw signs of callous, but then it looked like it just died. Even the rootstock had died back a half inch or so. The first round of grafts were cleft and the second round were all bark, plus one extra chip.


Does the diagnosis of KSDS seem right? I’ve wasted a lot of good scions on this and had hopped to have a more established tree in this spot, but maybe it is time to dig it out.

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@zendog

Could Kaki Sudden Death Syndrome (ksds) be delayed incompatability between 60 and 90 chromosome types? I’m not sure how it works with all fruit trees but with pears i have trees like my small yellow pear i consider to be like type O - blood. Other pears are like type A and B or AB. Persimmons in my family were grown by selection but our persimmon gene pool was small. Our persimmons were all small and seedy but nothing like ksds was a problem. This is a new world to me we started with hybrids and better American persimmons. Have heard of delayed graft failure in persimmons. Lotus apparently is a very good rootstock long term for Kaki. " Diospyros is in the family Ebenaceae, and a number of non-persimmon species of the genus are grown for ebony timber. In 2019, China produced 75% of the world total of persimmons."
Blood-Chart

Thinking of the blood chard above imagine if we made a chart

Diospyros texana
Diospyros virginiana
Diospyros kaki
Diospyros lotus
Diospyros nigra

   DT  DV  DK  DL DN

DT
DV
DK
DL
DN

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@clarkinks – Your D. virginiana row would need to be divided into 60s and 90s.

FWIW, almost all Kakis are 90. One group of D. Virginiana (including the vast majority of named varieties) is 90. So a graft of Kaki to DV[90] rootstock would have no problem with ploidy.

There is some known incompatibility between certain Kaki varieties and DV rootstock, but that is unrelated to ploidy.

Meanwhile I believe that D. lotus is 30. D. lotus is widely used as rootstock for D. Kaki, so the difference in ploidy seems unimportant.

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Yes, probably KSDS. You could probably graft it to a pure virginiana variety though.

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Don’t dig it out. It’s a good established root stock. I would leave it and see what they do next spring. Some of those “failures” may yet come back next year (i’ve seen it happen). If not re-graft it all.

As long as the scion scratches green there is still hope.

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I agree with @PharmerDrewee
Probably SDS
In my experience , when I see those black veins,
It’s game over for that graft, and any future grafting of khaki or hybrids on that rootstock. But D. virginiana take well .

JT02 graft central leader shoot now 82 inch.

Prok… 54 "

These are a few of the wild dv rootstocks in my field… that i spared from bushhogging this week. I will graft them next spring. By fall they will be around 5 ft and half inch diameter.

Those were all bushhoged last october and grown to this size this season so far.

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100-46 on wild DV
Took this pic yesterday and then gave it a haircut. Still growing fast. Root power is awesome!

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Heres after trim. Sun made it hard to get a good pic. So far no graft breaks🤞

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Checked on a small wild DV near my walmart parking lot. It is loaded as usual.

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Based on the diagnosis of KSDS and suggestions from members above I re-grafted this big 3 stem rootstock for the third time, but this time with all American cultivars.

The disease is pretty cruel since it lets the grafts callous and start to push and then kills the scions. When I checked the last round they were solidly calloused and I had to literally break them free to separate. Here is the chip graft I thought I was adding for safety but was doomed just like all the other kaki and hybrids I tried. Hopefully, it isn’t too late in the season and the Americans survive and get some good growth by fall.

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