North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Jerry Lehman <jwlehmantree@gmail.com>]

On 10/9/2015 9:53 AM, Devin Smith via nafex wrote:
> Jerry, your statement regarding the "blockage" having been "broken 
> down" piqued my interest. Would you say more about that means? Are you 
> just saying that Rosseyanka and Nikita's Gift are easily backcrossed 
> even though the initial cross that produced them required some tricky 
> business?
Hello Devon,

Yes, that is what I'm saying. This term a blockage that prevented enter 
species hybridization of kaki and virginiana was picked up from James 
Claypool. Mr. Claypool was a student and persimmon cooperator of JC 
McDaniel from the University of Illinois. He also was personally 
acquainted with Prof. Meader, all of whom attempted or were working with 
people attempting to hybridize the 2 species. In my files I have letters 
and articles written by some of these individuals and not one of them 
claims to have achieved a interspecies hybrid. I just briefly went 
through them nor did I found no reference to Geneva Long.

But yes, open pollinated seeds from my trees of Rosseyanka (Russian 
Beauty TM) and the Nikitskaya Bordovaya (Nikita's Gft TM), trademarks of 
one Green world nursery germinate very readily from open pollination in 
my orchard. And they are not apomictic as all of the seedlings vary 
greatly in leaf and fruit characteristics. I have one that was initially 
grown in a pot by David Pierce and is now my 400-7 that produces very 
small fruit and the bricks exceed 32. It produces 1 to 2 seed per fruit. 
The last 2 winters our temperatures reached -15 Fahrenheit and there is 
no winter damage. I have sent cuttings of this cultivar back to Ukraine 
for back breeding to their best kaki males. That is a long answer with 
unneeded information! But the point is yes, there progeny produce viable 
seeds.

Jerry Lehman