I’d think the freshly planted rootstock didn’t work well because the roots weren’t well established, rather than because the top was cut off.
For sure! I wish I had waited on all the persimmon grafting until they were rooted in.
I still think more growth can be had with dormant grafting. Summer pruning does not encourage viggerous growth…which is wanted with newly grafted trees. From what ive seen, winter pruning (or top removal) lends to more rapid growth in the first year.
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Did Tam Kam grow for you? I read that some non-astringent persimmons are not compatible with D. lotus.
Here is my D. lotus seedling, it is 9 years old and about 20 ft. tall. It died to the ground for the first couple of years, I have been waiting for it to flower and have neglected proper pruning but would like to graft it. I wonder which trunks to keep, and if it would be better to prune this year and graft the next.
It seems that non astringent varieties from Korea (Tam Kam, Gwang Yang) are fully compatible with lotus, same with Hana Fuyu. Japanese varieties Fuyu, Jiro, Izu and all the relatives are not compatible with lotus.
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Thank you very much Pavel.
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Tam Kam did grow for me – but a wicked Santa Ana wind blew it off – so I can’t confirm compatibility. But I have never heard of non-astringent/astringent compatibility issues. There is lots of commentary about Fuyu not being as compatible with D. Lotus, but I don’t think that is true either. You’ve got a mess of trunks there – I’d try to keep the most upright one, and of course clean up everything. This thing will sucker like mad after you graft it – so be prepared for that.
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Jiro is always grafted to Lotus here on the West coast and it grows great. Izu is also sold grafted to Lotus and also does very well.
Lotus is a great rootstock for many/most? kakis.
It is a mess for sure, and that is a good reminder about suckers… I’m a little afraid that too much vigor will be bad for its cold hardiness so I will probably leave some trunks alone this year. Thanks.
Frankly, I haven’t tried Jiro on lotus since many sources did not recommend it. There is always virginiana at hand and it is much hardier and deeper rooted…hence more drought tolerant than lotus. I can live with suckering and sometimes it can be advantage if it comes up far enough from a mother tree…just graft it and you’ll have another tree without much effort.
I found Virginiana to be a wonderful rootstock. All my own grafts are done on Virginiana.
But no nursery sells any Kaki grafted to Virginiana here, it’s always Lotus. Lotus is most recommended on West coast.
