Who's Growing Improved American Persimmons? Suggestions welcome!

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The more i look at Elmo 'Claypool A-118' ('Elmo') Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) the more i like it @snowflake

The Elmo Persimmons ripen in October to November. Late ripening fruit would definately compliment early golden in my orchard.

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@snowflake

We know from this thread Early Golden, H-118, and Meader persimmons are ripened in September in Z5 “Early Golden, H-118, and Meader persimmons” are ripened in September in Z5 and from my own experience eating them here early golden ripen at that time here also. Elmo would really stagger the harvest. Claypool H-118 and Claypool A-33 are others i have besides early golden. This thread says a lot Persimmon Fall Color - #48 by Barkslip .This thread shows the 100-46 ripening in late October 2023 Persimmon Grafting according to 2023 Persimmon Grafting - #332 by mvfd801 which means with a little planning we could eat persimmons for months.

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My next group of persimmons that need grafted are in a pretty rough area. Many are big and in my microclimate area.



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Pawpaw would love it on the bank of that pond.

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@Robert

The pawpaw are what i created the microclimate for but they are on the south side of the water. The persimmon and pears are on the north side. Pawpaw in Kansas - it's a lot of work but can be done!

This is the orchard on the north. It needs grafted now. This is one of my remote orchards.




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Pawpaw are all over the place here, but they really love the rivers and lakes.

Wish I had all those persimmon seedlings you have. We have them everywhere here, just not on my property. I’d graft every one of them.

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@Robert

A generous forum member recently sent me some very good dormant persimmon scions. Another member sent me some pear scions.
Pear rootstocks are planted everywhere down there.

@Robert

Can you move some persimmon onto your property?

I have plenty, just not volunteers like you have.

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@Robert

Mine are not volunteers they are planted. If you look closely at the photo they are in rows.

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This year I expect to be getting fruit from and trying Elmo A118, Early Jewel H118, H63a, Morris Burton, Chuchupaka, Giombo, Kasandra,JT02, Nikita’s gift, Hachiya, Saijo and Suruga.

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Do you have any male persimmons? I’ve heard rumors that Chuchupaka needs to be pollinated, but haven’t seen anything definitive. If yours are holding fruit without pollination, that would be pretty promising.

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No male persimmons in bloom this year. I really hope that isn’t true.
Chuchupaka is absolutely loaded with fruit on a small tree. Maybe around 40 on a tiny tree

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Wow, that is loaded! That is promising. I’ve been debating getting a male or dioecious tree set out somewhere, but I haven’t committed. I guess I’ll wait and see what my Chuchupaka does.

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It is my most vigorous growing variety. By far. And most productive at the same time.
If it holds fruit without pollination, it will be the one to grow.

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Sounds like a great assortment! I have 3 persimmons on my trees this year, one on David’s Kandy and two on a tiny 2.5’ Nikita’s Gift I grafted just last year. A bunch of other young persimmons have yet to do anything except keep growing. I guess I should be content!

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Anyone looking at getting into persimmons, i would suggest they get rootstocks in the ground asap since mine took a while to get good-sized.

Scions are fairly easy to come by.

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Find this interesting from the pdf above as i mentioned. The 100-46 seems like the way to go in Kansas for a late season persimmon (October). Prarie sun, prarie star aka (Claypool H-118 & Claypool A-33), Early Golden seems like excellent early producers (September).

“Lehman’s Delight aka 100-46 - This cultivar is one of the finest crosses to result form the American persimmon breeding work by Jerry Lehman of Terra Haute, Indiana. This early to mid-season ripening cultivar. Large fruit has a reddish orange blush and an excellent sweet flavor. Trees bear heavy crops. The pulp of the ripe fruit is recommended use in puddings, cookies and breads. Partially self-fertile female tree will produce seedless fruit without a male pollinator.”

“Early Golden, and many of its female seedlings, produce male flowers, but it may take a few extra years for them to show up and they tend to prioritize weak branches. Persimmons pollinated by these male flowers seem to only form a few seeds rather than all eight.self-fertile (parthenocarpy and occasionally male flowers)” “One of the best American Persimmon Varieties, Early Golden American Persimmon has 1-1/2″ diameter fruit that becomes very sweet and deep orange when ripe, with a delicious taste not unlike dates. Hardy to minus 25 degrees F.”

Early Jewel is also known as H-118, and Prairie Star (R) at One Green World nursery . It is one of the selections that came from the late James Claypool breeding program. The fruits are significantly larger than Meader, but less dense in texture. It is also less sweet than Meader, and has a well pronounced butterscotch/rum flavor. Overall it is a very good fruit, but less intense in sugar and flavor than Meader.”

“H-118 is very varly, large size fruit, Red colored fruit, Soft when Ripe very High-quality Fruit Precocious and a consistent producer bears seedless fruit south of the Ohio River due to it being a 90 Chromosome persimmon. Out of the Late James Claypool Breeding program, Very early, large size, reddish colored fruit, soft when ripe.”

Prarie sun - Fruit ripens early September, and stores for 2 -3 weeks. These trees tend to drop their fruit as it ripens. “Prairie Sun® is self-fertile and bears abundant crops of seedless, orange-yellow fruit.Self-fertile (can produce fruit on it’s own).” It blooms apparently in early June. "Prairie Sun” is Claypool A33

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“There are two races of American persim-
mon: a tetraploid (60-chromosome) race is
centered in the southern Appalachian Mountains
and adjacent areas and a hexaploid (90-chromo-
some) race occupies the range north and west of
the tetraploid range (Fig. 1). Using light micros-
copy observation of root tips stained with crystal
violet, hexaploid genotypes were identified
for plants generated from seeds collected from
trees in Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and West
Virginia, whereas tetraploid genotypes were
identified from sites in Florida, Georgia,
Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina,
and Tennessee (Baldwin and Culp, 1941).
This study included only single tree samples
of seeds for most states, although several
additional trees were sampled in Georgia,
Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The ranges for
persimmons with these two ploidy levels over-
lap in Kentucky (Baldwin and Culp, 1941).”


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Lehman had reported that H-118 is very fungal susceptible. Maybe not an issue for those of us where rain never happens. I don’t know that I have seen that discussion on here. Lehman’s report from 2008:

H-118 very early, September 3, but first fruits were unusable as many were cracked and infected by Fusicladium levieri (identified by Dr. Gail Ruhl, Purdue University); reported in the 2003 Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science 112(2): 132-134.) The fruit of H-118 seems more susceptible to this fungus than other varieties. The leaves of many varieties are infected with this fungus but typically not much fruit is infected. I know of no fungicides labeled for it

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