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nafex - [NAFEX] persimmons in a cool climate

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  • From: Diane Whitehead <voltaire@islandnet.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] persimmons in a cool climate
  • Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 14:41:24 -0800

I have been growing a Japanese persimmon for about 25 years. It arrived from a California nursery (probably Monrovia) with ripe fruit already on it. It has never fruited since. It is about 2.5 m high (ceiling height) and the leaves are still green. I haven't noticed when they fall. The plant has never suffered frost damage, though we have had two or three cold winters in the time it's been growing here. I assume it never fruits because of lack of summer heat here on the coast.

The rootstock has grown itself a tree which is more than twice as high as the Japanese one. It regularly has a big crop of grape-sized fruit. I just ate a few, and the flesh tastes like a Japanese one, but after a few minutes the skin leaves an astringent taste. There are tiny brown seeds, so small they can't be felt when being eaten. The leaves fell a few weeks ago.

I suppose this is a D. virginiana, but it certainly isn't large fruited like the one Jerry Lehman grows.

Diane Whitehead Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
maritime zone 8
cool mediterranean climate (dry summer, rainy winter - 68 cm annually)
sandy soil


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