How’s Bozhy Dar compare to the other 2?
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Now I know they can be grown in Z8, although I don’t know how prolific their bearing is.
Re “how prolific” – I have Kasandra in the ground. The established tree easily produces >500 fruits. One year, before I started managing crop size, it produced ~1200. Fruits are small, as you can see, but they are numbers and delicious.
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Note that Bozhy Dar is monoecious, so it produces both male and female flowers. Male flowers can be a plus if you want to use the variety for breeding or a minus if you want your other fruit to be seedless.
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RI is an interesting climate. How low was the lowest temp you got last winter?
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The weather station at Providence airport (T. F. Green) says 1 F. That’s pretty typical. I’ve lived here 14 years and I’ve seen -7 F once, -3 F to -5 F a few times, 0 F +/- 2 degrees quite often. A few winters never dropped below ~8-10 F.
I’m on the water, which moderates temps. Inland 5 miles it probably gets ~5 F colder, more or less. In the summer, inland temps are 5-10 F hotter.
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I was fine at -7 but this winter’s -9 messed with Great Wall and to a lesser extent with David’s Candy. Great Wall seems to have lost all its small bearing wood, but vigorous new shoots are sprouting all over the place, including from the trunk itself. I’m not seeing the normal flowering on David’s candy either.
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When we got to -7 F in early Feb 2023, it killed all 1-2 year wood on IKKJ, But I had protected Sheng and Giboshi, so those suffered no damage. JT-02 suffered minor damage; Kasandra was unfazed.
Do you like Great Wall? I’m interested in it as a parent of Kasandra.
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My Luotian Tianshi is loaded with tiny fruit this year. Likely pollinated by PVNA kaki.
I will thin it and let maybe 1-2 ripen. Too much trouble with persimmon branches breaking.
Of course lots of other hybrids too in early fruit stage
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@ramv if you have any broken branches I’ll help you dispose of them!
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Bozhy Dar Was pretty good too!
For being the first year bearing fruit I was very impressed with. Nikita’s Gift and Kasandra, they produced about a dozen fruits each.
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I haven’t cropped it enough to provide a dependable evaluation, but last year it was as good as the Fuyus I buy at Asian Markets- the ones that are firm and deep orange. I’ve tried for years to grow a non-astringent that would survive here and I didn’t even think Great Wall was in that category- last year it was.
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Isn’t Great Wall an astringent kaki (PCA)?
That is why I was so surprised. Maybe mine is mislabeled and I’m just lucky. I don’t remember who I purchased the tree from. It clearly is relatively cold-hardy to have survived -9, even with some damage. However, I believe I’ve read that its astringency is variable, I guess depending on weather.
I just questioned CHAT AI about it and the fruit, based on nursery description should always be puckery until soft. The fruit I harvested was deep orange, firm and crunchy- completely non-astringent. I don’t think I will get a crop this year because of freeze damage, but at least the tree will create a lot of potential graft wood. I will know in about a week if it will produce flowers.
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Yes, Great Wall is PCA Kaki. This description makes me think that there was a labeling problem.
Your (Alan’s) damage at -9 F sounds very similar to mine at -7 F in Feb 2023. Maybe you have Ichi Ki Kei Jiro or similar.
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Lucky me. If I have fruit this year, which is looking unlikely, I will show you a photo. My expertise does not extend to persimmons.
And what if the next crop is astringent? Shall I have my brain inspected 
I grafted sosnovskaya female last year and have a few blooms this year. I let Cliff England choose for me. I wanted an October drop.
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Awesome. Ukrainians report it as hardy to -30 F (-22 F), so as cold hardy as any hybrid and in the ballpark with Americans. In Ukraine it ripens mid-October. Hopefully your season is long enough that it replicates here.
This variety is on my watch list. My main uncertainty is fruit quality. Please keep us posted.
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Here are the photos of step by step of how to plant a hybrid persimmon with the grafted Union 8 inches below ground for insurance. If the cold snaps of -24 F came to town and killed the tree to the ground level then it will resprout to the same grafted variety about the union underground.
Tony
The real Dar Sofivivky one month after bark graft. I used the medical tegaderm to wrap up the grafted union. The tegaderm had a better water seal than the regular para film. It is also a biodegradable in about 4 weeks. The grow bud can punched through it with ease and taking off to a new tree.
Dig a real deep hole
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