I would appreciate some feedback from people growing Sheng. I bought a tree from JF&E late last year. Besides the female flowers the tree is producing many male flowers. I wasn’t aware of that and couldn’t find much online about it. I asked JF&E and they just gave me the usual blah blah answer without answering anything. Is that normal or is the tree something else? Thanks
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Age of tree? thanks
I grafted 4 Saijo yesterday 2026/04/09. Two scions looked very good and 2 had slightly browning in the cambium. I’m hoping at least 2 of them make it.
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I’m growing Sheng. I grafted it myself 4 years ago (2022). The tree, which is planted here in the ground, has grown very well and has survived the winters with some protection before this winter. I picked a crop of roughly a dozen last autumn.
I can’t say that I’ve noticed any male flowers on it.
I’ve got some PVNAs with male flowers, so the presence of seeds in my fruit doesn’t tell me anything specifically about Sheng.
FWIW, the fruit was high quality, unblemished. The flavor was good – not as tasty as the PCA Saijo but a little more rich than the PCNA IKKJiro.
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@Jobe .. this is year 4 for my JT02.
Looks like it might fruit this year.
My Kasandra, IKKJiro and Barbara’s blush ripened fruit in year 3. H63A ripened fruit in year 2.
Looks like I might get fruit from Prok, Cardinal and Saijo this year… lots of blossoms.
TNHunter
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Based on my limited experience, it all depends on the rootstock. In 2021, I grafted JT-02 both to an established tree and to a bare root seedling. The tree branch grew 6 feet and fruited well the next year. The stand-alone tree grew 3 feet and didn’t fruit. I might have picked a few in 2023 (3rd leaf) but think I got my first modest crop in 2024 (4th leaf) then a good crop of a few dozen in 2025.
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@jrd51 … the rootstock tree I grafted JT02 to.. was very stout 5 ft tall rootstock.
One shoot from the JT02 scion (the central leader) grew 10 ft the first season.
I have it much more under control now.. keeping it much lower and wide.
I think that 10 ft of growth from a bud on a scion.. may be a world record 
TNHunter
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Yellow July chinese persimmon ( 七月黄柿 )
“Qiyue Huang” (literally translated as “July Yellow”) is a popular early-maturing persimmon variety in China. Its name comes from the fact that it ripens around July of the Lunar Calendar (usually late August to September in the Gregorian calendar), much earlier than standard persimmons.
It is versatile. You can eat it firm for a crisp, sweet texture or let it soften for a juicy, honey-like flavor. They are seedless or have very few seeds. The skin is quite thin, and the flesh is dense with little fiber. They are generally medium-sized, typically weighing between 150g and 250g.
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Yeah, that’s much better than my puny bare root seedlings. On the other hand, the tree that supported the branch that fruited the following year had a trunk at least 4" thick. The branch to which I grafted JT-02 was almost 2" thick.
I’d bet that you get fruit this year, assuming your weather isn’t horrible.
You are blessed with a long growing season. My trees are just beginning to break bud. My 5-year old JT-02 is ~8’ tall and wide.
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@jrd51 .. this is what my JT02 looks like this spring. Doing my best to make it low and wide.
One other advantage my JT02 has is that it is located about 3 ft downhill of my compost piles. It’s roots no doubt run under the piles
I don’t fertilize it at all.
That is what my Prok and H63A look like. The americans seem to have smaller blossoms than hybrids or asians.
That is my Cardinal asian… it is lots of nice blossoms this year. Hope it sets and holds some to ripen.
TNHunter
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I have been growing:
3 Izu (PCNA), 7 Ichi Ki Kei Jiro (PCNA), 6 Matsumoto (PCNA), 2 Giboshi (Smith’s Best - PVNA), and 2 Tam Kam (PCNA).
Of the PCNA’s:
Matsumoto and especially Ichi Ki Kei Jiro are my favorite of the four PCNA’s that I have.
Tam Kam ripens much later than the rest, and because of the lateness, I am giving them to a friend in zone 8b. I can’t keep them on the tree long enough to perfectly ripen them because of the very cold weather sometimes here in November.
Izu is mediocre in flavor even when perfectly ripe (soft but with some firmness/texture).
I would not purchase Izu again.
Here’s one of my Izu’s. This is my smallest one which is 3 - 4 years from the four gallon size. I prune heavily.
Izu (Just Fruits and Exotics)
Matsumoto (Bottoms Nursery)
Ichi Ki Kei Jiro (Just Fruits and Exotics Nursery)
Of the PCNA’s that I grow, Ichi Ki Kei Jiro is the winner.
It is dwarfing size, the tree is cold hardy, it has great production - 200 fruits last year on the tree seen above (I had to remove half). Ichi Ki Kei Jiro also has excellent disease resistance, and the fruits are large with great flavor when ripened slightly soft (with some firmness/texture).
The best video on Persimmons that I have seen:
Youtube channel EdibleLandscaping Video title “Persimmon Harvest Fall 2022”
Unfortunately, I do not recommend Edible Lanscaping for Persimmons; I purchased several and EVERY single one had very poor grafts. The grafts should be upright but theirs were at a very bad angle which would grow incorrectly and fail after a few years with the weight.
Instead, I recommend Just Fruits and Exotics, One Green World, and Bottoms Nursery.
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I must admit that I get confused with other growers system of counting the age, so this is “my way”.
Two years ago, 2024, I planted both local American, and hybrid seeds from fruit of Mr. Clifford England’s orchard, at the location I picked for the adult tree to be. Then the next year, 2025, I grafted the five foot, plus or minus rootstock, with hybrids and American scions. They flourished and are now 6 and 7 feet tall.
This year, 2026, There are three persimmon saplings with bloom buds, and others, not far enough leafed out to have bloom buds. They, with bloom buds, are JT-02, Succulent and Kujinaji.
I’m thinking ,two years ago, they were a seed. This is “going on three” and they are blooming. I realize they will drop blooms, abort fruit and end up with nothing maybe.
Am I overthinking this, but are they blooming a year early, or am I counting wrong??
If they are a year early , I’ll gladly share the specifics.
.
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1st time grafting persimmon. Saijo on a grocery store Fuyu seedling with a cleft graft after a few weeks and follow up pic a week later:
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@Jobe … I started grafting in 2022.. 1 mulberry, 4 apples.. all successful.
I also realized that year.. that many of the young sapling trees out in my fields (that I had bushhogged once a year) were persimmons.
I started saving some of them from bushhogging… By putting wood chips around them and a stake and flag.
When I protected them from bushhogging one season.. they would grow 4 5 6 ft in one season.
That is what my wild dv rootstock looks like after simply not bushhogging it down one season.
Year 1 for me is the spring that I graft scion to the wild rootstock.
That is when it becomes Prok or Kasandra.
I grafted several Americans and Hybrids in 2023, and a few more each year since then. I grafted Saijo last year and Dar Sofiyivky.. and this year adding Giboshi.
My Prok and Kasandra that was grafted in 2023.. I am saying they are in year 4 now.
TNHunter
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Back at you – here’s mine. That’s a 7.5’ fence in the background, so 8’ x 8’ seems about right. This is, of course, after pruning. Like you, I;ve been trying for low and wide.
The tree’s buds are swelling but not yet breaking. JT-02 is ahead of other persimmon trees.
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@jrd51 … that is a good looking tree.
Mine don’t have limbs near that long yet.
I would like for the fruit to be within reach from the ground.. or at most from a 4 ft step.
So far so good.
TNHunter
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My JT02 looks like yours now, @jrd51 .. but it’s in last place, all the other trees at least have some leaves out. I was worried for awhile that it died back. I’m going to add some more varieties to it and have been waiting for it to get going ..
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@FruitsFanatic .. nice looking trees.
I got my IKKJiro from Starks… last year it was in year 3 and ripened 22 fruits. This year hoping for several more.
I have a Cardinal asian that I got from OGW. It is in year 3 this year and has blossoms all over. Hope to get some fruit from it. It is supposed to be about 2 weeks earlier than IKKJ.
The rest of my persimmons I grafted to my own wild dv rootstock trees.
One asian.. Saijo… year 2 this year
I have grafted hybrids JT02, Kasandra, Nakitas Gift, Journey, Dar Sofiyivky.
Also grafted Americans H63A, Prok, Barbaras Blush.
I am adding one more this year by graft.. Giboshi (Smiths Best). My wild dv rootstock is just starting to leaf out some now.. won’t be long now to graft it.
TNHunter
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