Eciton,

I found that persimmon root suckers do not have enough lateral roots to support the transplant. I grow them from seeds then graft them in a couple of years later.

Tony

Gotcha. I had marked some in clumps but feared that they were suckers. Do you think it would still be an issue even if they are solo trees in a 10-20' area? I had assumed some were planted by deer or coons

I know root suckers can go out to 25 feet away. You can try to dig it up in late March while in dormant state. Try to get as much roots as you can. Good luck.

Tony.

If you dig up seedlings or suckers, I would plant some seeds at the same time as a back up. The seedlings grow fast, especially in the ground, and may pass a transplant shocked seedling or sucker in two years. Gather seeds now, keep them cold and moist over the winter, and plant in pots of just where you want a tree in the spring.

Persimmons have a pretty long tap root and expend a lot of energy producing it. They don't transplant very well unless you get a lot of root which is digging pretty deep. You don't get much lateral root branching until the tree is pretty well established in a natural environment.

I find it much easier to grow them from seed in air-pruning pots. Air pruning the tap root causes early root branching. Using containers designed to air prune.

Here is one grown from seed on my deck:

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How old is that one?

I got a late start on persimmons last year. I'd guess that tree probably germinated in June of last year. I germinated the seeds in flats and then transplanted them to rootmaker 18 cells. In 12 to 16 weeks I transplanted them into 1 gallon rootbuilder II containers. Late this spring I transplanted them from the 1 gal to the rootbuilder II high 5 container you see in the picture. The picture was taken toward the end of July. So that tree was a seed about 13 months before the picture was taken.

By the way...That tree is getting ready to go dormant right now. It is now about 6" above that railing. I plan to cut it off this coming spring and graft to it.

Tony,

If you're monitoring this thread, I ran out of time to try t-budding this summer. I plan to send you one of the jujubes I started from root cuttings this summer as soon as they go dormant. I'm hoping I can get some more Nikita's Gift scions to try. My plan is to bring a few of the persimmons including the one in the picture above inside to break dormancy as soon as they have had enough chill hours. I'm hoping to be able to W&T graft as soon as I receive the scions. This should avoid the mold problem we had with the NG scions last year.

I stored about 30 persimmons seeds from very old trees at local park in fridge for 3 months.

Expecting just a few to make it, I planted all these seeds in half gallon pot.

3 months later still no seedlings, till suddenly they all come up like crazy now.

I am thrilled, but at same time wonder how I will ever transplant them.

Maybe cut the bottom off the pot, and part of sides, then plant them all together? I would love to pass some of these seedlings on to friends.

Might repeat this project in fall with new seeds, and be smarter by planting less in one pot. Any suggestions will be appreciated.