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  • From: <redherring@tnaccess.com>
  • To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] persimmon death
  • Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 19:07:33 -0500

Lucky has sent me a number of native persimmons to graft onto existing
saplings. Two scions were from kaki x native trees, Geneva Long and
Rosseyanka. The Rosseyanka dying the same summer I grafted it, the tender
stems blackened and curled like shepherd's crooks. I cut the whole tree off
at ground level and burned it. Geneva Long has done fine. I was surprised
to find in an old book I bought, "The Gardener's Bug Book" a reference to
the "fatal persimmon wilt". This is something that is little known even
now, and so I'm surprised to read about it in a book that recommends DDT and
lead arsenate for insect control (haven't actually looked at the date on
it).
As for what is REALLY happening with kaki on virginiana after a cold
spell, I have my suspicions that it could just be that the kaki can't take
the cold, and so it dies. I read about symptoms just like "sudden death
syndrome", but they were happening to the succulent young growth on camphor
trees after a cold spell. If you imagine your scion grafted on kaki
rootstock, the whole tree would probably die, whereas on virginiana it just
dies to the rootstock. As for latent viruses, if you get a whole bunch of
humans cold and wet for months on end, they tend to die of latent viruses
too.
However, I had another graft get black veins, and I pulled that off and
watched the rotstock. It grew normally that year, but last year it had
blackened veins, like in the article: http://www.clemson.edu/hort/Kaki.htm
I probably would have cut it down, except I looked around and found a native
tree I'd never touched that had black veins too. I decided it was just our
usual fungus at work, but I am really nervous about bringing in any more
scions that have been through the hands of collectors. (Some of Lucky's
stuff came from Jerry Lehman, who definitely has got a lot of germplasm from
a lot of places all in one spot)) We have very nice persimmons here in
Tennessee, (though we happen to have bought land in an area with the
sorriest persimmons on earth) and I'll be happy grafting from some of the
better trees. Actually my definition of a good persimmon tree was one that
someone else mows under, till I discovered that there are indeed some really
bad persimmons out there. Donna





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