North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

At 08:45 AM 11/16/2005, Lee wrote:
> Now, grafting persimmons...that's where I have not been as successful. I 
> get only about 50 percent take with whip and tongue grafts made when 
> rootstocks start sprouting leaves. Many persimmon stems are deciduous, so 
> one theory that I have is that many of the grafts that don't take were 
> made with stems that would have been deciduous, so don't live.

Lee,
First persimmons I grafted, I just did simple whip grafts - just like I'd 
been doing on apples & pears - got 100% success(2 of 2); I didn't know that 
persimmons were supposed to be difficult to graft.
I now do all persimmons as simple bark grafts, and as long as the scions 
aren't damaged(frozen in storage, tender varieties winter-damaged prior to 
collection, excessively dessicated, etc.), I get success rates well in 
excess of 85%.
I don't believe that I can accept your theory about 'deciduous' branches 
relating to graft failure, however.

From my own experience, I suspect most persimmon graft failures are due to 
insufficient aftercare - you have to check them almost on a daily basis, 
for several weeks, to keep rootstock shoots rubbed off, or the stock will 
channel all resources into pushing its own shoots, rather than callusing 
and pushing growth on the scion.

Lucky Pittman
USDA Cold Zone 6
AHS Heat Zone 7
Hopkinsville, KY