Persimmons what and when

[Gobble4me757]

I love these discussions of fruit trees etc but anyone have any experience with planting persimmons? More specific chesnut hill deer magnet and candy persimmons?

 

[DoubleRidge]

I love these discussions of fruit trees etc but anyone have any experience with planting persimmons? More specific chesnut hill deer magnet and candy persimmons?

No experience with Chesnut Hill brand persimmon trees but I am interested in starting some persimmon trees from seed. Learned this year that there are early dropper and late dropper persimmon trees in our area so I've picked up several of the late persimmons earlier this month and have 30 seeds cleaned and stored in the refrigerator. Plan is to start them in air prune boxes in the spring and see how they do.

 

[BSK]

Just talked to my BIL how he treated persimmons seeds he picked up. He said he washed the persimmon seeds in hydrogen peroxide and then stored them in peat moss in the refrigerator for 6 weeks before planting. Germination rate was exceptional.

 

[TNlandowner]

If you can handle it.... pull seeds out of animal scat... wear gloves of course. You can wash and store them if desired, but I simply plant the seed wherever we want a persimmon tree to grow. In a few years, take note of the flowers to tell if that tree is a male or female. I usually cut the male trees down and replant another seed. Absolutely the easiest tree I've been able to spread around our farm. Our persimmons trees hold a lot of fruit through Thanksgiving. I've got around 15 or 20 seeds ready for planting now.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

In a few years, take note of the flowers to tell if that tree is a male or female. I usually cut the male trees down and replant another seed.

Could you expand on the flowering and differentiating between male and female?

 

[readonly]

13 years ago I planted about 15 seedlings from the state nursery, just a few inches high. They need 5' or 6' quality tree tubes and mats in my experience. I had previously planted a couple dozen with 2' tubes and only one survived. With the larger tubes success rate was good. It took close to 10 years before any bore fruit. At least 3 have produced, one really well. However, they don't produce every year. So one may not have fruit this year, and then do well the following year. Not sure if that's a weather issue or something else. I have a lot of naturally occurring persimmons on my farm, and only half of the females bore fruit this year.

 

[TNlandowner]

Could you expand on the flowering and differentiating between male and female?

National Deer Association has a few articles to help. You can also find videos on YouTube

Easiest way is too find the flowers underneath the branches. Our persimmon trees bloom later than dogwoods, which helps prevent frost kill of the flowers. A larger single flower connecting directly to the limb belongs to a female tree and a male tree will have a group of smaller flowers hanging by stems.

I've tried grafting female limbs onto a male tree, but never had success.

 

[TNlandowner]

If you can handle it.... pull seeds out of animal scat... wear gloves of course. You can wash and store them if desired, but I simply plant the seed wherever we want a persimmon tree to grow. In a few years, take note of the flowers to tell if that tree is a male or female. I usually cut the male trees down and replant another seed. Absolutely the easiest tree I've been able to spread around our farm. Our persimmons trees hold a lot of fruit through Thanksgiving. I've got around 15 or 20 seeds ready for planting now.

Here's a sample of our easy persimmon planting technique. These are seed planted persimmon trees growing between Dunstan Chestnuts. We planted the Dunstan trees too close to put trees between them, but the persimmons are shade tolerant and should make it for several years. Unfortunately, my 12year old son said all five trees in the middle are male trees. I'll verify his findings before letting him cut them down next spring ) The single persimmon beyond this group is female tree already producing fruit.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

Just curious, why would you plant the persimmons crouded like that?

 

[TNlandowner]

While not ideal: my son was 7 when these were planted ;o) He simply grabbed seeds from a ziplock, scratched ground with his boot, and dropped seeds. (Probably dropped a lot more than 5 seeds ;o) You may notice the lone female tree is larger....she had room to grow without competition.

Fun memories for sure....

One other tip: Use wire flagging to mark where you plant the seeds if planting in a field. This can help prevent mowing the young trees.

 

[Wooden Arrow]

certain variety of persimmons hang on to fruit until after deer season is long gone for some reason. one along highway by Swanns Marina on Douglas still had it's fruit (though shriveled) in February last time i was down that way.

 

[BSK]

certain variety of persimmons hang on to fruit until after deer season is long gone for some reason. one along highway by Swanns Marina on Douglas still had it's fruit (though shriveled) in February last time i was down that way.

There are early fruiting persimmon and late-fruiting persimmon, but it's impossible to tell them apart unless you see a tree with late-hanging fruit.

 

[mike243]

Still got some hanging on here at the house in the very top, had 1 laying on my sidewalk today, probably not worth eating at this point but a varmint looking for something would eat it.

 

[TNlandowner]

I guarantee an animal will eat a shriveled persimmon, which is still full of sugar and vitamins.

 

[BuffaloRCody]

So, the Tennessee Environmental Counsel has this thing called "Tennessee Tree Day". They sell low price seedlings for wildlife. they give them out all over the state. It's defiantly worth checking out. I have planted some of their trees in the past years and they have done well. Tennessee Tree Day

 

[BSK]

My BIL just planted a bunch of the persimmons he grew from seed. He grew them for a year in tubes before transplanting to the wild. They were all about 2 feet tall.