Nikita's Gift?

[cis4elk]

Does anyone have any experience with Nikita's Gift persimmon? It's a American x Asian hybrid.

[strudeldog]

I grow it Calvin. I like it. It's 3/4 Kaki I believe. A cross of Rosseyanka X Kaki

[cis4elk]

Hmm, thanks Phil. I've been pondering trying it here in ground. I certainly don't want a 40' American variety growing in the yard. Not sure if it would make it here, although I did stumble across an entry in an old Garden Web from a fellow who lived in z5 and wrapped similar to how many do fig trees and his survives fine.

[DBJohnson]

Don't have one yet, but plan to get one in the food forest eventually.

[strudeldog]

Calvin.

Probably Tony Tran your speaking of. He does amazing zone stretching in NE. Tony is a friend of mine I just sent a bunch of figs cuttings to start and he send me some scion of a couple newer persimmon hybrids to try and graft. I think Rosseyanka is more cold hardy than Nikita's Gift, but I am z7A not z5. Kassandra and jt-02 are the ones going to try and graft this spring not sure how they will compare, not sure Tony does either yet, as think they are pretty new to him as well but he has some newer posts on growingfruit.org here is a good one http://growingfruit.org/t/hybrid-per...-great/2601/16 If you look close you might see a photo of my left hand but doesn't count for any contest here. If you want a stick or 2 of Nikita's Gift I probably still have a couple. I started seeds of Nikita's Gift 2015 seed so they are hybrids as well but I think the pollen parent was a Kaki which would make them 7/8 Kaki and don't know I have anyplace to grow them out and are group planted in a large pot. If I were you I would try a high percentage Virginiana cross. Cliff England http://www.nuttrees.net/ probably would give best advise and has most scion and trees for sale if not sold out if you wanted to try one of those newer one now.

[cis4elk]

Thanks for the really good feedback on this Phil. I had to sit down and do a little homework before asking my follow-up questions. I will probably get a Nikita's gift in the ground spring 2018. Do you know could there any difference in the NG that Cliff offers versus Raintree, One Green World, or Burnt Ridge? They all have the little TM trade mark symbol, so I would think they have to be true to the name (50/50 cross?) and not crossed any further(like your seeds you started).
Also, do you know is the standard for them to be grafted onto D. Virginiana root stock? I just want to make sure so I end up with a tree that is around 12' tall and not one which is 20-40' tall, although I'm sure the squirrels would love me for it.
One last question, do you have any idea how big Kassandra(the tree) is supposed to get? Is it similar to NG or something larger?

[strudeldog]

They should all be the same Nikita's Gift I think was the name it was marketed as and I beleive the orginal cultivar name is Nikitskaya Bordovaya or something close to that I have seen it spelled slightly different. Persimmon are not reliable true to seed and seedlings should not be labeled the cultivar name of the parent as they may or may not be similar. Nikita's Gift is not 50/50 it's 75 Kaki/25 Virginiana It's seed mother Rosseyanka is 50/50 crossed back to Kaki. On root stock you could expect to find it grafted on D. Lotus, D. Virginiana or on D. Kaki. At least in past Lotus seemingly has been used alot on west coast trees and Virginiana by eastern nursery. There can be discussions on benefits of each but if you are worried about your grafted tree being 40 foot because on Virginiana it will not and will still be a smaller tree.

As to Kasandra, it was hybridized by David Lavergne just a few years ago so not sure of tree size. Cliff England has made it available but doesn't state much on tree description maybe someone has spoken with them regarding and might know better, or you could contact Cliff he would give a good answer on what he thinks mature tree would be.

[cis4elk]

Thanks again!

[Kelby]

You should be fine, what lows have you experienced? Cliff England has had it down to -17 with no injury.

[strudeldog]

Kelby, You have Nikita's Gift if not from me from some else right? If not I could stick in with the other stuff going out next week.

[Kelby]

Yup, I bought one from Bass last year.

[cis4elk]

Thanks Kelby.
We actually have had some fairly cold nights this winter, we've gone subzero multiple times. From what I can find, the lowest was around -10 F, but I swear in my neighborhood it was a few degrees warmer. If I remember right, before this winter we hadn't gone subzero for one or two winters.

It's interesting, in my new neighborhood which is only a couple miles from our old house, there are still some peach trees around. All the peach and cherry trees around here got fried a few years back when we had a freak subarctic cold front in November when the trees weren't fully dormant yet. Our new house is a bit lower, somewhat on the south west side of a valley(so a slightly north facing slope), I wonder if that causes the trees in the valley to go dormant a bit earlier, just enough to save them during that early freeze?