Has anyone heard of this persimmon suppose to be claypool
Have not heard of that specific variety, but black and very dark blue persimmons are relatively common. I know the location of a tree in Fort Payne Alabama that is probably 60 chromosome and there are several discussions on the forum for 90 chromosome trees.
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Had not heard of it but i know how to find out more about it.
In warmer climates black persimmon is called black sapote but it is Diospyros nigra
Seedlings are around $50 and are zone 10 hardy
This is not to be confused with Diospyros texana
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The University of Texas at Austin.
Or to be confused with the frequently used rootstock black date plum Diospyros lotus which can survive zone 6 - 9 in my experience. It is used often for kaki or hybrid rootstock
Finally back to your question about Diospyros virginiana
This publication below discusses positives and negatives of this type of tree and its diseases. Specifically black spot later referred to in the Claypool documents.
We have discussed much more here Who's Growing Improved American Persimmons? Suggestions welcome!
Specifically this post Who's Growing Improved American Persimmons? Suggestions welcome! - #259 by clarkinks
Claypool Orchard Records copy.pdf (12.5 MB)
CLAYP.XLS (368 KB)
Claypool orchard 2005 (1).pdf (619.4 KB)
On page 30 of the 12.5 MB records of Claypools orchard we find G-78. It calls the color a 5. Skin was a 6. -35 degrees celsius = -31 degrees fahrenheit so it could be Claypools since it worked in his climate.
Unfortunately Jerry Lehman has passed away. The information is very limited we have.
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Wow thanks for all that information and for taking the time
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Youāre welcome. It looks like a variety well worth doing some research on by growing it out!
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Generally anything in that spreadsheet was bred specifically by Claypool. That column shows that G-78 was a cross of Juhl x George.
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Good points about the other āblack persimmons.ā I believe a few of the other palatable species also have black fruit, I think some of the ones in Indochina or Indonesia.
Itās interesting, from what I remember of Diospyros phylogeny, D. nigra is not all that close to D. virginiana. I belive D. virginiana, D. kaki, and D. lotus formed something of their own clade, being closest to a few southeast Asian species. And, again if Iām remembering correctly, D. nigra was somewhat closer to D. texana, but still not a very close relative.
Given the size of the genus, and the difficulty in crossing even members of the same clade, Iād guess itās one of those genera that really donāt like outcrossing or hybridizing between species. A bit like eucalyptus, and very not like oaksā¦
Man, reading about people like Claypool makes me a bit sad. Youād think universities and similar institutions would have recognized that they were working with a the vastly different climate than in the old world, and that they treasure trove of suitable species to improve on. They couldāve started some real deal institutionally-backed breeding programs back in the day. Weāve had big agricultural universities since the early nineteenth century at least, and yet even today they mostly just work with European and Asian stuff.
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I think a big aspects is that persimmons are hobby farm fruits or processed fruit products at best for their profit margin. fresh fruit market has the crunchy kaki for supermarkets. so the likelihood of them making profit form the research is low. The chance for making a lot of home orchardists etc very happy is high though 
.
Anyhow I agree it is a worthy task for people and institutes alike.
I donāt think we should give too much weight to the min temp claim on that website, I checked other virginiana pages and they also claimed -35c.
here they say Sophieās gift is hardy to -30c (-22f) which i think is clearly inaccurate.
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id be interested as its hardy here when no others are.
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Interested in Dar Sofiyivki? or in G-78?
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@harbin claims Dar Sofiyivky is fully hardy in Zone 5, and Iām inclined to believe most of what he says about Ukrainian persimmons:
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G-78. says hardy to -35c.
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I bet itās similarly hardy as the other non-hybrids and no more. So -31Fish seems about right.
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Anyone know anything about this one? Is it really blue?
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Anyone have luck locating G-78?
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