North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Jwlehman@aol.com]

In a message dated 10/20/2009 8:24:36 PM Central Daylight Time, bassem@gardener.com writes:

> Have anyone attempted to grow Asian Persimmon seedlings in colder parts of the US? 
> I know of one variety called "Eureka" that is a seedling from an Asian persimmon grown in the US, but haven't heard of many seedlings setting fruit
.

Hello Bass,

About 10 years ago I collected about 250 seeds from the UC Davis Wolfskill orchard, seeds of Jiro and Saijo. I planted them here in central Indiana, old 5b. nearly all came up.  Almost every winter they froze to the ground and every spring most came back up with some mortality every year.  Maybe two years not all were frozen back. The last ones died about 3 years ago.  My experience agrees with what Drs. Payne and Reighard wrote in a paper on KSD that winter damage begins to accrue at 10 F. 

Additionally my experience is serve damage at 0 degrees and -10 F is mortal.  I had hoped to find a kaki variety with good frost resistance, but nope!

Jerry