Monday, October 19, 2015

How Can A Tree Have Both Fuju And Hachiya Persimmons?

Fuju (smooth pointy ones on the left) and Hachiya (the one with ridges on the right) persimmons on the same branch?

The Persimmon Saga Continues
Last Christmas, when I posted my recipe for Chia Hachiya Vegan Eggnog, I told you the story about my persimmon tree.

In 2010 I planted what I thought was a fuyu persimmon tree. It didn't grow very well and, in fact, it took 4 long years to get ONE lousy persimmon. And it wasn't even the right persimmon. It was a hachiya. I was pretty upset with the nursery for selling me the wrong tree, especially when I lost 4 years of growing time. 

I went and bought another fuyu tree. I know it will take years to get anything but I'm determined to grow fuyu persimmons, one of my favorite fruits. 

This year the tree is doing quite well. In fact I can count about 36 persimmons beginning to ripen! To my surprise, they are large fuyu persimmons. All except for a few at the end of a single branch. That branch has both types of persimmons.

Can Someone Explain This?
I've had fruit trees in the past that had several types of fruits grafted onto a single rootstock. Once I had a tree with lemons oranges, and pomelos. But they were on their own unique branches. I have no idea how a single branch could have two types of fruit.

So this is not a blog post but a plea for someone to help explain this. So if you are a master gardener or botanist out there who can shed some light on this, I would greatly appreciate it.

Meanwhile I anxiously await the ripening of my persimmons!

No comments: