North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steven Covacci <filtertitle@aol.com>]

Group:
1. Is the Japanese persimmon cv. 'Hokkaido' dwarf for all who grow it on D. 
virginiana; I think it was Cliff who told me that it is only dwarfed on it's 
own species: D. kaki rootstock.
2. Is 'Hokkaido' an astringent-'til-ripe variety, or non-astringent?  If 
astringent, I suppose I can put it on D. lotus without fear of long-term 
future graft-incompatibility. 
3. Why would grafting a kaki persimmon upon native D. virginiana confer any 
advantage of improved winter-hardiness? I suspect this is an outright myth, 
UNLESS being on D. virginiana will, to an extent, influence the D. kaki scion 
to leaf-out a little earlier, as the rootstock (D. virginiana) reserves 
water-flow until a little later in the spring?
Is this the case?  If not, then I suspect the only legitimate two reasons for 
grafting Japanese persimmon (preferably 90-c) American persimmon:
A. Seed and/or seedlings of American persimmon are more readily available, in 
many cases;
B.  Since non-astringent Kaki persimmons/Japanese persimmons will, 
eventually, graft-reject upon D. lotus - so, without D. kaki seedlings 
on-hand or D. lotus being a viable option for non-astringent cultivars (see 
reason No.1), then D. virginiana is the only available option.
I'm looking forward to hearing input on this one - maybe somehow D. 
virginiana (which produces a bigger tree then either D. lotus or D. kaki 
roostock, and suckers readily) does confer some degree of winter-hardiness to 
the top-grafted Asian persimmon scion?
Thanks,
Steve; NJ 6b/7a