Grafting persimmons - cleft or bark graft?

[Brian]

I'm planning on some gender reassignment surgery from some persimmons this spring, after leaf out. The QDMA article on persimmon grafting recommended bark grafting - I've never tried bark grafting and to be honest, I'm a little intimidated by it - but I've done cleft grafting before, so I'm more confident in my ability to 'make it work.'

For those of you have tried it, is there any reason an old-school cleft graft wouldn't work with persimmons? Is there any real advantage to one grafting technique over the other.

 

[Native Hunter]

I've done both and both work fine. I prefer bark grafting when topworking the bigger trees and cleft for the smaller ones.

 

[DrDirtNap]

As Native has said bark grafting works great when the rootstock tree is much bigger in diameter then your scion.
I had some persimmon rootstock growing in pots that I did some whip and tongue grafts since the rootstock and scions where the same diameter. My success rate with persimmons is real high with bark grafting.


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[Lucky_P]

First ones I grafted, 25+ years ago, before someone told me they were 'hard to do', were just a simple whip graft - got 100% takes.
Anymore, I just do a simple bark graft, 'cause I'm usually using a smaller scion on a larger rootstock.

Most important thing about grafting persimmons is aftercare - you have to RELIGIOUSLY rub off rootstock shoots below the graft - at least once or twice a week, for the entire first growing season. Persimmon will absolutely do its best to channel resources into pushing growth of rootstock shoots at the expense of the scion. If you don't do the follow-up, it'll all be for nought.