dogdoc Posted May 18, 2014 Report Share Posted May 18, 2014 Well I started my persimmon "sex" change exactly 3 weeks ago. I harvested some scions (dormant one year growth) from a known female tree that produces lots of fruit and is a very late dropping tree: I cut the scions in about 6" length and dipped any cut ends in candle wax and stored them moist in the fridge. I collected them the last week of February. Last summer I identified a lot of male trees on my land and marked them with flagging ribbon. Three weeks ago today I did my first persimmon grafts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted May 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2014 These are bark grafts which are the best and easiest grafts for persimmons. To do bark grafting you have to wait until the trees come out of dormancy and the sap is rising. This is when the bark "slips" from the inner wood easily. I checked on the grafts today and I have success!!! Buds are swelling and popping through the parafilm tape and some are already popping out some healthy looking leafs Not that I need another hobby but this grafting is pretty fun and it's pretty cool following the progress of these grafts. I have grafted a total of about 30 male trees. I don't expect all of them to take as I am very much a rookie at this but hopefully will get better with more experience. These grafts should be producing fruit in 3 years. Anyone interested should read this article that was in the QDMA magazine. http://www.qdma.com/uploads/pdf/Grafting-Persimmons.pdf there are also lots of videos on youtube about grafting persimmons todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turkeygirl Posted May 18, 2014 Report Share Posted May 18, 2014 Awesome dogdoc!!!! Very interesting, thanks for posting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted May 19, 2014 Report Share Posted May 19, 2014 I KNOW GUY WHO DID THAT WITH APPLE TREES, he had , good luck too....looks like you got that sex change thing down...jk...be careful, you may get requests from San Francisco!! Heard there is a lot of fruits that want it done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted May 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2014 I KNOW GUY WHO DID THAT WITH APPLE TREES, he had , good luck too....looks like you got that sex change thing down...jk...be careful, you may get requests from San Francisco!! Heard there is a lot of fruits that want it done. Haha--those sex changes on persimmons are a little less complicated. Grafts are coming along nicely. I would say my success rate so far is around 70% or better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted May 24, 2014 Report Share Posted May 24, 2014 Persimmon grafting.. Don't know how you have the time for all this Todd. Sounds like cool experiment. Have a few large persimmon trees here that flower but never produce any fruit. Guess it would be too late for them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted May 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2014 Don't know how you have the time for all this Todd. Sounds like cool experiment. Have a few large persimmon trees here that flower but never produce any fruit. Guess it would be too late for them? That's the advantage of having a day off during the week and having kids that like to go to the farm and play. William--my guess would be that the persimmons you have are male trees since you don't get any fruit. If you want to give it a try next year just let me know and I can send you some scions off of a good female tree and you can graft them on your trees. It is so easy that I bet even Martin could do it:chat: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tominator Posted May 28, 2014 Report Share Posted May 28, 2014 My father in law did that with apple and peach trees all the time. Pretty cool. Hope they produce for you. Looks like they will! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted June 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2014 i am a believer in beginner's luck now. my first persimmon grafts are doing great. We finally got some much needed moisture and everything is taking off nicely. anyway here are some updated pics of my first year of trying my had at persimmon grafting. these are around 6 weeks old. I am having to remove suckers from the main stem every week or so to keep all the sap flowing to the graft (scion). If you don't remove the suckers then they will rob the scion of needed sap and the scion with wither and die. I'm probably at around 90% success. I had a few scions fall off---probably birds or deer bumping into them and I had 2 trees where the electrical tape came unwound and the scions died. Hopefully in 3 years these will be producing fruit. todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin R10 man Posted June 10, 2014 Report Share Posted June 10, 2014 operation went well Doc! wanna bet the fruit will have whiskers?...lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted July 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 I've lost a few grafts. Either wind blew them off or deer pulled them off but most are still doing great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted September 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 Most persimmon grafts are doing great. I lost a few to high winds and varmints but I will call it a success for my first year of grafting bark graft. I grafted two to each mother tree. Always good to have tow just in case one fails or falls off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted September 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 cleft graft. This graft works good for smaller tree where bark grafting won't work. It is slower to get going since only one side of the scion is has cambium to cambium contact but does produce a strong bond. another bark graft Persimmon trees are loaded this year. Persimmons are such a great "deer" fruit. They are so astringent that nothing will eat them early like apples and pears. Plus most are late maturing so are almost always available for most of the hunting season. I can't remember the last time that I cleaned a deer that didn't have persimmon seeds in their stomachs. ​ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted September 12, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2014 I also did a few pecan grafts. Changing the hard small native pecans to a larger paper shell pecan. Hope to have these new pecans in a few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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