How readily do Asian persimmons cross-pollinate with the American persimmon?

I planted one Japanese Persimmon, Diospyros kaki, Fuyu cultivar. I intentionally planted only one because I read that if it is by itself, it will produce seedless fruit. We have many American persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) on and around our property. So here's my question - can the American persimmon cross pollinate Japanese persimmon? If so, I'll have seeds anyway in which case I'll go ahead and plant a few more Japanese persimmons. But if not, I'll stick with one tree and have seedless fruit. Anybody know?

Apparently the Asian Persimmon is mostly self-fertile but bears better with another tree to pollinate it. I can't find any reference to American Persimmons being able to pollinate Asian Persimmons, I don't think they are related closely enough. We have tons of Texas Persimmons on our place and I want to plant Asian Persimmons, but I don't think they will cross pollinate.....

Not being a botanist, I don't know for sure, but I suspect the separate species will not cross pollinate....

I know of at least one D. kaki x virginiana hybrid cultivar that is sold commercially: Nikita's Gift. there may also be others. leads me to believe that the two species will cross, though I have no idea how readily.

Well there you go, they will cross pollinate!

there have been a number of stories over the years in the NAFEX publications from folks seeking cold hardy asian-american persimmon hybrids. So yes, it is technically feasible, but I don't think it is a common occurence. It will be interesting to see if you get seeds in your Fuyu fruit.

If nothing else, you can use the american persimmon seedlings for rootstock...

Thanks everybody for the feedback. I'll report back when we start harvesting fruit, probably next year.

The breeders who made the AmericanXAsian crosses went to great lengths to get that to work. I can't remember which one was the pollen source, but let's just say it was American. They took some Asian pollen and made it inviable, either by heat treatment or irradiation. They mixed this with American pollen, and applied it to the stigma of an Asian persimmon flower. The idea is that the inviable pollen was recognized by the stigma, which then became receptive, allowing the living American pollen to send its pollen tube in to fertilize the ovule.

I don't think there's any realistic chance that your Asian persimmon will be pollinized by your American persimmon.

Alex

One other thing: Many of the Asian persimmon cultivars make only female flowers, so if you only plant those, you will still get seedless fruit from all your Asian persimmon trees.