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nafex - Re: [nafex] Getting a Chocolate kaki to make more female flowers

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  • From: Jwlehman@aol.com
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] Getting a Chocolate kaki to make more female flowers
  • Date: Wed, 30 May 2012 07:03:02 -0400 (EDT)

In a message dated 5/29/2012 8:38:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
scott@cs.jhu.edu writes:

> My Chocolate persimmon has been making almost exclusively male flowers
> for the last couple of years. It used to be more balanced male/female and
> I
> would get a tree load of fruit. Is there something I should do to change
> the balance? I haven't pruned it much at all so I would not be surprised
> if
> that had something to do with it.
>
> Scott
>

Good Morning Scott,

Interesting, very interesting. I have never head this complaint before.
I've heard of persimmon trees effectively switching sexual expression, your
is
the first first hand account.

I know of only one D. virginiana cultivar that bears both pistillate and
staminate flowers, Szukis. It is unstable and switches sexual expression when
grafting.

Question, were the pistillate and staminate flowers intermixed on the same
branchlets? Or were some branches male and some branches female? If the
later is the case would pruning out the branches that are bearing the
staminate
flowers bring the tree into balance? I doubt if just pruning limbs randomly
would bring back the female flowers.

>From what you wrote the tree has been there quite a few years. What about
soil nutrition? Has the tree depleted the soil of what it needs? Then what
to feed it? Do you have a good supply of compost? Enough for maybe in inch
ground coverage under the tree and beyond the drop line. Or some low nitrogen
fertilizer, something like 0-20-20.

I admit I'm just guessing.

Jerry






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