Hybrid persimmon in New Hampshire?

Hello all. I’m thinking about my persimmon options for very southern NH (Nashua). Meader is an obvious choice. I’m pretty sure Yates or Prok will work well, but I’m curious if anyone has experience with growing Rosseyenka or other hybrids in this or a similar climate. They should be plenty cold hardy, but I suspect the summers here might be on the cool side for sufficient ripening and sugar development.

TIA!

The hybrids are likely to need more growing degree days/season length to ripen fruit than you get in NH…My Rosseyanka graft didn’t make it through the winters in my z4 location anyway. Meader, Prok, Yates are good bets, as are seedlings from those…

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Is Rosseyanka later than Nikita’s gift? NG ripens for me in the Seattle area (PNW). We have some of the lowest GDD in the country but quite a long frost free growing season.

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I think I saw @tjasko post photos/information about harvest times for Rosseyanka and NIkita’s Gift lately.

Dax

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I harvested my Rosseyanka in the middle of November, here in zone 6b. I don’t know what that translates to in NH’s climate, but it is hardy enough that Jerry Lehman is also able to grow them in Terre Haute, IN. I don’t have Nikita’s Gift.

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Hmm… November ripening might be pushing it for NH. We get cold earlier here than the PNW, and fewer gdd than similar hardiness zones in the Midwest. Fortunately, there’s some good info on persimmons and pawpaws out of southern Michigan, which is about as close a climate to southern New Hampshire as I’ve found. They definitely seem to favor Yates and a couple others. I’ve seen reference to trying out Rosseyenka there, but no results posted. I guess I should stick to the early virginiana varieties. Thanks for the info, everyone!

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You should go with JT-02 or Kasandra hybrids because they are much tastier than Rossyanka and can handle the -17F this year in my orchard and -20F in 2018. You can buy them at nuttrees.net

Tony

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@tonyOmahaz5 Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll have to consider those. Do you know of anyone who’s tried them in New England or the Great Lakes region? I know you and I are both zone 5, but you get an earlier spring and more growing degree days than I do.

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What I would do if i were in your climate is plant two earlier ripening americans like maybe Prok, Geneva Long, and Yates. Then in a few years i would experiment by grafting one limb of your tree to the earliest hybrids. I believe the earliest z5 hardy hybrids would be kasandra and maybe nb-02 and others may prove good but more testing is needed on some of the new hybrids like those from ukraine. (Rosseyanka is very late…)

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I think that’s what I’ll do. I’m planning on starting with the three you mentioned, then see which one(s) I like best. After that, I’ll experiment a little with the hybrids.

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A friend of my planted a Prok and a Yates 9 years ago. He is in zone 5b/6a. A Prok died shortly after. He did not know why.

Yates is now 15’ tall and 10’ wide. It has been productive and ripens from mid Oct on. Yates tastes good but fruit are on a small size. I just stopped by his home to collect the fruit. He is very generous.

Another member here, @SMC_zone6, I believe, grow a Prok and other cold hardy persimmons. He is in zone 6a like me. Hopefully, he will chime in.

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Those are beautiful! Small size doesn’t bother me so long as the taste is good. I see you’re in central MA. North or South of Worcester? I’m in Nashua, so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch for what works for you and your friend to work for me here. I’m barely zone 5b (USDA maps put annual mean at -10.2 F), but I suspect I might be actually on the 6a side of the fence, since I’m in town and on a small hill.

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My friend who has the Yates is in a north side of Worcester. I am 15 mins from him. I have a Nikita’s Gift (could die on a very cold winter).

I have another multi grafted one year old tree on a seedling rootstock.
Prok, Morris Burton and a small scion of JT-2 are grafted on it.

American should do fine where you are. JT-2 is the hybrid that gets high mark for survival zone 5 cold. Asian persimmons in ground? have not found one that will survive without winter protection yet.

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SE Michigan here…

I had a Ichi-Ki_Kei_Jiro fruiting here up until a few years ago. It took 5 years for it to fruit, it fruited for me 3 years and I lost it the next winter. Its been re-grafted over to a Nikita’s Gift and Its holding its own (though it is pretty buried between a poncirus and a Cudrania which is much larger)

No fruit yet, but maybe in a couple years…

Then again, I’m in a pretty sheltered area right by the water…

Scott

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NC-10 is typically ripe here by early to mid-Sept.
Not as big as Prok, but heavy crops and plenty tasty. IIRC, NC-10 was developed by Doug Campbell, in Ontario.

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Prok is my go to D.V. but now that my M.B #3 is in full production and it tasted awesome with lots of sweet juice and no Astringency but on a smaller size. Now I have two great D.V. as FAVORITE.

Tony

MB#3 sitting on the top of Tam Kam.

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Oh, heck that’s basically next door. I’m definitely curious to see how your JT-2 turns out. I’d initially been thinking Rosseyenka for a hybrid, but after feedback here and further research, JT-02 is my top pick for a hybrid persimmon to try. Where did you find scionwood? I haven’t found any sources selling scions.

Nice! I really appreciate how you continue to share your diverse persimmon experience.

nuttrees.net. Cliff will sell it.

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Oh, ok. I had seen it in the trees list but not the scion list. But I see now the scion list says 2013, so there must be some updates. Does he charge the $10 handling on scions, or just trees?