I’m more of a persimmon tester than an expert. As a tester only one persimmon has really held up to our frequently -25F - 30F winters and blazing hot summers and did exceedingly well. That persimmon is H-118 (Early Jewel) aka prarie star. Prarie sun does ok here as well. I grafted 15 to early golden that did not survive the winter. I love the taste of early golden though it doesnt do well here. H118 i grafted later in the year and had no winter die back. There are likely many others that will do well though i wanted to highly recommend h118. Prarie gem, prarie star, prarie sun, prarie dawn aree likely a great place to start your collection American Persimmon - One Green World
Prairie Gem - Claypool F-25
Prairie Star - Claypool H-118
Prairie Dawn - Claypool H55A
Prairie Sun - Claypool A-33
I highly recommend reading through this thread
Many persimmons cannot handle heat or cold or wind, are to small, to seedy, have an off flavor, grow slowly, or have an undesiriable color. Keep in mind my limited experience in kansas is different from other places.
I am considering replacing an aging bradford pear in the front yard of my townhouse with an improved american persimmon variety, and am researching the ones you mentioned. Would you or any of the other growers have a recommendation? I am looking for a tree that will be under 25 ft at maturity even if unpruned, self- fertile, good for fresh eating, and that has ornamental foliage (subjective).
And I also wanted to ask about the roots - If they will be sending up suckers into my neighbors yard 20 feet away. that may be a deal breaker. But I am most interested in the claypool / prairie selections. I am in Frederick County, MD - 7a. Thanks in advance!
I’m no expert, but it sounds like you want an Asian Persimmon (generally shorter trees with glossy “ornamental” foliage) and/or an American grafted onto D. lotus rootstock - which are suppose to be non-suckering & semi-dwarfing.
What variety you place on top of those roots probly won’t matter too much. Maybe reach out to Plant Path Nursery (Knoxville, MD) & see if they have a specific recommendation for your area.
That’s so interesting. Asians grow large here. 20 feet is easy in about 7-8 years.
Meanwhile my 7 year old H118 American is only maybe 7 feet tall. It sets a lot of fruit and stays dwarfed.
Welcome to the forum! You will find plenty of answers here. I know that i sing high praises of H-118, but i agree with @ramv mine is literally 7 feet tall and covered in fruit. Not every persimmon works for me in Kansas.
Im going to visit my local Asian persimmon that i visited last year to see if it made it thru last winter. Last winter here was below zero a few times and zapped alot of my Z7 blackberries… so im very curious to see if it is going to give fruit again… even though it looks to be a decade or two old already.
I still havent figured out what it is and nobody wanted scions so maybe its common.
@clarkinks@ramv
What do y’all have your H-118 grafted onto? It’s my understanding that “dwarfing” D. lotus & D. kaki rootstock is way more common out West compared to the South-Eastern U.S.
I’ve only seen a few D. kaki that were big enough to climb, but some varieties definitely grow taller than others.
@krismoriah
Got any pics of this mystery persimmon?
Great wall and Tecumseh are two very ornamental Asian persimmons with very showy fall colors that stay less than 25’ tall when mature (great wall less than 20’) and are totally cold hardy to your location
I’m no expert, just a home owner who likes to grow some fruits in the yard. I just got my first 6x fruits from Prairie Gem - Claypool F-25 tree this year. It was a potted 2 galllon grafted tree brought locally from https://windridgelandscapes.com/ in 2023. It’s been surviving our zone 6a/6b winters for 2 years now. My questions is why do I have 3 to 4 seeds in each fruit? I do not have any other persimmons trees that flowered this year in my yard other than this Prairie Gem. I know for sure my next door neighbor do not have any.
For the cold hardy persimmon Meader, reviewers on this forum growing it far north of native persimmon range (too far north to have encountered other persimmons) comment they still get some fruit having seeds. Thus I’m about to summarize back to you what I’ve seen written in response.
Your persimmons come from Jim Claypool’s breeding work. In his breeding work, Jim used some persimmons that produced both male and female flowers. In fact generally speaking, Northern persimmons have 90 chromosomes and the females can sometimes produce male flowers, the percentage of male flowers varies by cultivar.
Thanks, I did look for male flowers and didn’t find any. The tree is still pretty small but I could of missed them. I only saw female flowers. I even took a picture of some. I’ll make sure to double check them this coming spring.
I’m used to the Fuyu store brought persimmons since they are larger and seedlless. These 6x were very good but I didn’t have enough to eat since they were small and full of seeds. Hopefully I’ll get more this coming year. They were only 1.5" wide.
I think it was about 4 feet tall. It grew about 3’ in 2025. Here’s a picture of it in May 2023 before I planted it.
Thanks for the reply - I ended up buying an H-118 from One Green World and put it in another full sun, unprotected location here in Jefferson MD. Can’t wait to see how it does.
