Fuyu persimmon trees and a fantastic tree farm!

If you have never eaten a Fuyu persimmon your really missing out. You eat them while they are crisp like a apple! Fuyu are a non astringent persimmon, they are not bitter persimmons like American persimmons are unless they are mushy ripe. They are so sweet they make you think of honey in flavor! Crunchy sweet yumminess! They are usually seedless.  I love these things! They can be grown in a small range of gardening zones to my knowledge. 7-9 seems to be the most suggested, but I did see as far north as zone 6b and as far south as zone 10 in one listing. They are drought tolerant once established which is super for our area! They supposedly do quite well in our heat as well.  They do not require tons of water to make fruit. They are a Japanese persimmon.

I have been wanting to put in some fuyu persimmon trees for a while now. But they are expensive trees here. Every time I would find one (which was rare) it would usually be at a private nursery,  potted in a small container not a big one and it would be 50.00-70.00 dollars.  Ouch. $$$ ..... I couldn't spend that on one tree :O(. That just seemed extreme to me in pricing. So I would leave the tree at the nursery and to be honest when I would be back at that nursery again those trees were usually still there. 

Well  last spring very late spring, I found a wholesale nursery that sold them!  They have a 400 acre farm,  have been in business for a long time here in Texas.  They will let the public buy trees from them too! Woowhoo Sooo yesterday I drove about an hour and a half to the nursery as they had told me last spring when I found them and they were out of Fuyu trees,  that they would have Fuyu trees the week after Thanksgiving to come back. I called them earlier this week and yes they had them. I got four bare root trees.  18.50 a piece. I was thrilled! 

If only I had had my camera with me at the nursery.... I was blown away with what I saw... thousands and thousands of bare root trees different sizes.... This place was not like this last spring when I was there,which was past their prime season, it was late spring so they were about done for the year. Here in Texas you  plant trees late fall, winter and very early spring and have a chance of them surviving the wicked heat we get. Once its past March, its a crap shoot if a tree will make it if you plant them. 

There were trees tied in bundles of 10 every where! They were in raised rows outside buried deep enough to stand up .. there were metal buildings FULL of bundles of trees in saw dust... It was just the coolest thing I have ever seen. It is called Texas Pecan Nursery but they sell many other kinds of trees besides pecans.. 

www.texaspecannursery.com is their web site. You can order online from them!

So the nice lady in the front office had this older, mountain of a man take me to the fuyu trees. We stepped out the back door into a big metal building full of trees... I was so taken back I think I giggled because with what I was seeing I couldn't really get my sentences pulled together for a minute or two... It was just soooooooo cool...trees everywhere!!!!!  Then we went out of that building past two more giant metal buildings with 1000s of trees in them!!!!!.. We came to another building and walked in and there were rows and rows of bundles of ten trees planted in sawdust and then huge piles of sawdust and some guys working on doing more rows... They had all sizes of fuyus from 24" to 8 feet... It was amazing I tell you!! Once I got over the initial shock I was just yattering away to this gentlemen who must have thought I was a bit off in the head as I was just so blown away ... and well ya know I love plants and gardening and I just couldn't believe my eyes.. I wanted to stay there all day LOL...

So I pick out the size I wanted and he cuts open a bundle and pulled me four out of the bundle. They came right up as they were in sawdust... they were bare root trees. He said how are these, I said those look great. I am telling you I was positively giddy with excitement just looking at all the trees there and the whole operation. 

Everyone I came in contact with at this Nusery was soooooooooooooooooo nice. You would have thought I was buying a bazillion trees from them. But I was only buying four trees.  I love businesses that always remember they started out small and grew to what they are and that every single customer is what built them to what they are. Obviously this business remembers this, they didn't need my little four tree purchase I am quite sure, but they not only let the public still buy from them but they treat you so nice. Not at all like your bothering them. When trust me from what I saw they were busy busy busy!

So then we walk back to the front office and the nice mountain of a man bagged up my four trees and the nice office gal checked me out. We get to talking and talking and I find out about what all else they have... I am sooooooooooooooo going back! Both the gals in the front office could  not have been nicer or more helpful!

They sell all kinds of fruit trees, nut trees, grapes, muscadine, blueberries, blackberries, shade trees, well the list is long... I want to get some almond trees and muscadine vines and they had some pear trees that I never see at the regular nursery here. I looked them up and I think they will be great to have. Yes I will be going back.

So that was yesterday... Today I planted my four fuyu! Here they are..I put them in a tub of loose slightly damp not wet just damp compost yesterday afternoon when I got home. I figured that would hold them till today. 

Keeper says mmmm these sticks smell good.. can I have one?

No Keeper, those are not sticks... those are Mommy's new Fuyu Persimmon trees.

I got them all four planted. I tried to do everything I could to insure they will make it!

Which included protecting them from a certain big white dog who LOVES sticks... and yes has been known to pull up a bare root tree thinking its a stick. Ignore the small oak tree you see. It is all but dead. It will be removed. Sadly here in Texas we are dealing with Oak Wilt as are many other parts of the U.S.. Its a Red Oak one of the most susceptible oaks to this incurable disease. We didn't know this when we planted it. Its in the background if you see it.

I put a heavy duty tomato cage over each Fuyu then I wrapped that in fencing wire ... I put hay down and I used compost and mixed it in with the soil I dug out of the hole. I watered each tree really good after I got it planted to get all the air out of the hole and dirt and then added a bit more dirt on top as the dirt settled some from the watering. 

Now just cuz you guys havent seen my goaties in a while

Here is Cubey and Skittles.. Cube is so old we don't know how old she is... We have had her quite a  few years and she wasn't a young goat when we got her. I retired Cubey several years ago.

Sugarcube AKA Cubey AKA The Boss

 Cubey and Skittles best of buds

 Skittles

 Cubey