Just sharing a photo of some Prok persimmons.
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Ari,
The 810 graft has taken and is growing so far. Good year for my persimmon grafting. All three grafts have taken.
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awesome @mamuang , I got maybe 7 out of 14 rootstocks that took this year
(and hybrids like 2 Rosseyankas and a Nikitas Gift on my large 15ft Saiju tree [couldnāt get none of the pure asian varieties grafted onto my Saiju for some reason]).
Now time to figure out where to plant them or who to give them away to :).
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Wow, Tony. They look huge for an american persimmon. I planted Prok last fall, but it is only about 3 feet tall. Looking forward to it fruiting. How do they taste?
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To me, it is the best in this class and the runners up is H-118.
Tony
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Tony,
Do you have male persimmons? Or is this fruit set without a pollenizer? (It is hard to get a straight answer on that. Though folks here have said you donāt need a male.)
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I got rid of my male persimmon tree because I did not care for the seeds. Prok, Yates, Meader, H-118, and the Early golden family will fruit without a male tree.
Tony
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I know we have male persimmons wild around hereā¦ I donāt know if Prok will be seedless here or not (60 vs. 90 chromosome?). Does anyone know if Prok is seedless in Virginia?
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I partially answer my question with this excerpt from the University of Kentucky:
āThere is a 90-chromosome American
persimmon that is native to the northern U.S. and
a 60-chromosome type that is native to Kentucky
and the southern U.S. Most of the named
varieties are of the 90-chromosome type. When
named varieties of the 90-chromosome type are
grown in Kentucky and are pollinated by the
60-chromosome type the seeds abort and many
of the fruit are seedless or have
few seeds. A few American
persimmons, such as āMeader,ā
are self-fruitful and will set
seedless fruitā
We should only have 60 chromosome trees here, so Prok should be seedless!
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Wishful thinking, Iām afraid. Meader is fully seeded for me here in zone 7 North Carolina, for example. A friend nearby with Yates, Ruby, and Early Goldenā¦ all his trees are fully seeded. I canāt explain why, but there seems to be more than enough anecdotal evidence to disprove the theory.
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They say Early Golden and its descendents typically have a few male flowers which cause the seeds. My grafts of Yates and Meader took this year and Iām hoping they will be seedless. As usual Mother Nature may be laughing at me and making other plans.
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That might explain the seeded fruit of the friend with the Early Golden, but it wouldnāt explain my fully seeded Meader fruit, which for the last ~5 years until this year has been the only grafted native persimmon Iāve had flower. I believe Lucky in southern Kentucky has also said that every persimmon heās grafted has been fully seeded. Anyone else in the South on this forum fruited any of the common selected native persimmon cultivars? It would be great if there were real hope, but Iām extremely skeptical.
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Conventional wisdom says that the Ohio River is more or less the ādividing lineā between the 60 and 90-chromosome races. Iām well south of the Ohioā¦ more or less right on the KY/TN lineā¦ so, all the natives in this area should be 60sā¦ Iāve not grafted any male 90-chromosome cultivars, but all my 90-C females have seedsā¦ some years fully seeded, some years less than others.
Iām through worrying about it. They all taste goodā¦ and I canāt say that I can discern any significant difference in flavor between D.v. cultivarsā¦ though some, like Keener (alleged by some to be a hybrid, but I think not) have more āfiberā in them than others.
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Prok finally ripen and starting to drop fruits. 9-21-17. Zone 5. If you want to plant it. Prok and H-118 are the top dog of the American Persimmon.
Tony
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Tony, how close together are your persimmons planted? Do you keep them short?
I planted them at 8 feet apart. I pruned them to 10 feet tall and let them spread 8 feet wide.
Tony
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So far Prok has been seedless here in North Ga. but only had a couple fruits ripen
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Phil,
Mine had 3 seeds or so in each fruit. The pollinators could be from the Meader or Early Golden families. Do you like the taste?
Tony
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It was very good. my favorite American I have tasted. Thin skin and clear rich flesh. I have lots of wild male American around but most everything I have that I Imagine are 90 Chromsome that might possibly pollinate like a Yates/Juhl right beside it and Meader and Early Golden somewhat close are young not much flower yet and not sure which might have any male flower.
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