Hi,

I have 4 American persimmons - two are fully female (Prok & Morris Burton); the other two are mixed: Szukis (male, producing female flowers) & Early Golden (which I hear produces some male flowers, although I am not certain that its just not parthenocarpic instead of actually really having male flowers with pollen - someone here will likely know).

I have no American persimmons growing wild locally. So, the only reliable pollinator for the 3 female trees is the male Szukis. That should ordinarily be fine, except in the case of the Szukis, since I'm not really interested in its fruit, I intend to grow it so that is will grow very tall and thin as it will be planted between two trees. It will have a spread of 10' to itself until it breaks the canopy and towers above the 20-30' tall small trees around it (sweetbay magnolia & shadblow serviceberry). IF this is a bad idea, then I will not transplant the Szukis into this tight spot and I will, instead, leave it in a spot where it has 20' to itself. I just don't want to waste the spot where another fruit tree could grow instead where having limbs closer to the ground is desirable.

Thanks,

Steve

Btw, I am not completely convinced that I need to keep my American persimmons 15' wide x 20' tall for ease of picking. I feel that I should let them grow as tall as they will get (when competing against each other for space and light) and hope that, in such a situation of being planted 15', they don't really spread wider then 20' in less then 5 decades (or else they will drop fruit all over my neighbor's walk-way on the side that is not blocked.)

I think that placing suspended mesh nets under the trees during harvest season and pulling on limbs with ropes from the ground to shake loose trees would be good enough for a good harvest for my family and friends (3 trees).