North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Heron Breen <breen@fedcoseeds.com>]

I and the Head Plants propagator at Western Maine Nurseries did some research,
and said heck, half these books that say No to green cuttings all 30 years 
old,
so we said we'll give it a try. They took. Whether or not they will survive 
the
Winter in the climate-control is another story, but Steve Effner (guy 
mentioned
above) hasn't given me any updates that they have died. Maybe the efforts of a
professional Prop Lab makes the difference. I think own-root peaches are also 
a
great thing for cold climates and I am experimenting with those as well. 
I'll know more in a few weeks with a status report.
Heron
On Fri Nov  5 11:32 , Lon Rombough <lonrom@hevanet.com> sent:

>Heron:
>       HOW did you get softwood cuttings of persimmons to root???  If you 
> can 
>do that consistently, you can name your own price in the market.  One 
>of the biggest headaches with American persimmons is that they are 
>quite variable on different rootstocks.  Some years ago John English 
>grafted the same set of varieties on seedlings of different parentage.  
>When they came into bearing, he told me he had to double check that he 
>had correctly identified the scion varieties, they were THAT different 
>on different scions.  Own rooted trees would eliminate that, and also 
>make it possible to produce standardized rootstocks.  There have been 
>numerous attempts to produce tissue cultured persimmons for this 
>reason, though I've yet to hear of anyone offering trees produced that 
>way.
>       And no, it makes no difference if you use a male limb on a female 
> tree 
>for scions.  The new trees will all be the female, and will only 
>develop male limbs later.
>       Also, you can "sex" seedlings with a fair degree of accuracy by size 
>and vigor.  The males usually grow faster and are more vigorous.  Not 
>perfect, but will give a high degree of success.  And when they DO 
>bear, the males have clusters of three tiny flower stems that hang on 
>the twigs all winter. while the females either have none, or single, 
>larger stems left on the tree.
>       I spent several years discussing this stuff with Jim Claypool and 
>others in hopes of writing a book on American persimmons, and I've got 
>trees all over the place here, seedling and grafted.
>-Lon Rombough
>
>On Nov 5, 2004, at 9:22 AM, Heron Breen wrote:
>
>
>Thank you so much for posting those pictures. Very loud and clear!
>Actually shows us the reall strength of this list-serve when we need it 
>the most.
>Can't wait to see mine in flower. I have a question about taking 
>grafting or
>cuttings from persimmons though: if I am taking cuttings, and the 
>persimmon is a
>self-fertile cultivar or a variant cultivar (which I believe, correct 
>me if I am
>wrong, can on different years have a few male flowers or a few female 
>flowers)
>can I take cuttings from any branch, even an all male flowering branch 
>and still
>retain the future ability for male and female blossoms? MAybe I have 
>this
>persimmon thing totally scrambled. I had about twenty softwood cuttings
>successfully rooted this summer, and now I am wondering if the cuttings 
>will
>actually behave like the cultivar, which was Meader. Any info would be 
>excellent...
>Heron Breen
>Maine, zone 4
>Ps. Yes this does mean there are fruiting persimmons in Maine. The 
>cultivar
>Meader is fruiting in Buckfield Maine, apparently needs good air and 
>soil
>drainage to fruit, as it had been planted in a lower spot and lived 
>without
>fruiting, but when moved has fruited every year, including this year 
>when many
>apple rootstock and peach trees bit the dust throughout Maine due to 
>lack of snow
>cover/low soil temps.
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>nafex mailing list
>nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
>
>All other messages are discarded.
>No exceptions.
>----
>To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can be 
>used to change other email options):
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
>
>File attachments are NOT stripped by this list
>TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
>Please do not send binary files.
>Use plain text ONLY in emails!
>
>Message archives are here:
>https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/nafex
>
>NAFEX web site:   http://www.nafex.org/
>