I am in search of a few (20) persimmon seedlings (American) to graft Japanese persimmons to. They are hard to come by. The only place I have found to purchase them wants 85 dollars for 15. I am not going to pay that much. I have a tub full of seed harvested August 08 and stratified till yesterday. I have planted them but feel like thay will not be ready for grafting for a while. I wish to get the seedlings, pot the up and graft them in the spring. If anyone has such I would be please to get them from you. I also would like some to find a little budwood from the Sajio persimmon. Who know where to get this? I have some budwood from two japanese persimmions but I am unable to identify them....therefore would not want to bud with them. Thanks to anyone who can assist me with my quest...........................David

David, just wait around February, we have many Saijo budsticks that we throw away. We graft persimmons as the last of the deciduous fruit trees, in spring time, that way, 100% success rate. Just drop me a PM around that time.

David,

I have grown the wild seedling persimmons for rootstock like you are planning to do. I keep the seed in moist peat in the frig until late winter - say February 1. I plant them out in citrapots in late winter or early spring. They are ready to chip bud in the fall, or you can wait until next spring, and T bud them as soon as the bark slips. don't wait too late in the spring because they will bleed so bad you success rate will suffer. Here I have to treat them for borers in the summer, and I am sure you will have that problem in Louisiana.

Ned

Thanks for the information Ned. I have several large native persimmon on my place here. They are very heavy bearers and I gathered a lot of seed this year. I gathered in August and put them in moist sawdust in the refrigerator until yesterday. Then I planted them. I dont know that they wont come up in the middle of the winter but they might. I dont think it will hurt them if they do as the suckers from the roots of the persimmons are coming up now and will see the winter. I would buy some seedlings but have not been able to find them at a reasonable cost. I dont think many rootstock growers fool with them...perhaps the demand is not there. I dont know about borers I have never seen any in the persimmon that grow wild here but will keep an eye peeled for them. I plan on repotting the seedlings as soon as they have a couple of leaves on them and feedling them with some miricle grow and hope they are big enough to graft pretty quickly. I had a few pieces of FuYu budwood and grafted 5 sprouts I found in the yard this fall and every one of them "took" Dont care for FuYu but it was what I had and I would rather graft even if I dont have the things that I want. I love it and do it just for the fun of it. I grafted 185 PTrifolata this fall and have had the most success I have ever had. I had 5 failures of the 185....I have never had that good of a stick rate before.....Now after fall budding I wanted to wait till spring to force them but they are forcing themselves.....busting the parafilm and most of the are out a couple of inches.......gonna have to try to proted them if the weather deals a bad night or two......I wanted to force them in the spring for that very reason...did not want to have to protect new growth in the winter.........but.....................you do what you have to do..............Daivd

I can send a few sticks of some Jiro next spring if you want.

You can save yourself several years of growing by getting ordering native persimmon seedlings from Womacks nursery of DeLeon, TX for 10 for $28. They have a website www.womacknursery.com The ones I've ordered were quite large, I had to trim the root part to get them to fit in a 3 gallon pot and they grew great. I budded them as soon as they started to leaf out in the spring. You can get grafted ones for $11.75. The only catch is a minimum $60 order. Great place to order

$28 for 10 is not a bad price if the shipping is reasonable. Of course that way you lose the fun of fighting the borers and the problem of having every thunderstorm blowing the pots over, etc.

I feed them with osmocote which avoids the problem of fertilizing evey few weeks.

David, you are sure beating me with your grafting success!

Ned

You are right Ned. The fun of doing it is part of it that I enjoy. I like to look at a tree and know that I planted the rootstock and the scion came from my tree and I did the work and had the fun of it. In the case of the saijo persimmons I have a friend that asked me to fix him up this spring and I wanted to order some rootstock to graft to so that I could do that. I planted so I might have some big enough but perhaps not. I dont use Osmocote because its $120.00 a sack. I get Nursery Blend (generic osmocote) for $58.00 a sack and it works well for my stuff. I am not aginst hitting my stuff with a little amonium nitrate or sulfate to get it going or to force some stubborn buds...I find that a little ironite and a couple of spoonfulls of amonium nitrate once a week for three weeks makes mine bust out and shout for joy...then I go to the nursery blend so that I dont have to fight the fertilizer thing all the time. I know some folks that use 13 13 13 and that is all they use...........but I dont think that is the best for the trees. Thanks for the info. I have been grafting for a few years now and my success rate has improved each year. I have learned to look at a rootstock and know the weather conditon and time of year and can usually tell if the bark will slip. I have found that timeing is everything when you graft citrus. I have found that pears are the easiest thing in the world to do. I have also found that I can take a P trifoilata that is grafting size and in two weeks I can make the bark slip with water, fertilize and a little warm hothouse time. My grafting success have improved drastically over the last few years. I have also had some good teachers........and good information sources........

Good for you David, if you are having fun, keep it up.

Ned

I don't know much about Persimmons ('haven't even tasted one), but I have a half dozen Japanese Persimmon seeds planted. Is it typical to graft them onto another rootstock or can they be grown on their own roots. If grafted, what type of rootstock should be used?

Phillip

Phillip, In the South they are all normally grafted to our native persimmon Diospyros virginiana. This rootstock will sucker some but has proven to be best for our climate.

One year my Fuyu had seeded fruit (they are normally not seeded). I believe I have read that they can occasionally have some male bloom, so I assume that is what happened as there are no other Japanese persimmons around. I planted some of the seed and they came up without a problem. I stlll have one in a pot and keep telling myself I should plant it just to see what kind of fruit it has (if any).

If you need seed I can bring some to the CE but I am sure they are common in the woods there.

Ned

Look out David...these are fuyu persimmons that Ned grew.




Did he grow these carrots too?!

Good Grief..........................I will reserve my comments at this point. My first thoughts made me laugh and then caused me to fall into deep thought. Ned must have "coached" these persimmons. No self respecting Fuyu would contort itself in such a manner....I must admit that the shapes are interesting but really not what a persimmon eater would relish..or perhaps I am in error....perhaps that would be just what a persimmon eater would crave...................thanks for the pics.....not going to remark about the carrots............leave that for someone else........~

There are alot of native persimmons growing around here but I've yet to find any suckers or small seedlings coming up around the trees although it is hard to tell what anything is right now with all the leaves gone. I saved some seeds from them so lets hope they don't take forever until I can bud onto them. Do you have alot of suckers coming up around your native persimmons?

One of the problems with persimmons is their root system. They are sensitive for bare-rooting and extra care is needed during the transplanting or bare-rooting process during the dormant season. Thus seedlings are sometimes very hard to transplant unless you exercise extra care in handling to minimize root damages.