Again, “believe me” if there are no natives Katie or anyone for that matter (and I haven’t completely convinced Drew yet) do not plant any seedlings or hermaphroditic cultivars!
Dax
I’m going to remember that! There’s no emoji for a happy dance, but I’m doing one. I don’t have any friends irl who are into fruit, or growing anything, really. Exciting.
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There is an emoji for a big grin but not necessary!
Good night,
Dax
Those looked like Prok.
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Thanks, Tony. I have three grafts of Prok on 3 different trees! Oh, well.
But how will the raccoons and opossums spread them across the Iowa River valley and beyond if they don’t have seeds? #persimmonworlddomination
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I have Prok that I grafted myself 3 springs ago. I have protected the graft union with mulch/woodchips each winter. Last winter the upper growth survived without any protection and we had a true zone 4 test. I have also heard Yates is another good one.
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New selections may be as good or better, but Jerry Lehman told, on numerous occasions, that year-in/year-out, at persimmon tasting events, Early Golden was almost always the top pick.
As to espalier… I’ve never known anyone to try it. Be aware, though, that D.virginiana naturally ‘self-prunes’ lower limbs as they become shaded by the expanding canopy. That may not be an issue with a well-managed espalier, but folks who have grafted multiple varieties onto young well-feathered trees have found that as they’ve grown, they’ve eventually ‘shrugged off’ most of those early grafts as those lower limbs decline and drop off.
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What is your experience with the hybrids and seeds? I have male pollinizers in my orchard, but very few seeds in my Rosseyanka persimmons–maybe 10 seeds out of 100 fruit. It seems the hybrids do get pollinized but not as “eagerly”. Is the same true for Nikita’s, Kassandra, etc.
It is a nature of Rosseyanka that it sets few seeds even when pollinated. Other hybrids of 2nd and 3rd generation are much more prone to form seeds when pollinated.
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Looks like you really are enjoying them!
In my experience – I’ve successfully grafted three or four dozen Asian persimmons over the last few years onto American rootstock and had about that many failures before that plus some more failures mixed in with my successes – if an American persimmon rootstock is given any chance to grow anywhere but the Asian graft, then it will abort the Asian graft, so I wouldn’t hold any hope for grafting an Asian persimmon into an American persimmon unless I planned to graft the whole tree over to Asian.
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I visited the bearing Meader persimmon tree yesterday and saw the it’s crop was dropping, probably just getting going. It had lost a major 4" limb from crop load! The fruit I was able to find on the ground and shake off the tree were very good. I also picked the first persimmon off my seedling tree. The fruit is quite small, maybe I should name it ‘Thumbelina’ it had a good flavor.
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A friend also brought a small sample of Szukiis fruit to a gathering, so I was able to try a bit of that one as well. It seemed to have a bit more of a refined flavor,
It was heaven. That’s the first one and first bite.
Thanks, Bob.
Dax
Good to know cousin. So the nurse branch theory doesn’t apply to persimmon grafting I guess? I was going to graft all but one branch, just because I wanted to taste American persimmon too. But I guess I shouldn’t do that. If anything I can graft everything to Asian and after everything starts to grow I can chop off one of the Asians. Probably don’t need to do that because I’m sure I’ll have enough failures to leave me with my original tree.
A nice haul from the Meader tree this year, it is loosing branches and a big limb due to crop load, winds, and now, maybe coons.
Some pretty ones
All are seedless
Last but not least, here’s one I picked from the seedling tree in my yard, with a Meader for scale, seedling fruit is on the right. They are almost ripe now, maybe as the 8’ tree matures the size will increase and ripen earlier (hoping). Just about the cutest little things, these have an elongated shape.
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All my grafted trees put on very nice growth this year, ones in the nursery row will be a challenge to dig as some are over 1" caliper at the base.
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Congrats Jesse! And, seedless!
Dax
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If anyone finds a successful persimmon that actually ripens in the North, and which would ripen and be hardy in the Minneapolis area, let me know. I planted PrimeArk Freedom blackberries, which grow great, but don’t ripen in time here, so am hesitant to plant something that might not ripen by winter. My mom only used persimmons for cookies. I didn’t realize they are good for fresh eating.
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had the same problem here. not a long enough growing season. even some elderberry varieties that are z3 rated, don’t ripen early enough before the frost kills them. you would think with the longer daylight hours here in the north during growing season would make up for this.