Don’t forget Donald Eugene Compton. Haven’t tried any of his, but all I’ve heard from secondhand sounds really good. I started about 30 seedlings from his breeding program last spring.
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Thank you!
Here’s a few of the American persimmon names from previous threads:
DEC Autumn #2
DEC Brace #1, #2
DEC Don’s Earliest
DEC Double-Ziptie
DEC Goliath
DEC King Crimson
DEC Money Maker
DEC SFES
DEC Sugar Hill
DEC Valeene Queen
DEC Wannabe #1, #2, #3
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I think most of Don’s are hybrids
I put in h-118, 100-46, and h-69 this year as well as chuchupaka. They are all very small, grafted to seedlings this year.
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I just happened to be checking Burnt Ridge for root stock and they have D virginiana in 3-4 foot size for $7.75 ea, as well as taller ones.
American Persimmon Trees for Sale | Burnt Ridge Nursery | Buy American Persimmon Trees
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@Ged
Thanks for the heads up, but California does not permit the import of any persimmon with roots.
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Among the Compton D. virginiana scionwood offered for sale, these 3 are well-rated:
DEC Goliath
DEC Sugar Hill
DEC Valeene Queen
So now I get to pick one 
I have a note stuck in my mind to get Valeene Queen at some point. Someone posted a note about the flavor and production that suggests it is better than most of the others.
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As you probably know, Compton’s (and Claypool’s) goal was to produce a cultivar for agricultural production of persimmon pulp. There were two groups of evaluators, the agriculturists and DEC himself.
Valeene Queen was selected by agriculturists in TN. I just placed an order while it’s still in supply.
Sugar Hill was selected by DEC but not the agriculturists. I’m curious about the flavor of this one and might have to purchase it.
Goliath was also selected by agriculturists and is popular for its size. Cliff and Kum E. have an enormous inventory of it. I’m going to skip it for now.
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That’s interesting. I assume it’s because of some soil borne pathogen. Thanks for starting this survey - I’m finding out a lot.
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I can’t argue against these choices. But I’d add a plug for the siblings WS8-10 aka Barbra’s Blush and U-20A, both of which were bred by Lehman, D-128 x F-58.
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@jrd51
I’d agree there are other cultivars of equal or better fruit quality.
Part of my goal here has been to obtain separable breeding lines. It will be interesting to see how each of them performs in my marine-layer influenced zone 10b. I will raise them all in separate tree pots.
Got it. Would it matter that – at least according to my notes – H-118 is Juhl x George, whereas 100-46 is B59 (Marion x G2) x G62 (Juhl x George)? In other words, the male / pollen donor for 100-46 appears to be a sibling of H-118.
No need to respond if you don’t care.
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@jrd51
That’s helpful. By any chance do you have a text or spreadsheet document containing all the D. virginiana crosses you know about?
For starters, look at Claypool’s records. I can’t post the PDF here because it’s too big (13.1 MB). You can probably find it with a search. Otherwise PM me your e-mail address and I’ll try to send it.
1/3 of what I can give you is straight from Claypool.
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Here’s a sloppy set of notes. The top section lists American persimmons that I understand to be wild varieties. The middle section lists a bunch of deliberate crosses, including many from Claypool and Lehman. The bottom section is a crude attempt to map persimmons in the Early Golden family. Early Golden and many of its descendants are monoecious and therefore are used as the pollen donors in many deliberate (not OP) crosses.
Also, on the right there are links to sources for information contained in the sheet, my attempt to document sources.
American Persimmon Info 2024.xlsx (11.5 KB)
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@jrd51
71 pages of fun!
Thank you very much for the xlsx and pdf files. I plan on starting with known D. virginiana cultivars in circulation, then seeing how far back I can trace their ancestries in your files. Afterwards I’ll have to cross-check with Lech and others.
I was just wondering why no one mentioned Lehman’s Delight. It’s one of the best fruits of any kind I’ve ever eaten. A wonderful legacy for Jerry. I don’t know if this works as well in So Cal.
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