I was browsing the new 2023 seed offerings from EFN and saw this interesting one:
From the description:
“The Giving Tree” is a large persimmon tree in an urban backyard in Bloomington, Indiana. The tree is well-known locally for its abundant yields, topping 1000 pounds a year (100 pounds is considered a good yield for the species), of medium-sized, sweet fruits which are free from the astringency that makes so many American persimmons unpalatable. Even slightly underripe fruits are not astringent.
Fruits typically begin falling in late August and continue through mid-October — a very long season for the species. Owner Louise Briggs hosts her annual “Perpetual Persimmon Pulping Parties” during this time. It has become a yearly tradition for the Briggs family to erect a net system and offer the fruits up to the community for free via an online Google spreadsheet.
The tree’s provenance is uncertain, but it is estimated to be over 65 years old. It seems unlikely to be a wild seedling tree, but the exact parentage or variety is unknown (we can’t tell from photos if there’s an obvious graft union on the tree). Perhaps someday DNA technology and our beloved tree-mad friends like Eliza Greenman or Zach Elfers will figure out more of the story. Given the age of the tree and its prodigious and early fruiting, we know the genetics of The Giving Tree deserve to be saved, shared, and hopefully incorporated into future American persimmon breeding projects.
I wish they’d offer scions instead of seeds, but I’m getting a packet since I’m ordering a bunch of vegetable and flower seeds anyhow.
At $5 for 10 seeds from a nonprofit, that seems less likely than it being an inaccurate description written by someone who just doesn’t know what they are talking about.
I’m not personally on Facebook, but it looks like there’s a Facebook group where she sends out the call for free persimmons every year:
Today, Louise still holds her Perpetual Persimmon Pulping Parties, where everyone leaves with fresh pulped fruit from the kitchen food mill. She has also found a local company that purchases fruit by the pound, but they it only take so much. So her call still goes out for those interested in purchasing the fruit. Inquiries come through the private Facebook Group, The Persimmon Cartel.
Some more photos and videos here:
And this is apparently the FB group for anyone who’s in that area and wants to try the fruit, ask about scions, and report back to us:
public records: Louise E Briggs, 1324 N Kinser Pike, Bloomington, IN, 47404-2302
I studied what is available online. Given location and other information, there is a good chance this is a grafted tree of an early selection made in the region. If not, it is an unknown with low astringency when ripe.
I don’t know about other regions, but here in Southern TN and Northern Alabama and Northern Mississippi, about 1 in 10 wild persimmon trees has low astringency when fully ripe. The opposite is true when they are immature.
My seeds came today and unfortunately the persimmon seeds had visible mold and a few of them were soft when squeezed. I separated the ones that seemed rotten and rinsed the others in hydrogen peroxide, but I don’t have much hope for these.
I’ve never had any other issues with seeds ordered from EFN, and all my other seeds in this order look good, so I’m sure it’s just a bad batch of seeds or something. Oh well!
My sister lives 15 minutes from them. She’s joining the Facebook page and will ask them about collecting scion wood; I’ll let you know what I hear back. If we get enough, I can send some out. I don’t trust my persimmon grafting skills enough yet, and it would be nice to have some others preserving and propagating it. I’ll probably see if Cliff England wants some too.
Update on this: it looks like the owner of the tree is okay with someone collecting some. It may be hard to get to, but my sister is going to try. I’ll post another update in the winter.
She’s got a pole pruner, not sure about the ladder. She just reached out to make sure she could collect some; I’ll post again once I hear back. If this works out, I’ll plan to send them out for the cost of postage while supplies last. And with the request that you send me some back in the future; I don’t know if I’ll be able to graft them this year, and I have had the worst luck grafting persimmons successfully.
I wanted to update everyone about this - my sister reached out to the family via their Facebook group, and they were not comfortable with her taking scion wood. I think the reasoning was that they have so many people coming to their property during persimmon harvesting season that they really want some space the rest of the year. My sister has since moved, but the question for anyone who is still in the area and might be interested in continuing to pursue this is if viable scion wood could be harvested in the fall when they are already allowing people on their property. It sounded like they were not categorically opposed to people taking scion wood.
