my persimmon has no seeds

I was eating a persimmon today, avoiding the inside so I wouldn't eat one of their massive seeds. Then I got all the way around and.. there was no seed.

Okay I know this isn't unheard of. I've had seedless watermelon and probably seedless grapes. But seriously, how do they do this? How is a plant made without the seed? (Go into as much biological detail as you'd like)

A seed is essentially the baby of a plant and the fruit is just the housing for the seed. The flesh part of the fruit is formed from a plant part called the ovary but it's more similar to the uterus in a human. Most of the time, the fruit develops and matures when an ovule (egg) is fertilized by pollen (sperm) to produce a seed. But a fruit can often develop even if the egg inside it has not been fertilized (unlike in humans). So the flower from which your persimmon originated was probably not pollinated and therefore produced no seed.

To further complicate things, persimmons have male flowers (which make only pollen) and female flowers (which make only eggs) and they are located on separate plants (just as we humans are either male or female).

Most other plants have either both types of flowers on one plant (Oak trees are the best example I can think of for this type. In spring, the little stringy catkins that fall from the tree are the male flowers, while the female flowers stay attached to the branch to form the acorns) or both flower parts on every flower (Oriental Lilies are a very visible example of this type of flower. The large brown anthers that drop pollen everyewhere and make a mess are the boy parts and the tall, pollenless part at the center of the flower is the girl part)

This site has a few more interesting points: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/botany/flower2.html

If you want the fruit to have seed you have to have another tree. It takes 2 to tango LOL

thanks for that information. I didn't realize fruit could grow without being pollinated.

Yeah I planted seed this fall and when I bought them I was told you have to have at least 2 trees. They will produce fruit but will be sterile unless you have 2 then they produce seed and that way you know you can plant the other seeds and get another tree.

Do you want seeds?

I put out 4 seeds this year and I sure hope the make me some trees. I want persimmons to put away for the winter when they get old enough to produce.

I have a persimmon tree but its lowest branched are 30 ft up. Also the fruit when it falls is small, seedy and not astringant.
I'm planning on planting more but I'm going to use a named cultivar(s) to assure good fruit.

My non astringent hybrids produce huge quantities of seedless fruit, the variety you were eating may have come from the seedless kind.They reproduce these hybrids by grafting them onto normal seedlings. The non astringent types are well worth buying as you can eat them just like an apple or wait until they soften.

Chrissy, What's the name of your persimmon?

Also I've been assuming everybody is talking about American persimmons not Asian persimmons. The large tree I have is a native perssimon. They grow wild here.

The ones I was talking about are the ones that grow wild and you have to wait for them to ripen after the first frost normally b4 they are edibile. I love persimmon pudding !!!!!

Flowerfantasy,

That's what I have the American persimmon the scientific name is Diospyros virginiana. I too love the fruit from them. There is a another kind the oriental persimmon, scientific name Diospyros kaki that is more widely commercially grown. I prefer the flavor of the American persimmon. But among the American persimmons there are cultivars that produce tastier, larger, less seedy fruit. here's a link to a nursery that has a good selection.
http://www.nolinnursery.com/Persimon.htm

Here is a link as to the flavour ...I would not know because I don't enjoy them at all but love the stunning trees. My husband (born in Italy where people love them ) tells me these trees produce delicious fruit. For those pushed for space the hybrids tend to be a much smaller tree but gives you a huge amount of fruit at a big size, as soon as the second year of planting.If you have a fruit without seed from one that should ...it means that for what ever reason the seeds aborted.By the way you can eat them hard but the intense rich flavour is better when tree ripened to a soft texture.
http://www.justfruitsandexotics.com/Persimmons.htm

This message was edited Dec 22, 2008 4:06 AM

I think I will stick to my plain old wild type persimmon LOL . Those pictures I looked at on the link just don't look like what I know as a persimmon LOL. I have seen those great big things in the grocery stores and I have to laugh, and I think to myself well it sure wouldn't take many of ones that size to make a persimmon pudding !!!

Chrissy, Those are Asian persimmons. Taste varies from person to person but I way prefer the taste of American persimmons. If you've never tasted one I hope one day you get the chance. They taste like heaven, when they are fully ripe.
Flowerfantasy I sure wish I had some of your persimmon pudding right now:-)

This message was edited Dec 21, 2008 6:45 PM

Well to be honest with you I wish I had some of it too. What few trees we do have didn't produce much this year, so I didn't even get to make one this year. the trees here are down on the in-laws property and so I got some seed from some that were laying on the ground and let them dry some b4 I planted them so I am hoping to have some here on our property so I won't have to go begging. And the trees down there are getting old so I don't know how much longer they will bear fruit. If I would have known just what a young tree looked like I would have gotten one already growing, but I didn't so have to do it the hard way and hope some of them germinate and grow.

Flower, You live in an area of the country that is supposed to be prime for growing persimmons. Boy if I were you I would buy trees instead. Persimmons are so slow growing and slow to start producing fruit. The trees aren't that expensive and you could start years ahead. Check out this site http://www.persimmonpudding.com/

Yeah I know they aren't expensive but until I had decided to try growing from seed did I find a site that had them and then it was to cold here to get a few and get them in the ground. From what I have read up about them they are slow growing but they will produce with in 2 or 3 years after they come up, but I really don't know for sure, only what I read. That site was rather interesting.
We are a prime area for them. just about any place you go you can find the trees. I may do some studying of the young trees as to what they look like and see if I can find one on the property here and just transplant it or a couple.

if you do transplant one take care because they have really long taproots.