No idea where the Catskills is even. I know Raintree has made videos stating they have plants for more of the cold summer climates which is why they seem to be one of the few nurseries with plants that grow in my area that are Dave Wilson Nursery. Only places I can find that have a wide selection for trees that grow in my area are cummins, Grow Organic Peaceful Valley (though I have not had good luck with them), One Green World and Trees Of Antiquity has some.
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Nikita’s gift seems very temperamental and dependent on climactic conditions.
In the Pacific Northwest, it appears to be the best tasting persimmon — among the ones I’ve tried so far which isn’t a lot. It produced starting in year 2 and held onto some fruit the first year.
Every year it has slowly increased production. Not a production machine like Saijo or Jiro but quite decent.
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The Catskills makes up the northeasterly end of the Allegheny Plateau in upstate New York. My house sits at about 1895 ft; Mt. Utsayantha nearby peaks at 3209 ft – nothing to compare with the Rockies, but cool none-the-less. We were the Summer-time get-away for New York City people between 1870s when the railway came to the village and the start of WWII. Cummings is not all too far away in the Finger Lakes region.
I briefly had a Nikita´s Gift when I lived in Washington, DC. It just started bearing fruit when I moved up here. Sadly I had issues with people walking into my back yard stripping the fruit off the persimmons, figs and pomegranates. So I never got to taste the Nikita’s Gift. I set out several seedling hybrid persimmons this Spring, hope some make it throught the Winter, I may eventually graft the Nikita´s to one of them. It´s a pretty long shot here.
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I live and work on the more mountainous side of Colorado. Not something like Aspen per say. There are places in Colorado that are zone 4 still. My work is over 8000 feet elevation which is ironic because it is just a 30 minute drive from me at 5000 feet. My work is at the top though because I have looked a few miles away from my work and it seems to drop a few thousand feet again. As you have seen in this thread the Nikita’s gift persimmon seems to be controversial. It sounds like it is a good persimmon but not very hardy. Heck even in the description on One Green World where they are selling it they state hardy to -10 but then they claim hardy to zone 5. That is what made me start this thread. New York is pretty cold during the winter. I used to watch the New Years music stuff in both New York and Florida. New York it would be as cold as here in Colorado and you would see the cute girls covered up in expensive coats and having a good time. In Florida they were in their cute little dresses you would expect someone to be wearing in the summer time here.
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Post pics of the tree.
Soil analysis if you have it.
Information on water supply.
Dropping fruit is usually due to:
- Too much Chloride, Sodium or Potassium.
- Water stress Abscisic acid.
- The pH
- Too much Zinc or Boron.
- Too much Magnesium
- Anti-Gibberellins
- Invasive soil fungi
- Poor soil aeration
- High osmotic pressure of soil.
- Oxalic acid producing vegetation near the tree.
- Silicates from cement
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I think @aap said manganese helps retain fruit. I watered my persimmons with extra manganese last year and several held significant crops for such young trees.
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@PharmerDrewee
If you’re soil is Manganese deficient & iron rich,
then Adding Manganese can result in fruit retention.
Iron increases root growth, but it also increases leaf breathing.
Hyperventilation can cause water stress & an Abscisic acid reaction.
It is part of the FeMo-Cofactor enzyme for nitrogen fixation resulting in Ammonium on the roots.
Very high pH .
Manganese is part of the enzyme which converts Ammonium into Nitric acid.
So Manganese helps microbes lower pH.
If high pH was an issue then Manganese can result in fruit retention.
However, if soil has enough Manganese & you add more, major fruit drop problem.
Balance is what is important!
No easy fixes here.
Causes have to be accurately identified before the negative symptoms can be averted.
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By the way,I believe that’s @anon47724557 here on the forum. I don’t know if he has first hand knowledge of Chuchupaka, but he’s likely to know more about it than I do.
Hey Dax, can I get a graft as well? Not sure how to message on here
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I don’t have any rootstock; I plan to graft again 2024 and possibly sell 2025 and it’s basically going to be all JT-02’s and a ‘few’ of other cultivars. I may graft 50 JT-02 and have 20 trees total of other selected cultivars. I’m pretty much done in the hobbyist nursery business.
There will be people on here grafting and selling, occasionally. Maybe they’ll remember you.
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You will not be able to pm other members until you read enough posts. The system will upgrade your membership level automatically which will allow you to access more stuff. I do not know how many posts you need to read. You’ll know.
The system is set up to avoid the hit-and-run type of people.
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Oh got it. Thanks for the heads up
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Oh okay. It anything comes up or you have any trees or roots, please let me know. I LOVE persimmons and it would be awesome to grow my own.
The first time I ever tried it was in a friends place down in Florida. They had the ones that get very soft when they ripen up. Took about two boxes home with me. In the Midwest, I only seem to be able to find the hard ones that are apple like consistency. Which are still delicious but not quite the same.
Either way. Thanks a bunch for your reply! And I subscribed to your YouTube!
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You r welcome, thanks, cheers!
Speaking of this post do we have a month my JT-02 should be ready yet since it is approaching fall?
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How about a Chuchupaka instead on the 7th of Sept.?
That JT-02 petered on me. I tried grafting it again but it was too hot and I didn’t have any room. If not, I’m sorry that happened.
Dax
As long as it is a hybrid that grows down to zone 5. The chuchupaka sounds even more interesting to be honest.
It’s gone thru at my place, -9 F twice. We really don’t know beyond that, however, Europeans report it I think to -22 F. I’ve often (it seems) find that you should subtract from these numbers. It probably is -18 F hardy which means it’s going to take more than -18 to completely kill it. You’re going to need several-many days in a row to kill that thing past -20 or (so). I grafted one on one of those big seedlings in gallons that you saw above the same exact day as I grafted your first JT-02. So, it’s growing pretty good.
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I will take it then. It sounds like a super sweet variety according to what I have read. I am 5b so max I can get down to is -15 which nearly never happens. We generally have a -1 for a day or two a year so repeated exposure that low is highly unlikely where I live. Many times it is 15 degrees or 20 something low but it should be able to grow just fine. I read it needs a pollinator? Should I buy a male persimmon for pollination?
You bet, it’s yours. It has male and female flowers on it. That means you do not need another. It also means you’re going to have seeds.
Should you had a JT-02 alone, you would have plentiful, seedless, crops.
Edible persimmons (maybe all of the 750 Taxa ??) don’t need a male or male flowers on a female tree. They have a special way of pollination named parthenocarpy… which means that all female trees produce crops of seedless fruit if no male is nearby.
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