Got it, thanks!
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Thanks. I’ll give the article a close read. For now, two comments:
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I think what the table displays is the point I made above – the crosses are mostly wild females x Early Golden family males.
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Claypool and his associates provided ratings of the fruits from some of the various crosses. The scores / rankings used by the author seem (I haven’t read the paper yet) to derive from those ratings. Two major problems, however, are that (a) many crosses are unrated; and (b) the ratings that exist seem highly unreliable. Eyeballing the Claypool ratings where I could find them, I found the correlation between those ratings and various growers’ lists of favorites very weak.
Just consider:
F-25 [Prairie Gem] scores 38.9.
H63A, a common favorite, scores 48.5.
I-94 [Valene Beauty] as noted scores 77.
Some common favorites – H-55A, D-128, I-115, I-118 and I-120 – are unfortunately unrated.
Edit: The article discusses the pollinators as females that sometimes throw male flowers (e.g., Early Golden) or males that sometimes bear fruit (e.g., Szukis). What gets called “female” or “male” is beyond my pay grade.
Perhaps I should reword #1 above as follows: “. . . the crosses are mostly wild dioecious females x male-flowering varieties (whether technically female or male) in the Early Golden family.” In some cases, an Early Golden type serves as both female (fruit bearer) and male (pollen donor).
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Yes. Keep in mind there are two types of growers:
A. Commercial
B. Backyard orchardists
Claypool rated for type A.
Compton rated for type B.
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Glad to hear you are on the mend. I got a laugh from the Fruitwood discussion. Must have gotten lucky, I went from impulsively deciding to order some rootstock to shipping notification in exactly two weeks. I also ordered 100-46/Lehmans Delight. Might try to source a hybrid, maybe JT-02, from somewhere as well.
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In this part of the orchard the spacing was cut in half (closer together). So the ones with an A following are in between the original spacing. Therefore two separate trees
Perhaps Valeene Beauty/ Valeene Queen?
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That’s right.
I would note that both trees are Lena x Early Golden, dated 5/11/86. So they appear to be siblings. Claypool (or his team) gave them ratings of 77 and 78.2, respectively – both very good. Both have a “10” rating for Taste.
But confusingly, the record for I-94 includes the word “BLAND.” I don’t get how a fruit can rate “10” for taste yet be bland.
Even so, Valeene Beauty is at the top of my American persimmon wish list. I didn’t think I’d be adding another name, but I’m having second thoughts.
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I just received a few cuttings of “Turkey Lake” from a member here. This may be an interesting variety just because its genetics are likely quite different from the northern 90 chromosome varieties.
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Thanks for the explanation!
That’d be great if we could confirm DEC Valeene Queen as I-94A. “I-94A” trees/scions don’t seem to be readily available.
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I-94A is Valeene Beauty. Never heard of DEC Valeene Queen. Must be an off shoot of the beauty.
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Here’s most of what I’ve learned so far about American persimmon ancestries, with my selections shown in purple.
Date is on the bottom left.
An alternate diagram is available here.
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Thanks for alerting me about the EG dependence and getting the data rolling. This is a fun project which as you know has spilled over into the American persimmon family tree thread. We might end up completing the OP’s project. 
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Returning to the topic of this thread(!!!), it has renewed my interest in Valeene Beauty based on fruit quality. But I see in my notes that it ripens mid-season, which is not ideal for me; I really need early-ripening varieties.
Can anyone who is growing Valeene Beauty comment on either fruit quality or ripening time? Thx.
Edit: I should add that, as noted in another thread, Jerry Lehman said that Valeene Beauty has only average flavor. So Claypool’s and Lehman’s assessments differ. @Richard attributes this difference to the 90 miles between the two growing sites.
since youre shooting for earlier varieties, what would you go for for even lower regions like 5a/b? would Yates, 100-46, H-118 or WS8-10 be out of the question? for hybrids i was thinking Dar Sofiyivky or Nikita #4 
This is not entirely true. Instead, you had made the statement that Lehman & Gordon were in the same state. I pointed out that they are 90 miles apart in different states. Prior to that, I had provided J. Lehman’s caveat about tastes varying between people and states.
To be clear, it really depends on the length of your growing season, which is only loosely correlated with USDA Zone. For comparison, my last frost tends to come in very late April or early May; temps are >50 F 24/7 after May 15. First frost in autumn comes mid-October to very early November.
Americans:
H-118 is supposed to be early. I grow it but my trees are very young and have not fruited yet.
WSB-10 is early, starting to ripen here in late Sept.
IDK about Yates.
Most observers say that 100-46 is late, though I have seen 1-2 disagree.
@Barkslip says that Yates is early but H-118 is the earliest.
So among these 4, I’d pick H-118.
Among other possibilities, I-115 (Juhl x Garretson) is rated by Claypool as VE (very early) and noted as “Jim’s earliest.”
Hybrids:
Here, Kassandra and JT-02 / Mikkusu ripen, but JT-02 just barely and both need to be finished indoors. I grow Nikita’s gift but it has not fruited yet and I expect it to be too late. I bought Dar Sofiyivki last summer, expecting it to combine early ripening and high quality. This winter I acquired scions of Chuchupaka with similar expectations.
So I like the choice of Dar Sofiyivki but see Chuchupaka as an alternate.
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thanks for that and its seems im on the correct path. about the cold hardiness distinction:
- can the plant survive
- can the fruit ripen. you say that some(hybrids) might have to be brought inside. is this a detriment to the quality of the fruit? and i thought that some of these varieties are supposed to hang and freeze on the trees late into winter? or is that just people with “too late” of varieties in their regions?
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Dax reported Dar Sofiyivkiy was not hardy over last winter at his location near Moline IL. While this is just one data point and could have other causes, it makes me suspicious of growing it in zone 5.
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I wasn’t clear. I had to finish ripening the fruits on Kasandra and JT-02 inside. Same for the Kaki IKKJ. This is not unusual. The trees are planted in the ground. Indoor finishing is not a bad option if the fruit manage to color up pretty well beforehand.
I don’t think it helps fruit quality to have them freeze / thaw / freeze / etc.
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