North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Jwlehman@aol.com]

Hello all,

The following question came in a private e/m. I'm placing it on the chat nets along with my answer. Hopefully this will someone. 

Q. My persimmon trees are 5 feet, these trees vary from 1.5 to about 2.5" in diameter. Do you think bark grafting (after the sap is flowing) would be better than cleft grafting (done while the trees are still dormant). It was suggested that I cut the trees off at the ground, then whip graft the shoots next year.

Hello ****,

Bleeding persimmon is NO problem. I've grafted many that absolutely flood the graft junction for days. With walnut & hickory, flooding is a major problem. 1.5 to 2.5 inch diameter is perfect for bark grafting. PERFECT!  I've done many this way with I'd say with 80 to 90% success. In my opinion bark grafting is much better than cleft, based on theory, as I've never done a cleft graft. 

Come to next Sundays scion swap meeting at Indianapolis, collect wood, come to the May 22 grafting meeting at Purdue and I'll personally demonstrate the technique I use, then you can go home and graft your persimmons. Jim McKinna (USDA, Purdue) has a slightly different approach for bark grafting of hardwoods that works well with walnut and hickory. He will be demonstrating that also. 

Again, the cutting off suggestion is valid for hardwood trees. Not ordinarily needed for persimmon they graft as easy as apple, even though it is basically a hardwood.  

Jerry Lehman