Finally the year I get to try Chinebuli! Digging back thru my emails I planted it November 2015. Every year before now it’s dropped the fruit. I will update when they are picked.
It hasn’t shown any damage here in 6b since I planted it. Tam Kam died out before fruiting (sudden persimmon death?), IKKJ wasn’t hardy enough. The tree itself has a lovely growth habit, too.
Does anyone have info/experience if this would survive zone 5?
From England’s:
Asian Persimmon - Diospyros Kaki - These very fine persimmons have been tested. Selected for many years over many others, primarily for their cold hardiness, they have been tested down to minus -16 for the last 2 years. Their taste, size and productivity are excellent.
Chinebuli - NON-Astringent Asian Persimmon, which comes to us from Bulgaria. It is sweet crunchy when hard and a medium size fruit that ripens mid-season. It has had only minor freeze damage while we have grown this cultivar here for the past 8 years during one of the coldest winters we have ever experienced (the Polar express) with temps dipping into the mid-teens. There was tip burn but this tree took it in stride and produced the next spring. It is a smallish growing tree with beautiful foliage.
Zone 6 to 9
A hardy non-astrigent! Do you know what your lowest temps have been in the winters the last few years?
I usually bottom out around 0F, England’s said it webt thru -16F with some damage.
Not cold hardy for Z5. My Chinebuli died at -12F inground. @ampersand hopefully it is sweet and tasty for you. I really enjoyed my 6 potted Tam Kam nonastringent kaki.
Chinebuli cannot be anything other than a synonym for a Japanese PCNA. If I remember correctly, it’s plain old Jiro. England’s results have to be a fluke.
I’m not sure on Chinebuli, but I do have another growing which is supposed to be* as cold hardy (but is astringent). That is Zirochka.
If @ampersand is able to grow this one, I might throw a few sticks on my trees and see what happens!
Sounds Russian. As I understand it, the Soviet Union imported a bunch of Japanese varieties. What reason do we have that this is not a synonym for so either mundane Japanese variety?
Zirochka is quite old cultivar but as far I know about 50% flower buds are damaged around -20C
I have only small 1year old plant so I cant tell my experience
Based on Ampersand’s and England’s experience, even if it is just a synonym or bud sport of Jiro, it is a particularly cold hardy one. It is worth a try in my opinion.
Thank you very much for the information, I will keep that in mind for future reference. Personally, I am more concerned about the tree dying back in cold temperatures more so than flower buds being damaged. It is always good to know limits on blooms too. Having the ability to grow pure kaki persimmons in Z6 with success in many years is not something I expected to be able to do when researching various varieties. If I can grow a PCNA as well, as is the spirit of this thread, that is even better!
If you are ibterested in d.kaki hardiness then you should check https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338430770_The_Persimmon_Diospyros_spp_Initial_Breeding_Material_for_Winter_Hardiness
@Ahmad – Worth a try, sure. But I wouldn’t get my hopes up. My IKKJ, which are a bud sport of Jiro, have done fine at 0 F down to -5 F. Ampersand says his temps usually bottom around 0 F. So the outlier is England’s. England claimed that it survived -16 F but then disc4tw’s died at -12 F. [Edit: Correction, the dead Chinebuli belongs to tonyOmahaz5, see above.]. This proved that England’s observation was somehow flawed. My guess is that the tree was buried by snow or maybe exposed at the peak of all persimmon cold-hardiness in Jan. In any case, without other evidence I think you’d be gambling below 0 F.
There are a lot of factors besides just temperature. Tree age, length of cold, snow cover, temperature swings…
Yeah, agreed. I remember seeing some great research on the cold hardiness of persimmon buds. From memory (so only approximately correct!), many supposedly tender varieties could tolerate severe cold (i.e., -10 to -15 F) when in deep dormancy (e.g., January) but would succumb to much more moderate cold (i.e., +5 to +10 F) later (e.g., March).
Wasn’t me, must have been someone else. I haven’t trialed it yet (but plan to now, usually I only hit - 5F or so)
For what it’s worth - two years ago my Nikita’s Gift had a good amount of dieback and this past winter it was fine. I had piled a lot of snow from the driveway around it the last time and I plan to do the same this year. I have a suspicion that wind desiccation is a big factor.
Whoops, sorry. It was tonyOmahaz5 (see above). I’ll fix the message.