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American Persimmon

Scientific name: Diospyros virginiana

Also called common persimmon, eastern persimmon.

Sweet orange fruit after frost, blocky alligator bark and a tree that grows nearly anywhere.

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Saplings ship bare-root, usually 12 to 18 inches tall, in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated here with the price, once available.

We grow it as saplings and seed. One email when it is listed with prices, and nothing else. Or ask, and we reply with what is ready now. Live plants ship February to May.

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EdibleWildlife valueHoney treeFall colorDrought tolerantWinter interestErosion control

Type: Medium tree
Mature height: 35–60 ft
USDA zones: 4–9
Growth rate: Slow
Flowers: May to June
Fruit: Persimmons, September to November
First crop: 4 to 9 years (heaviest crops at 25 to 50)
Mature spread: 35 ft
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Dry, Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Sandy barrens, floodplain forests, old fields and edges
Native range: 27 states and the District of Columbia, north to New York, south to Florida and west to Nebraska
List all 28
Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia
Also recorded, not native, in California, Massachusetts and Utah. See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Persimmon is a pioneer of old fields and fencerows, tough enough for drought, clay and flooding alike. Its small bell flowers are a good nectar source, and the fruit, sweet as dates once fully ripe, feeds everything from deer to opossums. Northern-sourced seed ripens fruit in short seasons. Left on the bare branches after leaf fall, the fruit shows well in winter, and the deep taproot helps check erosion. Good for a home orchard row or a deer plot on ground too poor for apples.

Size, growth and what to expect

American persimmon starts slowly, with seedlings about 8 inches tall after their first year over a strong taproot, and its growth stays generally slow. Our growth estimator models the tree at about a foot a year in youth, its figure for a slow grower. In a yard expect 35 to 60 feet, though trees in the best habitats may reach 70 to 80 feet. Trees typically live about 80 years, and some reach 150.

Seed-grown trees bear in 4 to 9 years, the heaviest crops come between 25 and 50 years, and good crops come every second year. Only the female trees fruit. The fruit is a round berry three quarters of an inch to 2 inches across, yellow to orange or dark red, ripening from September to November. Songbirds, raccoons, opossums, deer and wild turkeys eat it. The name persimmon comes from putchamin, an Algonquian word.

It grows wild from southern Connecticut to southern Florida, west through central Pennsylvania, southern Ohio and central Illinois to Iowa, and south through Kansas and Oklahoma into Texas.

How to grow American Persimmon

American persimmon takes almost any site: dry clay, sandy fields, bottomland that floods in spring. Full sun gives the best fruit, though it tolerates light shade. It grows tall with a narrow crown, so allow 20 feet from buildings and 15 to 20 feet between trees.

Persimmon has a long taproot and dislikes being moved, so plant it small and plant it once. Plant dormant bare-root saplings in spring; dig a deep, narrow hole for the taproot, set the root flare at grade, and backfill with the soil you removed. Mulch a ring three inches deep, off the trunk. Seed can be sown in fall an inch deep in a screened bed.

Water weekly through the first summer. Persimmon leafs out late, often into June, so do not give up on a sapling that looks dead in May. Deer browse young trees, so use a tube or cage for two or three years. No pruning is needed.

Most trees are male or female, so plant several seedlings for fruit. Seedlings begin bearing after about six years. Roots sucker when cut, and ripe fruit drops, so keep it away from patios.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

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