That’s what I’m doing to mine. At minimum, it will have some better Americans on it. But I’m also intrigued by the idea that a cold-sensitive Asian variety such as Saiyo may have a better chance of surviving grafted high on an American.
I actually like Prok a lot. It’s sweet with a milder flavor than others I’ve tasted. Some varieties like Meader were overwhelmingly “flavorful” to me. My taste preferences probably explain why I prefer eating kaki over virginiana.l
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I think prok is one that a couple of different members in my area recommend highly.
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Maybe there are two strains with the same label. Or maybe it’s performance depends on where.
I think it’s more about taste. Some people like asian persimmons better and Prok from what I hear more resembles an asian.
Wish I knew how to do those polls on here. I would love to do an asian vs. american persimmon poll.
My complaint was simpler – At best, it was bland. But mostly it remained astringent.
@robert @jrd51 I share some of the same concerns, but I’m going to let my Prok tree have a chance to fruit before I take any action. I chose Prok because of size, earliness, and I’ve read some outstanding reviews on this site:
I would call prok anything but bland.
Very flavorful , a friend said " like pudding on a tree" !
One of my favorite fruits.!
Prok is excellent. Good size, top notch flavor, and good texture. I prefer hybrid persimmons more than either of their parents these days. But still, Prok is tough to beat.
I got my scion from the person with the “pudding on a tree” description (thanks @Hillbillyhort !), and the other description is not too far from me. If there are multiple strains or mislabels, I’m pretty hopeful for whatever it is that’s on my Prok tree!
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Yeah, I’ve seen positive reviews of Prok. I’d characterize opinion overall as bimodal. Some people have sweet fruit with decent flavor and low astringency; others have bland fruit with subtle flavor and some significant residual astringency. Here, I could not reliably remove the astringency. And believe me, I tried every trick in the book. Maybe 10-20% of the fruit were OK but eating them was like playing Russian roulette.
Note that I am not that finicky about sweetness and flavor. I have three IKKJ trees that produce good fruit, but it is not overwhelmingly sweet and the flavor is not overpowering. But everyone finds them delicious when ripened. IKKJ is good here.
I’m not saying that other observers are wrong about Prok. But there must be an explanation for the dispersion of views. My best guesses are (1) two strains circulate (maybe one mislabeled); or (2) local growing conditions (e.g., soil pH, soil mineralization, summer heat) matter a lot, and whatever I have here doesn’t cut it.
Meanwhile, my Kassandra has lots of fruit and it is coloring up. I’ll have another data point – or maybe 200 data points – in a month or so.
FWIW, I’ve also started small trees of Barbra’s Blush, Dollywood, and H63A. And I’ve top-worked Prok with these three American varieties. Maybe next year the grafts will give me a taste of these other varieties, which I’ll be able to compare against my memory of Prok.
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Yeah, your’s definitely isn’t living up to the hype! My leading theory for the discrepancies is mislabels, but you never know. I think it’s an especially likely case with Prok, as I’ve seen it’s lesser-known sister Korp listed a few places. I don’t know anything about Korp other than the name, that it came from the same breeding program, and that it’s supposed to be similar to Prok, but I could easily see someone mixing up the names!
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Let me get your opinion. Prok does have one thing going for it. It grows incredibly fast. I wonder if seeds from it used as rootstock would transfer that speed forward?
Just to clarify – Prok is sold grafted to DV rootstock. Presumably the vigor of purchased trees is at least partly attributable to the rootstock. You might be better off harvesting suckers from the rootstock. FWIW I’ve found that if I stop mowing around the tree, dozens of suckers grow. Some of this year’s crop are 2-3’ tall.
Also of course, seedlings of Prok would only be ~50% Prok, so you’d have to be careful about the source of the pollen.
I got the next generation of Prok crossed with Jerry’s Lehman Nikita’s Gift male offspring. I will bet my 4 second leaf seedlings will have better tasting fruits than Prok for sure.
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I found a ripe Miss Kim fruit today and committed the sin of eating it without taking a photo!! 
. It was very good! Perhaps, because I have not eaten a persimmon in two years, that opinion might be a bit skewed but it was perfectly ripe and just absolutely fantastic—almost a melon like flavor but better than melon.
I’m so excited to have persimmons fruiting again after that vortex that almost wiped them out!
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My Prok from Stark’s retained astringency its first few years of fruiting, but now is one of my favorites.
This year, so far, Lehman’s Delight has the best flavor.
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My Prok tree isn’t growing particularly quickly. It’s actually on the slow end of average out of all my trees! The JT-02 growing nearby is about 30% faster–I had picked the most vigorous tree out of my batch of grafts to keep. I think it’s all down to the individual rootstock.
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I’ve never seen anyone say that it’s just a maturity issue. Maybe I should leave one Prok branch on my top-worked tree.
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@jcguarneri – Mine grows fast. I planted 1 Prok and 3 IKKJ in the same year, 2015. Before my topworking this spring, Prok was easily twice as tall, maybe 25-30’ for Prok vs 12-15’ for IKKJ. And that was after some normal pruning to manage height. . Without pruning I think they could have been 30-40’ and 15-20’, respectively.
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I expect my Prok will pick up the pace once it’s more established, so maybe next year? But so far it’s fair to middling on growth.
Prok compared to very unripe local wild fruit in my area. The 3 big ones and 3 medium sized ones came off a 12 ft tall three trunked bush shaped tree that i have walked by for several years now and never recognized it was a persimmon.
I only go to this cemetary to collect persimmons for seeds and chestnuts so idk how i missed it.
These are by far the largest wild ones i have come across and the fruit on all the other persimmon trees im familiar with in my area appear much smaller this year from the lack of rain.
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