For those who grow different Persimmons I would like to get your opinions!
I would like to start planting, how should I plant my persimmons this spring and in the future?
I have Kaki persimmons astringent and non astringent, also Hybrids and American varieties. (I might not have many but planning on getting more of each in the near future).
I would like to to know if you would keep them in groups of their own kind because of pollination (for those that need to be pollinated) or what would you all suggest?
I’m planning on planting them on a single row for right now but I might do a separate row in intervals with the first row in the future depending how many more varieties I can acquire.
My property is 3 acres, very long, wide up front and narrows down toward the back of the property.
Any thoughts, comments or suggestions would be appreciated!
My strong suggestion would be to minimize the presence of male flowers. As far as I can tell, there’s absolutely no need for seeds in American or hybrid varieties. There’s also no need for seeds in either astringent or non-astringent pollination-constant Asians (PCA / PCNA).
So seeds have a use only in pollination-variant Asians (PVA / PVNA). If you have to grow one of these types, you’ll need a pollinator – a tree or grafted branch that produces male flowers. If you choose to grow this type, I would isolate it to reduce the pollination off all the others.
Oh yeah, as I understand it, Asian and Americans won’t pollinate each other, so I suppose you could mix male PV Asians with your Americans.
For more information about breeding than you likely ever wanted to know, check this thread. You won’t need pollinators for any of them unless you want seeds in your fruit for breeding or for supposedly improving flavors of some Asian varieties. I’d stay away from Early Golden for this reason and any prodigy listed that produces male flowers.
Top 5 persimmons for taste and texture will give you a good idea on selections. If I lived in a warmer zone, I’d pick Saijo, Morris Burton (may give American seeds, research further), H63A, 100-46, Ichi Ki Kei Jiro, Giboshi, Kassandra, and JT-02. Actually I am planning on growing many of these myself. This is all based on here-say as I’ve only tried store bought fuyu, hachia, and wild American fruit. My Nikita’s Gift is getting bigger. If the deer and winter don’t decimate it again, I might see fruit in a couple of years.
If that’s the case, I’d focus on what your goals are for harvesting as pollinators are a non issue. Does it get sloppy in the back part of the property later in the year? I’d avoid planting late ripening varieties there. Focus on areas with full sun, stuff like that. Persimmons (at least Americans) grow fairly large and also can handle wet areas from what other members have found.
I thought that if you planted a persimmon that produces male flowers it can cause astringent varieties to become non astringent and this is the reason to plant those? Am I wrong? For example, isn’t Chocolate one of the only reliable producer of male flowers? Apologies, in advance, if I’m way off.
I’m in a zone 6a and I am growing Saijo, Rosseyanka, Mikkusu Kaki Hybrid, and JT-02. I also planted Chocolate and Coffee Cake in a protected area. but we’ll see how that goes. I just received scion wood for Morris Burton. I only started persimmons 2 years ago so no fruit yet.
I am very interested in seeing how they do for you Maureen! My parents have property in Blue Hill and I’m betting we could grow 6A there as well, I’d just be worried about the extreme lows and hopeful that being close to the bay would reduce extreme temperatures.
I’m near the coast, too, which helps somewhat to mitigate the extreme cold, although 4-5 years ago we had prolonged -27 at night. I hated that winter, but we all made it through. Now if that should happen again I’m sure those persimmons, whose zones I am pushing, wouldn’t make it here.
I am just starting with kaki persimmon, and don’t plan on segregating that way. I am going to mix the astringent and non-astringent so the sqirrels and other animals might get one and stop. Maybe all on all trees if I can manage to graft. I don’t know if that will make more difference than the trap, but it may help. I do have one PVNA, but I don’t know how much pollination it will get. I don’t currently have a Chocolate or other male-possible tree.
Hi @franc1969 Francine, thank you for your input. That’s what I need to heard from different people, that’s very important to see the different perspectives and that’s a good point or great idea on how to protect the non astringent varieties by mixing them all together.
This is correct with a caveat. If you grow PVNAs, you might prefer to have seeds to produce ethanol to remove e astringency. Seedless PVA/PVNA types are astringent like PCAs.
