Year of the Persimmon

This should be a banner year for backyard venison, one of my persimmon trees that's approx 80yds from my stand is loaded with fruit:





It's a subset of my overall habitat improvement for my "deer engagement area" on my back 40. To enhance this one tree, I planted persimmon seeds this past winter in pots indoors, then planted seedings the seedlings in tubes with weed-mats all around, hoping to start a small grove:



Then after getting those started we found a bunch of new growth persimmons around the old female tree and adjacent a new pond we had dug and an existing tree line. All in all, we've probably got around 30-40 persimmons coming up this year!

To top it off, my 1st Chestnut Burr:



Just a matter of time before my dream of chestnut flavored venison is a reality.

Grumulkin said:

I've had two persimmon trees for probably 5 or 6 years that seem to be doing well. They put on flowers but alas, so far no fruit.

My Chinese chestnut tree, my Nanking cherry tree and my pears are doing VERY well.

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I'm by no means a persimmon expert, but IF they're common's you've got to have male and female trees clos enough together to pollinate. I've read that the males will have multiple flowers on stalks and the females just singular flower. My only guaranteed way to tell is when fruit shows up or doesn't. Unfortunately that's a 5-6 year wait.

Then on top of that, the younger females will only produce fruit every other year. Hence the trying to put them into small groves to ensure fruiting every year. We've got 4-5 "groves" of 5 to 10 trees on our place that we've been cultivating for a few years now. This year it's been amazing how many young trees we're seeing starting up. This is my 1st attempt to get them growing where I want them.

I've yet to be successful planting acorns or nuts in the "wild".

I've had my best luck by getting seedlings from KS forestry or by planting acorns/seeds in pots after stratifying them for 60 days in the fridge. I keep the seedlings indoors until the last frost, then move them outdoors to harden for a couple weeks. This year I had an exceptional year on getting persimmon seedlings, way over the normal sprouting rate (30%). This year (2022) I'm going to be a little more selective on my planting, by trying to fill some fruit tree gaps. I'm also going to keep them in pots adjacent my barn until fall to minimize the amount of watering via tractor I have to do.

When planting I use tree tubes and weed mats. The tubes and mats are the most significant cost of about $9.00 per tree, but the survival rate is greatly enhanced. Even though $9 is on the high side, it's easier and cheaper than staking and fencing.

Below is a mix of KS Forestry seedlings (Chinkapins) and some red and burr oak that I grew from acorns. I'm extending a tree-line into an old CRP field that was turned to hay a few years ago. If there's one thing I need more of it's late dropping hard mast trees. Note the tracks from watering a couple times a week!



IF you look close, you can see some greenery in the 1st couple tubes. This year they'll put down roots, next year I expect them to reach the top of the tube (5').

Bayou52 said:

Last year, I had a great crop of large and extremely sweet Hachiya persimmons. This is an astringent variety.

This year, none on the tree. That’s the life of a farmer, I guess…

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Bayou52

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Holy chit!

One of those bad boys is about half a tree worth of commons!

I believe I've experienced the same, mine are still living, but not growing at the expected rate.

I've made a note to myself to start doing soil tests...our county extension does them relatively cheaply and timely, so there's no reason not to get them done, other than laziness on my part. The majority of my place I'm working on is "reclaimed" farmland used for row-crops. Unfortunately a lot of it has been abused through the years and the soil isn't in the condition.

mokin said:

I admire you guys who keep and nurture fruit trees. I think that's really cool. I had an acquaintance who rehabilited an old apple tree orchard. I was amazed at how he turned the place around. He told me he was able to bag a deer off his back deck (it faced the orchard). He said it was some of the best deer he'd ever eaten.

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Well if nothing else it does extend the season! Now my prepping for deer season is somewhere around 180 days..

I'm already starting on my next project. Any of you guys planted black berries for deer?? I've got a bunch of native going, but of course they're not in the "engagement area". So I "borrowed" some cuttings from my wife's patch and bought a section of hog panel from TSC. We'll see how it goes. If nothing else it should act as a partial screen.