This question is still open years later. Who's Growing Improved American Persimmons? Suggestions welcome! . We move on now to discuss these same questions about 60 and 90 chromosome persimmon. Which graft easier? Cross pollinating becomes complexed. Persimmons | Center for Crop Diversification
" Persimmons
The American or common persimmon, Diospyros virginiana, is a slow growing, moderately sized tree native to Kentucky. Fruit are about 1 to 2 inches in diameter. Unripe fruit, which is high in tannins, has a bitter astringent flavor. The golden orange to red fruit are very sweet when fully ripened and astringency is reduced. Cultivated varieties may have improved quality and lose their astringency earlier in the fall.
Marketing
The Asian persimmon, which is not winter hardy in Kentucky, is more commonly grown commercially in U.S. orchards. There are ongoing efforts to commercialize the American persimmon. These trees are normally sold by nurseries that specialize in less common fruits and nuts. Interest in persimmon and other native fruits has increased with more emphasis on local, regional and “slow” food. Fruit may be marketed fresh, and persimmons are occasionally found at farmers markets across Kentucky. Persimmon can also be processed and the pulp sold as a frozen product. Value-added products include persimmon puddings, cookies, cakes, custards, ice creams, sherbets and preserves. Fruit may also be dried. Producers marketing persimmons at farmers markets and other direct marketing channels should provide persimmon storage, ripening and use information, as many consumers are unfamiliar with the crop.
Production
Persimmon cultivars vary in fruit color, size, shape and astringency. Earliness and tree size may also differ among varieties. Fruit of most varieties contain black flecks in the pulp, which are not attractive in the processed product. ‘Prok,’ ‘Killen,’ ‘Claypool,’ ‘I-115,’ ‘Dollywood,’ ‘100-42,’ ‘100-43,’ ‘100-45,’ ‘Early Golden,’ ‘John Rick’ and ‘C-100’ are excellent varieties that contain few or no black specks. Persimmons are normally dioecious; that is, trees produce either male or female flowers on separate trees. There is a 90-chromosome American persimmon that is native to the northern U.S. and a 60-chromosome type that is native to Kentucky and the southern U.S. Most of the named varieties are of the 90-chromosome type that set fruit parthenocarpically, without pollination. Thus pollination is not necessary for the 90-chromosome type and fruit are easier to process with few or no seeds."
https://www.orangepippintrees.com/articles/fruit-tree-advice/triploid-apple-varieties
" Triploid apple varieties
Most animals have two sets of chromosomes, inherited from the mother and father respectively, and are known as “diploid”. This is true of many plants too, including the majority of apple varieties. However several important apple varieties have three sets of chromosomes rather than two, and are known as triploids.
Triploid apple varieties have a couple of important characteristics which need to be considered when growing them:
- Their pollen is effectively sterile and cannot be used to pollinate other apple trees.
- They are usually not self-fertile, and therefore need another compatible apple variety nearby to pollinate them. (Some triploid varieties have a degree of partial self-fertility).
In short, if you are planting triploid varieties, it is best to to make sure you have the necessary pollinator trees nearby. You will need either one self-fertile apple variety (or crab-apple) or two other varieties which can cross-pollinate each other as well as the triploid variety.
Although the pollination requirements might be inconvenient, triploid varieties have several advantages which make them desirable for the home or community orchard:
- They usually produce vigorous trees, which can support large crops.
- The apples are often quite large.
- They usually display a good degree of natural disease resistance.
- They can often survive in difficult conditions.
It is perhaps no co-incidence that many well-known heritage apple varieties are triploids, because our ancestors would have found their large size and productivity very useful. Some of the best-known triploid varieties are:
- Ashmead’s Kernel
- Belle de Boskoop
- Blenheim Orange
- Bramley’s Seedling
- Gravenstein
- Jonagold
- Crispin / Mutsu
- Ribston Pippin
- Newtown Pippin
- Roxbury Russet
- Winesap
- Zabergau Reinette"
Ploidy comes up not just with grafting but also height , precocious, etc. Persimmon ploidy impact on height
jashs-article-p609 (1).pdf (125.0 KB)
" Japanese persimmon (Diospyros kaki) is a hexaploid tree fruit having a somatic chromosome number of 90 (2n = 6x, x = 15)."
Work is being done with kaki Allele-aware chromosome-level genome assembly of the autohexaploid Diospyros kaki Thunb - PMC