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.

Hi Tony, Beautiful pics. I see your photo of Snowqueen nectarine. Can I safely assume you grew that fruit & did not buy it at the grocery? Seems like a silly question, but... most reports I've seen say that Snowqueen is one the most highly-rated nects for flavor, but is NOT cold hardy beyond Zone-7, which is why I have not attempted growing it on my vacation property in Zone-6b. Are you growing Snowqueen in the ground in Zone-5A Nebraska? Did it survive this past winter? If you are successfully fruiting Snowqueen in Zone-5A, then all bets are off! How old is the tree? From where did you obtain it? Was the fruit richly flavored? Thanks in advance for whatever information you can share. Cheers, -Matt

I've seen some older virginiana growing on virginiana rootstock both in dense plantings and in wide open spaces and most were in the 20 - 30 foot range. These were all in the Northeast and perhaps under different conditions in different locations they would grow taller. In any case they can be pruned to a shorter height if desired. I've grafted virginiana to both kaki and lotus and they grow and fruit well on each. I would expect that a kaki rootstock would have some dwarfing effect on the tree, but with the risk of various problems down the road, I don't think it would be wise to recommend kaki over virginiana rootstock for this application. I believe texana has the same number of chromosomes as the southern virginianas, but I haven't heard of any hybrids between the two. Prok and Yates have an additional set of chromosomes, so they would be incompatible. These varieties don't appear to require any specific trigger to induce fruiting, so I would doubt that having no local wild virginiana would pose a cropping problem.

Hi, I have a 6 foot tall Jiro persimmon tree currently growing in a 10 gallon pot. It has broken dormancy and has a few leaves. Jiro, as I understand is somewhat unreliable in the Seattle area where I live. I have decided to take several branches and graft Izu scion onto them which is earlier and more reliable here. Is there any advice you can provide me? I have never grafted persimmons before. But I have experience grafting apples, pears and figs which have been quite successful. Thanks!