Urgent: Hybrid Persimmon Breeding Project Needs Pollen

General Fruit Growing
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Good evening,

I hope everyone is having a wonderful spring. I was just communicating with someone about a specific persimmon breeding project, and it was recommended that I post this publicly.

Some of you may have heard about the PCNA hybrid persimmon breeding project I have been working on. The foundation for the project was partially laid in the discussion that happened last year under the thread 'Is a non-astringent American-Asian hybrid persimmon within reach?" (Is a non-astringent American-Asian hybrid persimmon within reach?). Thank you to all who contributed to that discussion.

Anyway, it’s a long story to explain everything that has led up to the present, but as of February I was approved for some SARE funding to conduce a PCNA hybrid persimmon breeding project. If you wish to read more about the specifics, here’s a link. BREEDING A COLD-HARDY, NON-ASTRINGENT HYBRID PERSIMMON CULTIVAR - SARE Grant Management System

Currently, I am running into a potential bottleneck which could hinder or delay the progress of this research, so I wanted to explain the situation to all of you.

Project goals and objectives require that I find pollen from a non-astringent persimmon to utilize in making pollinations next month. Pollen from an astringent variety will not work. This is a bit of a challenge, because most non-astringent varieties only produce female flowers. However, Hana Fuyu, Okugosho, and Taishu are among the few non-astringent varieties that produce male flowers. As I was putting this project together, I lined up several potential sources for pollen, however, some of these sources have fallen through in the past couple weeks.

So I am in urgent need of pollen from a non-astringent variety if at all possible. I wanted to post this here in case anyone has specimens of Hana Fuyu, Okugosho, or Taishu which may be developing male blooms. If anyone can supply pollen, I have a mobile freezer, and I can potentially come (from Missouri) to collect the pollen and transport it with cold storage. I can also give reasonable compensation for the material.

If anyone has any leads, I’m all ears.

Thank you

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I don’t have any leads, but good on you for getting the SARE funding! I’m sure I speak for all when I say best of luck with this endeavor

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I appreciate your support

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Awesome! I applaud your initiative and wish you luck.

I managed to get my hands on Taishu recently but unfortunately I won’t have pollen for at least a year or two. No doubt other members of this community will step up to the plate to help.

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Found this online today, COLD-HARDY PCNA HYBRID PERSIMMON PROJECT UPDATE -https://projects.sare.org/media/pdf/P/o/m/PomonaWinter20232024.pdf

(pdf is linked from COLD-HARDY PCNA HYBRID PERSIMMON PROJECT UPDATE - SARE Grant Management System)

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I believe I already mentioned this but the best you can do is plant a monoecious PCNA variety like Hyakami Gosho. This is not a PVNA variety that needs pollination to make the fruit hard edible but the fruit is hard edible even without seeds, a real PCNA variety that also happens to have male flowers as well.

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This makes sense.

So what is the list of PCNA varieties that produce a meaningful amount of male flowers? I know that Taishu, Hanagosho, and Okugosho have been used by the Japanese as pollen donors. Occasionally Fuyu, as well, but it seems less dependable. The Japanese also use offspring of the above varieties, e.g., Okitsu 1 is Okugoshu x Okugoshu. I’m not aware of any others.

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I have no specific need for such varieties so I haven’t done any reserach yet but there must be a decent amount of this type of PCNA cultivars. I have Hyakami Gosho in my collection orchard and it flowers profusely with more male than female flowers…reliably, every season not just occasionally.

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