Persimmons 2024

The reason I asked is that Hachiya doesn’t develop high sweetness in my climate. Much better from the store. That’s why.

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My understanding is that there are some folks pressing them for oil and beginning to make some quality options as this species apparently has high oil content (without any of the bitterness). Haven’t read past this comment yet, someone who might have mentioned this.

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When i visited south Korea and actually paid attention to persimmons, they seem to get sweet with extra cold.

Around this time/Thanksgiving and a few weeks before, it would get down to 32 degrees f/0 Celsius often. I forgot how cold humid cold is compared to dry cold and i forgot my daughter’s shoe so we layered up the socks and my fuzzy socks on her :smiling_face_with_tear: may have been better than just baby shoes anyways. Also Asian countries are not baby or handicap friendly :sob::sob::sob:

Anyways, yeah i think here in the pnw, it may not get as cold around October/ November hence why it’s not as sweet. Maybe instead of letting them ripen on the counter, stick them in the fridge? I know mine was refrigerated for a few weeks before i ate it.

Even in public places, you can see Persimmon hanging on the tree and birds eating the higher ones. I suspect the lower ones are taken by us humans because you can clearly see the left overs on the tree form a line the most people can’t reach :sweat_smile:

Supposed to go back to Japan this year instead of south Korea but we’re going to try to buy a home instead so no vacations for a little bit :smiling_face_with_tear:

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I don’t believe it is the cold that sweetens persimmons. Rather, it’s the heat. We just don’t have enough heat to accumulate enough sugars.
I’ve been to Seoul. It’s very hot in summer.

What cold does is remove astringency.

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I’m only there during the fall cause that’s the only time i can safely step away from all the plant babies. Plus i only recently learned about the free military roundtrips a few years ago and everyone ends up only being free enough during this time to help me with the dogs and plants. Never been there during the summer and i don’t think i want :snowflake: I always feel like I’m burning up so I’m the type to wear tank tops outside in the winter like its summer when I’m having major issues :melting_face:

I have a bottle of bitternut hickory oil in the fridge right now. Still haven’t really figured out what to do with it, though.
I have 2 or 3 young nut explorer friends who are pressing bitternut & bitternutXshagbark oil, and are selecting and breeding productive ‘yellowbud’ trees for propagation and oil production.

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My daughter has a bitcon or bitternut hickory / pecan cross tree in her front yard.

The pecan did not influence the taste much…
I tried a bitternut hickory once… and it tasted exactly the same to me. Extreme astringency…

I dont see how you could press that and get a good oil from it.

When pressed the oils do not hold the bitterness.

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Bitternut bitter flavor is a water soluble compound. It does not affect the oil.

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I agree with Jay- I usually aim for 120ish days. Returning the trial seeds to the fridge and trying again in late January or February is probably a recipe for success. Even then, you’re probably going to see a pretty long window of sprouting time. Some of those seeds will germinate within 2-3 weeks, some will take 2-3 additional weeks, A few will take an extra month or so, and a couple will wait until next spring.

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My mouth has been watering scrolling past all of these pics. Apologies if I am treading on ground that has already been covered, this thread is way too long to read end to end.

I’m going to be starting some DV roostock from seed. I am assuming that the game plan is to grow them out for a year and graft them in Spring 2026? I live in Houston, TX so my growing season is pretty long in most years (at least through Thanksgiving and sometimes up to Christmas).

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@heycmo … a few years back I ate some of my sisters wild dv fruit… and planted 3 seeds into a rather large planter pot (16 inch wide x 10 inch deep).

It was mid October… and I planted the seed about 1.5 inch deep in a compost mix… that had a couple inches of pine bark mulch on top.

I never watered it once… just left it outside in the edge of my woods all winter… and the next spring.

All 3 germinated… i removed the mjddle one and left the two and let them grow.

Late summer early fall they looked like this…

One grew 42 inches and the other around 36.

I kept them in that pot over winter and in February planted them out in my orchard.

In April they were budding out nicely and I grafted Nakitas Gift to the small one and Kasandra to the large one. Both succesful…and getting to be nice size trees now with scaffold branches.

I would advise that you use a deeper planter/pot.

When I kept those two over winter several roots grew out the drainage holes in the bottom of that planter. When I planted them it was a little difficult getting those out.

PS… I am in hot humid southern middle TN z7b. I have heard from others here growing persimmon seedlings that they did not close to the size my persimmon seedlings managed in one season.

If you have the heat… you might just do that.

Good Luck !

TNHunter

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Thanks! This is exactly the kind of information I am looking for. It’s hard to gauge how something may work in my climate when all the info I can find is seemingly written for folks far to the north of me. I found sources saying that first-year persimmon seedlings are only a foot tall - and absolutely nothing here is that small after an entire year! :laughing:

I sourced my seeds from a native plant farm in central Florida, roughly the same latitude as me. I figured that would be my best chance of getting something suited to my conditions (heat, drought, humidity, and pest/disease pressure). I assume that I am likely getting the triploid (60 chromosome) version. My understanding is that this will mostly impact cold hardiness, and that “less cold hardy” in persimmon terms is still well beyond anything we are likely to encounter on the Gulf Coast (I’m in zone 9a, we get 25F every few years and <20F maybe once per decade). Am I good, or should I try to source some 90 chromosome seed?

What are some varieties I should consider? I need something that is astringent and can ripen well on the counter due to intense squirrel pressure. My local extension recommends Eureka and Saijo for astringent persimmons, but are there any American cultivars that can take Gulf Coast growing conditions? Stone fruits and pome fruits are marginal at best here due to the low chill hours, but I can’t find any info on whether or not that might be an issue for northern persimmon cultivars like Prok. I’m technically at the very southwest edge of D. virginiana’s native range.

I’ve got a canker problem on an unknown kaki varietal. It started a couple of years ago after I pruned the tree. It started dropping branches after heavy rainfall and the fruits started to get odd lesions on the top of the fruit. Then I noticed a blackening/enlargement where the branches meet one another, which had weakened to the point that the weight of rain was pulling off the limbs. Recently it has started to ooze black liquid a few places on the trunk. Anyone have any experience with this? I found a reference online to a canker that is afflicting California kaki growers. They paper didn’t say what to do about it, but I concluded that the recommendation might be to remove the trees. It’s an mature tree that produced well before now, so I’m reluctant to remove it but I will do so if that is the right thing to do. Thoughts?




@heycmo … for someone attempting to grow persimmon rootstock for zone 9… i would think that 60C seedlings is what you want.

My 60C seedlings are strong growers and are somewhat like okra… the hotter it gets the more they grow.

On cold hardness of 60C persimmons… we got -17F here at my location in 1985… and none of our native trees suffered badly including persimmons.

My sisters tree Rich Tooie is in the 60-70 year old range… and it survived and thrived thru that.

Unfortunately I dont know how 90C named variety persimmon is going to do in zone9 grafted to 60C seedling.

But here in zone 7b… Prok, Mohler, H63A, H118, Barbaras Blush are all growing very well. I also have hybrids… JT02 Mikusu, Kasandra, Nikitas Gift and Journey that are all growing well. They are happy here.

If you try 90C named varieties and they dont do well in zone 9 on your 60C rootstock…

I have a very nice 60C female Rich Tooie that I could send you scion from. Larger fruit than the average 60c female, produces loads of fruit and is quite delicious. It has a very rich base flavor and in some years has aftertaste of caramel, rumcake.

All the sccionwood on Rich Tooie has already been spoken for this winter… but perhaps next winter or the next I could get you some.

Good Luck with zone 9 persimmons.

PS one problem you might have with 60C southern persimmon on 60C rootstock… they are known to grow 35-50 ft tall.

Tich Tooie is 35 ft tall in a full sun location with no other trees nearby.

TNHunter

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Thanks, this is great info. Based on what I can find online, the only issue that comes up with 60C rootstock and 90C scions is a “step” due to the differing vigor. These will be container trees for the forseeable future so I will be actively managing growth and vigor one way or another.

There are several comments about cold hardiness here that don’t seem to consider the fact that such hardiness can vary a great deal depending how hardened off a tree is at time of the freeze events. In some climates winter temps stay reliably cold and trees often can survive colder temps there than in climates with widely fluctuating temps during winter months.

If you are attempting to grow trees that may be killed in certain weather situations in your own climate, you can usually mound soil up well above the graft union during the winter months so that your tree will only be set back and not killed in those situations.

It depends on the ability of a species or variety to send out new shoots from old wood though…

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Vacuum sealed and refrigerated persimmons


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What is the benefit?

Eating them throughout the winter months untill the next harvest. I got about 100 of them in my fruit freezer. Plus I got about 4 gallons Ziploc of jujube fruits frozen for the same reason.

Tony

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