Hey Scott, I just ordered a bunch of 3 gallon containers. I'm going to purchase a 'Saijo' and one other Asian persimmon. Then, in addition to my 'Meader' American, I'm going to purchase a 'Szukis' and one other American cultivar. I want to experiment, after these threes are established single (well-pruned specimens) in producing an Asian Persimmon duo multi-graft (Saijo and one other) and produce an American persimmon trio (Meader, Szukis, and one other). If they don't work out, it will be ok since I'll have them separately growing (pruned). 1.Since you highly recommend the PVNA Asian types, in addition to the 'Saijo', I want to grow one PVNA (perhaps 'Chocolate'); I live in Zone 6b, and I know that 'Saijo' is said to be cold-hardy down to -10F. What would be a recommended variety of PVNA that would be cold-hardy for zone 6? From what I've read, 'Chocolate' is not an option (whereas other sites contradict this, claiming it would work out in zone 6). 2. What varieties of American persimmon (flavor) are you familiar with? Some have suggested 'Szukis' is the best and that 'Meader' is not necessarily the best tasting variety, comparatively. 3. Do you think that I can, forever, continue to summer prune an American persimmon tree - if I wanted to keep it under 10' feet, or would this eventually stress and kill the tree years down the line? 4. As for the 'Saijo' and PVNA Asian varieties, can I place the tree only 8' from my pavers/walk way - or will the roots destroy the paves? I intend to prune the lowest branches so that the lowest limb is above 6' off the ground so that it can spread without obstructing the walk-way. Thanks, Steve

I would agree there are good and bad trees. IF same variety on same rootstock, they should all be the same genetically and produce the same (in theory anyway). However, when I worked in an orchard commercially, we had 4 rows of Spartan apples all on the same rootstock and planted the same time. A few of those trees produced heavily every year but the apples they produced were so small they fell thru the sizer while grading. Worthless except for cider. We tried fertilizing and found no size increase. The trees were healthy otherwise. Virus? The few trees like this seemed healthy and showed no visual signs of virus. I have the same issue on concord grapes. I bought 3 nice healthy looking vines bare-root. The first produces normal concord fruit in shape and yield every year. The second vine grows rampantly but never produces much as the clusters have 2-3 fruits in them only. The third vine always has gigantic clusters of grapes that are breathtaking to see as they are so big and heavy. All three of these concord vines ripen the same time and taste like Concord. If I ever propagate my own it will be from the vine with the gigantic clusters of fruit. Just pointing out that sports, viruses ect can make a difference in a block of fruit all the same variety. Really important for the propagator to pick the best tree/vine when grafting/budding or rooting a fruit variety.

Congratulations on having such a huge, ancient pom tree. That it has sour fruit is not a total loss...at all. I have converted several mature, sour-fruited poms over to multiple varieties in the last 2 years using bark grafts on 1/2" to 1" thick fast-growing shoots, and (much better) using cleft grafts on 1/4" to 3/8" thick shoots. I would first start with a massive pruning to eliminate all the upper, thick, unneeded tree, leaving a variety of several trunks coming out of the tree base, each having a few thin , upright shoots coming out of them. I would plan to graft in March as new leaves are starting to grow out of the already-pruned tree's remaining shoots. The dormant scions of known, good quality trees in the fridge will get a fresh dose of sap hitting them after being grafted. I see no benefit to grafting higher than 4 feet off the ground. If you want more details, let me know.

Have you considered that it might be the characteristics of the type of orange? There are quite a few 'sour orange' varieties out there. That would be my first thought, since you mentioned that the tree always produces sour fruit.