I bought a Great Wall kaki persimmon tree from Just Fruits and Exotics a few years ago. It is fruiting for the first time this year, and I’m wondering if it’s the real deal. The reason I have doubts is because I also grow Tecumseh persimmon, and the fruit are supposed to be similar based the descriptions in the Persimmons for Maryland publication (downloadable here: Asian persimmons for zone 6b and 7a - Threefold Farm )
Here are my photos of Tecumseh fruit on the left (5.4oz) and Great Wall on the right (12.1oz).
My Tecumseh trees are very vigorous and require a lot of pruning to keep the fruit within reach of a step ladder. My Great Wall tree is one of my least vigorous persimmon trees. The fruit does not seem similar to me at all. I didn’t weigh other fruit, but the ones in the picture are representative of those on my trees this year. Tecumseh fruit has distinct lobes and is much smaller. I wanted to see if anyone else is growing Great Wall on the forum and could tell me if it looks like mine.
@Lucky_P You mentioned Great Wall in another of your posts today, so I thought I’d tag you on this in case you’ve seen GW fruit and could tell me if the fruit on the right in the pictures could be GW. Thanks!
@ncdabbler Would like to hear your feedback on great wall persimmon!
I read that the Great Wall Persimmon has dry flesh when ripe—has that been your experience?
Also, does it show vibrant fall colors like in the picture?
@LeafAndPetal Welcome to the forum!
I grow a couple dozen kaki persimmon trees, and this one that I bought as Great Wall is one of the slowest growing of all of them. It has droopy branches and doesn’t seem inclined to grow upright at all. It does have nice fall colors this year, but so do most of my persimmons with a few exceptions (Rojo Brillante and Giboshi have yellow leaves, and no orange or red at all like most of the others). I’m not entirely convinced it is Great Wall because the fruit is so large. It’s the largest persimmon fruit I’ve ever grown, and a friend who is familiar with Great Wall says they are much smaller - just a bit bigger than Nikita’s Gift. The fruit quality is quite good - astringent but very juicy. It reminds me most of Eureka in terms of the shape and size of the fruit, but Eureka has distinct lobes, and this persimmon has even larger and rounder fruit. I suspect that Just Fruits and Exotics may have sent me another variety called Lindy’s Giant that I’ve seen on their website. The picture and description sound similar to what I have, but I don’t know for sure. But if the real Great Wall is more like Tecumseh, then it’s probably a fine tree. Tecumseh is my most productive persimmon cultivar. It is very productive and very late. It has consistently vibrant fall foliage. It’s a very vigorous tree that wants to get quite large. The fruit are small for kaki, and I slice and dehydrate most of them, but I think the quality is good. Larger fruits like Giombo or Eureka are much easier to harvest and slice, but they haven’t been as productive for me as Tecumseh. I will probably try to get Great Wall scionwood from Fruitwood Nursery this winter to graft and compare to what I have.
From @PharmerDrewee’s post.
“From left to right are 2 each of the following varieties; H63A, Chocolate, Great Wall, and Nikita’s Gift.”
If it taste good you can’t really complain about a big persimmon. The first time I’ve heard of JFE messing up though.
You’re right, there’s no reason to complain about a big persimmon. I’ve been very satisfied with all my JF&E purchases, and even if this one was a mistake, it’s a distinctive persimmon that I’m happy to grow.
My Great Wall also came from JF&E and is a pretty slow grower with beautiful red fall foliage. The fruit is rather on the small side for me. The smallest Asian persimmon I grow. The pic shows 3 with 3 Giombo.
That looks like persimmons from my Great Wall tree. Ate one today that was very good- maybe the best soft persimmon I’ve ever eaten, but I had to grow it against a south facing rock wall that has soil leading uphill on the north side. I grew it at another 6A site out in the open and it died from temps a little below 0F.
JF and E lists it and several other kakis as being hardy to Z6A and it died from normal albeit a couple degrees below average lowest temp of the winter. Are the zones the company suggests stretching it? Are there hardier kakis than Great Wall.
Inchon seems to be regularly considered the hardiest of the Asian persimmons. If I remember correctly, @SMC_zone6 has kept it alive near Boston for many years while the others have gotten zapped.
The potential problem with ordering from JFE is that they apparently graft their persimmons onto southern rootstock. And so when I ordered from them a bunch of years ago to test out whatever might have a chance here in MA, pretty much all of their trees died from the rootstock up. That’s not a critique of them, it’s more on me from ordering from a southern nursery. But it’s something people should be aware of.
Yes. I’ve got Inchon grafted onto a hybrid rootstock that I grew out from seed. No problems with Inchon so far. I think the coldest it’s seen is -16, with no dieback. I re-grafted a bunch of other supposedly hardy kakis and hybrids onto established rootstock, but a lot died. Depending on the type of winter we have, I’ll be able to report back on like a dozen new varieties next spring.
