Nice work @evilpaul those will grow up fast! The University of Kentucky are naming persimmons they like and why https://www.uky.edu/ccd/sites/www.uky.edu.ccd/files/persimmon.pdf
“‘Prok,’ ‘Killen,’ ‘Claypool,’ ‘I-115,’ ‘Dollywood,’
‘100-42,’ ‘100-43,’ ‘100-45,’ ‘Early Golden,’ ‘John
Rick’ and ‘C-100’ are excellent varieties that contain few or no black specks.”
persimmon.pdf (841.5 KB)
The University of North Carolina mentions a few as well Diospyros virginiana (American Persimmon, Common Persimmon, Date Plum, Eastern Persimmon, Jove's Fruit, Persimmon, Possum Apples, Possumwood, Simmon, Winter Plum) | North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox
I really like the fruitnut website since he is in the north and does a lot of great research! American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) – The Fruit Nut
Everyone has an opinion! Listen to MyWildOrchard opinions here My Wild Orchard
They seem to be leaning towards DEC types aka hobo woods
If your not familiar with Don Eugene Compton of hobo woods check this thread
Or this one
There is a huge fan group of @KYnuttrees who is breeding hybrids and American persimmons. Hopefully everyone realizes half the country or more only want cold hardy American persimmons. We like the idea of hybrids though most are not cold hardy down to zones 3 4,5, or 6a. There are many now that are very cold hardy to zone 6b. Many of us prefer the flavor of Americans and hybrids and not as much kaki types. Cliff is doing a great job at his orchard and honestly the best job most likely of preserving the works of claypool, lehman and many others. He is additionally doing lots of crosses himself. I wonder what his 30 favorites would be?
@jrd51 asked a very good question. He said what attributes do we want in our american persimmons?
I wish i could say everyone cares most about flavor like i do. My experience is they want low astrigency, seedless fruit, nice color with no black spots, fast production, heavy production, cold hardy, self pollinating, large fruit, short trees, disease free aka no spray, ripening times determinate or indeterminate based on unique situations. I prefer fruit that drops myself. In a large orchard of mature trees imagine cutting 10 acres of kaki. 10acres of americans is no problem we simply harvest after a dozen fruit fall.
@SMC_zone6 aka north orchard mentioned this about astringency but few seem to have heard his quote or noticed his observation of Jerry Lehmans work on this.
@SMC_zone6 said this
"L-104 Persimmon is a rare american persimmon that carries the potential for non-astringent breeding work. Jerry Lehman sent this one to me. Here’s what he had to say about it:
The one variety that’s involved in all of the 4 that have been identified
as having non-astringent characteristics is Morris Burton. There was a
doctor Sekar at UC Davis who was an expert in identifying kaki varieties
using electrophoresis. He wrote papers on the subject. In 1998 I had Dr.
Sakar do some work for me with the object to identify virginiana/kaki
hybrid’s and possible hybrids. As a basis in 1998 I did send him
actively growing buds of Morris Burton and other D. virginiana in order
that he could establish typical enzyme patterns for virginiana. In his
report back to me he stated that Morris Burton appears to share an
allele with kaki. I found that interesting and more interesting is that
Morris Burton is involved in all of the 4 varieties that were observed
to produce what Martha Davis and I call non-astringent fruit. That is
some of the fruits could be picked off the tree while still firm with no
astringency. Those 4 varieties were L-92, L-93, L-104 and L-104A. Morris
Burton is involved in all 4 of these. L-92 and L-93 are Szukis X F-100.
L-104 and L-104A are F-7 X Killen (using female pollen). Female pollen
is my way of identifying pollen from pistillate trees. Early Golden,
Garretson, Killen and Szukis will all occasionally put on male flowers
and in which case all the pollen grains contain only X chromosomes, none
contain O chromosomes which pollen from normal males contain 50% X and
50% O. All of the progeny using this female pollen are pistillate, none
staminate. Here are the varieties involved:
Morris Burton_Open pollinated virginiana discovered near Mitchell Indiana.
George_An open pollinated seedling of Garretson and is a grandson of
Early Golden.
F-7_Morris Burton X George
F-100_Morris Burton X George
L-92 and L-93_Szukis X F-100
L-104 and L-104A_F-7 X Killen."
What would Claypool or Lehman or any expert fruit breeder ask of us other than to continue their work on american persimmons after their death? https://growingfruit.org/t/jerry-lehman-has-died/21284