Broke persimmon tree

I just snapped the top two feet of a chocolate persimmon 3/4 of the way through can I wrap it and see if it lives or should I just cut it off now? I just received it yesterday and the tree is dormant and bear root, I’m planting it in the ground now.
Where it snapped is about a half inch thick diameter.

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That’s a tough one. Not a very clean break.
I have tried to salvage similar damage on seedling pawpaws and it seems ok, but I’m thinking if that were me, I would cut it. :frowning:

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Cut it off now and let a new stronger top emerge. There appear to be plenty viable buds below.

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Well I chopped it off, best looking tree I have gotten all year and it falls out of the back of my trailer, hopefully I’ll learn from that one.

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I would top it!

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Been there…yeah it stings when that kind of thing happens. But I’ve found almost always that the plant surprises me and the painful memory disappears quickly :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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@figerama

Do you have any established persimmon tree or rootstock in ground. That is a good looking scionwood. You can use it to graft on another persimmon tree. Or, ues it for scionwood exchange. Plenty of people want this Chocolate variety.

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No I don’t have any root stock since I’m just planting for the first time this spring

Post it is Trading Post category. I bet there will be people who want it. They can pay for postage or exchange varieties with you. That can be at least two pieces of very good looking scionwood.

Assuming you have a fully dormant tree, and you desire to save some of the growth you could store the scion removed, and then once it begins to leaf out, use a whip & tongue or cleft graft to add maybe 3-4 buds above the break. By doing this it would give you a more evenly distributed branching pattern. Once the scion buds break out and begin to grow, splint the graft for a year to allow a strong graft to develop.

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I have a Coffee Cake and Maru but no branch are big enough however in couple months I might be able to craft it onto one of those and make a combination tree? How long would the cutting last in the refrigerator?

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It can easily last until you need it this summer, store in fridge with a damp paper towel, in a well sealed plastic bag to protect from gases emitted by other fruit, then you could try a zgraft on your smaller trees, or maybe better a number of chip buds to create more variety on each tree. I have a chocolate tree and have used chip budding to ad variety. Works pretty well.

Z Grafting of larger scions to smaller rootstock: Grafting Fruit Trees - Z Grafting Citrus

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