Love my seedling persimmons

[chickenlittle]

Here are my 3 persimmon seedlings, along with some apple seedlings and weeds in my nursery bed. I spread the seeds out late fall. Seeds are from a tree in my neighborhood in Tioga county,NY. Hoping a few more pop up.

 

[b116757]

I was walking around on the new farm this morning I found small clump of 1/2 dozen or so so large persimmon trees most had at least some fruit on them. In another location maybe 200 yds from from the first group I found two more one was loaded with fruit the other one had some fruit. I was happy to find some mature persimmons on the place.

 

[b116757]

 

[Native Hunter]

It looks like the seedling in Post 144 above is going to bear large sized fruit. First pic below is the seedling and the second pic is Deer Magnet. They look very similar.

I hated to cut this limb off of one of my trees today, but it had grown out and was blocking my view into a food plot. This is off another seedling at a different location.

This one has already had two limbs to break off. This one may be next. But, it doesn't matter because most persimmons eventually shed low limbs anyway as they age. It doesn't hurt anything.

 

[yoderjac]

A sight to behold!

 

[blueKYstream]

Those trees are all loaded and the fruits are large too! Let us know if you get to try any of them this year.

 

[TreesuitSC]

I have never seen them this big in SC. So cool.


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[yoderjac]

I have never seen them this big in SC. So cool.


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yep, my native persimmons are much smaller in VA, but some of the grafted ones (mostly 90c) similar in size to Native Hunters.

 

[WeedyJ]

I have so many natural persimmons, I'm having to kill them in some areas. I have absolutely no idea how to nourish or take care of them. Some large ones are bearing fruit. I need to learn how to care for the ones I want to keep for production.

 

[blueKYstream]

yep, my native persimmons are much smaller in VA, but some of the grafted ones (mostly 90c) similar in size to Native Hunters.

Jack, do you notice a difference between the size/height of the tree or overall production beyond fruit size of your native vs. grafted 90 chromosome varieties?

 

[yoderjac]

I have so many natural persimmons, I'm having to kill them in some areas. I have absolutely no idea how to nourish or take care of them. Some large ones are bearing fruit. I need to learn how to care for the ones I want to keep for production.

That's the beauty of American Persimmons. You do nothing! If it is a male tree you need to graft it to female to get fruit. If it is in understory, you can slowly release it but taking out nearby trees. Other than that, I do absolutely nothing to maintain them and they produce great. They are not like many apples that need care to produce well.

 

[yoderjac]

Jack, do you notice a difference between the size/height of the tree or overall production beyond fruit size of your native vs. grafted 90 chromosome varieties?

Persimmons are slow growing trees in general, so it is hard to tell. I have native trees that are much older than those I grafted to 90 varieties. I have also grafted native 60 female scions to native male trees. The best I can do is compare them. I find my native male trees when grafted to female have much faster vegetative but seem to produce persimmons a bit slower. So far, they are larger physically than those I've grafted to 90 varieties. They seem to produce more smaller persimmons as compared to the 90s that produce fewer larger persimmons. I'm not sure how this relates to wildlife. Both seem to be effective. I think native to native is probably more compatible and takes off faster. I don't know if the native to 90 will eventually catch up and surpass the native to native trees. The primary reason I started grafting scions from other sources, both 60 and 90 to my trees is to see if I could get different drop times to put food on the ground over a longer period. Time will tell how well this works as trees produce more volume.

 

[b116757]

I have a 6 acre area of the farm that’s not fenced so no cattle. Here is a photo of part of that area probably 50 persimmons coming up volunteer just in this photo alone. Great trees I love them but they can take over areas for me. This particular area I’m probably going to let them grow unchecked they will screen the area from prying eyes on the road and give a fantastic food source about the time my youngest boy graduates high school. I’ve planted and tubed several oaks in this same 6 acres for the future generation to enjoy.

 

[WeedyJ]

I'm not sure if my trees identify as male or female. I'm going to get little nametags for all of them so I can get the pronouns correct from year to year.

 

[Native Hunter]

Hey guys - regarding the size - the second and third pics in my last post are grafted varieties. The first and fourth ones are seedlings. And, I do have some native seedlings that are smaller in size than any of these. That tree in the #4 pictures really looks like a special seedling. It is heavy bearing and the fruit size us unusually large for local persimmons. I may have to give it a name.

 

[b116757]

Hey guys - regarding the size - the second and third pics in my last post are grafted varieties. The first and fourth ones are seedlings. And, I do have some native seedlings that are smaller in size than any of these. That tree in the #4 pictures really looks like a special seedling. It is heavy bearing and the fruit size us unusually large for local persimmons. I may have to give it a name.

I’d be interested in some scion wood next winter if your so inclined as to ship some out from your favorite producers I’ve got plenty of seedlings to bark graft to.

 

[Native Hunter]

I have so many natural persimmons, I'm having to kill them in some areas. I have absolutely no idea how to nourish or take care of them. Some large ones are bearing fruit. I need to learn how to care for the ones I want to keep for production.

As Jack said above - very little care is needed for persimmons. Just to be on the safe side, I will sometimes cage a nice persimmon tree setting out in the wide open to prevent rubbing. However, they are not a preferred rub tree. Also, they are not a tree that is browsed much. If you have a larger tree nearby that is shading a persimmon, the persimmon tree will appreciate you cutting the larger tree so it can have more sunlight. But, you would be surprised how well they do even in some really bad conditions.

 

[yoderjac]

I'm not sure if my trees identify as male or female. I'm going to get little nametags for all of them so I can get the pronouns correct from year to year.

You can't really tell by looking until they get old enough to flower. Native posted some good pics of male and female flowers for identification.

 

[Native Hunter]

I’d be interested in some scion wood next winter if your so inclined as to ship some out from your favorite producers I’ve got plenty of seedlings to bark graft to.

I will try to watch them closer this year and get a better idea of when the individual trees drop.

 

[b116757]

Native persimmons are tough as nails at least at my place they are and need no care except sunlight. In fact the herbicides Remedy Ultra and Milestone that I normally tank mix and spray most nuisance trees and brush with persimmons laugh at. It may defoliate them but they will grow leaves right back like nothing even happened. To be honest it’s nice to know that because I can broadcast spray an area and not really have to worry about hurting any persimmons in the area but the Osage orange, honey locust, Seresa Lespedeza, blackberry and Multifloral rose will be toast. They are all on my arch enemy list.