Of low spray fruit really enjoyable for most to eat out of hand- aside from native persimmons and paw paws (Both require quite a wait for fruit) are blueberries and other small fruit like raspberries (only bother with fall bearers there-later bearing the better). I too enjoy growing ribes, but much prefer black currants over red. There are some varieties that are actually sweet enough to be quite delicious off the plant- but not quite the same experience as a fully ripe peach. But black currant preserves as a spread is the finest I've tasted. Of common fruit, pears tend to be easiest if they don't get fire blight or psyla- you should stick to resistant varieties. You can ask Adams Country Nursery how well Harrow Sweet is performing down there because it is extremely productive very young with high quality fruit here. Also resistant to before mentioned issues. I know Magness is a great tasting pear grown down south a lot but it is virtually pollen sterile and needs pollen from another pear in an unrequited sexual relationship (other pear may also need separate pollinator although many are self fruitful). It is very slow to come into bearing, however. Asian pears can also be easy if stink bugs don't find them. I like Korean Giant best of any I've tasted.

I'm with Lucky when it comes to pushing the envelope of growing fruit trees. Trying out different approaches and perspectives, often challenging the rule of thumb, often growing what you're not supposed to. But this is backyard gardening, not a commercial fruit orchard operation. I myself take it as a risk taker approach. Let us say, you have 1 year in 5 that could wipe out your crop from the freezes, it would still be worth grafting the cultivar for me as I get 4 good years out of 5. But they are not necessarily in very regular intervals, it could be that the year you graft them is followed by the worst event of the time interval. Over here, it depends mostly on the hardiness of the crop cultivars. For example wih respect to citruses, we get a mild freeze once every five years, a moderate freeze once every ten years, and very severe freeze every twenty years or so, enough to wipe out most citrus crops in our area. I have more than 85 citrus cultivars and all have survived the moderate freeze, 20 deg F for at least a week with little help. Even if all of my citruses did die out, I'm more than glad to regraft or replant. I should get 19 good years out of 20. I guess, if you are enthusiastic about grafting like I do, I see such calamities as another opportunity to try out something new or repeat again thinking that you'll reap good crops in most years. When it comes to persimmons, you would just need a really cold hardy base cultivar to serve as your stock. Just know where to get good sources of scionwood. With my experience on persimmons, they can bloom and fruit the year they are grafted. The next year usually will have abundance of fruits after grafting. Thus if there is a freeze that could kill a grafted cultivar, and whose incidence is just once every 5 years, you should really try grafting and regrafting whenever needed. Never tire out, treat grafting like you are pruning. Pruning is a necessity every year, and so treat that grafting is a necessity to replace died out cultivars. Grafting unto mature trees will usually have your scionwood bear good quality fruits the next year after the operation. Thus a very cold hardy mature persimmon tree is a good investment, and then you can try out various cultivars on it.

Bass, I have three kaki persimmons grafted high on native persimmon rootstock, Hachiya, Giombo, and Chocolate. The only one that has had winter injury is Chocolate, but it has been minor, with only a couple of small branches killed back the past two winters. The coldest temps have been around 4-6 degrees F, so I suspect "real" zone 6 temps would be more damaging. I like the Chocolate fruits, as they ripen early and never seem to have any astringency when pollinated. It produces lots of male blooms, so most of your kaki's will have seeds if you have them nearby. Email me if you want cuttings. ~kiwinut

I've had Tanenashi growing here at Hopkinsville for 2-3 years; no fruit yet, but no winter damage, either. Also have Saijo(fruiting nicely this year), Hokkaido, Hana Fuyu(1 fruit this year), Tecumseh, Hachiya, Great Wall(has fruited), Sheng, Ichi-ki-kei-Jiro, Peiping(or Pen, I can't recall which), Maekawa Jiro, Rizu, maybe a couple more I can't think of at the moment, about 30+ D.virginiana selections, Rosseyanka, Nikita's Gift, and Keener - the hybrids. England's Orchard & Nursery and Nolin River Nut Tree Nursery are two good KY nurseries that offer persimmons - but NRNTN only has American varieties.