You guys familiar with this one? I have scions on the way. A friend sent an email this morning saying he shipped even though I didn’t ask for them. Looks like it’s pretty hardy for a kaki. If you change the language to German stats are shown and -28C/-18F is what they say.
Dax
Looks like it was bred by Nikitsky, sounds interesting! I found this info on their website:
Persimmon variety ZIROCHKA
Top is half-ball-shaped, height is 2,7 m, wide is 3,1 m, height of stock is 55 cm, diameter is 7,5 cm.
Fruits are round, medium sized; mass is 64-117 gr, height – 39,3-51,2 mm, diameter – 52,4-62,7 mm.
Firm fruit is orange with thing wax layer, flesh is of more light color. Flesh tings with brown if there are some seeds.
Flesh of ripened fruit is red-orange, like jam, light fibrous, very sweet. Medulla is cylindrical, yellow.
There are 8-10 seed located in the middle of fruit.
It begins to ripen at the end of September. Storage and transportability is up to December.
Yield capacity is 45-60 kg/tree.
Leaves are damaged by fungi diseases.
It is early ripening dessert variety.
man, I gotta get some persimmon seedlings set for grafting, there is a lot of new stuff out there for cold-hardy Asians or hybrids. Looks like this one is 100% Asian?
That looks beautiful. Like a cold Hardy version of Sheng.
I do not know how the name translates like that.
The real name is Zviozdochka (Zv’ - Oh -zdo - chka), which means little star in russian. The name refers to the shape of fruit I guess. There are several new persimmon varieties on their website as well. There is no mention about the resistance to the low temperatures for the all of the varieties, except for Nikitskaya Bordovaya, so I would not be so excited.
The last time when I tried to look at their website it was blocked, so good news that it is available again.
It is good that you have friends who can sent scions so far away.
Maria, Zirochka means the same thing (little star) in Ukrainian.
Sorry, I did not know. I guess those guys removed Ukrainian text completely, at least I saw only Russian and English version.
The most hardiest of all Kaki hybrids for me was Rossyanka at -18F and still living.
Tony
@markalbob it looks Asian, correct. It’s a seedling cross with virginiana and/or virginianaXkaki though. I think somewhere yesterday I read that.
Dax
Just wanted to make a clarification on this one- I asked @urbangardener to do some sleuthing (my Ukrainian is not very good) and he found that Zirochka is indeed a full kaki persimmon, not a hybrid.
I am very excited to grow this one as I’m not confident many of the other cold hardy kakis would do well in my location. I was willing to take the risk on this one. Time will tell!
Per Alex- "It’s a hybrid of fuyu and a varietal called Batumski 2 or Batumska 2 which is also a kaki according to one source I’ve found… Pages 37-38 are about persimmon and there’s a table listing Batumski 2 as an “Eastern persimmon” and not with hybrids or American persimmons "
PCA kaki type of persimmon, Zirochka in Munich, Germany, a climate-similar to Seattle/“close enough”. they get summer rain during the month of June, however; the climate for summer says ‘bring your umbrella’. This is Seattle wet winter weather during the summer with similar temps but really cool nights in July at 55 being the low. About 183 days of frost free weather if I recall reading, yesterday. In hotter summer areas with 183 days of 85+ average summer temps in July like IL (my home) these fruits would be bright orange probably in Sept.
Zirochka Diospyros kaki PCA-type
Zirochka Diospyros kaki PCA-type
This is a very-early kaki that blooms very-late. If its buds are frosted, 1/2 the crop is shed is what I read.
Early ripening plus late blooms seems like an ideal growers tree as long as the fruit quality is good. I’m looking forward to trying it.
I studied yours , mines, & munich’s climate. I was pretty blown away that my growing season is longer than both of yours. I really learned a lot. You and I have 85 temps in July. The difference being my winter has colder temps some days but my heat + growing season + I am usually getting rained on during summer and pecans thrive native here because there’s rain.
Some parts of Germany have pretty mild winters particular in the north and northeast. I was amazed by the number of large fig trees I saw there in the Ruhr valley. My friend told me some particularly cold hardy mandarins can be grown in the ground too.
Well just give me, Drew, and Dax ten years and we will come up with an awesome large, tasty, cold hardy Kaki of both PCNA and PVNA. We will distribute scion across the good old USA.
I’ve wondered how Europe at similar latitudes is so much more moderate than US. Then I learned of the influence of the Alps which block cold Arctic winds from going down south. US has vast open plains with no wind barrier. This way they can grow citrus way further north than in the us.
This is also true of the Indian subcontinent because of the Himalayas. Easy to grow mangoes even way up in the north even though the average winter temps there are quite low, there aren’t extreme killing cold events.
Indian pythons are found as far north as Kashmir but it is highly unlikely Burmese pythons will move further north than south Florida.
Also note that the winds blow east so Europe benefits from the air blowing in from the Atlantic ocean and North sea. This moderates the winter temperatures. Your situation in Seattle is the same phenomenon. That’s why you’re a higher zone than where I’m at despite being farther north.
In my experience zirotschka is one of the hardest asian persimmons.
I’ve never had freeze back, even as a year old graft.
It tolerates late frosts very well when they are just budding.
for a few years we had a very severe winter-like late frost.
I talked to someone who grafted his scoinwood to early and all died after the extreme late frost except zirotschka
Will you add your location please or nearest biggest city?
I live in Germany sorry I guess our climate is even with the same Zones a little different, summer period, spring frost…
it’s like that all over the world, but it’s getting more and more extreme here. 2 record heat summers with no rain, then a century flood and this year was record heat again
