Love my seedling persimmons

[Troubles Trees]

Persimmons are frustrating to me here in NY but I know I am fighting nature with them. I long for the day I can eat one, my Dad spoke about the fruit in his military travels when I was a kid and getting into habitat work sent me in that direction for a unique food source for wildlife. I planted 10 non-grafted 6-7 years ago now and every year I lost one or 2, I had 2 survivors until this spring when those failed to wake up after winter. I have babied them more so than any other tree I have planted without success so after talking to Ryan at Blue Hill I added 5 to my order he said had the best chances of someday bearing fruit, I put them in the ground this spring and have fingers crossed.
I'm a little jealous you guys have them growing wild!

 

[Native Hunter]

Persimmons are frustrating to me here in NY but I know I am fighting nature with them. I long for the day I can eat one, my Dad spoke about the fruit in his military travels when I was a kid and getting into habitat work sent me in that direction for a unique food source for wildlife. I planted 10 non-grafted 6-7 years ago now and every year I lost one or 2, I had 2 survivors until this spring when those failed to wake up after winter. I have babied them more so than any other tree I have planted without success so after talking to Ryan at Blue Hill I added 5 to my order he said had the best chances of someday bearing fruit, I put them in the ground this spring and have fingers crossed.
I'm a little jealous you guys have them growing wild!

Good luck with them and let us know how they do.

 

[yoderjac]

GRAFTING MISTAKES

The better success I've had with bark grafting, the more shortcuts I seem to take. Well, it bit me this year. I generally tape a rod (bamboo or fiberglass) to the tree I'm grafting next to the scion. I didn't bother doing it this year and I paid the price. I went out to maintain my persimmon grafts today and one of the trees had both scions loose. It is in the middle of a meadow and without the rod, birds decided to perch on the scions. Just a reminder to tie a tall road to the tree. Not only will it encourage birds to perch on it, on larger diameter trees, the vegetation growth on a scion can be so fast that it can flop over. Every couple weeks, I like to very loosely cable tie the growth to the rod to I get a nice straight central leader. Once it hardens off I remove the rod.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Native Hunter]

This is the tree that I ran over with my truck and cut off at the ground. It has grown back approximately 15 feet tall and is loaded with fruit this year.

 

[Angus 1895]

I hope the persimmons I have planted take off!

they had persimmon in the grocery store over Christmas time.

yummy!

 

[Native Hunter]

Looks like I'm headed for another limb breaking persimmon year. Note how the limbs are already sagging on this one, and the persimmons are still far from the size they will be when ripe. This particular tree is another seedling, but my grafted trees are really kicking in now too - especially the Deer Magnet and Miller.

 

[SwampCat]

How old should a native persimmon be - in general - before it starts to bloom?

 

[Native Hunter]

How old should a native persimmon be - in general - before it starts to bloom?

Generally speaking, I will say about 10 -12 years for a seedling, but I've seen grafted trees fruit the next year after grafting. I have also noticed how that some trees start out really slowly when they first start blooming. I have two seedlings that I thought were going to be below average producers when they first started blooming. Then in about two more years they were putting out loads of fruit. I've seen some trees that I thought were better than most, but I am yet to see what I would consider a poor producer when it comes to persimmons.

 

[blueKYstream]

Looking forward to seeing how those cultivars do for you, particularly deer magnet as I grafted some over to that this year. At what point do you remove trunk protection on your persimmons? If I remember right, you keep fencing of some sort on your chestnuts so deer don't rub them. I didn't see any of the pictured persimmon though.

 

[buckdeer1]

Will they spread by rooting as I have 10 ft trees that I have never found fruit on but there are small trees around them. I have also had a 10ft tree produce a couple fruits two years ago and none since

 

[Native Hunter]

Will they spread by rooting as I have 10 ft trees that I have never found fruit on but there are small trees around them. I have also had a 10ft tree produce a couple fruits two years ago and none since

Yes, they do spread via the roots. It's not uncommon to find new sprouts in a 50 yard circle around the original tree. Some trees will do this more than others. You can dig up some of those sprouts and move them to other places, but I recommend doing it while they are very small. The smaller they are, the better chance of them living.

My prediction is that you will eventually see good fruiting on that tree which produced a small amount two years ago. I've seen the exact same thing happen. One year, I had a tree that was about 10 years old to produce just one persimmon. Two years later the tree was loaded and has been loaded ever since.

 

[Native Hunter]

Looking forward to seeing how those cultivars do for you, particularly deer magnet as I grafted some over to that this year. At what point do you remove trunk protection on your persimmons? If I remember right, you keep fencing of some sort on your chestnuts so deer don't rub them. I didn't see any of the pictured persimmon though.

You have very good attention to detail. The tree in the picture is one of just a few that I never caged. It sprouted up right at the edge of where I mow, and because it wasn't standing out in the open, I felt it wouldn't be a target for rubbing. I have other planted persimmon trees bigger than it which I did cage, and the cages are still there on those. They are planted in rows and more in the open, which I feel makes them more of a target.

Another thing I do is that I will not cage some trees planted within a few inches of a barbed wire fence. Deer won't rub those, because they don't like their antlers hitting the barbed wire. However, if it is a species that they will browse (such as apple), you must cage it for a while in order to keep it from being eaten. Once the tree gets tall enough, the cage can be removed. But, if a tree is a really, really special one, I may leave the cage just in case the unusual and unexpected were to happen.

 

[Gray922]

Persimmons are frustrating to me here in NY but I know I am fighting nature with them. I long for the day I can eat one, my Dad spoke about the fruit in his military travels when I was a kid and getting into habitat work sent me in that direction for a unique food source for wildlife. I planted 10 non-grafted 6-7 years ago now and every year I lost one or 2, I had 2 survivors until this spring when those failed to wake up after winter. I have babied them more so than any other tree I have planted without success so after talking to Ryan at Blue Hill I added 5 to my order he said had the best chances of someday bearing fruit, I put them in the ground this spring and have fingers crossed.
I'm a little jealous you guys have them growing wild!

I am trying to grow several varieties over here on the western edge of western Ny, do you mind sharing what varieties Ryan recommended you try? I have Deer Candy, Deer Magnet and Full Draw from Blue Hill...Hoping they will do ok here.

 

[Teeder]

I'm in North Western PA and on my 3rd try planting persimmons (from a different source). All have died, except 3 deer magnets that made it to their second year this season.

 

[PatinPA]

I planted 10 bare root seedlings that I got from the local conservation district about 5 years ago. I think it was the first spring after I bought my property. Wish I would've kept better records back then. I have 4 still alive, but they are slow growers. After 5 years the tallest one is about 6 ft. and it's pretty spindly. I tubed them back then. I'm out of cages at the moment or I'd pull the tube on the best one. Would I be better off trying to graft them or just let them go as as they are until I can tell if they're male or female?

 

[Teeder]

I planted 10 bare root seedlings that I got from the local conservation district about 5 years ago. I think it was the first spring after I bought my property. Wish I would've kept better records back then. I have 4 still alive, but they are slow growers. After 5 years the tallest one is about 6 ft. and it's pretty spindly. I tubed them back then. I'm out of cages at the moment or I'd pull the tube on the best one. Would I be better off trying to graft them or just let them go as as they are until I can tell if they're male or female?

You need to ask what their preferred pronoun is before going forward.

 

[Troubles Trees]

I am trying to grow several varieties over here on the western edge of western Ny, do you mind sharing what varieties Ryan recommended you try? I have Deer Candy, Deer Magnet and Full Draw from Blue Hill...Hoping they will do ok here.

No problem Gray,
I ordered 2 Deer Lucious, 2 Full Draw and 1 Tin Cup from Blue Hill this year. They just went in the ground this spring so I can't speak much of them other than I debated spending the money on something that is naturally a southern fruit and Ryan assured me these would grow in my climate. The Tin Cup is probably the cold hardiest of the 3 going off Ryan's input. I do have good first year growth so far so I am staying optimistic, I will know more after a couple of winters pass me by.

You being west of me shows you are more in zone 5 than I am so I think you are in a better climate for these.

 

[Gray922]

No problem Gray,
I ordered 2 Deer Lucious, 2 Full Draw and 1 Tin Cup from Blue Hill this year. They just went in the ground this spring so I can't speak much of them other than I debated spending the money on something that is naturally a southern fruit and Ryan assured me these would grow in my climate. The Tin Cup is probably the cold hardiest of the 3 going off Ryan's input. I do have good first year growth so far so I am staying optimistic, I will know more after a couple of winters pass me by.

You being west of me shows you are more in zone 5 than I am so I think you are in a better climate for these.

Thanks for the info, I think I will give them a try as well when ordering opens this fall. They are a bit costly to take chances on so its nice to have some input from others who are in a similar climate

 

[b116757]

I found 1/2 dozen persimmon trees behind one of the hay barns this evening my boys where patching in some tin pieces that had torn off in the wind. I was wondering around in the brush behind the barn and found several persimmon trees bearing fruit. At least four had fruit on them. I’ll have to get back over there again with the chain saws and do a little canopy release. There was a silver maple, black cherry and several hackberry that could be removed I’d much rather have the persimmons as any of those other trees. Nothing against the black cherry but it’s partially dead anyway so it may as well be firewood.

 

[b116757]

It ended up being more like a dozen or more persimmons behind that barn we hack and squirted all the other trees except the black cherry I left it alone. Found two others maybe 150 yds farther east on the far side of a pond that both had fruit on them also. As I’ve said before persimmons are a love hate relationship for me they great when they are in certain places but I have a lot of them sometimes they pop up in poorly placed locations for me. Probably a dozen or more persimmons in that small patch of trees.