I was surprised to find that Claypool H-118 fruit was 2 to 2.25 inches and had an excellent sweet fragrance taste.
Tony
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Very nice looking!
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Outstanding! I grafted a few of those but it is too early for fruit.
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Tony, nice persimmons 
are they seedless?
Yes. They are self fruitful without a present of a male. Early Golden. Meader, H-118 H-120. U-20A, Knightville, Lena, 100-42, 100-43, 100-46, Prok, and Yates.
Tony
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Thanks for sharing, Tony. Very nice looking fruit…maybe someday I will enjoy these in Maine. I would appreciate any ratings, taste, size reviews on your various APs, this could be helpful as decide what cultivars to top work my seedlings over to eventually.
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In England’s most recent catalog/availability it looks like names have been assigned to some of the numbered varieties:
- H-118 - Early Jewel
- U-20A - Celebrity
- 100-42 - Deer Magnet(?)
- 100-46 - Lehman’s Delight
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I believe the tree Cliff is marketing as Deer Magnet is 100-29N not 100-42. Someone can correct me if I’m mistaken.
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Ahh, ok. There is also Deer Candy, not sure if that fits in any where?
They are starting to market the varieties that are prolific but have some undesirable characteristics for marketing for human consumption to deer hunter who plant them to attract deer. When you see deer in the marketing name, that is the tip-off. I was looking for 100-29 scions at one point and I think Cliff mentioned that he was selling grafted 100-29 trees as Deer Magnet. At least that is my recollection.
I had a question about the bigger American persimmon cultivars. I found a tree down the road with pretty big persimmons on it (inch and a half maybe? I need to measure.) and got excited. It was very pulpy but much less sweet than the smaller ones on the tree next to it. I’m still going to collect scions from it because I kinda liked the decreased sweetness, but is that usually the case with these bigger cultivars? Or are there cultivars out there that retain that super sweetness in a bigger persimmon?
FandF- what do you mean by undesirable characteristics? Is it taste like in the one I found? Or something else?
Jess,
I found that Jerry Lehman new crosses were more superior in size and taste. This is my top 5 American persimmons: Jerry Lehman 100-42, 100-43, 100-46 (these three are siblings ), Prok, and the real large and strong persimmon fragrance Jerry Lehman WS8-10.
Tony
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Kate,
If you look at the Claypool records, he rated persimmons on a number of factors. The objective, I believe was to commercialize them. The ratings included some things which be trivial to us but may be objectionable to consumers like black spots on the fruit. Other factors that would be more important to us like taste were also included. Another factor may be ripening time. Most deer hunters want persimmons to ripen and fall from the tree during hunting season while commercial growers may want to harvest fruit much earlier.
So, when you see a tree marketed as “Deer something”, it doesn’t mean it is not good for human consumption. It simply means that on the whole, it has characteristics that make it less attractive for the commercial market and more attractive as a wildlife tree.
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Have you noted any difference in cold hardiness with your APs? Only the toughies will make it here, z5a. I don’t plan on protecting them. I know of a nice 10’ Meader nearby, but this one usually get poor reviews for size, taste.
Jesse,
My zone in Omaha, Nebraska is 5A and the same zone with Jerry Lehman in Terre Haute Indiana . All my D, Virginiana survived -18F 6 years ago. After a couple of years in the ground the bark will become real thick and have a pattern of the alligator skin like. It is very cold hardy.
Tony
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Ampersand
Actually Deer Magnet is 100-29 confirmed by Jerry Lehman
Cliff England
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These pictures make me want persimmons. Fantastic Tony. You always have so many and so many varieties. Just great!
Thanks for clearing that up, Cliff! Glad to see you here.
Kelby
Tony, is H-118 your earliest persimmon?
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