I got mine from Schlabachs nursery. Their catalog doesn’t list persimmon but when I asked them they had ungrafted rootstocks.
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I got mine from here https://thetreestore.info/american-persimmon-tree-jumbo/ , fox river nursery, and a local farm. I recommend buying a larger rootstock to get better growth. Smaller rootstocks accepted the grafts, but they grew very little. We can trade scions so add me to that list!
@cousinfloyd I’d love to see pictures of your trees.
@thecityman I found some dried Saijos imported from Japan. The sweetness did not bother me at all! They went great with tea.
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Mine were potted rootstocks that I used. I’ve waited two to four weeks later to do my persimmons from my jujube/mulberry grafting. It’s really important to let the temperatures get up. (70’s-80’s). I’ve kept them in the shade and covered them with insect screen netting to prevent psyllids from eating them up. And yes…check them often for sprouts. They will show up as little red growths that you can just feel on the rootstock trunk. My rootstocks have been well leafed out when I’ve grafted them and I’ve had really good success.
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Yes, I have Honey Jar and Sugar Cane. You are right, some might think they are too sweet, but again, for me there is no such thing! ha. But I think Saijo fruits are much sweeter than even jujubes. But its hard to compare since the texture is so different. I’m not at all sure what the brix difference would be.
On the subject of grafts, all of my attempts have been onto Virginiana, but not always the SAME one. I’ve done them in late spring when weather is in low 70’s. I think I’ve gotten that part right since my grafts have mostly taken and grown well for about a month or more- enough to prove they are not just using reserved energy in the scion because in many cases they have grown for a few months and put on as much as 2 feet of growth. But then I look at the union and find almost no callusing connection. All this being said, I fully admit the problem is likely to just be my grafting skills. I do great with apples and pears and even plums, but I also don’t have luck with peaches, so its likely just me. I do simple omega grafts with a grafting tool, or else just a very basic whip graft using pencil sized scions to same size root stocks. I’ve done a few clift grafts using pencil scions and 2-3 inch root stock, and had same results…takes at first, but eventual failure.
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I have access to a large source of Virginiana persimmon seeds from a giant tree a couple miles from my house. I’ve sent some to Andrew before and would be happy to send you some if you want to try and stratify them and get them to grow this spring. PM me if you want some, though it will be a couple months before they are ready. Same offer to others here.
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If I lived closer to you @thecityman , I’d just come over and graft them for you. I’m no pro but my potted rootstocks had good takes this past year.
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Last year I got the chance to enjoy 2 JT-02 fruits and they were very rich and sweet. I liked them a lot. This year there were four fruits at 2 3/4 inches in size but in the last 9 days We had 10 inches of rain and some flooding in the low area of the yard and all 4 fruits aborted. Bummer!! I was looking forward to eat them again in late October again.
Tony
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You don’t have to tell me, my friend! I’ve seen your work on that pear tree…it is just a perfect looking graft. In fact, you can barely even tell where it is now, which is the sign of a great graft!!! I just don’t have knife skills at ALL. That is why I use those Omega grafting tools pretty often. I fully concede that they don’t make for a great graft connection in many cases, but I do better with those than free-handing whips. No matter how hard I try and follow instructions the only make one cut, I usually manage to scoop out the cuts to the point where they don’t meet flush! This winter I’m just going to cut a bunch of wood for the sole purpose of practicing my knife skills.
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That’s very sad, Tony. 2 3/4 inches sounds very large for a hybrid. Hopefully you’ll have many more trees producing next year because you made so many more grafts of this variety. I hope mine fruits in a couple years. I like the benefit of not having to worry about winter survival here.
I found out I get to go to Japan again next month in the middle of persimmon season. This is very exciting.
@thecityman Thank you for the kind words! The pears are only a success if they fruit for us though! Let me know and I’ll just graft some persimmons and mail them to you worst comes to worst man. I have so many extra rootstocks still in pots, since I was being a negative nancy and didn’t expect good results.
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Hi Kevin, I was offered Saijo wood from another member. Sorry to barge in like that and ask for scions but I’m all taken care of now.
Dax
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Joe,
Have you eaten any American and Asian persimmons? Their taste and texture is quite different. Some people like both. Ithers just one but not the other.
Asian persimons can be eaten while crunchy (I like it that way). Most are mildly to moderately sweet.
American persimmons need to be soft ripe to lose its astringency. If you do not like soft, gooey texture, American persimmons are NOT for you. The American persimmons I have tasted are Prok. they were intensely sweet and perfumery. Too intense for me. I cannot eat more than a couple at a time. Otherwise, I feel nauseated. I am not alone.
Nonetheless, there are many American persimmon fans who love the intense taste and gooey texture. They would not touch Asian persimmons.
My NG is on D. Kaki and was from Burntridge 4 years ago.
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The persimmons are not even for me. I’ve tried store-bought Asian persimmons that I didn’t like, but that’s not a good sampling so I don’t know if I’d like them. My neighbor grew up eating them, in Italy. He’s 70 and doesn’t use a computer so I’m trying to help him.
I asked him some questions about this today. He says they are soft and when I asked if they’re “astringent” he said “yes you do not want to eat them too early”. I asked him if they look anything like the persimmons at the grocery store and he said no. Sounds like the persimmons he likes are the American type.
Today he told me to buy the two best, whatever they are, for our region. His wife wanted the pears, peaches, and apples. I had given them a print out of apples and pears to consider, but turns out the wife doesn’t like the idea of ordering trees from the internet. So they’ll be buying those trees from a local nursery. She somehow got Mr. “I hate spray” to agree to spray whatever fruits they buy at the nursery.
How is your NG holding up in your zone 5?
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Thank You.
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In socal they sell two kinds of Asian persimmons.
Fuyu is the crunchy type
Hachiya is the astringent type
https://ediblelandscaping.com/products/trees/PersimmonAsian/
Hachiya is what I have. The tree is in a 18 gallon pot protected by the tulle.
I will pick when the fruits turn mostly orange and still firm. They will soften on the counter and will be very sweet. Otherwise, all the animals love them when ripen on the tree.
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Yes, there are astringent and non astringent tyoes among Asian, too.
That’s (H-120) the one which has been pretty precocious for me.
I’m not sure if there were other mitigating factors, but the other half of the H-120 tree was Kassandra and it died during the winter of 2017-18. Until that point, it was actually the bigger part of the tree.
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Just saw this thread… and I have two comments:
- NG- I had a lot of problems with fruit drop from NG. I would say this is the first year where I am satisfied with the yield. Tree was planted maybe in 2014 and was likely grafted by the supplier a couple years prior. I love the fruit quality (better than saijo), but you can expect good yields in about 7 years. It is noticeably more cold hardy than saijo in zone 6b NJ.
- Saijo is marginally hardy in zone 6b. It exhibits extreme dieback in cold winters, even when planted in a protected area (shed was blocking cold winds). I now planted it in a pot, and am debating whether it is even worth keeping… however it is very productive after warm winters. It yielded a lot of fruit last year- it was my most productive. I probably should have removed some fruit because I noticed the fruit quality was not very good. Taste was quite bland…
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I’m guessing your winter lows were around -2 last year for NJ area. That’s what we had. How much die back did you see on Saijo?
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Bob
I am all in with JT-02. It is the one in Z5 for me. Kassandra the top half died at -20F.
Tony
Here are all my JT-02
I kept one Rossyanka
One Kassandra
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Wow- you really are all in with a dozen of the same tree. It’s like how I keep putting Honey Jar and So everywhere. 
I’ve got plenty of rootstock suckers left from my failed attempts at growing Asian persimmons. Maybe I should graft them over to JT-02.
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