North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[John McCuan <wawo@yahoo.com>]

  We also had some pruning questions concerning frost damage.
  
  I had an Asian persimmon (Jiro) killed by the frost, but the rootstock  is sending up sprouts right next to the graft. I pruned the graft all  the way down to a few inches above the graft, but it clearly was  dead.  
  
  It was the first Asian persimmon we planted, and it was about 2 years  old, so the rootstock is now about 2 inches in diameter.  Should I  just let the rootstock grow into a tree?  Another option might be  to get a branch of a wild native persimmon we have that produces very  tasty fruit.  It may be possible to get a branch of similar size  and graft it to the rootstock, though it will be something of a trick  since the trunk goes up about 20 feet without any branches (it grew up  under tall pines).  Someone once told me I could graft Asian  persimmons onto native persimmon rootstock, can I do the opposite as  well?
  
  Are persimmons hard to
 graft?  I must admit I've never grafted  before, though I've been closely reading NAFEX postings concering it  for years and am ready to give it a go.  Should I wait until next  winter?
  
  Our Jiro was growing rather well until the late freeze (it blossomed  for the first time this spring), and I'm wondering if I should get  another Jiro or if its demise indicates it's not that well suited to  this climate.  I have a Saijo I just planted last February and it  was starting to leaf out as well at the frost so those leaves died, but  it came back nicely.  We live near Atlanta, Zone 7, but our  temperatures rarely dip under 10 degrees.
  
  Thanks for any input on this question, and thanks to all for your postings; I've learned a lot from them.
  
  Melinda McCuan

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