I’m in Connecticut on the border of 6A and 6B. Yesterday my neighbor, who is 70 and doesn’t use computers, told me he is “definitely” putting in persimmons for next spring. When I asked if he has tried them before, he said he used to eat them when he was growing up in Italy. He said they would have both the hard (Asian) and the soft (American) kind and that liked the soft better, but he still wants one of each. I immediately printed out Cliff England’s spring 2019 catalog and said he’s the person to call about persimmons, but my neighbor asked where this guy is from and when I said Kentucky he said he wanted to know from the experts in our area.
So I’m asking you guys. If you could only plant two persimmons, which cultivars would they be?
Growing anything Cliff has will certainly be hardy for CT. I live in north N.J., not far from where you are. I have several of cliff’s Asian and hybrid varieties. Just to be safe, I would recommend the hybrids.
Cliff recommended to me his hybrid sestronka for both fruit size and flavor. See if he still has it- if not, I have some that I recently grafted. Others on here also recommend Cliff’s JT-02 for flavor. Kasandra is also another cold hardy variety that Cliff sells, in addition to Kim’s zhurma. I have all of the varieties mentioned, but mine are all too immature to hold onto fruit, although I might get one Kasandra fruit this year.
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