Thinking of trying my hand at budding native persimmon . I had a seedling bloom this year and it turned out to be male . I have 3 more the same age that did not bloom . So no idea on their gender . Anyway we are going to a family reunion for my wife’s family Saturday and they have a female tree . It is a hour away . Think I will get a couple of bud sticks and give it a try . I will leave some male limbs if this takes . I have waited years for this to bloom . I really want some fruit . I have about 15 new seedlings growing pots . Persimmon are rare in the wild here . Southern Illinois has lots of wild ones . Looking to add them to my wooded acres for the deer .
I haven’t done much persimmon budding but what I did do worked well. You are early enough that you can force the bud in a few weeks and get some growth on it this summer. Make sure there is a dormant bud well-formed at the base of the leaves, if the bud is not well formed enough it may be premature to bud the wood.
Thank you for the advise .
Is budding usually done on a vertical trunk/leader? Do you ever bud on a lateral branch? If I cut a bud stick off a friend’s persimmon a half hour drive from my property, do I need to put cut off all the leaves right away? Should I put the stick in a ziplock bag? Thanks
Yes cut off all leaves saving petiole as needed. Put into plastic bag and cooler if possible. Keep out of sun and cool until used.
So when would be the optimal time for persimmon budding? I tried T-budding persimmons in late summer (Aug or Sep) one year with no success. I haven’t hardly tried to bud anything, though, and never successfully, so timing might have had nothing to do with my failure. Budding sounds like a possible way to avoid persimmon psylla. Protecting grafts from psylla seems to really make a difference in success rates for me, but it really adds to the time/investment in each graft, so it would be nice to find a way around it.