Are Nakita’s Gift persimmons hard to grow from cuttings?
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I would say no.
Persimmons are virtually unrootable.
I can’t even manage to get NG grafted…have tried it on at least 4 different occasions, with no success; NG scions - from multiple sources - have always had those disturbing black streaks that signal to me that results are going to be bad.
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How do they propagate them?
No wonder they are so $$.
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I found this for you via the search function…maybe it will answer some things for you.
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I grafted Nikita’s gift onto Fuyugaki.
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Is Nakita’s gift good, better than Fuyu? The best persimmon I know is Fuyu.
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Fuyu is kind of the standard mildly sweet PCNA. I much prefer the taste of other American persimmon and Hachiya fruit I’ve had, it’s a more complex flavor profile. That said, everyone prefers different things.
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If you like Fuyu and you’ve tasted a lot of different persimmons, you should stick to Fuyu. Nikita’s gift is very sweet, soft textured, and bold flavored. You might prefer the blander, lower sweetness and crunchy texture of Fuyu.
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They are grafted, like apples, peaches, or pears. Persimmons take longer to grow to salable size and are a little bit harder to graft, both of which increase the price. Most importantly, it’s mostly small to medium outfits producing grafted American and hybrid persimmons like NG, so there’s no economy of scale to really bring down prices.
Apples, on the other hand, have standardized rootstocks with known properties, are easy to graft, and have armies of workers churning out acres of the same variety. Those grafts will be a predictably large, salable tree by the next season.
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From cuttings I don’t know. If found Nikita’s gift hard to grow at my location due the trunk dying to the graft union in a -23F winter. The former rootstock has since been grafted to Lehman’s delight and is humming along.
I grafted NG onto a rich tooie seedling (most likely a southern wild persimmon)… that I grew from seed.
It struggled a bit early on, psyllid attacks… but grew thru it and ended up putting on about 2 foot of growth.
Hoping it really takes off this year.
I wonder if your problem is with the compatibility of your rootstock. If it is an American persimmon there is a tetraploid population and a hexaploid population out there. I was able to graft Nakita’s Gift onto a hexaploid in my first try and had 4 other scions I put in damp peat moss in a zip lock bag in my dark, warm furnace room and they didn’t even try to root.
Thanks jc!
Do you have to always graft them on a rootstock, or can you just grow NG from a scion?
You always need to graft them. Rooting success on persimmons is maybe 1%, if you’re lucky. So your only realistic options are to purchase a grafted tree or to graft them yourself. It’s not super difficult, just harder than apples or pears.
I know this isn’t what you asked, but trees of Antiquity sells Nikita’s Gift trees. Just in case you end up wanting a tree instead.
I have two of them, but they are newer. Planted one last season and a second this season.
Have not got to try fruit yet, I will need to be very patient I think.