You would be surprised how many things can seemingly freeze solid over here and come back even bigger xD
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Also, challenge accepted 
lol
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Best of 
. 
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For our Canadian members, I just noticed recent hardy persimmons cultivars: Pessamin and Cora being sold out of Montreal. In my tiers of persimmons to experimentally trial in Zone 4b, I would label them as “2nd tier, bred in a Zone 5b climate approximating New York” until we hear fruit harvesting success stories that could take them to 1st tier.
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Replying to my own post here…
I have an update to my post. After further reading (but no experience) I believe the origin of these persimmons is in:
- Yates - Indiana.
- Pipher - graft on abandoned farmstead in central Illinois, retrieved in the 1980s by Ralph Knieder (town was USDA zone 5 at the time).
- Pieper - Pennsylvania, mentioned as hardy in a book by a Canadian named John Gordon who wrote “Nut Growing Ontario Style”; parent tree of siblings Prok and Korp.
Therefore in my hypothetical (unproven) hierarchy I would relocate Pieper from tier 1 to category 3 “very early, cold hardy.” I am unsure about people pushing Pipher, so I’m leaving it out, but it could be tier 4 “early, cold hardy.” Note that the Canadian store Grimo Nut Nursery sells Campbell NC10, Pieper spelled as Peiper, Szukis, Gordon = Geneva Long, Garretson.
See also these threads regarding:
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You have Pieper and Pipher mixed up. It’s the other way around. Also, Pipher was discovered as an abandoned, very old grafted tree (by Ralph Krieder) so the geographic origin of the ortet is unknown.
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Thanks, fixed.
I sure appreciate the existence of this thread! I’m in exactly the 4b/5a area (urban Minneapolis) and got it into my head to plant a persimmon in the spot I lost an apple to fire blight. When I was researching last fall, this thread didn’t exist and it was a lot harder to scrape together information on this subject! I also very much appreciate @ShiverMinneapolisZ4b‘s hard work cataloging all the information out there from other sources.
I had pre-ordered a grafted H-63A from Rock Bridge Trees to be shipped this spring, but they now don’t have it in stock, so I’m shopping again. Thinking I might get the Gurney’s version of H-63A on own roots, now that I know about that from the other thread on here. I’m second-guessing whether I should be doing H-118 instead, based on scattered reports that it might be a bit earlier. But, not having a graft sounds like it might be an advantage, and H-118 seems to be out of stock everywhere right now.
I feel optimistic about the tree surviving - I’ve got the urban heat island, and I can mulch it and give it extra protection for the first couple years - but I have no idea how it’ll do with ripening. I wish we knew more about the exact needs of persimmons. Is it frost-free days? Total heat? Hours of sunlight? Our growing season is shorter than some, but the warmth and long days we get in summer mean some crops are very happy here. Comparing Minnesota to Maine or Michigan or Colorado isn’t always apples to apples… or in this case, persimmons to persimmons.
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I’m still second-guessing whether I should try H-63A on it’s own roots so it can survive dieback.
NeedMore Tree Nursery has a few grafted A-33 and H-120 left in stock. I missed out last year (nursery said mine died before shipping), so I ordered more than 1 cultivar this year. Note my posts are based on online reading, not first-hand experience from harvesting.
You mentioned you only want one so the grafted or own-root is the choice for you.
If you were to propose wanting to shell out money as an experiment and grow many hoping to select a survivor with good fruit then… from places we don’t hear much about, I still see available seedlings of Prok x Szukis at a “Perennial Crop Nursery” in Missouri, and I see bundles of 10 seedlings of an improved cultivar x a good cultivar at “Yellow Bud Farm” in Massachusetts. These have good parentage, but as seedlings you’d want to order many and see if any can survive Minneapolis. You’d become a breeder that way and they could save you the years of having to first grow your own male and improved female. Probably not worth it unless you were as far south as Ames, Iowa, but some people have this dream.
Relevant posts:
updated:
Then
Same. I would hope I wouldn’t need to recover from that much winter damage, but it could be a nice insurance policy if we get hit with another -35F freeze when the tree is still young and vulnerable. And maybe not having a graft will improve its chances in general–not sure to what degree that’s true, though. Pondering this also has me wondering about rootstocks. Things like apples and cherries tend to use named rootstocks, and I was under the impression that some rootstocks could improve cold hardiness on those trees. I wonder if the same could be true of persimmons? Seems like it simply hasn’t had that level of development in cold climates yet.
If I had room for two, I’d probably try H-118 and Prok for variety in size and flavor. As it is, I’m just putting in one so I decided to go for the more exciting side of the flavor profile.
I eyed A-33 too but felt like there was mixed information on its earliness. Cliff England describes it as “early-mid”, which would put it after H-118 and H-63A. And OGW vaguely describes it as “early ripening”, whereas H-118 gets a more emphatic “One of the earliest ripening”.
Ultimately I think I’m just gonna have to give one of them a try. If it’s a nice landscape tree and only ripens some years, I can live with that. And if the tree fails completely, I guess I’ll be right on time to return for the results of Perfect Circle’s breeding project!
A potential problem with the Pacific Northwest nurseries is that their season is very different from Minnesota. The fall-season posts on this forum showing when fruit is ripening and where it was collected (if near the upper midwest) is much more authoritative on harvest order than text on large retailer websites west of the Rockies.
The rootstock to which the Pacific Northwest nurseries are grafting is not selected for zone 4b levels of cold because it didn’t live through a zone 4b cold winter. I’m trying store-bought grafted varieties this year myself. But my fallback approach is to get seedling persimmons already selected for cold winter from Perfect Circle Farm, seedlings of Full Draw from Blue Hill Wildlife Nursery, or seedlings from Montana Fruit trees, Fedco Seeds. Then do the grafting myself.
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Experimenting with these as well here in Eau Claire WI.
I planted a Caramel Cocktail persimmon (Claypool H-63A ‘Paradise’ on 2026.04.20 from Gurneys and grafted the trimmed root bound roots to the trimmed branches as it seemed a waste not to see what if anything they do
I also have the following planted last year:
From Burnt Ridge 2025.05.13:
Prairie Star American Persimmon (Claypool H-118) [Likely bad / weak graft)]
From OneGreenWorld 2025.05.16:
Prairie Dawn American Persimmon (Claypool H55A)
Prairie Sun American Persimmon (Claypool A-33)
Prairie Gem American Persimmon (Claypool F-25) - Ripened one fruit 2025.10.08
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I made the trip to Papa’s PawPaw Plants this past Saturday in Davenport, Iowa and picked up the following American persimmon varieties:
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H-63A (Paradise)
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Early Golden
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Claypool I-115
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Claypool H-120
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Journey
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Osage
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Claypool H-55A
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Prok
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Early Jewel (H-118)
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Yates/Juhl
I got them all planted the very next day. They were container-grown and already fully leafed out, so I wanted to get them established as quickly as possible.
Each tree has been set up with full protection infrastructure: a 5-foot diameter by 5-foot tall welded wire cage for deer protection, along with a 6-inch diameter, 24-inch tall hardware cloth guard at the base for rodents. I also applied roughly a 5-inch layer of mulch around each tree and spaced them at 25 feet apart to allow for full mature growth without the need for future pruning.
My only concern at this point is the upcoming cold snap… forecasted overnight lows of around 30°F on Thursday and 28°F on Friday. To prepare, I picked up frost blankets and plan to cover each tree to help mitigate any potential damage.
I have a J-59 Claypool being shipped in soon, so I will also get this one planted. I am very excited to see how these perform!
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Grafted H-118, H63A, and Barbara’s Blush today. My plan is to grow in pots for a year, and then probably plant them deep, perhaps the grafts will take root.
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@TravisWS I think that Clifford England has been planting almost all of his trees with graft union below grade, at least since the 2014 Polar Vortex wreaked its destruction on his orchard.
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Thanks! I will go for that then, assuming the grafts take!
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Thank you, I posted this question since it’s normal to plant a graft below soil level for Jujube “Chinese date” and for Medlars grafted on wild foraged (non nursery) rootstocks. In those cases the rootstock serves to nurse the scion and you hope the scion makes its own roots. My understanding is most American persimmons don’t propagate well by cuttings (like below 1 in 100 success rate), process in which they would be trying to grow their own roots from a scion.
You’d also think the zone 4 grafted nut tree growers would be burying their graft unions if it worked.
How are you overwintering them? Winter 2025 was pretty light on snowfall in the area. There was only on few inches of snow I could scrape off the grass.
No special treatment as of yet. The Nikita’s Gift persimmon I have has full protection as noted below but sadly came from Burnt Ridge so is likely another bad / weak graft given the behavior last season but we shall see.
At this point for the Americans I’m primarily collecting data on how susceptible they are and what form they will take naturally in our zone. I’m mostly expecting to see them take on a small shrub shape due to dieback. If that happens to be the case they are a good candidate for growing in a sunken pit with a removable lid for winter protection. This works well for figs here so I imagine it will lend itself to that as well
You will want to save these pictures. Someone showed female flowers on left, male on right and hermaphrodite in the middle: