Persimmon

[KIRKY]

How do the Persimmons go in your climate Mel are they deciduous? Or do you need to defoliate them?
Cheers
Kirky

[melbrackstone]

Some are deciduous, some are not. The natives all still green and happy...

D. kaki coloured up amazingly well. The other edible fruit varieties also lost their leaves. I can remember seeing the trees in backyards regularly in my youth...not so much now.

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[KIRKY]

Good to know they grow that far north. They have glorious Autumn colour. The one in our front yard sets fruit but it is so astringent. You can’t eat it till its like a soft Apricot. Planted by my husbands grandmother 70-80 years ago. Fully deciduous down here.
Cheers
Kirky

[PeachSlices]

Picture of a princess at ray nesci



Simon

[melbrackstone]

At least with a fruit on it you know you'll have a chance. Imagine having fruit on a tree so small though! Thanks for the pic PeachSlices...

[tgward]

hopefully they were local and not brought in from overseas like that

[PeachSlices]

hopefully they were local and not brought in from overseas like that

The nursery has big ones so i think they've been here for a while, i've seen pretty big sized ones around sydney. the nursery focuses on growing cuttings so that one i picked up was like 1/50?

Simon

[tgward]

hopefully they were local and not brought in from overseas like that

The nursery has big ones so i think they've been here for a while, i've seen pretty big sized ones around sydney. the nursery focuses on growing cuttings so that one i picked up was like 1/50?

Simon

sorry I should have referenced the photo of seeds near the start

[PeachSlices]

Updated on my princess persimmon. No male plant but i think I need to feed the tree more so it holds onto more fruit.
5 fruit last year only 1 this year. Thankful for any.

347837186_270514052043908_7538872827319294857_n.jpg

Thanks for looking.

Simon

[shibui]

Persimmon are parthenocarpic which means they are able to produce fruit without fertilisation. That also means such fruit do not have seeds inside. If there is a male close enough some flowers may be fertilised and therefore have some seed.
Fruiting persimmon are mostly females for the fruit so seed in those is rare. Daluke's grandparents must have grown some from seed and have both male an female trees in order to get seeds in the fruit. I've never been able to find trees with seeds up here.

If anyone has Princess persimmon seed I would be interested in propagating some.

[KIRKY]

Thanks for sharing, its looking really good Simon. My Princesses tend to produce biannually, so you had more fruit last year, less this year, if like mine you should get more fruit next year. Even our garden persimmon tree out the front does the same being over ladened one year and sparse the next.
Cheers
Kirky

[Daluke]

Persimmon are parthenocarpic which means they are able to produce fruit without fertilisation. That also means such fruit do not have seeds inside. If there is a male close enough some flowers may be fertilised and therefore have some seed.
Fruiting persimmon are mostly females for the fruit so seed in those is rare. Daluke's grandparents must have grown some from seed and have both male an female trees in order to get seeds in the fruit. I've never been able to find trees with seeds up here.

If anyone has Princess persimmon seed I would be interested in propagating some.

This was several years back and Treeman was on the money that they gave Diospyros kaki. They all shrivelled and died.

I did get some princess persimmon - they get lots of flowers which are incredibly delicate. Small fruit forms but has been disturbed prior to growing to full size. I believe they are from Nesci nursery and suspect they have both male and female branches grafted onto the one piece so they are self pollinating.

I’ve tried propagating by stem cutting to no avail - I suspect timing has been off. It seems root cutting is the way to go. One of the four I bought threw root suckers which were separated. They still have leaves so hopefully they grow.

When I crack the propagation code I’ll update this post. I’ll be happy to spread the love because half of my collection is hard to find species, which others parted with.

[shibui]

I've also tried propagating several persimmon and all so far very reluctant to strike cuttings. I have had better success with root cuttings so that may be the way to go with this family.
I have a persimmon which was rootstock from a Fuyu I purchased many years ago but a storm broke the graft. This thread has reopened my interest and some online research shows mine is probably D. lotus AKA date plum. It bears small oval fruits that ripen very dark, almost black but tastes pretty awful so I let the birds take all the fruit. Also no seeds in all the fruit I have opened.

I saw reference to American persimmon fruiting better when a male was nearby. One source mentioned that some varieties of D. kaki fruit better with a male near but Fuyu produce fruit without any pollination. The recommendation was still to have every 4th tree as a male.
Some types change colour and/or taste when they are pollinated. Fruit appear to be less astringent when there are seeds in the fruit.
Some types do bear both male and female flowers.

No mention of princess persimmon needing pollination but I guess it is like its cousins and can bear fruit without being pollinated or maybe it is one that has both flowers which will save having to graft or grow a male.

[Daluke]

Bonsai Sensation has lots of persimmon‘kaki’.

[treeman]

Bonsai Sensation has lots of persimmon‘kaki’.

The small wild ones they use in Japan for bonsai or the large ones you eat?