If you read the headline and asked, “What descendants?” then you get my point.
Ukrainian breeders crossed the breakthrough hybrid Rossiyanka with Kaki to produce Nikita’s Gift, which was crossed with Virginiana to produce Kolgospnytsya, Stepova Krasunya, Sosnovskaya, Chuchupaka, Bozhyi dar, and Universal. Kolgospnytsa was crossed with Virginiana to produce Dar Sofivievki. And of course, other growers tried lots of other crosses starting with either the female Rossiyanka or an offspring male.
The American breeder Jerry Lehman with Japanese help produced JT-02 / Mikkusu (DV Josephine x Kaki Taishu). Reportedly Cliff England produced JBT-06 by back-crossing JT-02 to Taishu. I’m not aware of much else.
Question 1: Is there anything significant happening with breeding out of JT-02 (that I’m not aware of)?
Question 2: If not, why not? JT-02 is decently cold hardy and it tastes good, though the flavor is mild and the flesh can be watery. But as a starting point, arguably it is a better persimmon than Rossiyanka (though I’ve never tasted Rossiyanka, so I’m inferring). The Ukrainian hybrids got many of their better qualities through the subsequent crosses on both the Asian and American side.
Why don’t we cross JT-02 with some promising male-flowering varieties that would provide (a) firmer flesh, and (b) enhanced flavor? A cold hardy variety would be best so that we don’t dilute that trait. So possibly a good choice would be an American (DV) such was Szukis? Or a Ukrainian hybrid such as Universal?
I think Steven had a seedling of JT-02 x open pollination by Cliff England. His tree fruited. He posted a photo a while back. He gave me a scion and I grafted it. Unfortunately the deer broke it off. I just grafted the Universal and planning to cross it with many hybrid persimmons like JT-02, Kassandra, Sosnoskya, Kuninaja and David Pierce hybrid persimmons like Kentucky Thanksgiving and the twins. Plus some of my own hybrid persimmons. Here are my new grafts.
I’ve been wondering about the potential KSDS resistance of JT-02 crosses since there are some reports of JT-02 being less susceptible than Nikita’s Gift or Kasandra.
I planted the 10 seeds of your JT-02 x open pollination with possible of Taishu, Chocolate or others Kaki male that you have. We just have to wait and see the fruits down the road.
Awesome. It was Chocolate (most male flowers by far), Coffee Cake (some), and Taishu (ditto). No other male-flowering Kakis (or hybrids).
Then there’s a remote chance of DV males. I tried to suppress root suckers but there’s a possibility of a random male DV flower.
I’m excited to see the results. Did all 10 seeds germinate?
And I look forward to your work with Universal. I know that Universal has strong endorsement as a pollinator, but would you consider using Bozhi Dar and/or Stepova Krasunya as well. By chance I was given Stepova Krasunya this year and I’ve got it grafted to Kasandra. So there’s an opportunity.
I have a Bozhi Dar in ground but it kept on dying to the ground level the last three years. It was not that hardy. I will update on your JT-02 seeds when they popping up above ground. Hopefully soon.
I got a couple of persimmon tree from Dax. I think one of them is a hybrid from Jerry Lehman called 400-7.
It got down to -15F in February of 2025 and -17F this February of 2026. It was a first year graft in 2024. I buried the graft union like 8 inches below ground. So it came back from the ground level the last 2 years.
You need more cold hardiness than I do. I don’t think I’ll ever see -10 F in my location.
But according to the Ukrainian breeders, Bozhi Dar and Universal are both good only (!) to -26 C. So neither one seems reliable below -15 F. I think that implies that either one might disappoint you.
Maybe you could prioritize cold hardiness (while preserving taste) and try crossing a good-tasting, reasonably cold hardy hybrid (female) with an American male-flowering variety such as Szukis (or any other Early Golden legacy). JT-02 might benefit from some added American flavor and marginally better cold tolerance. Or, Sosnovskaya seems to be (???) the most cold-hardy child of Nikita’s Gift released by the Ukrainian breeders, OK to -30 C. Maybe start there? Just thoughts.
If I do anything, it’ll require hardiness only to ~ -10 F. Early ripening will be a priority, which makes Universal a great choice. I want to see the children of Dar Sof x Universal.
How long has Rosseyanka been around? How long has JT-02 been around? IIRC, Rosseyanka and similar hybrids have a 50+ year head start. It will also take someone doing some serious breeding work to select enough seedlings from JT-02 to make a difference.
I have around a dozen JT02 seedlings which I grew from open pollinated seeds I got from Cliff around 2018 or thereabout.
So far only one has come into production though the fruit are quite nice with a strong rum flavor component.
I currently have a batch of 1 year seedlings going from that tree that are open pollinated either from a different JT02 male seedling or from Bozhi Dar.
This is the female tree however the central leader is actually a Gora Roman Kosh chip bud which I had to do an emergency graft of some years ago to save it.
Good stuff. Please keep us posted on results as they develop.
My main take-away is the time required. In 8 years, you have fruit from one seedling out of a dozen. Are there ways to accelerate the process? For example, could you graft sticks from a seedling to an established tree?
The location is definitely not helping. It is a very wind exposed spot, I never water them and we have a pretty arid summer in eastern Austria.
Oh and there is deer and rabbit pressure.
This female has been bearing for maybe three years now. I had the seedlings in pots for two years as well before planting them in the field. I am sure you could accelerate progress with better conditions or grafting to established rootstocks.
Then again this way I get some natural selection for traits that will ensure the trees are a bit more adapted to my local conditions
It seems that Rossiyanka was crossed in 1959, released to the public is the USSR in the early '70’s. Of course, Ukrainian breeders worked with it during the interim.
JT-02 was crossed in Japan (date uncertain), introduced by Jerry Lehman in 2006. I have no information suggesting that Japanese breeders worked with JT-02 after it was developed.
So the point is that Rossiyanka had a ~30-year head start. And since its introduction, teams of professional breeders have worked on developing new varieties from it. Apparently no professional breeders are working with JT-02.
The positive spin on this story is that, given effort, we might make progress developing hybrids using JT-02 comparable to what has be achieved using Rossiyanka. Some of those could blend the two hybrid lines, e.g. JT-02 x Bozhy Dar or Universal. Good luck with your attempts, @Nicholas.
