I have one that I'll be planting this spring. They will do better in southeast than here in pa. There's a self-fertile variety at edible landscaping in VA, the owner Mike mconcky mentioned that he has one large tree and making lots of fruits by itself.
Here in Pa, it ripens in september.
Bass

Here is a link that might be useful: edible landscaping

You do not need a male and female. A female will produce seedless fruit without the need for a pollenizer.
I have a friend, now in MS, but formerly in LA, who's grown it for years.

Here's what a friend up in eastern TN had to say about his experience with che:
"We have had Che fruit in for 7 years. Put in both a male and female plant. Survived 14 below several winters ago. Blooms after frost; has not frozen out in five or so years (am away from my notes), unlike our mulberry. No observed disease or insect problems. Birds are a problem, have netted the female. Disease and insect resistance similar here to mulberry and fig, which are in same family (Moraceae).
Pollination is the adventure with this plant:
The male sets fruit but most of these fall off; a few of them will ripen and be identical to female fruit. Male died to ground two winters ago; the female still set a full crop of seedless fruit. The male grew back last year, bloomed thisyear and acted like a female by setting the largest crop of ripening fruit yet. (It may be in the process of some type of conversion; time will tell.) Some debate has gone on for the need of a male pollinator. I'm not sure that I had any less fruit without the male two years ago. Our plants are on the far side of the field and hence do not merit close observation; my kids eat most of the fruit with the birds.
Both our plants are grafted onto Osage Orange. Hence, if you know how Osage Orange does on yours or similar land, this should suffice for your site. A.J. Bullard let a single stem go up to 8-9 ft, and cuts all others off, he has a nice form as the result. A number of our limbs on our bush are on the ground.
Hidden Springs grafts theirs onto Osage Orange if I recall correctly; they do not grow seedling trees of Che. If you mean they graft an unnamed "seedling", they then are no different from any other nursery, to my knowledge. Don't know of anyone who has selected and named superior cultivars from the wild (somewhere in China?) My impression of the one nursery that sells a seedless selection is that this if merely a female. My sample size is too small to determine the value of two for pollination vs. one female.
We are at 1800' zone 6, we rarely get into the 90s; we are on the borderline for enough heat to ripen Che fruit. In a cool summer, defoliation in fall will occur before last of fruit is ripe.
Ripe fruit has a strawberry color, knotty exterior like Osage Orange, tastes a bit like pear and fig to us; sweet but not overly so. Strange in that slightly unripe fruit leaves a metallic taste in my mouth.
In summary, an overlooked minor fruit. Well worth the effort to put in as a carefree, dependable producer in our area. The Blacks at Hidden Springs have made a jam with them. Lee Reich plans to include a chapter on this plant in his second edition of 'Uncommon Fruits Worthy of Attention'."

Lee Reich did include a chapter on them in his book. It looked interesting enough that I added Che (from Edible Landscaping) last year. I planted it last spring and put a tubex around it. The tree quickly grew above the 2-foot tubex and last time I looked at it (about a week ago) it still looked good.

I have not yet tried any fruit, though Lee Reich does claim that grafted specimens can fruit as soon as the year of planting or shortly thereafter.

~Chills

I wonder how would the Che look as a Landscape tree? I have a spot in the front yard for an attractive tree. I have few fruit trees in a pot trying to decide which one should go there, A seedless Che, Saijo Persimmon, or a Pawpaw.

Bass

Bass, my vote would be for the persimmon or pawpaw. The che does seem like a curiosity, but the description of it's taste in Reich's book make me think that limited space in the yard is better utilized by the persimmon (or pawpaw).

In favor of Che it is a very attractive tree, nice branching and nice shiny green leaves. I would say it is the most attractive of the three. I'm still waiting for mine to fruit so I don't know about the taste.

Scott

I feel like I've answered this already once (lol)..

I have both a persimmon and a Che in my front yard. Both were planted last year, so I have little frame of reference upon which to choose one over the other. I do really like the shape of Che's leaves, they are interesting enough that I've been asked what it is more than once. The persimmon was mistaken for a (baby) Magnolia twice last summer (the leaves are not too dissimilar).

I consider fall color in planning where I plant things and the persimmon will likely be a better fit for my front yard as it will break up all the yellow fall foliage I have in my front yard currently. (a silver maple and a ginkgo) Unfortunately last year (with the warm temperatures until December) the colors were very unspectacular on the Persimmon. The Che did color up well (yellow).

Keep in mind that the Che does have thorns, so this might be a consideration in putting it in the front yard.

~Chills

I wish I have a bigger yard to plant all of these. I know that Che in china may grow to be a very large tree, but here in the NE I've only seen it about 6' high. Chills is yours bigger?
Does Saijo persimmon have a nice fall color? That's one persimmon I'm dying to plant, I like the fruit.

Bass

I just planted a one-gallon Che last year. According to my notes it was 42 inches tall at the end of the season, having grown about 6 inches since planting. Good growth for the season after planting, especially considering the Persimmon near it seemed to have shrunk an inch last summer since planting (which I assume was due to settling).

I would prefer to see it get a bit larger than 6 feet, but I would have to prune heavily were it to try and attain 90 feet!

~Chills

I live in south Arkansas. I planted 6 che trees grafted onto Osage Orange about 14 years ago. One male and 5 female. After about 3 years, I wanted to see if I could cross a che with an osage orange so I cut down the male tree. The female still produce fruit, but not quite as many and seedless. The trees are planted in poor soil - heavy clay with poor drainage. Not good for any trees. They all are healthy and large about 8 to 10 inch bases and over 20 feet tall and wide each. I tried to prune them back for the first few years, they just grew to fast and big so I gave up. Many of the trees produced over 20 limbs over 8 feet long in one growing season straight up. I just keep them cut so I can ride my riding lawn mower under them without hitting any limbs. They are attractive trees. I planted them far too close (I thought they were bushes), about 10 feet apart, they are all intertwined. They should have been 25 feet apart and not pruned. I have over 100 different types of fruit trees from around the world (just a hobby)and would consider the fruit a 5 on a scale from 1 to 10. They are very juicy, sticky and medium sweetness. I have made preserves from them and they taste like fig preserves. The preserves are dark red and if you want you can carry the process futher and candy them. They are also good that way. My osage/che crosses are only about 6 foot tall with a 1" base and have not produced fruit yet. My desire is to have a fruit the size of Osage Orange (grapefruit size) but the sweetness of the che. The Osage is a more distint male and female. Both male and female of the che produce fruit that is the same. The Osage male only produces pollen and no fruit. The female produces only fruit. I went through quite a trial and error period of years before sucessfully making the cross. I am not a horticulturist or speller as you can see, so don't have great knowledge on how to make crosses. I am an engineer with limited time to play with the fruit trees, but I dearly love doing it.

George,

If you have really made hybrids, then you have done something that may have never worked before. Such hybrids are called Macludrania hybrida, but most authorities don't believe they are really hybrids. Are the seedlings clearly intermediate looking or do they look more like the Che parent? Che is thought to produce apomictic seeds sometimes, so the "hybrids" turn out to be of completely maternal origin. Hopefully, yours are the real deal. Please keep us informed on their progress.

~kiwinut

Here is a link that might be useful: Che: Chewy Dollops of Maroon Sweetness

Sorry that I can't weigh in on how they do in the Southeast, but here in Albuquerque, NM our two females set fruit by themselves. The hotter the summer, they better they produce, if given enough water. My question is that we've noticed that the milky latex sap that they drip when you pick them is a bit caustic, impossible to wash off, and gives me a bit of a bellyache if I eat more than a few. Anybody else have any experience with this?