In addition to gardening and gardening, which has already become familiar, we sometimes visit the desire to grow something unusual or even exotic. Persimmon, growing from stone at home - will this plan be successful? As they say - there would be a desire ... Plant lovers successfully practice the cultivation of lemons, pineapples, avocados, coffee bushes in a city apartment. So persimmon at home from the seed can also grow! Let's understand in detail all the nuances.
What seed of persimmon to plant at home, how to select and process
Persimmon seeds or seeds, photo:
First you need to select the perfect seed. Stop your choice on frost-resistant varieties (for example, “Rossiyanka”, “Virgin”), they are more seasoned, unpretentious. Take the most beautiful and juicy fruit, ripe, but not overripe and not frostbitten, its peel should be intact, intact. Here you need to make a small digression - it will be better and much more effective if you take fruit that has grown in your region (if, of course, the climate allows) to select seeds. Next, you need to put it in a warm place for several days, it will become very soft and even begin to slightly deteriorate - this is important.
After some time, persimmon seed can be removed from the fruit, washed well with water and placed in a “bath” of weak pink potassium permanganate for two days. This procedure is designed to disinfect seed and identify non-viable specimens (spoiled seeds always float to the surface).
The next stage is how to germinate a persimmon seed; here special preparations, such as Zircon, Ecopin, Ecosil, Novosil, will help us. Also for these purposes, you can use aloe juice, it is diluted with warm water (1 teaspoon. L. Per 100 ml of water).
Tip - if you want the seed to “wake up” as soon as possible, carefully treat its sides with sandpaper or slightly scratch them with the tip of the needle. Next, take a clean gauze or wide bandage, generously moisten with the resulting solution, put the persimmon seeds between the layers of fabric and put everything in a plastic bag.
In order for the persimmon seed to sprout, the package should be reliably tied, but at the same time it must remain as if inflated, with air inside. Now it can be sent to the refrigerator for about a couple of months. In the compartment where the seeds will be stored, should be approximately +5 .. + 7 ° С. If the arc processing method, the opposite of cold - heat, approximately +35 .. + 40 ° C. For this, a bag of seed is placed closer to the battery, where the sprouts will hatch after 7 or 10 days. Periodically inspect the contents of the bag to prevent drying or moldiness of the beans.
How to grow persimmon from a stone?
If you are not satisfied with long ceremonies with preliminary germination, you can immediately plant the seeds in a bowl with peat and clean river sand (1: 1 ratio). Just before that, be sure to soak them a couple of days in a solution of potassium permanganate. The more seeds you plant, the easier it will be to choose the most powerful and viable plant.
If you are thinking about which side to plant a persimmon seed, then it is better to lay it horizontally in the ground. There are no special rules here, but experienced gardeners recommend doing this process this way.
If you place it vertically, then under comfortable conditions, I think it will also sprout, maybe a little later. You can also immediately take disposable plastic cups, make drainage holes in the bottom, fill them with slightly moist fertile soil.
Remember that planting persimmon with a bone implies the presence of the “right” substrate - it should be light, well aerated. It is optimal to mix two parts of leafy soil, plus one peat and one sand each. Or you can take a walk to the nearest flower shop and buy a ready-made mix for fruit trees. It already includes various "long-playing" fertilizers, perlite, vermiculite, coconut fibers, coal, wood bark and other useful components.
Persimmon stone should be buried no more than 1.5-2 cm, after which the pot or plastic tray should be covered with polyethylene (or glass), put closer to the heating battery. Do not forget to regularly raise the protective coating, ventilate and water the soil. The first shoots should be expected in about 15-20 days.
Persimmon from the stone, photo:
If you are planting seeds that have already been germinated (those that were previously placed in the bag), then the process of planting them is no different from the one described above. The only thing is that everything should be done very carefully so as not to break off the sprouts. When the shoots appear in the pot, the plastic film can be removed. It often happens that the brown shell of the seed remains at the end of the sprout.
The bone shell on the sprouts, photo:
She can sit quite firmly, blocking the top of the plant like a shell with wings. In this case, the sprout needs to be helped, otherwise it may die. Take a small knife or scissors, or even some manicure tool and try to carefully remove the bone. If it does not lend itself, then irrigate this place with warm water from a spray bottle, cover the pot with plastic wrap and leave it overnight (preferably closer to heat). In the morning it can be easily removed.
Persimmon at home from seed, how to care
In short, the main care for persimmon from the seed at the beginning of cultivation is the timely transplantation of a plant from a small capacity to a large one. If you initially planted seeds in a common container, and your seedlings have already reached about 10 cm in height and she has a couple of leaves, it can be planted in separate pots.
Transplanting is done carefully, with an earthen lump at the roots. Make sure that the soil occupies the entire pot, so it should not be very large. At first, the sprout can be covered with a glass jar, but periodically clean it, ventilate and irrigate the plant - this is how the seedling adapts to the external environment.
After a couple of months, the young persimmon from the bone will reach 35-40 cm in height, it will need to be transplanted again into a more voluminous pot, again, by the method of transhipment. Do not forget that this plant is a representative of the tropical culture, loves light, heat, moist soil, but not waterlogging (the roots can rot). Persimmon seedlings grow rapidly, their roots also develop very actively, so at first they will need frequent transplantation in large containers.
Further transplants are made once every three or four years, but the topsoil (6-8 cm) must be changed every year.
Young persimmon, photo:
Persimmon at home from a stone - care tips:
- For seedlings, you should choose a place with good lighting, but not in direct sunlight, otherwise tender leaves may burn out.
- It is not necessary, but very desirable to provide plants with additional illumination with artificial lamps in the evening and in the morning (at least 2 hours).
- Make sure that the soil does not dry out, but also is not oversaturated with moisture. Do not forget about the presence of a drainage layer at the bottom of the pots!
- The leaves of young (and adult too) persimmons are very fond of irrigation with warm water.
- Protect persimmons from drafts.
- Transshipment is done in the spring. Before plants reach the age of five, this procedure must be performed annually. After persimmon is 5 years old, transplantation can be done once every 2 or 3 years.
- Young livestock should be fertilized with organic and complex mineral fertilizing, once every 2 months.
- With the onset of the warm season, persimmon containers can be brought to the balcony or to the street (if you have a private house or a summer residence). When the first cooling comes, the plants should be brought into the room.
- With the advent of winter, it is better to move the pots to a cooler room, not higher than +7 .. + 10 ° C (the resting period of the plant).
In autumn and winter, it is important to prevent the drying of the soil and the stem, you can cover the ground with a layer of wood sawdust or coconut flakes (mulch), periodically moisten it. In order to avoid burns in spring and summer, young plants should be gradually accustomed to sunlight, at first shade and take out for a short while on the street.
What will grow out of a persimmon seed?
In any case, you will get a lively decoration of the interior, since the glossy leaves of this culture are very decorative. At first they have a greenish-yellow hue, and as they grow older they turn into a saturated dark green color. With the advent of autumn, the foliage becomes bright yellow, orange or reddish. Such a tree certainly will not be ignored, it will attract its eyes.
At home, persimmon from the seed grows to about a half meter height. From the first years of life, the crown of the tree must be formed by pruning the branches. This procedure not only helps to achieve a harmonious shape (often spherical), but also adjusts the size of the plant. The stem is usually pinched when the persimmon reaches about 40-50 cm. When the shoots are gaining strength, they begin to branch, 2 or 3 of the most developed ones are selected, cut at around 30-40 cm. The branches of the second and third order are cut by the same method. This procedure is carried out in early spring or late autumn.
If all agrotechnical rules have been taken into account, then after about 6-8 years, persimmon from the seed can bear fruit. To bring this time closer, the tree should be planted in the first year of his life. Here it is necessary to take into account an important nuance - the graft should be taken from already fruiting persimmons, and this is not an easy task.
You can go the other way - when spring comes, transplant an already mature tree into the open ground. The chosen place should be illuminated, as far as possible protected from strong winds. Further, it will be necessary to take care of it: regularly water it, during the growing season, fertilize it with mineral additives with a low nitrogen content (twice a month).
To bloom and begin to bear fruit persimmons, growing from seed at home will require a lot of effort and time from you. But in any case, your efforts will not be in vain - a beautiful exotic tree will be appropriate to look everywhere and revive the interior with its presence.