I want to plant some hybrid persimmon trees in my garden in southwestern Massachusetts (Zone 6a).
I’ve located a source of a couple of the cultivars I want, but they are grafted onto D. lotus rootstock. Will this make them less cold hardy than the same cultivars grafted onto D. virginiana?
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You want dv roots for sure
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Specifically, you probably want to use rootstock from 90-chromosome northern American persimmons rather than 60-chromosome southern American. There are a lot of discussions on here from people who actually understand the difference between the two, but what’s important is that the 90s are much more cold hardy. I’m here in 5A/B and wouldn’t be able to get away with 60s; you maybe could but seems it would be kind of a pointless risk.
I tried to source seedlings from state forestry or game commissions this year but was too late; apparently the Missouri and Iowa (as well as a few others) are good bets to have seedlings of the 90-chromosome type.
I bought some of the larger seedlings offered at Burnt Ridge but I need to call them to see if they know whether they’re 60- or 90-chromosome; I was also able to find some smaller seedlings at a non-horrible price from Cold Stream Farm in MI; I expect they’d be 90-chromosome in MI but I’m not 100% sure.
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I got rootstock from state forestry and from another seller.
But realized I needed even more rootstock this week, this is about $5.50 each plus shipping which seems decent (18-24" so i assume you can graft… hopefully).
(its about $5.50 cause if you get to the checkout page but leave, they email you a coupon code, which i believe was 20OFF)…
Note: they shipped immediately which is kinda weird for rootstock that is prob going to be used for grafting. I got the notification today and asked them if they could delay it till spring (which Im skeptical they got my email in time). So be prepared to throw them in soil if you get early.
Most D. kaki’s are not cold hardy to zone 6. I found it out repeatedly the hard way. My kaki grafts on lotus consistently suffered die-back and outright death over and over in z6b. Believe me; I tried. Z6a would do even worse.
You want D. virginiana roots, preferably 90 chromosome roots. And you’ll want to graft D. virginianas on top too. The only hybrid I still have the guts to trial is Rosseyanka, and the jury’s still out on that one.
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Skip Rosseyanka it is not that cold hardy. Sophies gift you might have a chance. This video will explain everything you need to know that @OckooMicrofarm posted. Rosseyanka is the great grandmother of sophies gift.
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The newer generations are cold hardy to Z6 if able to locate them. Some of the newer hybrids are 3, 4, 5 + generations past Rosseyanka now.
We’re working on making further improvements, give us a few years 
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Dar Sofiyivky is the first persimmon I saw and said “I want that!” I’ve seen a LOT of persimmon pictures over the years. I was fortunate that a friend gifted me a tree.
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Now y’all have me wanting to try Sophie’s Gift. I’ll wait to see if some of you other zone sixers see it survive a few of our winters.
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I’ve been growing persimmons in MA for awhile now and doing my own hybrid breeding work. I’ve probably said this elsewhere on the forum, but with persimmons it’s not just about how cold hardy the rootstock is, it’s about how long that rootstock will stay dormant. Especially since our winters and springs are so variable in terms of temperature. So I think the best approach is the long game approach of growing out your own hybrid seedlings, selecting for cold hardiness and late to break dormancy, and using those as your rootstock. But since that’s not practical for most people, your best bet is to go with the D. virginiana.
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Here at my southern TN location… i should have 60C southern DV.
Over my lifetime i recall lows of…
-17F… sometime in the mid 80s.
I remember deer hunting on -7F and -5F morings in the early to mid 90s.
There was no mass die off of persimmons or any other native trees after -17F here.
African Lions… are not not cold hardy to -17F.
2 in our county died of pneumonia about week after that.
At the time I was working at the lake resort that had 2 adult african lions (male ad female) and 2 hyenas. The hyenas survived… the lions did not.
The persimmons in our county survived -17F just fine. Hopefully we never see that again.
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Yeah, Rosseyanka isn’t wood-hardy in climates with short growing seasons, like the northeast. Meaning the new season’s wood doesn’t have enough heat & time to harden off for dormancy to survive winter. Southern rootstocks are often used as well by some commercial growers, which doesn’t really help the situation. It’s rather hardy if it has a long enough growing season & northern rootstock, though.
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All the hybrid persimmons will be tested in the next few days due to cold weather. It will be survival of the fittest in Omaha.
Tony
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tonyOmahaz5: I’ll be interested to hear about the impact of the really cold weather on your trees. Although my New England garden is currently rated as 6a, the current climate chaos means that my garden occasionally experiences similar plunges.