So, really, he’s getting years’ worth of growth in a single year… because of all the years he had already invested.
I’m always looking for a way to speed things up (without loss of quality), so I was all ears.
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that too but i doubt i could come even close to matching that kind of growth my my soil.
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Yes, he does fertilize the bejeezus out of them (as far as organic manure applications go). But the established roots is the biggest thing.
I’d also say it’s climate related if you’re going to compare with your site. Persimmons are effectively tropical plants that figured out how to survive northern winters. They love heat, and Tennessee has a lot more of that than The County.
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My IKKJiro… was purchased from OGW. It was grafted to dv but not by me. It came to me as a small bare root tree.
It was quite small and spindly when planted last spring.
I planted it in a nice full sun location… mushroom compost, composted wood chips, and organic fertilizer early last spring… and watered it once at planting.
That is standard treatment for my place.
Yes it grew to be 6 ft tall and quite bushy by end of season.
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The Cardinal persimmon I got from OGW this spring… is really a tiny baby.
It has some growing to do for sure !
I loaded it up with compost… will see how it does thiss season.
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Are Persimmon quite different than Apple, then? My Apple needs daily watering or it gets very sad.
That is one thing I do not like about OGW, all of their trees are grafted saplings. But, they offer quite a bit compared to other fruit nurseries, so…
I’d like to know if there is any better varieties than Fuyu, which is crunch and sweet when it is fresh. It might be too sweet and mush when it is too old though.
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Every fruit tree I plant gets a load of compost in the hole. I basically take out a load of rocks… and replace it with compost. My soil is pretty good 3-4 inch deep… then red rocky sticky clay… so by the time I fully dig a planting hole… may have taken out 5 or 10 gal of rocks (some whoppers). I basically replace the rocks with compost… and add more compost on top… then a nice layer if composted wood chips… and then a layer of fresh wood chips.
Most years we get rains often enough that if composted and chipped well… no manual waterings are needed.
There are exceptions… i remember 2007 an aweful late nasty frost that year followed by a summer fall dry spell that killed many old established red oak tree tops here. I had 2 alabama red maples in my front yard… 4 years old. and I watered them several times… but they died anyway.
So far this year I have not had to water anything that is planted in ground. Last year did not have to water any in ground stuff all season. That is the norm here (again if composted and chipped well).
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Would you tell me a little about composting wood chips?
@Well_Well_Well … a couple years ago a county road crew came thru my area clearing brush from the roadsides. They were chipping it and hauling it off… I stopped and asked if they would dump a big pile of it in my field and they did.
I think this is year 3 for that pile… and I still have a few wheelbarrow loads of it left. Nothing special was done to it… just let it sit and rot naturally.
Early this spring I got a nice new pile when one of my neighbors had like 20 douglas pear trees topped.
So all this spring… i have had a old partly composted pile of wood chips… and a fresh pile of wood chips.
Last spring… i had our local coop owner bring me a big load of mushroom compost. I still have some of that left too. It was made of mostly horse manure and wheat straw. It was used to grow mushrooms one season.
It is nice to have such piles around when starting lots of new feuit trees.
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Thanks!
i think they will grow and fruit here but ill be a very old man before i taste the fruit.
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I think everybody should grow a DV tree just to experiment with new varieties. I’ve been able to get fruit in the 2nd year for grafts onto an established DV tree for (1) the hybrid JT-02, and (2) three American varieties. The only graft so far that did not fruit in Year 2 was the Asian variety Miss Kim.
For me, this is the way to test new varieties. FWIW I have two more Americans grafted to it, last year and this, as well as one more hybrid, grafted this year.
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@Well_Well_Well … cant imagine any fruit tree needing watering daily or even weekly.
But our climates may just be way different.
Here if you give a fruit tree 2-3 inches of compost and then 2-3 inches if wood chips each spring… they can go 2-3 weeks or more easily with no watering.
It is rare for us not to get a good rain every 2 or 3 weeks.
I have one apple tree in a half whisky barrell… novamac on b9… espellar. During the summer I water it once a week. 4 gal. But only if it did not rain that week. Each spring i take off the top layer of wood chips and add compost and add more wood chips.
With a nice deep top layer of compost and chips… very little manual watering is needed here.
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Yeah, I live at 6k ft above sea level in high desert.
I also think mine prefer not to get their water all at once, but spread out through the day–not only manual watering, but constant–but I’m still figuring that out.
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My 2 Miss Kim cultivars are doing well. purchased in 5 gallon pots from edible landscaping. I only planted them in fall of 2023 so no flowers yet. fingers and toes crossed for maybe a fruit or 2 next year.
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Do you have enough mulch around your trees? One of the main benefits in my opinion of having a few inches of wooldchips is moisture retention. We all have different challenges though.
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