Persimmon Seed

American Persimmon seeds

American persimmon is one of my all-time favorite trees. There is truly nothing like a ripe persimmon. Persimmon are easy and rewarding to grow from seed. Once established there is little that can slow these trees down. The trees we collected seed from this year experienced a rough drought and still produced loads of fruit. This year we are able to offer seed from several trees planted by John Hershey in Downingtown PA. 

John Hershey is famous in the tree crop world for his nursery work and experimental plantings back in the early and mid-1900s. His nursery was known as Americans number one tree crops nursery. John worked to collect seed and Scion wood from trees with superior qualities all across the country. He grew out seedlings and grafted trees on his farm in Downingtown PA. Sadly after his death the farm was not protected and much of it has been destroyed to make room for suburban sprawl. Some of the trees remain.

There is a cluster of trees planted by John near where his old farm used to be. These trees are found in the area surrounding Downingtown Friends Meetinghouse. In this cluster are several American persimmon trees of outstanding quality. I am not sure if these trees have been named but I can tell you that the fruit is really good. As shown in the pictures these trees make fruit that is larger than your average wild persimmon. 

There were three trees of John’s producing fruit in this patch during fall 2024. Our seed was collected from all three. From what I can tell these trees like to drop their fruit over a long window as opposed to dropping them all at once. This trait is great for home growers but difficult for orchard production. Each of the three makes larger than average fruits with great flavor. These trees are old. I am uncertain exactly when they were planted but I would put them between 70-100 years old. They have survived many storms.

Many persimmon growers have noted that seed collected from superior parent trees that are isolated from wild populations has a much higher chance to produce offspring with desirable qualities. We believe that this batch of seed has a good chance of producing high quality offspring.

** When growing persimmon trees from seed some of the offspring will be male and others female. Only female trees will produce fruits. The rare tree will express both types of flowers.

Persimmon seed should not be allowed to completely dry out. In zone 7 and warmer fall planting is advised. In colder climates fall planting may work although we haven’t tried this ourselves.

If fall planting is not an option for any reason, persimmon seed can be stored in cold slightly moist conditions over winter and planted out in spring. This can be accomplished in the fridge or by creating outdoor storage such as buckets with drainage holes.

Seed can be sown 0.25”-0.5” deep in soil and covered in 1”-2” of mulch. Once established persimmons are drought hardy but as a young seedling they appreciate consistent water access. 

To learn more about growing trees from seed check out our social media or shoot us an email with your questions. **