Hi,

Has anyone had any success in growing these trees in England? How long
before they fruit and do they need a polynator. Thankyou.

Bez wrote:
Hi,

Has anyone had any success in growing these trees in England?
How long before they fruit and do they need a polynator.
Thankyou.


I finally found this:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/...aki&CAN=LATIND

Frost tender; but people do grow it in Britain; it seems to need a
south-facing site, preferably against a wall. For the best crops it
needs trees of both sexes, so you'll probably need to go to a
specialist nursery (find via RHS Plant Finder on line). This entry is
for only one of the species: I didn't look, but I imagine the others
are in the same database.

Bob Flowerdew seems to recommend trying it. There's an established
one at Kew. I believe they fruit quite early in life.

The following doesn't give cultural instructions, but is an
interesting list of unusuals you might like to see:
http://www.gardenzone.info/unusual_fruits.html

Mike.

On Wed, 1 Dec 2004 18:25:33 -0000, "Bez"
wrote:

Has anyone had any success in growing these trees in England? How long
before they fruit and do they need a polynator. Thankyou.

Two species, one eastern Asian, the other eastern American. Both need
*hot* summers to fruit.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, BC, Canada
to send email, change atlantic to pacific
and invalid to net

On Wed, 1 Dec 2004 18:25:33 -0000, "Bez"
wrote:

Hi,

Has anyone had any success in growing these trees in England? How long
before they fruit and do they need a polynator. Thankyou.

aka Diospyrus kaki. The RHS encyclo says they come as separate male
and female plants, and that in general you need both for good
fruiting, although some selected female clones such as Hachiya will
produce a limited amount of fruit on their own. It also indicates they
will cope with temperatures down to say -5C, but they need a long hot
summer to get a reasonable amount of fruit. It suggests training them
on a sunny south-facing wall as an espalier, or growing them under
glass.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

I'm not in England, but am in a place with a vaguely similar climate. For
what it's worth, there are two possibilities in my part of the world:

* Persimmons from the Russian Far East, which are smaller and earlier than
their Chinese counterparts.

* The American Persimmon, Diospyros virginia, which needs less heat than the
Asian Persimmons, and also are quite a bit smaller than Chinese types.

I suspect Persimmons are rare in England. If you have never had one before,
beware that most of them (and all forms of American persimmon as far as I
know) have extremely astringent fruits until completely RIPE. Most of them
turn SQUISHY SOFT when ripe. They also turn slightly translucent; look
carefully for the change, and gently feel them for softness. If you try to
eat one that is NOT completely ripe, you will be in for a most unpleasant
surprise as you mouth turns chalky as if it were full of alum. This is one
reason Persimmons never became extremely popular outside of their native
ranges.

One exception is the variety called "Fuyu", which does not ripen squishy
soft, and is not astringent.

To eat any other kind, you cut them into quarters and scoop out the flesh
with a spoon.

Leave American persimmons on the tree until right after the first frost; it
helps them ripen (some kinds, it doesn't matter).

When fully ripe, they are delicious fresh or in pies, tarts, or jam. Very
sweet, jelly-like consistency, with a peculiar, fruity odor, the Asian
types having crunchy membranes inside the gooey-sweet interiors

Bez wrote:

Hi,

Has anyone had any success in growing these trees in England? How
long
before they fruit and do they need a polynator. Thankyou.

--
Enjoy reading about special plants from interesting parts of the world on my
blog at a href="http://wildestdreamsofkew.blogspot.com""Wildest Dreams of
Kew"/a