Love my seedling persimmons

Native Hunter

5 year old buck +
I look forward to the day when some of my persimmons that I have topworked start to bear, but in the meantime there is no shortage, thanks to both some seedlings I set about 12-13 years ago and some volunteer females.

I took some pictures today of a few different trees and love the variability of the ripening time we have. Some are ripening right now and others are still very green and won't be ripe until after the first frost.

This is a nice female that is ripening right now. Many of these are very sweet already. This is a seeding I got from the NWTF.

OcR62Yjh.jpg



About 20 feet away from the tree above is another NWTF seedling that I set. These are still extremely green. My guess is that these will be November ripening. I like having two trees so different located near each other.

pSEYoFUh.jpg


Another green one is this volunteer that is located on the south side of my place. This is getting to be a big tree.

psMGuHXh.jpg


Here is a tree that I really like. It is absolutely loaded, and looks like it will drop over a long period of time. Some of the fruits are just beginning to ripen and others are still very green.

PyYigtLh.jpg


I like this tree too. It is loaded and ripening right now, but like the tree above - has both green and ripe fruit at the same time. I wanted a persimmon near my pond and when cleaning out brush found one. I cleaned out around it and let it grow. This is what I got.

nd3alyMh.jpg


I have a few more persimmon trees with fruit but didn't get to them today, so no pictures of them. However, shown below is a loaded female seedling I took a picture of a few weeks ago that gives you an idea of how much a seedling can grow in good soil in 12-13 years. Not all will be this big, but the ones that get a good start will. This one is in the NH Tree Jungle. Another thing I love about persimmons is how tough they are. They are perfect for going in a jungle.....

UNbpwMLh.jpg


That's all folks. Hope you enjoy.....
 
looks grat, I had a chance last year to pull over in a hurry in south jersey to grab a few fully ripe fruits, fiance was amazed how good they tasted, so sweet and full of flavor out of an un assuming brown fruit.
 
looks grat, I had a chance last year to pull over in a hurry in south jersey to grab a few fully ripe fruits, fiance was amazed how good they tasted, so sweet and full of flavor out of an un assuming brown fruit.

They are good like that and there are countless recipes for using them in cakes, muffins, etc....

PS: Last week my wife made us some Paw Paw muffins using the recipe at the web site listed below. I thought they were delicious. The ones she made looked exactly like the ones in the picture on the web site. I bet you could substitute persimmons and it would work great.

https://palatablepastime.com/2017/09/25/appalachian-pawpaw-muffins/
 
I’ve got about 20 seeds in the fridge from a couple native trees I discovered at my neighbors pond. Long journey but I can’t wait to see them look like your fruit.
 
Outstanding!
 
i love these trees

My success at propagation in containers has been mixed(relative to chestnuts)

The volunteer trees in the field put my efforts to shame

bill
 
i love these trees

My success at propagation in containers has been mixed(relative to chestnuts)

The volunteer trees in the field put my efforts to shame

bill

Bill, I agree about the volunteers. They grow 5 times faster than transplanted trees due to the taproot.

If you have volunteer trees, it is best to focus on those the most. Open up around them and give them room to grow - then do topworking as necessary. Some will already be females, and you will want to leave many of those. But, you could even topwork some of those to a cultivar you desired if you wanted to do that.

I started topworking some of mine 2 years ago and have had very high success rates with the grafts taking. Between the volunteers, the ones I have set, and the ones that I have topworked - in a few years we will have solid persimmon fruit drop from Mid August into January or even February the next year. All that with very little effort. Really we already have that, but the volume will be greater as time goes on.

I also love my chestnuts, apples, crabapples and pears, but persimmons are more reliable and tougher in my particular area of the country.
 
Great looking fruit !! If they're that tasty, that's an even bigger plus than just for game food.

I've never laid eyes on a persimmon myself, though I've read they do grow in Pa. - somewhere. I'd be interested to try persimmons, if I knew where to find some. I haven't seen any in the mountains where I typically hunt. Any native fruit that grows wild - I'm up for trying.
 
Bill, I agree about the volunteers. They grow 5 times faster than transplanted trees due to the taproot.

If you have volunteer trees, it is best to focus on those the most. Open up around them and give them room to grow - then do topworking as necessary. Some will already be females, and you will want to leave many of those. But, you could even topwork some of those to a cultivar you desired if you wanted to do that.

I started topworking some of mine 2 years ago and have had very high success rates with the grafts taking. Between the volunteers, the ones I have set, and the ones that I have topworked - in a few years we will have solid persimmon fruit drop from Mid August into January or even February the next year. All that with very little effort. Really we already have that, but the volume will be greater as time goes on.

I also love my chestnuts, apples, crabapples and pears, but persimmons are more reliable and tougher in my particular area of the country.

I found that grafting my native persimmon seedlings was by far the best bang for the buck when it comes to producing volumes of fruit. Scions are inexpensive or free and bark grafting persimmons is very easy. In many cases I get my first fruit in the third leaf after grafting. That is hard to beat from a fruit perspective!

Too bad not more folks have native persimmons growing on their land.

Thanks,

Jack
 
I would think the deer would be all over those.
 
I would think the deer would be all over those.

They are all over them, but 25 deer can only eat so many persimmons. And I have several trees dropping right now. I put a trail camera on the trail going in to the tree in the first picture shown above and had over 1,000 pictures in 6 days. The ground is worn out under that tree and you can't hardly find a persimmon on the ground.

The last picture is under a tree near the highway out in the open, so not much deer traffic at that tree.
 
Ive got 10 persimmon trees planted. All 5-6 ft tall. Hoping they do produce at some point.
 
Ive got 10 persimmon trees planted. All 5-6 ft tall. Hoping they do produce at some point.

Good luck with them and they are easy to topwork via bark grafting if you need to change any to females later on.
 
Ive got 10 persimmon trees planted. All 5-6 ft tall. Hoping they do produce at some point.
Mine went from 5-6' tall to 10' tall and producing fruit in about the last year. Stay tuned for next year. Maybe it'll be the year of your first persimmon. This year is mine, I'm pumped.
 
Mine went from 5-6' tall to 10' tall and producing fruit in about the last year. Stay tuned for next year. Maybe it'll be the year of your first persimmon. This year is mine, I'm pumped.
These are on year 4 from bare root seedlings. I think they'd be even taller if it wouldve had rain this year. I noticed most of the trees shot up in the last month after 1 6" rain.
 
I am in zone 6a and have looked at persimmons a few times. Tons of info on the net but also seems to be some conflicting info. If I was looking to plant 10 or so any advice in where to start? I have found 2 year old grafted females but they also need a pollinator correct? Any info would be appreciated.
 
If you wanted to plant pollinators you could just plant a few seedlings. Some of them would most certainly be males. Lots of places sell seedlings, and you could also plant some seeds.

However, read the link below from the University of KY. They say that seedless fruit can be set on persimmons without male pollinators.

http://www.uky.edu/ccd/production/crop-resources/fruit/persimmons
 
If you wanted to plant pollinators you could just plant a few seedlings. Some of them would most certainly be males. Lots of places sell seedlings, and you could also plant some seeds.

However, read the link below from the University of KY. They say that seedless fruit can be set on persimmons without male pollinators.

http://www.uky.edu/ccd/production/crop-resources/fruit/persimmons
Thanks NH I’ll read that soon. I have an area about 700’ long that has switch grass on one side and a food plot on the other. Half of this strip between the two will be planted in the spring with persimmons. Would a staggered planting along the strip be my best option? Not sure of the spacing yet for pollinators and best growth potential.
 
Thanks NH I’ll read that soon. I have an area about 700’ long that has switch grass on one side and a food plot on the other. Half of this strip between the two will be planted in the spring with persimmons. Would a staggered planting along the strip be my best option? Not sure of the spacing yet for pollinators and best growth potential.

Persimmon trees eventually get really big but they are slow growing. If I were planting seedlings I would crowd them with the expectations that some would die. Seedlings are cheap. You can always thin them later if you end up with too many. I might plant those 12 feet apart.

Grafted trees are expensive. I would probably space those out 35+ feet apart and give them some special attention. You could plant a seedling between them with the idea of cutting down the seedling later on if the grafted trees live. These are just my thoughts.
 
Top