Hybrid persimmon – Diospyros kaki x virginiana

Description

Description

Hybrid persimmons are formed from the crosses and backcrosses between American and Asian persimmons. The fruits are medium sized, orange coloured, and combine the best aspects of the flavour from both Asian and American persimmons into one fruit. Some of the crosses are multiple generations along (e.g. 3rd generation crosses). These are the ideal persimmon to grow if you want something that is tougher than an Asian persimmon, but still fruits excellently.

We have grown hybrid persimmon seeds from this source before and can confirm they grow the best of all of our persimmons, with large dark green healthy leaves, sometimes red veins, and very healthy root systems.

In terms of soil requirements, they prefer free-draining soils that are fairly rich. We are not aware of anyone else other than ourselves who have grown hybrid persimmons in New Zealand, but we have found they grow excellently and can highly recommend them. Seedling persimmons are usually dioecious (two-sexed) – so separate male and female plants must both be planted to ensure fruit with seeds (some plants may set fruit without pollination however, but I wouldn’t count on this from seedlings).

Seeds per packet: 6

Germination Instructions

The seeds have already been cold-stratified for 3 months, so you can plant them as soon as you’d like. You can plant them outside where they’ll continue to cold stratify until germinating naturally in Spring, or you can germinate them now in a greenhouse or similar, or you can keep them in the fridge until Spring.