Walking Around. Fruit. 6.7.15

Bagged Apples.  6.7.15

Chinese Haw "Red Sun".  6.7.15

 Walking Around.

For most of the fruits, there isn't a lot that needs to be done, from now to fall.   If I am up to it, I can cut weeds, re-mulch, and do some summer pruning.  Some will need watering.

The zipper lock fruit bags always seem steamed.  I don't know if that hurts anything.  I have not seen that mentioned as an issue.

Ning's Chinese Haw has a nice crop of fruit, still small and green.  First year for that.  Deer like any branches within reach.

Almaden Duke Cherry multigraft.  I finished grafting yesterday.   Nothing to do until about 3 weeks from now, when the ties need to be removed.

Jonared apple multigraft.  Not much to do.  Re-mulch.  Tie down the branches for better spread of scaffold.  Any time this summer.

Fig row.  Lattarula is the most vigorous at the moment.  They will get water, but no fertilizer.

Meyer Lemon, in container.  Blooming nicely.  The fragrance is present even when not in sight.  Very sweet.  Leaves look yellow, but that doesn't seem to hurt.  Just needs water this summer. I do give it some acid-loving plant miracle grow, dilute.

Other citrus, unknown seedling, about 18 years old, just for decoration.  No bloom, not surprised.  Kumquat, no bloom.  I thought it might.  Same treatment as Meyer lemon.

Yates Persimmon.  Now that it's summer, I will back down  on the nitrogen boost.  This is first-leaf, so it will need regular watering.  Same with Mango Pawpaw and Sweet Treat Pluerry.  Speaking of which, the leaves are insect magnets.  Full of holes.  If it continues like that, I may not keep it.

Genetic dwarf peach seedling.  Very lush.  I think it's in it's 3rd or 4th year.  No idea if or when it will bloom.  Kept out of rain all winter.  Zero leaf curl.  Genetic dwarf peaches that were in the rain - covered with leaf curl.

Amaden Duke Cherry multigraft.  6.7.15

Jonared Apple Multigraft.  6.7.15

Lattarula Fig.  2nd year from cutting.  6.7.15

Meyer Lemon.  6.7.15

Yates Persimmon.  6.7.15

Genetic Dwarf Peach Seedling.  6.7.15

Fig, Persimmon,Progress Report. 5.30.15

Container Figs.  5.130.15

 Container figs all have thick mulch of chopped fir tree.  Some are doing better than others.  I've snapped off the growing tips, for branches of 4 or more leaves, to stimulate fig development.  For in-ground fig row south of house, I've done the same for side branches but allowed the central leaders to continue.

Persimmons.  The 2 trees in 3rd leaf, and the American Persimmon in 1st leaf, are all growing vigorously.  Nikita's Gift and Yates' flower buds persist. Chances are they will fall off, but I watch anyway.   All have protection from deer and rodents, and all have thick grass clipping mulch.  All have been given pee-cycling fertilizer, and all have been given extra water.

American Persimmon "Yates".  5.30.15

Hybrid Persimmon "Nikita's Gift"  5.30.15

 Pawpaws.   The three in 3rd leaf are growing well. "Sunflower" 3 fruit embryo / one flower, persists.  All have had doses of pee-cycling fertilizer, diluted 1:10, and all have been given extra water.  All have thick layers of grass clipping mulch, and nearby grass/weeds are removed.

Pawpaw "Mango", in first leaf, looks great.  That too, has been given the spa treatment, with  diluted pee, grass clipping mulch, protective fencing, and weed/grass clearance.

Kaki Persimmon "Saijo".  5.30.15

Pawpaw trees @ 3rd Leaf.  5.30 15

Persimmon and Pawpaw Progress Report. 5.19.15

Flower Buds on Nikita's Gift Persimmon.  5.19.15

Last Remaining Flower on Sunflower Pawpaw.  5.19.15

All but one of the pawpaw flowers fell  off.  The one that remains is on Sunflower.  It takes a close look to see the developing ovary.  I don't know.  It might give a couple of pawpaws.  This one flower is the last chance for this year.

Saijo Persimmon had some flower buds but they fell off without opening.  Nikita's gift started growth much later, compared to Saijo, the growth is much thicker and stronger, and there are a few flower buds.  The tree is only about 3 feet tall.

Yates American Persimmon is also growing strong, and has some flower buds.  This is first leaf for that one.

Puttering. 3.28.15

Main orchard.  3.28.15

Jonagold with multigrafts from Fedco.  3.28.15

 Most plants are out of dormancy or nearly so.

Plums are basically finished blooming.  Unable to see if and how much fruit set has happened.  All Asian plums are done.  Toka finished just after Asian plums.  Euro plums, Green gage is almost done, and Stanley is still blooming.  Stanley is the last to bloom.

Sweet cherries are in about full bloom.

Tart cherries barely beginning to bloom.  They really are later than sweet cherries, which is good for late frost avoidance.

Too early to say anything about the apple and plum grafts.  I look at them every day.

Pawpaw flower buds are swelling, Sunflower and NC-1.  I check those every day too.

Persimmons are growing, even Yates that I planted this January.  I often read that they may take until mid or late summer to grow, their first year.  Mine are budding out at the same time as mulberries.  Nikita's Gift and Saijo both have swelling buds, almost open.

The Mishirasu Asian pear graft, that I grafted last year and was eaten off twice by deer, is growing nicely.  The tree is fenced with a deer cage now.  Other grafts on that tree - 3 are have their first flower clusters.  It's been raining during bloom.  Too early to know if there is fruit set.  I should get the first Shinseiki on the Battleground tree this year - 2 year old cleft graft - and the first Hosui, the tree that I planted in 2012 and grafted others onto it since then.

Plum whip and tongue graft.  Ember.  3.28.15

NC-1 Pawpaw flower buds, swelling.  3.28.15

 Grapes are budding out and starting to grow.

Apples nearly blooming.

Prairie fire crab apple, almost blooming.  There are a couple of flowers, so this is among the first of apples to bloom.

Mishirasu growing despite deer browsing.  3.28.15

Yates Persimmon buds swelling.  3.28.15

American Persimmon. Diospyros virginiana. 1.21.15

Image source:  Plant Illustrations.org 

Diospyros virginiana L.

Catesby, M., The natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, vol. 2: t. 76 (1754)

Diospyros virginiana L.

Catesby, M., The natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, vol. 2: t. 76 (1754)

From "Today in History" via the Library of Congress,

On the afternoon of December 16, 1864, Union troops led by General George H. Thomas devastated Confederate forces at Nashville, Tennessee. The battle had begun the day before when Thomas initiated an attack after waiting some two weeks for troop reinforcements and favorable weather.

In November, in an effort to cut off General William T. Sherman's supply line, Confederate General John B. Hood, led the Army of Tennessee out of Alabama and toward Nashville. One of Hood's men remembered the grueling march from Atlanta to Nashville. "After the fall of Atlanta," Confederate veteran Milton Cox told his son John:

we marched northward into Tennessee over frozen ground and how cold it was! Our shoes were worn out and our feet were torn and bleeding…the snow was on the ground and there was no food. Our rations were a few grains of parched corn. When we reached the vicinity of Nashville we were very hungry and we began to search for food. Over in a valley stood a tree which seemed to be loaded with fruit. It was a frost bitten persimmon tree, but as I look back over my whole life, never have I tasted any food which would compare with these persimmons.

19th Century Persimmon tree, Lima Lake, Illinois   Source Univ Chicago.

 Credit line for image:  American Environmental Photographs Collection, [AEP Image Number, e.g., AEP-MIN73], Department of Special Collections, University of Chicago Library.

The image is not dated.  Either late 19th century or eary 20th century.  

American Persimmon is a native American tree, range extending through the old South, northeast to Connecticut, northwest to southern parts if Illinois, and northern Missouri, southwest into NW Texas.

The photo at left is at Lima Lake, Illinois.  I recall my Dad talking about Lima Lake, which was then considered a "swamp", and now would be called a wetland.  The wetland covered an expanse of 10,000 to 12,000 acres near Quincy, IL, the town where my dad spent his life, and where I was born and grew up.   I remember being told that persimmons were bitter, astringent fruits, not suitable for eating.  So never tried one.  I missed out.  A truly ripe persimmon is almost like juicy candy.

Best growth of persimmon was known in the Mississippi river valley, which explains why my Dad was aware of them.

I am interested in some of the native American plants and trees, especially those that might have grown where I grew up.  That is even though I don't live there, and haven't for many years.

Those plants and trees seem somewhat taken for granted.  There are few native American fruit trees - pawpaw, some plums,  and a few others.  Persimmon is also one, known to native Americans, eaten by them, and described in early European colonial works.

Natural range of American Persimmon, Diospyros virginiana.  Source:  JSTOR.org

Source for map image:  JSTOR

Other names for persimmon included  "simmon, possumwood, and Florida persimmon,".  I only knew them as persimmons.

As for growth of American persimmon, they are difficult to transplant at a large size, due to taproot.  Because of that difficulty, some nurseries offer trees at small size, and grow them in specialized tall, narrow, open bottom tree containers.  That is how the persimmon tree came to me from Burnt Ridge Nursery.

From US Silvaculture manual, "Approximately 50 percent of the total radial growth is complete in 70 to 90 days, and 90 percent complete in 100 to 109 days after growth starts in the spring (6). Persimmon responds well to fertilizer."  Based on that info, it seems to me that small persimmon trees should be given nitrogen fertilizer early in Spring or late Winter.  In my yard, that means pee-cycling then.  My tree is just a small sapling.  Other references state not to fertilize, but I think that fertilizing sapling trees might give them a boost, then stop when they are bigger.  The issue with excess nitrogen is it can cause fruit drop.  Fruit drop is not a concern until the trees reach bearing size.

 Also according to the silvaculture manual, trees take a long time to bear, may start in 10 years.  However, seedling trees of most tree species need to go through a maturation process, that is already accomplished in the scion of grafted cultivars.  Because of grafting, the maturation process is skipped, so they may bear - guessing - in 3 to 5 years.  I think the main challenge is getting them large enough, fairly quickly.  The manual also states, "Common persimmon grows in a tremendous range of conditions from very dry, sterile, sandy woodlands to river bottoms to rocky hillsides and moist or very dry locations. It thrives on almost any type of soil but is most frequently found growing on soils of the orders Alfisols, Ultisols, Entisols, and Inceptisols".  I don't know what those soil types mean, but have copied them for future reference.

Image source plantgenera.org

Maritime Pacific NW climate is quite different from the provenance of American persimmons.  I think there are still a lot of unknowns.  However, others have grown them here, and they are available at local mail order nurseries such as Burnt Ridge, Raintree, and One Green World.  The difference in climate is not more than, say, the difference for kaki persimmons, or figs, or peaches, apples, pears, from their origins.

Also from the manual, best growth  "is in areas that receive an average of 1220 mm (48 in) of precipitation annually, about 460 mm (18 in) of which normally occurs during the growing season. Over the range of persimmon, the average maximum temperatures are 35° C (95° F) in the summer and -12° C (10° F) in the winter."    The climate here has a dry summer, most rain being in fall / winter / spring.  Both summer and winter are milder than midwest.   The climate here could be more suitable, or less, or no significant difference, compared to native provenance.

My goal is get the tree off to a good start.  Provide mulch, water well the first couple of summers, provide adequate nitrogen the first couple of years at the right time, and see if we can get a good burst of growth so I have a taste in my lifetime.

The variety that I purchased is reported as not requiring a male pollinator.  If, some time, I find some scion for male persimmon, I may graft them onto either this tree or Saijo, or Nikita's Gift, to produce viable seeds.  That is not a priority for me.

According to One Green World Nursery, "American Persimmon can be grown in all but the coldest regions of the U.S. American Persimmon fruit is ready to eat when it is soft like a tomato... American Persimmon trees are easy to keep at 10-12 ft. in height with pruning."

 The variety I planted is Yates, which is apparently also  called Juhl.  As I recall, this variety originates in Indiana, is larger than most others, and has a darker orange color. 

Planting Yates American Persimmon. 1.17.15

Yates Persimmon from Burnt Ridge Nursery.  1.17.15

Persimmon Roots in Tree Pot.  1.17.15

Yates Persimmon.  1.17.15

 Yesterday there was a box by the garage door.  This"Yates" persimmon sapling was in the box.

Things like this keep me going through the winter.  I've been looking forward to planting this tree.

It's a nice size, about 2 foot tall.  When I emailed Burnt Ridge Nursery to ask about them, they said their few remaining specimens were 1 to 2 foot.  Nice it's at the high end of that range.

In the bottomless, side-ridged narrow tree pot, the roots grew straight downward.  None were winding around.  I read that persimmons are difficult to transplant due to lack of a lot of fibrous roots.  This method of growing saplings is said to result in a much more transplantable specimen.  Even so, small specimens are more likely to result in success, so it's hard to find very big persimmon trees to plant.

Persimmons have black roots.  This was no exception.

Planted, and in wire cage.  More protection will be needed - I should prune some of the lower branches and fit a hardware cloth sleeve over the tree.  But it's raining and raining and raining, so I went inside.

Not good to plant trees in the rain.  I wanted to get it into the ground as quickly as possible, so compromised.  The fill soil was not too clumpy, and I think it is OK.

Yates is also call Juhl.  This variety is reported as, no male needed to produce fruit (parthenocarpic), much as many of the Asian persimmons are.  Also fairly large, and early. 

I think I'm nostalgic for some of the natural aspects of my growing up in Southern Illinois.  Pawpaws, American Linden, and now American Persimmon. 

One more photo added 1.18.15.  I pruned the side branches to a single whip.  Minimal loss of stored carbohydrates by doing that now, before sap flows up from roots.  The lower branches would need pruning to make a single leader.  I tied it upright.  I surrounded with hardware cloth for vole protection.  I surrounded with a larger cage for deer protection.  I think persimmons need neither, but prefer not to take a chance on an anomalous or taste-testing herbivore.  The newspaper mulch is crumpled so it won't lie flat and form a barrier.  It looks bad but there is no one but me to see it.  In Spring, it will be covered with a  nicer looking grass clipping mulch.  

Yates Persimmon, pruned, protected  1.18.15

Image from Vintageprintable.com