@Rogers44
Welcome to the forum. Years ago i know @Lucky_P got Valeene Beauty, Brace #1 , and Brace #2 persimmons from Don Compton at Marengo, Indiana. Donald is 80 years old, he was born in 1943. He could have some health issues and may be unable to respond right away. We all slow down as we get older. Donald Compton’s address is 4400 County Road 890 S, Hogtown, IN 47140. You might try to send a letter. I don’t know him personally but several on this website do know him. Here are some of the many fruit growing topics where he is mentioned.
I’ve heard good things about it. It looks huge and has a nice red color. Apparently a lot of the stuff coming out of Don Compton’s breeding work is pretty impressive. I wish I new more about him and what he is up to. I understand he’s pretty reserved and keeps to himself. Does anyone know more?
I saw a Don Compton post once that walked you through hand pollination. He showed a picture of a mirror that he tapped the male pollen onto.
You could see the pollen in the picture.
I hate to be the party pooper, but I should point out that even if you got a non-astringent hybrid, it could taste like a dud.
I tried a few pounds of different hybrids from persimmon collector Don Compton’s place. Ross and Kassandra were rather uninspiring to me (decent size though). I’ve had tastier D. Virg. Nikita’s Gift was stellar in comparison - rich, flavorful, good sweetness. NG is probably only hardy to zone 6b.
The original purpose to use D. Virg was to confer BOTH benefit of hardine…
Jay,
Just a couple of quick corrections for that table… ‘Brace #1’ is/was a selection from Don Compton of Marengo IN… the material tested may have come from me, or someone I shared scionwood with at some time after Don shared it with me.
‘Keener’ has often been alleged to be a D.v.XD.k. hybrid, bred by Luther Burbank, but Jerry Lehman went over Burbank’s notes with a fine-toothed comb, and found no indication that he was ever able to successfully hybridize the two species. There is really not…
Donald Eugene Compton from Indiana is the breeder of (DEC Large Morris Burton).
Jerry Lehman told me, years ago, that year-in/year-out, at his orchard and at IN NGA taste-tests at the Jim Claypool orchard, Early Golden was invariably chosen as the best-flavored persimmon.
Is that still the case, with all the newer selections that have been made from breedings made by Jerry, Don Compton, David LaVergne, Cliff England, etc. - and made available in the last few years? IDK.
Don Compton of Indiana, USA reportedly obtained a 120 chromosome, octaploid d.virginiana by treating with Orzalin and using a pressure chamber.
Hi, Everyone,
Outside of my own tree crops exploits, I’m working with the Savanna Institute to improve a handful of woody perennials to be suitable for the upper midwest. One of our targets is the American persimmon, and before I write more about what we’re doing, I want to make an ask:
We need to harvest fruit this year for seed. A lot of it, around 800 pounds or so from named cultivars of 90 chromosome D. virginiana. Due to our breeding protocols, we’ll need to keep track of which fruit came…
Don Compton has a bunch of Morris Burton crosses growing in his orchard from seed he got from James Claypool when James got too elderly to continue. They would have been row M in the Claypool orchard.
This is one that Donald Compton using a pollinator-seedling he named ‘Thor’ x ‘Rosseyanka’. It’s the only photo I have.
It is monoecious, having male and female flowers on the same tree; many-male flowers as shown when groups of peduncles in more than one gather from a single location.
It’s listed in England’s Orchard and Nursery Decemember 2022 Trees & Shrubs Catalogue
[Thor x Rosseyanka hybrid persimmon]
A friend mailed me some fruit from Don Compton’s place (minus the Jiro which is grown at my friend’s place). Picking out the largest and smallest of those to give a sense of size variation.
There was a larger blue fruited persimmon, but got smashed and arrived spoiled. Of what little blue fruited persimmon I have sampled, I’m not that impressed. The aesthetics make them very pretty and stark contrast to other “regular” persimmon, but they lack flavor, sweetness, and have a gritty texture.
My f…
For those of you who enjoy history, I came across this newspaper article from Oct. 1955 regarding the winning fruit at that year´s Persimmon Festival – the ¨Lena¨ aka ¨Mitchellena¨, the seed parent to Claypool´s I-94 (later named ¨Valeene Beauty¨ by Don Compton).
The fruit was entered by Delbert Slaughter (1899-1970) and named in honor of his wife, Lena Stevens Slaughter (1901-1996). An article later that December reports that he was considering changing the name from Lena to Mitchellena to h…
Don’t know yet, one of Don Comptons creations. Pictures of the fruit looked acorn like, something like Geneva Long. Has male and female flowers. I started one last year but only got male flowers so far this year. When it fruits I’ll be glad to report.
This year was my first try at controlled breeding of persimmon - taking my cue from James Claypool, Jerry Lehman, and Don Compton. Looks like the pollinations took. Fingers crossed that I get mature seed in the fall. My crosses this year are:
H-118 x C-88
I-94 x C-88
L-89 x C-88
Had a bit of subterfuge by a crafty bumblebee when I unbagged one of my branches. No sooner did I get the bag off, and he flew in and crawled all over the flowers I had been isolating. Couldn’t have been any more eff…
I’m surrounded by what should be predominantly 60C natives… but have been growing 90C fruiting selections for over 25 years… have open-grown 60 & 90 trees next to one another in the orchard (presumably all on 90C seedling understock, but I can’t attest to chromosome numbers on them… I don’t see any noticeable difference in height between the two.
My impression is similar to zendog’s… tall, vertical persimmons are growing in a ‘forest’ setting… requiring that they adopt a ‘timber’-type growth ha…
1 Like