Last fall … I planted some wild American Persimmon seeds in a large planter… covered them with mulch and leaves and set that planter in the edge of my woods just off the back yard.
I have been checking that planter… hoping to see some sprouting up… and well today was the day.
I would move the pots to a full sun area, where you can water ,fertilize ,etc .
Putting a piece of plastic under each pot, to prevent the roots from going into the soil .
Transplant when dormant .
I checked that pot this morning with my tape measure…
It is 10" deep and 15.5 inch wide.
I also gently moved the pine bark mulch in other areas and found no others coming up.
Now I can’t remember for sure if last fall, I planted just 3 seeds in that one place… thought I planted 3 seeds in 3 places… but perhaps not.
That pot has some pretty good holes in the bottom… last year I grew some mexican sunflower in that pot and after they died back I moved the pot over to the woods… and well those mexican sunflower had rooted thru the holes in the bottom into the ground… there were some big roots out those holes and the planter was fastened to the ground pretty good. I did eventually get those out and moved.
So I have 3 nice little persimmon seedlings coming up about a inch apart… in a planter that is 10" deep by 15.5 inch wide. It does have some rather large holes in the bottom.
What do you think about this ?
I put a couple of hay bales over in my field, in a nice sunny location (got plenty of that)…
I cover the top of the hay bales and some of the area between them with dirt/compost…
Then sit this planter on top of that.
Over the summer those persimmon seedling roots may make it out those holes into the compost and hay bale area and do just fine. I may be able to salvage the longer roots that do make it out the bottom.
If there are only 3 seedlings that come up in that container… they are all quite close to each other.
I am not sure how big a persimmon seedling might get in one growing season ?
2-3 ft tall ? More ?
I may just leave all 3 of those as they are and see if all 3 will make it. That would give me 3 root stocks to work with.
Your thoughts on any of that would be appreciated.
They are super slow growers from seed. First couple years they mostly just build roots and stay pretty small on top. Expect a few years before you can graft it.
Depending on the growing media, some members here have been able to get to grafting size within a year in ideal conditions. For most trees it seems year one is definitely optimistic.
What you have would’ve been better to fill a 5-6" tall Flat at Spring and plant the seeds from the fridge. After they grow to 5-6" and stop, then pot to a longer pot and plant whenever they’re ready.
Should you grow a seed in location… and use a broadfork or hammer a pole in the ground to 18-24" or more, and sow right in place, you can easily get 3/8ths caliper by Fall.
I’ve left 20 or so in a 5 gallon pot until they were quite big 12-18” tall. When I potted them they did fine but it was hard to separate the roots. I grow seedlings in regular two gallon pots and they do well and transplant well but those roots do circle the pots in most cases and need trimming some when you transplant.
I would trade the current sad state of a few of my trees for that… but it’s the start of it. As long as you don’t get something like this, you are in good shape
I have everything from beautiful to worse than this in some trouble spots with very high ph which will take a while to repair. Might be too much of a battle… but I’ll fight it for a while.
I took that mulch off today and the soil looked great… lot of compost in it. I worked into the top inch some blood meal, bone meal, Epsom salt, green sand… and then put a good inch of homemade compost on top… and covered with mulch again.
Got 5 gal of compost tea brewing… which it will get some of next watering.
Found a nice persimmon seedling growing in my field near my compost pile. The field gets bushhoged twice a year… normally June and again early October.
Looks like it has been trying to grow there for a few years… but has been geeting mowed down 2x a year.
This year i happened to be busy in june and did not get my first bush hogging done until this week.
I just happened to notice this nice young persimmon growing there and spared it from being cut.
It is high chest high… the trunk at about 1 ft high is 5/8 inch diameter. Since it has been trying to grow there for a few years… getting cut back… and growing again… i expect it has a good rootsystem developed. That is how it accomplished getting this large this single growing season by mid July.
The location gets first sun at 9:30 am and full sun after that until sundown. It gets a good 7-8 hours of sun there.
What do you all think … ideal candidate for grafting next spring ?
Am I limited to grafting American Persimmon types to this wild american ? or can i do the Asian varieties too ?
That’s a perfect size for grafting! It will take right off. I would w&t it about 30-36" high, but that’s just my experience. I don’t have the deer pressure here. Grafting higher than that, it’s harder to stake and they can be very top heavy in the wind.
