If you choose carefully, you
can have American persimmons ripening in your forest pasture
for over six months, from August through February. The fruits are
mostly sugar, but they provide a vitamin boost that your flock will
enjoy during the cold, winter months when fresh food is scarce. I
tossed a few persimmons to our chickens last week to test them out and
was stunned by how well the fruits were received. “More
persimmons, please!” the hens seemed to say.
This winter, I’m collecting
seeds from wild trees to start my own persimmon test patch. With
the help of a reader and some friends and family, I’ve already nailed
down varieties that ripen in August, September, October, November, and
December. (If you’ve got a later ripening tree, I’d trade a
waterer for some seeds.) Planting persimmons is a long term
project, but I feel confident that at least by 2020, our chickens will
be fat and happy on the winter fruits.
I posted a lot of
information about persimmons over on my homestead blog last week:
- Persimmon
uses for livestock, nutritional information, and sources of information - Persimmons
as human food and the difference between American and Asian persimmons - General
information about planting persimmons - How
to propagate persimmons by germinating seeds, grafting, and
transplanting - How
to ripen persimmons
Hopefully those tips
will help you out if you decide to add persimmons to your own forest
pasture.
I’m deeply interested by using persimmon as a tree fodder crop for poultry, i think it can replace corn (american persimmons have the same cal by weight, wet or dry. I dont know the metabolized energy for persimmon thought (i dont think academic folks ever bothered).
It’s very hard to find info about ripening dates or even pattern of fruit fall (like pawpaw, we dont know very well american persimmon in europe, what a shame). I’ve read that date plum (D. Lotus) ripens few weeks before american persimmons, and it is a good rootstock (fibrous roots, but less hardy than D. virginiana)
In most parts of Europe, I think you can probably get away with planting Asian persimmons — we’re right on the edge of their hardiness range, although I’m trying some of them as well. A grafted Asian persimmon will bear in just a year or two, vs. up to 10 for a seedling American persimmon. The Asian trees are much smaller, too, and come in lots of varieties, so you can choose ones that ripen over a long period.
I think the reason you’re having trouble finding information on ripening dates with American persimmons is that there are very few named varieties. In the wild, you can find them ripening all the way from August to February.
Right, here (zone 8) we know only asian persimmons (and i think fruits of trees planted in garden are not harvested …). Very few cultivar of persimmon available here (early golden and meader)…
Such a chance you can design so many months of persimmon
I live in southwest La ( not in a swamp area ) & have alot of wild persimmon trees in my backyard if you are interested. Its late June right now & I have a tree that is producing fruit. We have never fertilized the trees or given them any special treatment since they are the wild persimmons & they have always given us nice fruit. I only use them to feed the deer around the house & my chickens but always have alot that go to waste. If you would like any seeds plz let me know.
Crystal — Thanks for the offer! That does sound like a good tree you’ve got. We’ve filled up all of our persimmon spots now, though.