I have a couple of persimmon trees growing in pots in the hopes that I will have my own source of healthy fruit in the coming years. Persimmons are a superfood that contains many benefits and can help living a healthy lifestyle. The persimmon is an orange-ish, yellow-ish fruit that looks like a tomato. But, it’s no tomato!
High in fiber, this fruit will keep you regulated. It also is high in Vitamin A and C. I didn’t really pay attention to this fruit until recently. A coworker of mine had brought in some of the fruit into work. She states that these are great fruits and a good source of Vitamin A and C. To help the body stay healthy, the persimmon is also a good source of phytochemicals. And, she also stated that there are two types of persimmons most commonly eaten.
The Fuyu, which is my favorite, is more firm and can be eaten like an apple.
Image retrieved from Wikipedia.org
The Hachiya is an alternative type of the fruit that is softer and better for jams and jellys.
Image retrieved from Wikipedia.org
When I took my first bite out of my first Fuyu persimmon I was hooked. So, much so that I saved some of the seeds to get my own tree growing. My coworker’s persimmons that she provided were from her tree on her property. So, I knew that the seeds would be natural and free from chemicals that would prevent seed germination.
The 3 fruit I ate provided me about 7 seeds in various stages of development. It’s worth noting that not all persimmon fruit have seeds. I found this out from experience. I took my 7 seeds and began the damp paper towel in shade germination method. It’s something I learned as a kid in elementary school. We would place a damp paper towel in a zip-lock bag and staple the bag about mid-way. This gave kind of a “perch” for the seed to sit so it wasn’t laying in a puddle of water at the bottom of the bag. It took about 3 weeks or so and out of the 7 seeds, I had 4 germinate. Pretty good odds I thought.
I then transplanted the seeds into their own 7” pots to get growing. Of those 4 I had only 3 grow past the original germination stage. Still good odds in my opinion. About another month or so in those pots led to some decent growth and I then transplanted them again into 10-15 gallon pots.
One tree did not do so well. It did not transplant very well and wound up dead after one of the many warm CA days.
The process of natural selection kept my trees growing though. This has been a very neat experience in terms of the growth and natural selection of the best seed to survive.
This tree is not developing as good as my other one. But, it is doing a good job of growing. My hopes are that it will continue and survive.
And, my best tree is this one that is growing well. It’s about 1-1/2 to 2 feet in height (approximate ½ m). It’s an important note, persimmon trees have a taproot. So, it is safe to assume that the tree is as deep in the soil as it is tall. This is good news though because when it’s planted in the ground it actually become quite drought tolerant. I’m assuming that my tree will be about 5 feet in height after about 4 years.
As you can tell from this picture the three trees were in various stages of success/failure.
This image shows that there are multiple leaves growing and it’s hopeful that my persimmon tree will grow from a pole with leaves to one with branches by the end of the summer.
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All images not retrieved from Wikipedia were taken with my super awesome iPhone.