I know its not about figs but I am looking for someone who might have some american persimmon seeds or cuttings that they might want to get rid of. In Maine we are on the very edge of there range but I have yet to find one here. I do have a few places I would like to try planting them. I have had some success growing trees that are not supposed to grow in my zone. Including pecans and asian pears, although they are young and several years from being able to bear fruit I like to try gowing plants that noone else here would. I am going to plant two Korean Persimmons, a Dan Gam and a Hong Si. One is astringent and the other is non-astringent.

Check out Just Fruit and Exotics.  They have most of the oriental varieties.  I think they are out until the fall.  If you email them, they will respond usually within 1 or 2 days.  I purchased two persimmons from then along with two pineapple guavas.  Both were in excellent condition when they arrived.

I have access to several native trees and most likely the fallen fruit may still be on the ground. The fruit is usually loaded with seeds, and they do need cold stratification, but we have had several weeks of temperatures in the teens and twenties so they should be ok.  Send me a PM.

I have a few Asian persimmons growing. They grow well in containers, last yeah got 8 medium/small Hana Fuyu persimmons from a 3yr tree in a 5 gal. I moved the persimmon up to a 8 gal superoots container this year. I am hoping for 15 large size fruits, sometime in the future maybe in the 2014 season.

I got about 15 persimmon trees growing here.

Bass,
I live on the western side of Pa. What non astringent persimmon would you recommend for me?

Thanks,
Art

Just received 3 bareroot persimmon trees from Womack nursery yesterday. 2 eureka and one saijo for $22 each plus s/h came to $90. Ordered a saijo last year and was very happy with the growth it put on so I decided to order a few more. Can't wait until they fruit! Very reasonable compared to what nurserys around here charge in the spring

Chris,
Do you grow them in pots or in ground?

The saijo from last winter I bought around the same time and potted up in a 5 gallon bucket and kept inside my home in front of a southern exposure bay window. After a few weeks it started to come out of dormancy and by the end of April I repotted and moved outside. I did bring it into my unheated garage this winter to give it some cold exposure and plan to plant it permanently in the yard in the spring. There are so many different varieties available now and I chose saijo because many say they are great tasting. I plan on doing the same with the three I received yesterday.

You can grow saijo, russyanka, nikitaskaya bordovaya, sheng, Great Wall, Hanna fuyu, ichi Kei Jiro, and most Korean types.
Womack uses an under stock from the native southern type of persimmon not fully hardy up north.

Hey Swizzle, PM me. In AL we have a large amount of American Persimmons (astringent) growing wild. I don't think I'll find many seeds this late, or early, rather. They grow really large. They are beautiful and have a black bark. They also smell great when they are in bloom. The fruits are not large, though, a little  larger than a quarter and must be thoroughly ripe to eat. They are very very seedy. You may enjoy one of the Asian varieties more. They are quite cold hardy, to my knowledge. The trees take a long time to mature. They are mostly used for firewood and smoking meats down here. 

Hope no one minds if I piggy back here and ask about non astringent varieties that would do well in the rainy, cooler pacific northwest - zone 8b?  Up until recently I really only thought there were a couple varieties out there. I was excited to hear about all the other ones,  but I'm not sure which would be good to get.  Thanks for any help!

Bass, are the big ones as seedy as the little native ones? I think I would enjoy a persimmon more if it weren't for all of the seeds. 

http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Food/Stir-It-Up/2013/0206/Persimmon-quick-bread?nav=87-frontpage-entryBloglist

Mine rarely have seeds. You probably have a lot of male persimmons in your area or it is just the variety.

I planted 3 persimmons this year. Two Hachiyas and a Fuyu. These were the only varieties available locally, but they were of very nice size. And expensive. ($38 to $50, bareroot) I looked in every local outlet and nursery and there simply was very little available. But that's OK - both of these varieties do very well locally, and have proven to bear well in extremely low chill areas. I briefly looked for mail order, but finding trees of size that reasonably will ship to California can sometimes be a challenge.

The Hachiyas are very good for drying, which is what most of ours will be used for. Neither of these varieties commonly have any seeds at all. Slicing literally hundreds for dehydrating this year, I only found maybe 2-3 seeds total. At first I didn't even know what they were, lol.

Dried persimmons are my absolute favorite dried fruit -  ambrosial flavor, and the texture is stand-out good. I wish I had known that years ago when I was a kid when we had so many we could not give them away.

This year I also dried all the peels and then ground and sifted them into a powder. It's exceptional fiber (better than apples) with slight sweetness, and can be used in many things - baking, with yogurt, in oatmeal, granola bars, in salads....

yes.

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Off-topic-Persimmon-time-Fuyu-!-6066882

I just found out from the previous owner of our new property that she planted a Fuyu Persimmon way down on the hill.  She said she thinks a coon or possum got them all.  She watched them, and just when she thought they were ripe and ready to pick, she'd look again and they'd be gone!

I've never tasted one, so I'll have to be aggressive this year.  The previous owner left us a lot of other gifts too!  She planted an apple with 5 kinds grafted on it, an apricot, plum, peach, pomegranate, and a variety of citrus.

It's not an American Persimmon, but I'd be happy to send you seeds when the time rolls around... Autumn, I think?

Suzi

Suzi, your location should be perfect for pomegranates.

If your persimmon is a Fuyu, it won't have seeds. Around here the coyotes eat the ones they can reach. Probably racoons, squirrels and rats too, especially the non astringent types.

I think I have 22 types of persimmon, with all except 1 American and a couple hybrids being Asian Kaki. Most are small and not fruiting as yet, and some just a young branch grafted on a tree.  They are wonderful low care trees and my only real issues with them has been late freezes after unseasonably warm weather in winter/spring.  Most Kaki are not nearly as seedy as most American Diospyros Virginiana trees. Some of the native American trees do set fruit without pollination, and don’t have much seed, but if you are in a area with a lot of native trees the males in the area will pretty much assure most are heavy seeded.  Some of the Kaki will be virtually seedless even if there is kaki with male flowers around. Most of your Kaki grafted cultivas are Female flowering and fruit is set without pollination.  Except in a rare instance the American and Kaki don’t pollinate each other. There is limited success in this even in a research type setting that’s why there are not many hybrids of American-Kaki. So if you want seedless fruit Kaki is the way to go, or if you don’t have native trees around plant an American like Yates known to produce fruit without a separate pollinator.  

Bass,
Interesting statement about the northern/southern Diospyros Virginiana rootstocks. I know that the 90-chromosome is native to the north and the native southern trees are 60-chromosome, but I never gave much thought they would be colder hardier,  but logic would suggest so with natural selection. I do believe most of the select cultivars are 90 chromosome trees, so they seem to have better fruit genetics as well.

Here in Maine I live on the northern edge of the American Persimmon range. Like I said in my original post I have not found any trees. I would like to plant some persimmons for one I love the flavor of them and for another thing they are some of the most beautiful ornamental trees you will find when they are in fruit. When I was in Korea I just loved looking at these trees in the middle of winter with there fruit still hanging on to the trees. They are beautiful. My wife who is Korean and loves persimmons said that Dan Gam are the best non-astringent and the Hong Si are the best asringent. She says the Dan Gam are much better tasting than the Fuyu you can buy here in the states. These persimmons are eaten like apples, you peel them and eat them. The Hong si ripens after they have had a good frost. In Korea they often leave them on the trees into the middle of winter and pick as needed. You can also eat these as persimmon-cicles. They are delicious. As for wether I will ever get fruit here is the question, being in zone 5b I am outside of there recomended growing area. But I have learned that sometimes you might just suprise yourself with what you can grow. Even if it takes a little extra effort to keep your plants happy.

Gina do you have astringent or non-astringent. I agree they are much better peeled,

For the seedy american persimmons just get one of these. Look at a yard or estate sale and you can get one for a nickle. Not many people use them anymore. I use the pulp for baby food or persimmon pudding.