Persimmon seedling?

[Mattyq2402]

I have 8 American Persimmon seedlings from a local soil and water package. I have a green house as well. Would you reccomend planting them in pots for year or two in the green house? Go ahead and plant at final destination? Do you reccomend tubes? Tia

 

[Native Hunter]

I recommend planting in the final destination, because they have a tap root and are difficult to transplant after they get big. I cage everything and don't use tubes at all myself, so I can't recommend on that. However, tubing a persimmon would probably work where I live. Persimmons are seldom browsed or rubbed here.

 

[b116757]

I have 50 persimmons tubed they seem to do fine in tubes. I would also plant them in there final location now.

 

[blueKYstream]

I have ~100 persimmons tubed. If you can, it's probably better to plant in the spot you intend. I planted mine in 2019. Persimmons have a tendency to naturally prune their branches that don't get as much sunlight. I didn't see much of that as they grew upwards through the tube. However, I've noticed that many pruned the branches still in the tubes once they grow out of the tubes. I'm making an inference here, but it would seem to me they prefer more sunlight they get out of the tube. For that reason, I'd bet they'd grow a bit quicker out of the tubes. However, I've found caging takes a lot of time during planting and it's a higher cost. That's some of the tradeoff as I see it with respect to persimmons. I tested a few seedlings that had no protection. None made it past the first year.

 

[b116757]

For a few trees cages are great for volume plantings tubes are the bomb diggity not perfect but certainly better than no protection.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

I have ~100 persimmons tubed. If you can, it's probably better to plant in the spot you intend. I planted mine in 2019. Persimmons have a tendency to naturally prune their branches that don't get as much sunlight. I didn't see much of that as they grew upwards through the tube. However, I've noticed that many pruned the branches still in the tubes once they grow out of the tubes. I'm making an inference here, but it would seem to me they prefer more sunlight they get out of the tube. For that reason, I'd bet they'd grow a bit quicker out of the tubes. However, I've found caging takes a lot of time during planting and it's a higher cost. That's some of the tradeoff as I see it with respect to persimmons. I tested a few seedlings that had no protection. None made it past the first year.

Those are some interesting observations. I have planted about the same number of persimmons from MDC and have used miracle tubes for all of them. It seems like they grow to the top of the 5 ft tube And then just sit there, putting more energy into their root system and trunk.

I've been kind of considering going in and nipping off some of the lower branches in order to encourage vertical growth. Thanks for the feedback on untubed persimmons. I was actually getting ready to try some for the first time this year. I think I'll just keep them in the gravel bed until I can get some more tubes for the trees.

 

[blueKYstream]

Those are some interesting observations. I have planted about the same number of persimmons from MDC and have used miracle tubes for all of them. It seems like they grow to the top of the 5 ft tube And then just sit there, putting more energy into their root system and trunk.

I've been kind of considering going in and nipping off some of the lower branches in order to encourage vertical growth. Thanks for the feedback on untubed persimmons. I was actually getting ready to try some for the first time this year. I think I'll just keep them in the gravel bed until I can get some more tubes for the trees.

I used Miracle tubes as well. I've read some studies on tubes and tree performance. Initially, the tubed trees were found to grow taller, quicker. However, in the study after 3 years, the un-tubed trees (I don't recall if they were caged or free-birding) had caught up in size. It seems some experience quick upright growth that can hardly support itself upon initially reaching out of the tube. It could be species dependent. Mine has what I consider a bit slow, steady and self-supporting trunks. The only one I had that grew very tall, very quick was a chestnut I planted where I cut black locust. The locust didn't die from the herbicide, and root sprouted everywhere. The locust and chestnut raced each other to get height. Most of my trees are 5-8' tall on average after 4 growing seasons (the persimmon height varies widely compared to the chestnuts). This chestnut has to be 15' tall and sketchy thin. I cleared out several of the locust nearby and left one to help support it. If it doesn't snap, I'll cut the locust at the end of this summer.

You can cut the lower limbs or let it de-limb itself. Up to you on what you want to do. I did get my first unfertilized chestnuts on one tree (pictures taken two weeks ago). I knew they had spiny burrs, but they're the most wicked thorn ball. Hopefully the burrs break down a bit better and the fertilized ones better release the nuts once they hit the ground.



Picture of a persimmon taken June 27, 2022 after grafting. I saw the first set of persimmon flowers in 2022 as well (male). Probably a couple years or more to go until the females fruit if I had to guess.