I was excited a couple of years ago on my property when I discovered a cluster of at least 20 mature persimmon trees. These are mature trees that I’m guessing are 40-50 feet and 10-12 inches in diameter (so no I can’t sex the flowers) about 10-15 feet apart. After two consecutive years there haven’t been any fruits (other trees are dropping fruit because of the drought in SE Ohio), so I have concluded that it is a cluster of male trees (like all but one of the hundreds of paw paws). If the trees are cut down is there any chance that I would get root sprouts?
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If you can graft then you might want to try topworking in the springtime about when the buds are swelling and temps are steady above 70 F. If you obtain scions from someone who has a fruit bearing tree you could bark graft the fresh cut stump about 3-4’ high. There’s a chance that if your grafts fail, the green stump would likely put out new shoots that would be easy to graft also. Would be worth trying several that can get full day sun. Worth trying I think
Dennis
Kent wa
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Dennis. Thanks. The alligator bark is at least an inch thick so I’m leaning towards knocking a bunch of them down at 3-4’ and sealing the cuts (to prevent disease/rot) and seeing if they will root sprout.
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Persimmons sprout prolifically from the roots… 40, 50, 60 feet away from the trunk, anywhere the roots reach. I can show you persimmon sprouts in my garden that are 100+ feet away from the nearest tree. My trees are also in the 8 to 12 inch diameter range.
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I second that there should be root sprouts all around those mature trees that you could graft to.
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Have you grafted onto the sprouts? With the large root reservoir do they shoot like the grafts that TNHunter has shown?
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As other state below, you have many options, bark grafting is your earliest opportunity but does not forego grafting onto any suckers later. If you have a 8”-10” trunk where you cut it off, use about 3-4 scions equally spaced around the perimeter. The scions may be Asian or native! So you could readily have a multi variety tree producing fruit and still choose well spaced suckers to graft in later years. You will need to cut off all suckers that emerge that you do not graft to prevent them overcoming your scion takes. To bark graft thick bark just trim down the exterior so that only about a 1/4” of bark remains to lift nd insert the scions. You can then use Tnhunters method of the large rubber to cinch up the bark around the scions while the grafts take. It’s really not very difficult once you trim down the thick bark.
Good luck give it a try, with so many trees to use! What have you to lose!
Dennis
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Sorry, this does not work with persimmon. Root sprouts keep coming up year after year until you finally in desperation use a tractor and chisel plow to rip up the roots. Ask me how I know this. 
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That would be perfect. Once a year with DR bush mower will keep them in check. I started to say what do I have to lose, but thought about the fact of cutting 20 50 foot trees and thought better of it 
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I would not graft to a large persimmon stump.
Persimmon wood rots quick.
So such a graft would be doomed from the start. ( a hollow ,rotten trunk ) 2 inches is my max size for topworking persimmons.
However, if a large persimmon is cut to the ground level during the dorment season,as has been noted, it will send up many sprouts. Select several of the largest of these for topworking ,well spaced ,in some sense of a row.
Can just mow the area,leaving a unmowed row ,which will come up with persimmon sprouts.
Thin to 10+ ft. And top work.
This is how i got started with persimmons.
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I have a spot in the field behind my house… where there is a cluster of persimmon trees… 25-35 ft tall… 2 inch to 5 inch diameter.
None of those have fruited yet so i assume they are males.
I have much smaller females in other areas that have been fruiting for several years now.
I whacked off a few of those (assume males) and grafted to them this spring.
The pic above was taken back in July… it is Rich Tooie … bark grafted to a 5 inch diameter wild DV. I whacked it off around 4 ft and grafted to it.
Not sure how it will work out with that 5 inch diameter area trying to heal over.
I whacked off a few other larger wild dv like that… where the graft failed (psyllids attack)…
A month after the graft failed… lots of sprouts from the rootstock came out. Some near the top edge of that cut and some down lower too.
One that i did that too… had a really nice rootsprout come up just a few inches away from the base of the stump.
It has grown well… and will make excellent grafting rootstock next spring.
TNHunter
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This little 2 inch diameter dv… was a female and fruiting already… but the fruit set was 20 ft up the tree.
I lopped it off at 4 ft… and added 2 bark grafts that failed… and after they failed… i just let the wild rootstock produce several shoots. It made several but i pruned off some leaving these 3 to grow.
Hopefully that heals and when it does fruit again the fruit will be within easy reach.
Ps… i had a much higher success rate on w/t grafts to 1/4 to 5/16 diameter smaller persimmon seedlings out in my fields… than i did to larger trees with bark grafts.
Those dang psyllids need to be controlled or they will just wear out that new tender shoot growth.
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