Oh my yes I was getting the Black Sea mixed up with the Caspian Sea!! 
Ive used google earth in the region a bit exploring areas of interest such as Kazakhstan and Siberia but I never have been to central Asia…
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Happens to the best of us! I spent some time in Crimea a long time ago, it has some beautiful locations on the Black Sea coast. Would not go now since it’s occupied by Russia. Will be swimming in the Caspian Sea in September, my fourth visit to Baku and first in the last ten years.
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Oh ok nice!! Yeah there are some interesting areas over there… You should share some of your adventures on here when you return! Yeah I would love to go exploring centeal asia on a search for hardy kaki, pomegranite, and pistachio! Anything in Kazakhstan should thrive in Kansas!!
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I’ve never been to Central Asia or Kazakhstan either. Had a chance to go to Astana a couple of years ago, but it was in November, so I declined, didn’t want to experience the Kazakh steppe at that time of year. A friend of mine took a trip through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kirghistan last year, and enjoyed it very much. People are very friendly and the government bureaucracies have shifted in the recent years towards a friendly attitude to tourists. Although, some areas on the Afghan border still can be dangerous at times. Uzbek melons are famous, they ripen in August.
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Wow that is nice!! Well I hope you enjoy your Black sea trip and if you find a new fruit let us know!!
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My Salavatski in zone 7A/B, spent 2 years in a pot and is in-ground for another 3 now (lowest temp was in 2016/2017 around 4F).
No major diebacks. The bush is getting large, about chest height but only 1 fruit.
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4 months is the fastest I have heard of, how long the fruit takes to go from flower to ripe, it depends on climate, variety, soil, nutrition, condition of plant and on age,
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[quote=“alanmercieca, post:47, topic:22306, full:true”]
“how long the fruit takes to go from flower to ripe, it depends on climate, variety, soil, nutrition, condition of plant and on age,”
This statement can be said about any fruit.
By the way, Southern Ukraine is still colder than zone 7. They generally cannot grow Kaki persimmons, only hybrids, while in my Maryland’s zone 7 Kaki varieties grow just fine without any protection.
I’m trying to grow several hardy Russian varieties of pomegranate. Got few flowers this year, no fruits yet. At least, they picked up this summer, began to grow fast. This winter was mild.
Looking at my figs I noticed how important is to locate them at the south-facing wall of a white shed. I wish I had more space like that…
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I know that, of course. Before winter you can bend them down to the ground and cover with insulation material. That’s what they do.
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When you say colder than zone 7, do you mean not actually zone 7 but actually with colder winter extremes? Or do you mean true zone 7 extremes but with lower average winter temperatures or lower daytime highs (or some other such alternate measure of cold)? Or do you just mean a true zone 7 but with colder/shorter summers insufficient for ripening fruit (although in my experience Nikita’s gift isn’t noticeably earlier than other full kaki varieties)? A large part but not all of the Crimean and Ukrainian coastal areas are zone 7 according to the maps I’ve seen, but I can’t imagine that over-wintering would be an issue for relatively cold-hardy pure kaki varieties (like do well for people in eastern US zone 7 areas) in any true zone 7 winter apart from extreme complicating factors besides cold (e.g. extreme winds, extremely low humidity…)
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Most of southern Ukraine, including the entire Odessa, Mykolayiv and Kherson regions and the northern half of Crimea, is in Zone 6. Only the southern part of Crimea is in Zone 7, and the tiny strip on the southern coast of Crimea (Южный Берег Крыма) is Zone 8 because it is shielded by the mountains from northern winds (this is where the Nikitski Botanical Garden is located). In fact, there is more of Zone 7 territory in Iceland than in Ukraine.
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Here’s the map I found with a quick search. It definitely shows the zone 7 parts as a very small part of Ukraine, but a significant part of the coastal areas.
As you may have noticed the two maps don’t match at all. The map of hardiness zones for Europe is outdated. Former zone 5 is now zone 6, former zone 6 is now zone 7 and so on. I know… I live there.
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I believe they have colder winter extremities in most parts of Ukraine than I do here in USA Maryland zone 7.
I don’t have any issues with cold hardiness of regular Kaki trees, while half of the posts in persimmon-dedicated Cyrillic (mostly Ukrainian) group on Facebook is about winter cold-protection and about most cold hardy hybrids.
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Paul, have you harvested the Salavatski pomegranate yet?
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No and I doubt it will ripen. We got only 40 degrees at night today. It’s supposed to warm up but only 70s during the day. The problem is that the fruit is deep in the canopy so it’s in permanent shade. I think Rannii was ripening last year by this time already (maybe even end of Aug).
I will keep the tree for few more years but if it cannot ripen there is no point in having it.
Actual picture
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Neat picture and update Paul.
Maybe as it gets older with more vigor it’ll ripen some good fruit, hope you get some good pomegranates soon!
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Thanks, I have currently 5 poms that are somewhat sheltered from the winds but plan to plant few more out in the open field so that’s going to be a real test for them. I will let you know in the future how are they faring…
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Nikitski Ranni as of this morning, getting close obviously but I am never completely sure when to pick them. Last year I waited until Oct and I guess that is my plan again this year.
Full disclosure, the plant set probably 5 poms initially and these two are the only ones that didn’t rot. (they also hang over a deck so that may have helped)
The plant subsequently set a sort of secondary crop, three more poms in addition to these two but they aren’t nearly as far along and I question whether they will have time to ripen.
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