Sorry for the melodramatic title! Joined this forum looking for advice. Any wisdom is appreciated! Received a Nikita’s Gift 2w ago, grafted on D. virginana, 2-gallon pot. The graft is 32” high - is that unusual on a sapling? Was expecting something closer to soil line. Planted it this past weekend with the weather having cooled. Here’s my big concern: the roots. They circled and circled and circled. I delicately straightened out what I could and planted it, and as of today it still looks hale with leaves attached. But there were several roots I could not adjust because they were embedded. Cutting them would have removed most of the root mass. See photos. Will this tree likely not thrive? Already expecting fruit drop for a few years, hoping it doesn’t stunt growth and increase mortality too. I feel like just pulling it and planting something else rather than expecting disappointment for 4 or 5 years.
I would definitely cut the circling roots so it prevents the issue you are aware is very likely.
Something cool about American persimmon is it would almost certainly survive this even if you planted like that because it would send up a sucker that doesn’t suffer the same girdling. Of course that would be at the cost of your grafted Nikita’s Gift. They are pretty robust, I would cut the problematic roots to improve your chance of success.
Oh and yes 32 inches up for the graft is pretty tall, most of mine from Chestnut Hill Nursery were grafted maybe 6 inches from base.
I have purchased 3 bare root Nikita’s Gift trees and they all died over the past three winters. They were beautiful plants when I received them, probably 36 inches tall with great roots. They were planted in my orchard with our other 50+ fruit trees. I suppose they don’t like our 6b climate.
Never plant a tree with the roots circling the trunk.
Seconding the cut the circling roots advice, leaving them is the slow death option. The 32 inch graft height is unusual but not a dealbreaker, just means more trunk to establish. Persimmons are tougher than they look.
About how cold did it get during those winters they died? I had the same issue here but granted it hit -16 so even an established Nikita’s gift would struggle. The root sucker it put up since the graft died back is crazy, already nearing 6ft tall and it only started pushing that growth in July.
The coldest day last winter was January 26 at -7 degrees F, here in mid Missouri. The two years before were both between 0 and -5 degrees F. I had all the little trees ( about 4 feet tall) wraped in cloth tree wrap and had a 2 inch plastic tree tube over the wrap. An inch deep mulch was around the trunk.
Nikita’s gift seems to graft easily to kaki and americana.