Steve, Meader is not self-fertile; however, it is a member of the Early Golden/Garretson family, members of which have a genetic propensity for occasionally having a branch here and there that produces male flowers which can fertilize the female flowers on the rest of the tree - which will result in seeded fruits. Meader will often set seedless fruits in the PNW, but that's a climatic fluke - in the east, you'll either get overproduction of seeded fruit(translating into small fruit size) or no fruit production at all if there is no 90-chromosome persimmon pollen around to fertilize the female flowers on your tree. If there are no native 90-chromosome male persimmons in your area, I'd advise planting one - or even better yet, one of the polygamodioecious(bisexual male) selections, such as Szukis or Claypool F-100. Like gene, I also have some deep-woods persimmons on the farm here that are probably 60 ft tall - and 40+ ft to the first remaining branch; but open-grown persimmons are more likely to take on a spreading orchard-tree type of growth habit, not unlike a standard apple tree. I'm not tech-savvy enough to post photos here, but if you'll send me an email, I've got some photos of heavy-bearing open-grown persimmon trees, and some close-ups of the flowers that I can send as email attachments.

FYI - Individual seeds are started in 3oz Solo bathroom cups 1/4" deep in Burpee grow cubes under grow lights set 2" above the cups, and adjusted to be 2" above leaf growth for the next three weeks. - Potted up, first leaves cut off and buried at least 50% in Al's mix in translucent 16-20oz drinking cups at 3 weeks and moved outside to the east side of the house under the soffit where they get SOME morning sun but mostly filtered sun to shade most of the day for another 3 weeks. - After another three weeks lower leaves cut off again and also buried at least 50% into their final containers in Al's mix, then into filtered sun/shade on the south side under an oak tree canopy for 3-5 days, then into full sun on the south side in the garden on Friday night or Saturday morning so I can watch them for two days to make sure they don't suffer any sunscald or get too dry and/or drown if we get torrential rains.... After that, they're usually hardened off enough to survive.... Tom

I saw this over on the Kitchen Forum. Hope it helps! Posting a picture from your photo hosting account (e.g., PhotoBucket) FAQ: Adding Pictures and Links [Note: If using PhotoBucket, copy the code from the line/box labeled "HTML Code"] Posting a picture from somewhere other than your Photo hosting account Copy the following into the "Message" box where you want the picture to be: <img src="http://www.XXX/image.jpg"> Next, replace the http://www.XXX/image.jpg with the address of the image. When you "preview" the message, you should see the picture

I tried to sign up but it kept telling me invalid password. Maybe it signed you up, and you accidentally missed it, or you already have an account with them? Maybe try going to the link below, and checking the box Forgot user name or password and fill out the next page. Once you get a pic loaded there, you will need to hover cursor over the pic in order to see the codes. Left click on the HTML Code (and it will briefly flash 'copied', and then come paste the code into the message box here. Once you hit Preview message, you 'should' see the pic as it will appear once you hit submit. Here is a link that might be useful: Photobucket