North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Jerry Lehman <jwlehmantree@gmail.com>]

On 11/30/2016 5:02 PM, Matt Demmon wrote:
> I'm not sure what your overwintering plan is, but in my experience
> wintering seedlings in pots, persimmons are some of the most difficult. I
> generally experience 100% death if they are kept outside above ground over
> winter, even in a sheltered location or with leaves or chips mounded around
> the pots. Same with paw paws, BTW.
Matt,

I will say (write) this with tongue-in-cheek. Chips and leaves don't 
offer enough protection if there only packed around the pots to the 
surface of the soil in the pots. I think if you had it 12 inches over 
the top of the soil in the pots the root system would receive sufficient 
insulation to survive. Some years back I had a number of kaki seedlings 
in the soil and I packed wood chips around them to a depth of 12 inches 
which completely covered the little seedlings. They survived and one day 
when the temperature was 0°F I took a thermometer and inserted it down 
into the wood chips to a depth of about 6 inches and the temperature at 
that level was 20°. I'm curious, if you had mulched above the soil 
levels in the pot how deep was it?

Jerry