Princess Persimmon Fruits

[Michael P]

Thanks, the species sounds pretty adaptable.

 

[Potawatomi13]

My black ones are seven years from seed, no fruit so far! Obtained the seed from a vendor at Taikan Ten 2015 .Good growth after the first two or three years. Were slow to take off. Will see how they handle the move to my new location. I am going to start with higher level of nitrogen in the fertilizer regime this spring. basically they are now in 1 gallon pots. Here is a photo of the group this fall along the Northside of my greenhouse.
View attachment 464729

You and Anton both leaving Vancouver Island? Has this place become persona non grata?

 

[Maiden69]

Soooo... do you sell cuttings off this? I have been looking for one and they are hard to find, and when I find them they are astronomically priced.

 

[Canada Bonsai]

Will see how they handle the move to my new location.

I hope you're coming east So many projects would love to collaborate on, especially Ume and Persimmon -- controlling cultivar-propagation for both is a full-time job on its own!

 

[River's Edge]

You and Anton both leaving Vancouver Island? Has this place become persona non grata?

I am ot leaving, just shifting to a smaller location in town. Downsizing or rite sizing depending on which half of the glass you drink from. Love the Island, even with the recent dump of snow just as we are moving.

 

[NaoTK]

My Princess persimmon drew me some princess persimmons. The concept is down

 

[Trident Terror]

I can send you some fruit

Did you manage to collect some fruit this year? I would love to grow from seed!

 

[ochong]

A few questions and an observation:

How well does this species grow in the north central Texas climate (hot dry summers, relatively mild winters with occasional cold fronts)? Is there a difference in climate adaptation among different cultivars?

D. virginiana is a fairly common native here. It reproduces by root sprouts and seed. Fruit is eaten by raccoons, foxes, and coyotes and the seed germinates readily from the scat. I once collected seed from coyote scat in the fall, stratified it in the refrigerator, and had almost 100% germination. I wish I'd kept some for bonsai! Based on this, it might help germination rates if the cleaned seeds are soaked in a warm, weak acid bath before stratification.

You have your native Texas Persimmon (Diospyros texana) which makes fairly small fruit that's black when ripe. It actually tastes decent. I collected roughly 80 seeds when I was in the Austin area last fall. I plan to try and grow them here in MA come spring. I believe princess persimmon seeds do best planted straight out of the fruit, so we'll see what happens.

 

[NaoTK]

This one has a nice gradation effect


This one is so electric yellow the photo is blown out


My smallest red one. I got the seeds in Japan as "mame foorin" and it flowered in <4 years


big red sucker


My first cathayensis fruit! Love the color and shape. I will try and graft cathayensis onto male princess next year.

 

[Shogun610]

Nice nice nice

I feel like even though I’m told the PP that I have are self fruiting I feel like having a male would help .. gotta find one

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Some female persimmons, but not all, will form seedless fruit without a male pollinator. These same female persimmons will make more abundant fruit (higher percentage of flowers will form fruit) with seed if a male pollinator is present. These choice females are deliberately propagated by root cuttings, stem cuttings, and grafts by bonsai nurseries.

Majority of female persimmons will form zero fruit if no pollinator male is present.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Nice nice nice

I feel like even though I’m told the PP that I have are self fruiting I feel like having a male would help .. gotta find one

Just pick up a batch of 12 or more seeds. On average the male to female ratio is 50:50 and seedlings can start blooming in as little as 4 years. Males will be the ones with pollen in their flowers.

12 seedlings means that the odds will be above 98% that you will get at least one male. (like the odds of coin toss 12 subsequent tosses)

 

[badatusernames]

Have you figured out anything to do with the sucker growth? I have tried to strike cuttings from them and have been unsuccessful.

FWIW I have four in early development that were made from suckers

They must have been a few years old, though, one of them is as thick as some posted in this thread in pots. They had plenty of fine roots on their own. They may be why the large trunk that was in the pot I bought them in had died, but they're alive.

I took cuttings in late spring a few years ago and had about a 3/10 success rate. They're doing OK, I gave the best one away though.

 

[pandacular]

Big day tomorrow -- bunch of cultivar parent plants arriving from Japan

View attachment 418258

EXCELLENT choice of pencil!

 

[Canada Bonsai]

EXCELLENT choice of pencil!

lol thanks! I always liked that they didn’t roll away, and that Steinbeck used them

Here is an update of some of the parent plants i mention in that post.

With +60 persimmon cultivars, +40 ume cultivars, and +75 azalea cultivars… i’m meticulous about double and triple tags. I’m ready fkr the strongest winds, ink-fading sun, and thieving birds all at once

On the topic of suckers — at the time of repotting i simply separate them out, usually with cutters, and i have found that as long as they even the slightest bit of root they survive well. This is not always possible, because sometime they emerge right from a root that i rather not cut, in which case i’ll harvest as a cutting in May — this has been hit-or-miss in my most recent experience. Most of my parent plants are grafted onto rootstock, so the purpose of this is only to create more rootstock of course