I’ve got a batch of Texas persimmon (Diospyros texana) seedlings that are about one year old or younger (some were very slow to germinate), and I haven’t seen much information about growing this species outside its native range, especially in our cool mediterranean/maritime climate. I figure it’s worth having a thread for this, and hopefully I’m not the first person to give this a try? I’d love to hear other experiences with it.
I do assume @Marta has grown it in the Sacramento Valley, since she sold scionwood this year, but unless I’ve missed it I don’t think she’s blogged about this species yet. And while that’s closer to our climate than the native climate, it’s still pretty different in temperatures, winter sun, and rainfall/humidity.
There are a few threads on this species generally, including this one where I’ve shared photos of my seed germination journey for this batch:
Here’s a post in that thread with my discussion of the ripe fruit that were sent to me by a now-former forum member in Texas:
This older thread has also had some good discussion:
The one year-old seedlings that I planted out last year seem to be only slightly damaged by our recent hard freeze, where I had a minimum of 14.7°F. Here are a couple of those:
The real test will of course be how well they grow this coming season after a full winter of very unusual weather compared to where they evolved.
I have about a dozen seedlings in total, with long-term plans to try to hybridize the species with the black sapote (D. digyna), which has the same ploidy and non-overlapping native range. I haven’t been able to find any reported attempts to make the cross. I’ll need the black sapote to be indoors, which may be challenging because those trees get huge. But that’s a future-me problem.
Yes, my trees are doing fine in my new orchard. I grafted them in spring of 2020 with the wood from two females that was sent to me in one bag. This means I don’t know if I have one or two unique females grafted. I have 3 grafts, and each goes under its number. Hopefully, in few years I’ll taste the fruits and will know how similar they are. The trees could be larger by now, but they had a difficult childhood. I had to move them from one orchard to another. In between the orchards, for over a year they had to sit potted in 30 gallon bags in my yard waiting for the new ground to go in. Anyways, I just posted a short https://youtube.com/shorts/NGCIHzfuqNI?si=ntp_PmEU5GOaoQmx
Those look great! That’s more growth than I would expect for this species in 4 years, that’s promising. Everyone talks about how slow-growing they are.
No, I don’t have a male. They should make the fruits without pollination, but if in a couple years I still see these not holding the fruits well, I’ll graft a male.
I’m hoping they do not produce seeds in the absence of pollination, though, as that would complicate my hybridization plans. My thought was to only have female texana and hit them with pollen from a bisexual digyna cultivar.
I’m not growing it on my place, but i had not encountered a seedless one in the wild. Maybe it’s because they receive plenty of attention from pollinators though.
