The Texas persimmons sound interesting. I read they taste a little like licorice. Well, when they do fruit you will have to let us know for sure on that.
BTW, The forth worth botanical gardens has a Texas persimmon that fruits, but I never get there in time to see the ripe fruit.
Yeah, we had to lower our well several more feet, and in the middle of the drought, was quite the price.
I was tossing around the idea of maybe placing some pvc pipes(drilled with holes) into the ground next to the trees when the ground is still soft in winter. That way if we get a bad drought again in the summer I could hand water into those pipes and deliver water to the roots. And of course, due Murphy’s law, placing those pipes might ensure that we get rain in summer lol.
I have often considered that because watering trees is time consuming and hit or miss in the surface. The only drawback is it opens up the undersoil to more drying. It would be nice if we could place caps on them when not in use. I could think of all kinds of things that would make their home there. 
I use 5 gallon buckets with a hole drilled in the bottom to allow the water to drain out slowly around the tree. Still hit or miss though. Especially on a grade. Most of my trees are getting old enough for their roots to hit the water table……maybe…
All the more reason to place them!!
We come through there a couple of times a year on our way to the Valley. Would be interesting to grow there.
I have to retract a statement. I do not have Sheng with fruit. I have Pen with fruit. Sometimes it is good to read your tree tags!
The Eureka comes in at 195 grams. The Saijo is one of the last ones and is very ripe and average to smaller of most of them. None of these are the largest on the tree but good representatives. None are soft except Saijo.
Wow! Please let us know how you feel about Pen. I grafted it but have yet to fruit it. There’s not much information out there on this variety.
I live in Abilene Texas and my favorite persimmon is the Eureka. Womack nursery out of Deleon Texas sells them and not only do you get a ton of delicious fruit but in the fall the tree is beautiful with leaves of red, orange and yellow. I also have the Nikitas Gift and Saijo but they are young and not producing yet.
As you can see in Katy’s picture, Pen fruit is relatively small for a kaki. It’s PCA and usually ripens a little after Miss Kim for me.
I also have Eureka with NG and Saijo in the mail to be planted upon arrival. I’m a few hundred miles SW in Alpine. I also like Eureka both fresh and dried.
Here’s my tree I grafted from wood from your Eureka. (picture taken last week before our first hard frost) I really like the fruit from this one - very large and luscious! Just have to keep them away from my nonastringent kakis so I don’t accidentally take a bite of a firm Eureka.
Nice!!! I like Eureka. I bought it because it was recommended for our state. It has really been a good one. It took a big hit from the extreme cold but came back. Some suckers from the rootstock came up on the scant side and I grafted them with Eureka too. It didn’t fruit last year but has quite a few fruit this year. Fresh or dried it’s great but I wouldn’t want to take a bite out of a hard one! Glad to see yours producing. And thank you for all the scion you sent for my orchard. Most of them are fruiting now and it’s fantastic!
Some of the Pen are ripening. Wasp have gotten to a few of them. The flavor is very sweet and smooth. A lot like Saijo to me. None of these are seeded that I can tell even though I have seeds in Miss Kim and Saijo.
This is the fruit load on the first year of bearing. I’ve picked 6 off it already. I think was set out from grafting in 2019. I can look that up but I have waited a few years on it. Vortex in 2021 with temps ~-4° killed it back and it regrew
Wow! That is a beautiful specimen right there!
. I purchased four Hachiya fruits at Sprouts yesterday, and today I sliced them up and put them into the dehydrator.
Now I have to say that I have never had a persimmon except a fuyu, which I did not like the flavor of. But after reading so many comments about how good the other persimmons were in comparison to fuyu, I decided to plant the trees and grow them. Anyhow, this is the first time I have seen something other than fuyu at the store.
So, the flavor is way better than a fuyu. To me it is a sweet and mild apricot/pear taste, which is quite pleasant. I didn’t catch any caramel flavor notes that some people claim is in a persimmon. Maybe it’s my tastebuds or perhaps that flavor it not very present in the hachiya cuktivars. Nonetheless, I am relieved and quite pleased. Now I want to try hoshigaki on one, but I fear they might be a little too soft for that.
I’m sure am glad that I found that I do like persimmon; I would have been a little nervous about having five American persimmon trees(one Early Jewel, and four rootstocks) in the ground if I had disliked these…since I already disliked fuyu that is. Anyhow, now I really want to try the Americans
My tree I grafted(early jewel) last year is finally waking up.
We had a very mild winter so perhaps that is why it is so behind the other DV rootstocks in the ground on my property. I grafted onto some of those other rootstocks already: one with “Wonderful” and another with “Lehman’s Delight”. I had to bark graft those fairly low and close to the base of the trunk so I have no idea how those will turn out, but it is fun to experiment.
How is everyone else doing this Texas spring?
We have several V. persimmons we grew from seed. They’ve been in ground several years. So far 1 female and 3 males. Hoping for more to be females.
You can always graft! They will make fantastic rootstock once established.
Very true!
My newly planted persimmon. Found it in the back of a local nursery unmarked, and got a good deal on it.
I washed its roots to undo some circling and then planted it slightly raised above solid grade. I have clay after all. Not seen in the photo is the mulch ring I added around the base ontop an cocofiber mat. This photo is from a week ago or so…
I have no idea what kind this is but it is definitely female. It now has tons of single, non-grouped flowers on it, which it will probably drop due to planting stress.
