Hybrid Persimmons Future Look Great

Hi @Barkslip , I live in Lincoln, NE

that’s a good place to try Gova Roman Kosh, for sure!

Bury the graft union a foot and don’t plant anything unless it has at least a 5-gallon set of roots and something like 3/4" is visible somewhere on it. The optimal tree @Fusion_power has told me is 3-4 feet and persimmons when I grow them a little past a 5-gallon (probably/maybe) are mostly 5’ I’d say. Those reach 3/4" for sure but are so tight together in my nursery they also stretch for sunlight.

So, think about those things. Do it. Go against complete horticulture rules of planting. The trees will be hardier, much; they won’t have issues 20-years from now for sure (we know that much today) and during these first 20-years they aren’t leaning either.

Later, if the tree survives a typical winter there (like -14 F let’s say for a day and several other days that test it like -10 and -12, where you have several “cold times” hopefully spaced) and then you find out how hardy it is again. If it’s still alive, then you begin the process like the Ukrainians do (if necessary - if you have a lot of dieback or a lot of cambial injury), you begin to pile dirt up against the trunk each late Fall. Go 3 feet high if you can. Go at least 2. Make a mound or volcano; pile as much dirt as you can against anything above ground & as high as you’re willing to do. And walk away and see what happens.

That’s how these things are going to have to go for further learning.

Thanks for your interest. I wish I could help you with scion but I have maybe 4" of scionwood of Gora Roman Kosh and a tree I already cut a lot of and I need to get flowers so I can breed… I need to back this one up.

Dax

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Thanks for all the details! Yeah I think maybe burying above the graft might be the best way to go then. And I’ll have to take a look at Gova Roman Kosh, haven’t done any research yet. But if it’s productive, largish, and tastes good, I’d be very happy.

-Jake

@Jake-5B
In case you haven’t seen it, we have a hybrid persimmon project here on GrowingFruit. Here’s a link to the data:

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Thank you! Seems like Mount Goverla probably won’t work in my area. Good to know this resource is available!

Welcome to the forum Jake! Here are some other related threads you might want to check out. To begin with a primer from Dax:

^^ This one has some pertinent side conversations throughout the thread, as does the one below

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Re the discussion of PV varieties, I found this paper very helpful. Note that the issue isn’t pollen per se, it’s seeds. Of course, you need pollen to get seeds. But clouds of pollen won’t make a PV persimmon non-astringent unless the pollen produces seeds.

Seeds matter if they produce ethanol, which is readily transformed into acetaldehyde, which precipitates tannins. So issue #1 is whether the seeds produce ethanol – and how much. Issue #2 is whether the flesh of the persimmon accumulates the ethanol that is produced.

As the paper suggests, PCNA varieties become non-astringent early, while still firm, because they never produce much tannin in the first place. PCA varieties stay non-astringent until very late in the ripening process because they produce tannin but they never produce much ethanol and/or they never accumulate the ethanol in their flesh.

On the other hand, PVA and PVNA varieties produce tannins (like PCAs) but also produce ethanol, more or less, and in addition accumulate the ethanol in their flesh. Accumulated ethanol is the key to PV non-astringency.

These issues may matter especially for hybrids because it is unclear how the seeds and flesh of American persimmons perform. The flesh does not seem to become non-astringent in the presence of exogenous ethanol, which may suggest that the flesh of DV varieties does not accumulate ethanol. If DV brings the wrong genes to the party, it may be very difficult to breed a fully PVNA hybrid.

2327-9834-article-p319.pdf (563.2 KB)

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Thanks for the help! Been looking around, maybe need to do some more research on other varieties. Glad all of this is available, and exciting to see if there will be any more hardy, seedless, self-fertile, heavy producing varieties in the future!

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Happy to help! Glad to see another interested member on the forum.

If I were you I would go with the American, Lehman’s delight (100-46) and JT-02 Mikusu Hybrid. just to keep it simple for starters, then try some others which are more of a risk/ for fun.

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Specifically, Prok.

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Thanks all! So far I have a male, Early Golden and Meader. I bought cuttings from Cliff England for JT-02, Rosseyanka, Prok, and Yates to graft onto the tops of some of the branches of my young trees. Hoping in a few years to get some good fruit! Never actually tasted these varieties, but I really like the Hachiya’s from the store. Did not care for the non- astringent Fuyu

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As you are in Z5B, you need the earliest ripening and least astringent varieties you can find. My own experience with Prok here is that it loses astringency very reluctantly. Growers in warmer regions may have different results, but it seems that those results may not generalize as we move north.

Also, my notes suggest. that 100-46 is a late ripener. I haven’t grown it, so you should check. The notes are based on reading comments by other growers.

Finally, my notes also suggest that both H63A and H120 / Claypool are early-ripening. I’m growing H63A but it is a young tree that has not fruited yet, so again check for yourself. H63A gets great reviews for flavor.

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Jake,
Also be aware that persimmon naturally ‘self-prunes’ lower limbs as it gains height… so, if you’re grafting onto lower scaffold limbs, within a few years, those varieties may ‘disappear’, as they’ll decline, die, and be shed off. Multi-variety persimmon trees generally don’t preserve multiple varieties as well as apples/pears do.

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Thank you @Lucky_P , that’s good to know. I did buy a few rootstocks, so maybe I’ll graft some backups of JT-02 and Rosseyanka on those, even though I plan to plant them at my parents’ house

That’s interesting … is it due to your climate, or critters, or does it also occur on D. virginiana in zone 8 and higher?

I’ve never observed it in southern CA on D. kaki.

It just seems to abandon internal and unwanted branches that seem otherwise fine with buds and thick growth. Definitely small thin branches are the first to get self pruned but even proper scions material is discarded. I can just touch various twigs in late winter and they pop off dead. It is pretty interesting since it removes the need to prune for the most part.

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I have observed the same thing here in SW MO. If you’re wondering if small branches are dead or alive just give them a little nudge and the dead ones pop right off.

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I’ve seen that behavior on Prunus branches pencil thickness or less, but never on anything I’d call a scaffold branch.

I have not seen it happen on large branches yet, mine are still small though so we must look to others to answer the question of how big. But I would still say it is an unusual amount of self pruning that is happening with the D.V.

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