Is H63A actually small? Description on Cliff’s site says its large in the last sentence
It’s quite large.
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I bought ripe persimmons from Cliffs wife (classy lady, I must throw in), last fall at the Berea farmers market. Mr. England was present and he identified some as being H63A, They were not two inchers but 1 1/2 inch in my estimation. I have some experience here because I’d been measuring my Proks, the largest being two inches. They were seedless. Flesh the color and clearness of ripe apricots. Now, I grew up in Ky. scavenging persimmons as a kid because I was hungry, and if these, new to me , persimmon doesn’t taste as good as the 60 chromosome native persimmons that I blew some of the dust and dirt off and ate, I didn’t want to graft or grow them. I purchased one from Cliff, next chance I had. This persimmon is so good that size is not an issue.
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I followed the logical idea of Trevor getting phenomenal growth out of root sprouts and cut down 14 male persimmons. In the main field there were 4 (I haven’t been to the remote location since I cut them). One of the trees is sending up really nice root sprouts. This is about 15 yards (+/-) from the original tree. There are at least a dozen. I’m getting excited for next years grafting session!
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It looked small relative to some of the other cultivars. Quite large compared to a lot of random wild ones.
I guess it’s smaller than hybrids like nikitas gift and much smaller than kakis.
I had posted some photos earlier. Need to find them.
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Re H63A: LOL, I’d say medium. Mine is the same size as Barbra’s Blush. Also the same size as the fruit on my supposed “Prok” that is probably mislabeled. It is smaller than Dollywood, which I would describe as large for an American. H63A is slightly larger, as I recall, than Kasandra but quite a but smaller than JT-02.
Maybe it’s a question of frame of reference. I never see wild American persimmons, which I understand can be quite small. Maybe Cliff is comparing H63A to these small wild fruits or to named varieties taken straight from the wild such as Morris Burton.
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Continuing on H63A – This is a picture from last season. I didn’t make notes but I’m pretty sure that (1) the 8 fruits on the right are H63A, (2) the 3 fruits on the left are Barbra’s Blush, and (3) the one at the top is Dollywood.
Edit: On second thought, maybe the one lower left is BB and the three upper left are Dollywood. It makes sense that I would have grouped them.
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Local wild persimmons, in my area of Kentucky, are at their best 1 ". And I’ve seen them as small as a grain of popcorn that didn’t pop. They run the range of a few seeds to just a bunch of seeds. Never seedless. I’m aware of two types of persimmons around me that I covet. One ripens September through November, not astringent, having the taste of the best dates, even having their color. The other one I like ripens also September through November, being the color of ripe apricots and having their taste. Then there are the ones that don’t drop, astringent till pushed off by spring growth. I really admire the work of Lehman, Claypool and others and would like to know how they did it. They developed the size, the seedless, but not the taste. The only one I’ve sampled , that’s even close is H63A. And I admit, it could be my childhood prejudices. But both myself and my local fellow enthusiasts all agree, there needs to be improvement in taste.
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Anyone have leftover Claypool H120 scionwood right now? Going to graft a few rootstocks this week.
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Just went outside to find something broke both my ~2 year old trees in half in the past 12 hours. Awesome.
My Mikatani Gosho graft from last year broke off in huge winds.
I might try regrafting with green wood later.
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That’s horrible; I’m sorry.
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Ow! So sorry.
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Dang, looks like it was a good graft union too. The scion broke and left some wood behind. Any chance you’ll get an adventitious shoot from that little bit? I guess it will dry out and die back a little.
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Fortunately, I have 3 other grafts of that one that are still good. They even have flower buds on them. So it isnt a lost variety. I will try to regraft this as green wood mostly as an exercise.
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Probably the same something that broke my 2 year old Morris Burton a few days ago. Deer.
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It’s fenced off and I didn’t see any hoof prints. There was what looked like robin downy feathers (pale gray/bluish and rusty orange) left on one of the trees. I’ve had a few of those them do crazy things (one attacked my car all last year and poop all over it for months and another lost its mind for a week trying to steal a piece of twine that was left tied to a huge log), so I’m blaming them or the actual perpetrator framed them. It happened within a few hours of me finding it, so I’m trying to graft it back to itself, and taped it really tightly back together and tried to stake it in place. Could work maybe if it’s left alone for a couple months. Knocked nearly all the little fruits that had set off the trees. Very disheartening.
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I’ve reattached broke pieces successfully before. As long as you catch it quickly. Unfortunately the part above the graft on my Morris Burton was missing altogether.
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Sorry to hear that Ram! I had one of last years Mt Roman Kosh break off above the graft as well. Woke up yesterday, went out to do some Persimmon grafts and saw it lying under the tree. I immediately pasted it back on with a Whip and Tongue graft, misted the foliage, enclosed it in a plastic bag to hold moisture up, and shaded it from any direct sun. This was the second incident this spring where wind did such damage. Two weeks ago a plum graft had the same fate on 5/25 so far its regraft is holding on. I just hope it can hold its foliage until the graft callouses. The cool front may have helped me save that one. Checked it today and foliage is still ok, not wilting
Dennis
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