Here’s a record of my trials and errors with D. virginiana in NW San Diego county, USDA zone 10b. Note that our climate is very different from FL 10b.
In California, D. virginiana requires some assembly. Import of persimmon roots is prohibited. There is plenty of asian rootstock and trees within the state, but only one supplier of american persimmon rootstock: Fruitwood nursery in Orleans CA.
The first two rootstock saplings I ordered arrived today (1/10/2025) 
Fruitwood is great. Looks like you received grafting ready stock.
What varieties are you going to be growing?
If you run out of rootstock, you can still graft Virginiana to Lotus rootstock and get excellent results.
Tonight I added Lehman’s Delight and Valeene Queen. I now have coverage of these breeders:
J. Hershey
G. Slate
G. Claypool
J. Lehman
D. Compton
You can graft now if you have time and scionwood - I’ve been grafting since December.
I’ve actually been using Dax’s callus technique and graft all year round. Surprised he recommends waiting. I’ll ask him.
@ramv
I’m not going to practice callus technique on these rootstocks and cuttings. I’ve no experience with it.
Ok. He told me that he waits until May to do non callus pipe grafts.
I callus graft only because I get high percentage of takes. Otherwise, easier to do the usual way.
My take rate is significantly lower grafting dormant persimmon rootstock. I’ve seen similar results shared by others with the exception of the hot callous technique discussed above.
@ramv what graft(s) do you use for dormant rootstock?
That’s surprising. Many grafts that are somewhat hard are much easier with the pipe.
I graft and then let them go dormant. They wake up like they were one tree.
mostly whip and tongue. Occasionally do cleft on thinner material. They still mostly take fine.
They look great!
I ordered mine almost 2 weeks ago and they just told me they shipped it today.
We have eight rootstocks and eight scions coming.
They will be our first try at grafting.
@DragonflyLane
Here’s the ~$25 grafting tool I ordered from Amazon a few years ago, plus a roll of “branch graft” parafilm and a roll of Scotch 2242 electrical tape. The latter adds a second layer of support.
The grafting tool comes with 3 V-shaped dies: narrow, medium, and wide. A screwdriver and wrench is included to change the dies.
A pair of before-and-after photos below show two scions: before cutting with the tool and matching V-shaped cuts after using the tool.
Nice Saddle graft tool. I just do them manually once in a while. Cleft, Bark, and W &T is my go to most of the time.
Tony
I was given that exact same tool last spring by a friend. It’s pretty nice. I’m still a whip-and-tongue fan, and like using my Swiss grafting knife But I have to say that tool is pretty handy when you got a lot of grafts to do quickly, and your rootstock and scion are similar sizes.
Oh I mean without the pipe! I assume your success is contingent upon that additional heat regulation. Sorry if I wasn’t clear.
Thank you!
We have an “Italian grafting tool”.
We are going to watch some videos on how to use it properly.
Yours looks cool and what a nice price
I have some parafilm, but it’s only half inch so I ordered some buddy tape with my persimmon roots and scions.
I don’t know how great our grafting tool is, it wasn’t very expensive.
