North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

I've had low survival of American persimmon grafts on small diameter limbs.  The only way they work well is to graft to a main scaffold limb.  On any limb smaller than two inches in diameter, the trees seem to want to "prune" the graft and they die back to a larger limb and slough off after a few years.  Two varieties per tree seems to be the most that work, long-term.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
On Nov 21, 2005, at 8:57 AM, Lucky Pittman wrote:

At 10:46 PM 11/19/2005, Mark wrote:
> I have had zero success with persimmons.  I wonder if  it has to do with my
> rootstock.  I have a persimmon seedling that is a full tree.  I graft onto a
> few branches and let the rest of the tree just grow normally.  I don't try
> to check the new growth on the rest of the tree.  I can get away with this
> on apples.  Do I need to do things differently with persimmon grafts?

I'll defer to Jerry for the definitive answer, but like yourself, I've had 
dismally poor results - if not total failure, in trying to foster grafts 
onto branches of mature persimmons.
Even with young seedlings, I've had trouble keeping topworked grafts 
growing well, if the rootstock has branches present below the graft.  Did 
manage it with one seedling in the orchard this year, but I had to 
consistently - about twice a week - pinch out terminal buds or break over 
new growth that kept sprouting out on the branches below the graft - and 
I'll probably prune those limbs off whenever growth initiates this spring.
All in all, I prefer a rootstock with no branching, so that it's putting 
all its energy into pushing growth on the grafted scion - and I'll say it 
again - you've got to follow up; at least every couple of days, you've got 
to rub off any new shoots pushing out on the scion - and you may have to 
continue to do this for weeks.

LLP 

_______________________________________________
nafex mailing list 
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

**YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO POST!**
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/