Just to update: my Saijo tree is totally dead. Even the branch of Prok is dead after gave me about 30 fruits last year after KSDS appeared. I grafted some American persimmons on the suckers from rootstock.
But my Hana Fuyu seems surprisingly survived and does well. Even the half dead branches have some new leaves and flowers. But it’s still too early to call a win, I will report back in the Summer.
I still think KSDS is more complicated than a single pathogen theory. KSDS rarely happens in kaki native countries such as China and Japan. My long wasted training in science tells me that DV rootstock is likely the culprit. In the future, I will only grow kakis on lotus rootstocks or kaki seedlings.
But I still have about 10 trees on DV rootstocks (mostly northern DVs) in different ages. It will be a not so fun experiment on going for a while in my yard.
3 Likes
Was your Saijo on Northern or Southern DV?
I am also not convinced it’s the pathogen. I think all of my kakis are on northern DV as I assume that’s what Starkbros uses (they don’t provide info on that…).
It’s crazy to me also that places like edible landscaping have Kakis that are 30+ years old thriving on DV. Looks like they haven’t had a KSDS case there
1 Like
Southern DVs (red young shoots on suckers).
The nursery you mentioned may not be immune to KSDS problems. I know many people have bought trees there.
I think the problem with DVs as rootstocks is that DVs were really not tested in large scale commercial productions (Israel had some orchards using DVs). The heterogeneous nature of DVs could lead to this kind of random KSDS happening.
1 Like
Pathogen-induced delayed graft incompatibility not a possibility?
Had some SDS-like symptoms on my Nikita’s Gift this spring:
Tree is grafted on D. lotus from Trees of Antiquity. Leaves wilted after development of black veins and dropped a few days later. Symptoms were localized on a few shoots with black streaks under the bark of the main branches running a few inches away from the infected shoots. There has been no further progression since I pruned off the symptomatic branches.
I don’t know if this is SDS, but if it is, that means that trees on D. lotus can get it, although maybe with just some dieback instead of the loss of the whole scion, and that it’s present to some extent in California. We do have Pierce’s disease here but with less efficient vectors than in the eastern US.
2 Likes
Any DV rootstock nearby it could’ve been transferred from via insects?
Unlikely. I do have a small Dollywood on D. lotus nearby, but that’s probably the only D. virginiana around for miles.
1 Like
