Thanks for your posts. I just bush hogged the three acres I had forestry mulched in 2021/2022. Because of your posts I paid close attention and spotted at least a dozen persimmon root sprouts and a couple dozen paw paw root sprouts. Can’t blame the mulcher he worked hard to clean up the land (take no prisoners). Hopefully the root sprouts will be graftable after they grow out for a year.
I bought a whole bunch of DV seedlings from Burnt Ridge and they were tiny many years ago. I was bummed. I tried to graft them and failed. It actually turned out to be a blessing, because I didn’t know the details about grafting persimmons then. I had mostly grafted apples and pears at that time. After reading here and other places, the scions grew up, I learned more and the grafts actually succeeded. Sometimes, your bad luck turns into good luck.
@JohnS … i am going to experiment with providing persimmon rootstock this winter.
I saved one really nice wild DV out in my field… that i am going to try digging up when the ground is wet and soft this winter… after a snow, freez and thaw the ground is usually about as soft as it gets.
I am going to dig it up and just see what kind of root ball i can get out with it. Find outhow difficult that is… Then transplant it to my daughters home site… eventually graft her on a few nice persimmon varieties.
Part of my field that is really loaded with persimmon seedlings… also has electric service lines overhead. I cant graft to those… and risk them being a problem eventually for elec service.
But i could dig them up and trade or sell them for rootstocks… IF that actually works well. After this winter and next spring… i will have a good idea how well that works…
I have many… est 50 or so nice wild DVs in that area under elec lines. I have lots of others that are not under elec lines… and those i can graft all I want.
How will you deal with the long tap root? I think that is the reason why your root sprouts come back so well. Maybe be better to top work them all and sell scion wood(?)
I would just bare-root the tree. The things are nearly impossible to kill. I have one that a squirrel dug up out of its pot this spring after it had started to grow. The roots were completely exposed, baking in the sun on an especially hot, dry spring day for at least several hours. The top growth was absolute toast. I thought it was a goner, but I replanted it and it grew almost as well as its peers.
Power lines run part of my property as well. I talked to the power company and as long as there is nothing around tall enough to touch or fall over on the lines they do not care. If for some reason they do have to service it they will just cut down whatever is in the way. Just make sure to leave a way to get to all of it.
I am actuall going to use that part of my field with overhead elec service lines… for lower growing stuff… blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, goumi, honeyberry, clove currants, etc… could include some really dwarf fruit trees… 12 ft would be ok.
I already have elderberries started there.
As long as you keep it bushhogged or mowed…
and manage the growth for height… No problem with our Elec co.
If you let it grow up and get tall… they will spray or cut it down. They have to manage the Elec ROW.
Tap roots on persimmon seedlings… yes… that is why I will be experimenting with this this winter…including a transplant and monitoring the success. Of course i will take pics and share the results… good ot bad.
If they do transplant and grow like crazy… i might just dig up a bunch of them the next year. Not sure what it would cost to rent a mini back hoe for a day… but that may help with getting tap roots out.
Ps. This year I transplanted 2 callery pear saplings out into my field early January… and they budded and started leafing late February.
I grafted kieffer and imprived kieffer scions to them and both of them have multiple shoots over 6 ft tall now.
Hope to transplant this persimmon about the same time… early January… but persimmons dont bud out that early… it may be early April before it buds out… so it will have more time to establish some roots before grafting.
Anecdotally (from repotting/planting persimmons at various times of year), persimmons don’t start growing their roots until quite a while after top growth starts. They’re tropical plants at heart, and seem to really want warm soil to get their roots growing.
Every time I have tried to dig a tap root tree I broke the tap root. You also lose most of the fine feeder roots. Most of the time they take more than a year to get going again after you transplant them, if they live. When I do questionable things like that I usually put two in a hole so I have better odds.
@JCW … you could be right… but i have lots of persimmon seedlings or saplings out in my fields in areas where there are no larger trees near by.
None within 80 to 100 yards anyway.
I have some areas where there are clusters of 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 larger trees (2, 3, 4 inch trees)… in the edge of my woods… and out in the field near them there are no persimmon seedlings or saplings… or root suckers. That is where i would expext to see root suckers… but there are none.
I expext these were planted by possum, coon, etc… every fall our road gets dotted regularly with poop loaded with persimmon seeds.
I have 4 pawpaws under my muscadine… and no others on that entire hillside… i expext the same critters planted those too.
They will do better.