Two years ago I bought a bare root asian persimmon grafted on american persimmon. The scion never woke up and died. I just left it there. Here we are two years later and it has three rootstock shoots. It went all that time with no green at all and still survived. I paid $30 on sale, so guess it’s a $25 loss now. Now I’m thinking I should have left all the others I lost.
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They do seem pretty tough. Though they aren’t so tough when it comes to spring frosts/freezes. You can always graft it next year to make up for some of that loss.
My Prok was large enough to have fruited in 2020 but it got hit by a late freeze in May that caused hard dieback on all branches. It took a while to start growing again, maybe a month. What I didn’t notice til later in the year is that it got attacked by ambrosia beetles and was riddled with dozens of holes in the trunk and larger branches. But it did bounce back over summer and seemed ok. Then last year it grew quite well and developed over 50 fruit. It dropped most of them over the summer but I did get a dozen ripe ones in fall. And it got hit by a late freeze again this year… But seems to be growing back nicely at the moment.
It’s quite a vigorous grower when it’s healthy, but I’m still impressed that it can shrug off an ambrosia beetle infestation so easily.
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Same thing happened to me this year. Got an Asian persimmon grafted on an American persimmon root stock. Late freeze this spring killed the graft, but rootstock is now sprouting leaves. I bought some saijo scionwood and will attempt to graft that. The nursery I got it from is going to replace my tree but it’ll come in the fall, so win win.
American Persimmon seems like it can survive a lot compared to it’s asian counterparts. Some American Persimmon are rated down to zone 4. Most nursery say it can adjust to any kind of soil as well. I have a Prok coming next fall and will hopefully have 2 JT-02 coming. One from a member on this forum and one from a website I plan to buy on.
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We have it growing wild around here. I can run over with a brush hog and it’ll shoot back up in a week or two.
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I don’t think we have it growing wild around here in Colorado but that could be a good things for growing persimmon. If you only have females you get seedless fruit to my understanding. It is also to my understanding the cultivated ones like Prok or Jt-02 do not need a male to get fruit. So at least for me it is a win win situation.
And they taste better than the asian ones. I got three sprouts, so I’m feeling a three way. Lehmans Delight and ? and ?.
I’ll send ‘Lena’ to you next year if you can wait, Robert. It’s mid or mid-late (beyond Prok’s ripening). If you add Prok you’ll have, early/mid/late.
Lena is probably as good as Morris Burton. As to my knowledge, it is only female.
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That is encouraging because I thought Ambrosia beetle attack was a death sentence.
I may take you up on that. I’m sure I have a few items you might be interested in.
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I’ve got six varieties and Prok starts up way before the others. Maybe graft some other stuff on it to avoid losing all. Your right though it grows way faster and more than the others I have.
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