Where do you get *Male* American Persimmon trees?

General Fruit Growing
#1

Hey all,

I assume most people either:

  1. buy a few possible self-fruiting varieties like Meader/Early Golden since they may have a few male branches and hope for the best.

  2. or buy other named varieties they are interested in … but plant something like 3-4 more seedlings hoping to get a male to pollinate those.

Can you buy a persimmon male tree? like something 4-5ft tall plant that someone confirmed is a male?
I’m short on space, so would like to play 2 named varieties and 1 male… and would not like to plant 6 trees hoping one of the 4 is a male.

I live in Philadellphia, PA so not sure if any wild male ones are around me. Just thought I’d ask if any nurseries confirm gender of seedlings.

If my chances are much better space-wise, just have Meader and its relatives like Early Golden, then let me know :).
I ordered cool varieties like Deer Magnet, Lehman’s Delight 100-46, WS 8-10, J-59 Claypool, Elmo A-118, Yates, Prok… but I am short on space, so Im planting 2 of those varieties for myself… and the rest for my friend who has more land up north… but would need to take into account that we would need more male trees… So i am now thinking of planting all of those up north. and personally just doing Meader/Early Golden.

Thanks!,
Ari

#2

Hidden springs nursery offers male persimmons

http://www.hiddenspringsnursery.com/plants.html#Persimmon

Scott

#3

Ari,

You can plant a Prok and Yates because these two will produce persimmon fruits without the present of a male tree and they taste very good with large fruit.

Tony

#4

I believe all of the varieties you mentioned are self-fertile. You don’t need a male.

#5

See Raintree Nursery of Washington State as well as Oikos Tree Crops of Michigan.

#6

Chills: Oh thats interesting about Hidden Springs. I’ll have to keep that as an option, especially since RainTree is so expensive ($37.50 vs $10 !).

Hey SMC_zone6 / tonyOmahaz5, I am not so sure about self-fertility…
Are you all positive about that (and you don’t have males nearby)? I’ve read conflicting reports.
If they much less self-fertile than Meader, then I’ll just grab one of those too (and give away the rest to my friend haha).

#7

Prok and Yates fruited for me without a male present.

Tony

#8

If you graft you can put on a male branch, England’s should have male scions.

#9

Either way, early golden produces male flowers, as do many of the persimmons that are progeny of early golden. So you’ll be okay.

#10

K thanks guys.
Another quick question…
If you grew 1 Meader (or Early Golden/Prok/Yates) tree… how many fruit could you expect off a standalone tree versus one which has a male 100ft away (assuming full sized trees) …
Generally, we talkin’ about 50 fruit versus 400 fruit?

I guess maybe tonyOmahaz5 might know how many he gets off his Prok/Yates trees (and also how old are your trees btw)?

#11

I grafted my own persimmon trees about 5 years ago from Jerry Lehman persimmon scions. Each tree fruited around 10 fruits 2 years ago and this past fall I harvested around 50 fruits per tree. I believe I will get more fruits the following year as the trees get bigger and older. Cliff England told me once that his large Prok produced 200 to 300 fruits each season.

Tony

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