What is YOUR persimmon forcast?

[WalkingWolf]

I have about a dozen persimmon trees growing wild, when the fruit starts to ripen I shake it off daily for the chickens and ducks. When the fruit hits the ground it looks like flock of feathered piranhas. I do not care for the texture of the wild fruit, so I let the birds have them, but most of the fruit is gone. Now I am shaking off the dogwood fruit for them.

 

[happyhappy]

Quote:
I have been making persimmon cookies and breads for years, did not know about predicting the weather with seeds. Unfortunetly I no longer have a tree and have to find someone with a tree that needs to be lightened of it's fruit LOL. Just found someone down the street that has a tree was going to go ask if I could trade a dozen eggs for some fruit! Love cookies I always find some but really don't want to pay for them when so many go to waste!

 

[key west chick]

No persimmons here but the wooly worms are predicting a mild winter... People look at me like I have 2 heads when I start talking about weather predictions and worms.

 

[darkmatter]

I love persimmons, I planted several trees (transplanted root clones from a friends farm) twenty years ago. I now got lots and they bring in the deer for hunting season too.

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

I usually try to get to the persimmon tree on the farm before the deer & foxes, but didn't make it this year.

I did discover a persimmon tree on the edge of our home property. I just happened to be walking near our line and noticed persimmons on the ground! I squealed and picked some up to bring in ( that weren't being eaten by ants

).

After some wet & windy weather a few days, I went to check again. All were off and what was on the ground was gone. I grabbed a bunch of seeds. Will try to plant some next year

And the three I checked about winter weather, were spoons!

I didn't ever see any wooly worms to check.

 

[darkmatter]

Quote:
When planting persimmon seeds: Remember, Persimmon trees are separate male and female trees. If you plant seeds, it may take 10+ years to find out if you get fruit or not. Persimmon groves are actually one tree sending up root clones, so if you find a fruit bearing grove-------transplant several small shoots from the grove. I did that and got fruit within 7 years. I also planted a row of seeds and have yet to see any fruit from the seedlings. A persimmon tree only needs a male tree within 1/2 mile to set fruit, so your best bet is to plant root clones from a fruiting grove and plant seeds too if there are no wild persimmon trees nearby. You can sex mature persimmon trees during the year and in winter by looking at the flowering stems----females have one flower head, males have a smaller cluster of three. You can see it easy during the winter/fall when the leaves are off.

 

[sred98]

Thanks so much for posting the planting info! I was going to get some seeds from my neighbor, but think I'll dig some babies, instead! Do you think they do better as an understory tree or out in the open. It seems like I see them more in light shade. I don't mean to hijack, but we love persimmons!!

I'll have to see what our seeds say!

Shelly

 

[darkmatter]

Quote:
Here in the Midwest, I've seen persimmon trees/groves as stand alone in the cow pasture and isolated within the timber. I cleared a section in the timber when firewood cutting and planted my clonal shoots in the middle of the clearing. I've kept the underbrush back each year and enlarged the clearing as needed to allow sunlight to the persimmon most of the day. It's done well this past twenty years and is now sending up it's own clonal grove. I cut firewood from the woods surrounding the persimmon grove to encourage the persimmons.

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

Quote:
When planting persimmon seeds: Remember, Persimmon trees are separate male and female trees. If you plant seeds, it may take 10+ years to find out if you get fruit or not. Persimmon groves are actually one tree sending up root clones, so if you find a fruit bearing grove-------transplant several small shoots from the grove. I did that and got fruit within 7 years. I also planted a row of seeds and have yet to see any fruit from the seedlings. A persimmon tree only needs a male tree within 1/2 mile to set fruit, so your best bet is to plant root clones from a fruiting grove and plant seeds too if there are no wild persimmon trees nearby. You can sex mature persimmon trees during the year and in winter by looking at the flowering stems----females have one flower head, males have a smaller cluster of three. You can see it easy during the winter/fall when the leaves are off.

Thank you for the info. I had no clue how to do it.

I do know we bought this house in 1998 and this is the first year I have ever seen persimmons. I try to walk our little line at least twice a year. This tree is right at where the grass meets the woods so surely I would have seen it before if it had been producing.

 

[ChickyChickyBaby]

Quote:
When planting persimmon seeds: Remember, Persimmon trees are separate male and female trees. If you plant seeds, it may take 10+ years to find out if you get fruit or not. Persimmon groves are actually one tree sending up root clones, so if you find a fruit bearing grove-------transplant several small shoots from the grove. I did that and got fruit within 7 years. I also planted a row of seeds and have yet to see any fruit from the seedlings. A persimmon tree only needs a male tree within 1/2 mile to set fruit, so your best bet is to plant root clones from a fruiting grove and plant seeds too if there are no wild persimmon trees nearby. You can sex mature persimmon trees during the year and in winter by looking at the flowering stems----females have one flower head, males have a smaller cluster of three. You can see it easy during the winter/fall when the leaves are off.

Both male and female have fruit? Or just female?
I could not even find one in our woods so not sure where any other persimmon tree is.....maybe I will remember to search for it next year.