Growing persimmon in FL

[seanyk]

I was hoping to get some advice on growing persimmons in FL. I hear they are pretty hit or miss.

I currently have a south florida/Hudson persimmon.

I just ordered a few small trees. Fuyu, chocolate and hachiya. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[johnb51]

South Florida will give you a lot of fruit--small fruit, not super-sweet, but still tasty.  I also grew Triumph.  The tree grew bigger, but it produced less fruit.  I would try Winterset, too.  I don't think Fort Pierce gets cold enough for better varieties.

[850FL]

I am north of you and persimmons produce well here but I don’t like the taste of any local fuyus at all.. hachias are a lot better grown in Florida or maybe just my part of Florida.. I don’t know if hachiya can produce as far south as you? But I would recommend at least that much.. also the native ones individually have strange flavors... pumpkin, sweet, astringent, hints of pineapple guava and gasoline..

[seanyk]

Haha very interesting!

The website I bought the persimmons from said all the varieties I purchased fruit in zone 10. I guess we will see!

Willisorchards.com if anyone was curious

[skhan]

One more thing to consider is that the ones they graft down here (at least what i've seen from ZHPP) are grafted on native persimmon stock.
Fairchild garden has a write up on growing them too.

[Galatians522]

Haha very interesting!

The website I bought the persimmons from said all the varieties I purchased fruit in zone 10. I guess we will see!

Willisorchards.com if anyone was curious

I believe that they are refering to USDA zone 10 for California. The trouble with using USDA hardiness zones is that they do not take chill hours into consideration. Our chill hours are reduced compaired to the same zone in California because our cold weather comes in spurts rather than staying cool consistently. That being said, Fuyu has performed well enough for us here in Florida Zone 9b even with last year's low chill hours.

[FlyingFoxFruits]

I was hoping to get some advice on growing persimmons in FL. I hear they are pretty hit or miss.

I currently have a south florida/Hudson persimmon.

I just ordered a few small trees. Fuyu, chocolate and hachiya. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

easiest fruit tree to grow, i believe they graft them onto native roots stock, here they fruit and grow with absolutely zero help.

Hudson/South FL, probably my best fruiting variety, compact, heavy fruiter.

[roblack]

Trying out Suruga here. Have my doubts about fruiting due to low chill hours here, but giving it a try. Came from a FL seller, so maybe they mean it when listing it as good for zone 10b.

[Flgarden]

I have 2: fuyu and tanenashi many ears ago. I am in the north Orlando area and they both produce a lot without special care, never had bugs issues.

[johnb51]

I have 2: fuyu and tanenashi many ears ago. I am in the north Orlando area and they both produce a lot without special care, never had bugs issues.

Sorry, but I'm not quite getting it.  You have them now, or you had them "many years ago?"  Or you planted them many years ago and still have them?  I'm guessing the last.  Anyway, Orlando gets about ten degrees colder than SoFlo. 
(Do you have lychees?  Anywhere that you can grow mangos, avocados, persimmons, atemoyas, sapodillas, jaboticabas, and lychees is a great place!  And I like the idea of stone fruits on native plum rootstock that was mentioned recently.)

[Flgarden]

I still have them and they are doing great!

[TonyinCC]

Trying out Suruga here. Have my doubts about fruiting due to low chill hours here, but giving it a try. Came from a FL seller, so maybe they mean it when listing it as good for zone 10b.

I read somewhere that Suruga was grown in the warmest districts of Japan, it was one of the latest season varieties with a brix over 20 percent. I wonder how much chill their Southernmost Islands get?  Presumably it would be fairly low chill. I grew it in Charleston,SC over 20 years ago and it was very nice Nov-Dec fruit there. The best non astringent type I have tasted. Larger and sweeter fruit than Fuyu with better color.
 Higher chill location than Florida but you are in for a treat if it fruits for you.

[Galatians522]

Trying out Suruga here. Have my doubts about fruiting due to low chill hours here, but giving it a try. Came from a FL seller, so maybe they mean it when listing it as good for zone 10b.

I read somewhere that Suruga was grown in the warmest districts of Japan, it was one of the latest season varieties with a brix over 20 percent. I wonder how much chill their Southernmost Islands get?  Presumably it would be fairly low chill. I grew it in Charleston,SC over 20 years ago and it was very nice Nov-Dec fruit there. The best non astringent type I have tasted. Larger and sweeter fruit than Fuyu with better color.
 Higher chill location than Florida but you are in for a treat if it fruits for you.

The Okinowa islands are the southern most part of Japan. They are famous for their cherry blossom festival (prunus campanulata) and a low chill peach cultivar that was used for rootstock; appropriately named "Okinowa." I know that I have see a chart that listed the chill requirement for Okinowa in Florida, but I can't find it at the moment.

[TonyinCC]

I think the reference to Suruga being grown in the warmest districts may have been referring to the island of Kyushu, but it was not specified.

[Galatians522]

I think the reference to Suruga being grown in the warmest districts may have been referring to the island of Kyushu, but it was not specified.

Ok, it was referring to the southernmost part of the "main islands," then.