I am having a difficult time hunting down American Persimmon seeds from a source here in Canada for cultivars with superior fruit, better pulp to seed ratio etc. I would prefer not to buy wild seeds and graft cultivars afterwards onto those rootstocks, as I wish to keep as seedling for better hardiness. Please let me know if anyone is selling seeds from well-performing cultivars in your orchard. Many thanks.
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I believe Cliff at Englands Orchard and Nursery in McKee, Kentucky still sells american persimmon seeds in bulk. Collected from his orchard of improved types.
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I have purchased seeds bred for short summer climates from cliff england’s nursery. As persimmons can grow from root suckers that is a reason to go with seedlings, They will take longer and 2/3 can be male so you will still want to plant on grafting in my opinion. The males will show their sex earlier than females.
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I am getting some sent from a friend who processed early dropping varieties from Lehmans orchard, he described them as the best chance for northern growing. I will probably have extra
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Talk with Buzz Ferver at perfectcircle.farm. Buzz has been selecting Persimmon seedlings grown from improved varieties for hardiness in Northern VT. I doubt he has seeds from them yet, but I have a feeling you’d benefit from contacting him. Good luck! - Pete
Thanks James, I actually reached out yesterday to Cliff about his seeds. You’re right, I may need to still graft a few as insurance but was leaning to do seedlings. If you remember, what seed collection on his site did you purchase?
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Hi Jesse, I think I may have seen you pop up before on the NAFEX FB group. When you happen to get the seeds, could you confirm if you have extras. Id be interested in purchasing from you. Thank you
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I actually contacted Buzz a few days back but he told me he does not ship to Canada. It would have been a great option I agree which is a bummer
“Prok x Szukis Hybrid Seed”… I was trying to find that term on the website or a suggestion as to what I said… didn’t see it on the website… I suspect the website changed some text, or I fear i am going senile in my 30’s (unlikely lol). Checked emails with him about placing the order still did not find anything worth quoting that suggests they are short season, prok is a early season idk much about szukis though…
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I had some later Prok fruit suffer freeze damage (from a deep freeze) in early Oct (5b/6a), but starting from seed, a person might get lucky and have one that fruits really early. Prok isn’t the earliest of the fruiters though.
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What are the Earliest? and best of them? afaik H-118 (Early Jewel) is the winner.
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I’m not sure about ripening, but Morris Burton, Lena, H63A, and 100-46 I’ve heard high praise for taste.
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I am lucky to get over 1500 growing degree days temps F. So Like some of these canadian friends I am really focused on early ripening varieties.
Here’s a thread for that topic.
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Wow! Only 1,500? I got close to 2,300 this year, and that was a little less than the last couple. You must have a long frost free growing season if you are able to ripen persimmons, then? I only get about a l30-140 here. I like to compare with other growers. No persimmon fruit from trees in ground yet, but I am trying. Maybe in a couple years.
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I think it could depend on your location, climate and rootstock, but for colder regions like zone 4, H118 will not work. Claypool’s speadsheet lists H118 and H120 as early, but in my location H120 was 100% ruined by early freezes this year. H118 was slightly ahead of H120 and wasn’t damaged but that tree perhaps got lucky. H55A was earlier. H63A and Morris Burton were the first to have dropping fruit (although they can continue dropping for a while). A118 was listed by Claypool as mid-late, but it started fairly early for me and was mostly done before the early freezes… although it’s not the earliest. 100-46 is later, and probably half of that crop was ruined by the early freeze… although I still got a good amount of fruit from it (and also Prok which suffered some losses too).
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160-200 frost free days, mild oceanic climate in Germany. I have gotten ripe persimmons two years in a row now but I am in higher elevation than most fruit growing or (wine growing) regions of Germany. Even if some years don’t work out but other years do work out, That would be worth it.
@snowflake Technically a zone 7 here but that doesn’t say much for heat hours.
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How do you tell the difference?
ask them their pronouns, /sarcasm
males are smaller…
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