North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Diane Whitehead <voltaire@islandnet.com>]

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

persimmons.JPG