I'm Fred Watson living in Bradley County retired pastor from FL and new to TNDeer. We purchased a home on eight acre near several hundred acres of woods In 2014. I've tried to set up my small property to attract deer by planting clover and fruit and nut trees. Presently I have growing 12 Dunstan chestnuts, five varieties of apples, four varieties of plums, 12 varieties of pears, four varieties of peaches, four varieties of American persimmons, six varieties of Asian persimmons, as well as figs and cherries. I have all kinds of trouble bring most of the fruit trees to harvest due to late freezes. Most bearing trees are late blooming one. I wonder if my property is not a cold pocket. I graft persimmon trees and nest mason bees for pollination. I'm blessed to harvest a nice buck or two each hunting season. I'm not a hunting pro but my church has me leading a hunting class the last two fall quarters. At 79 I stay active with plenty of work trying to improve my little dear habitat. I am a born again Christian and involved with the Bradley Co. GOP. I hope to make friends on this site with like minded people. Blessing to all.
FlaBoy
- Thread starter FlaBoy
- Start date
Carlos
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- Joined
- Dec 5, 2014
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- 5,268
Welcome Sir- we are glad to have you join us here!
DoubleRidge
Well-Known Member
Welcome from Middle TN....look forward to hearing more about your trees...in particular the chestnut and persimmon trees...how old are they and are they producing yet?
I have a total of three chestnut trees producing from 4 to 8 years old. The older the heavier they produce. I have six that should be producing now and they are not. The only reason I know might be that they are planted close to some large oaks and hickories and they are not getting enough sun. If they don't start producing, I'm going to cut down some surrounding trees to insure they have plenty of sunlight. Fall of 2023, I had American persimmons Deer Magnet, Morris Burton and an unknown variety producing. I had a good crop of Asia (Fuyu). I hope more of my persimmon trees produce in 2024 although three are quite young. Some of my chestnuts started producing at 4yo. Persimmons usually 3 to 4yo. According to UG, deer prefer chestnuts 100 to 1 over acorns. They are crazy about persimmons too.
DoubleRidge
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the info....we have 3 Dunstan chestnut that are 3 year old and 4 Chinese chestnut that are 2 year old with several American Persimmon seed in the refrigerator that I plan to start this spring....also have planted several sawtooth oak over the last two years....but really looking forward to planting more chestnut trees and eventually we're hoping to add other fruit trees....Thanks again for the information.
You probably are aware that American persimmons are male and female. Planting seeds will produce trees but you won't know if you have a female tree until they bloom out in 3-4 years. Some people think there will be about the same number of female to male trees but that has not been my experience. Hunting in FL, I searched for female (only females can produce persimmons) and I found 40 to 50 male trees to every female tree I could find. I also planted six seeds and all turned out to be male. I plant the seeds and the next year I graft scion from one of my female trees to produce American persimmon trees of the same variety.
Welcome to the fire sir. Glad you joined us.
Thank you. Are you the owner of Old Oak Taxidermy?
DoubleRidge
Well-Known Member
I have never started persimmon from seed but I have read about the male and female challenge...currently have 30 seed that I plan to start in air prune beds....starting several chestnuts and a bunch of sawtooth as well so figured I'd give persimmon a try...Enjoy the process.
Yes sir
