Demonstration by Bill Castellon – Princess Persimmon

On June 25, 2019, Bill Castellon performed a demonstration on a Princess Persimmon. Bill brought to the monthly meeting and demonstration several personal specimen bonsai of the Princess Persimmon. He also brought several Princess Persimmon trees to work on as demo trees and to be raffled off at the conclusion of his demo. Bill favored the Princess Persimmon for its tiny bright orange to red fruit, small diamond shape leaves and ease of propagation. Bill said the demo species are not readily available nor inexpensive. He said that the species in California were mostly from a group of 2,000 plants imported years ago by Carl Young of Lodi, California.

Princess Persimmon (Diospyros rhombifolia) is dioecious, that is separate male and female plants are required to produce fruit. It is a deciduous tree, originally from China and secondary Japan. It is popular for bonsai due the size of the tree and small fruit.

Bill described his experience and success with propagation of the species by root cuttings. He said root cuttings will produce or replicate that of the parent tree. This is not so with the seeds which can produce variations in the fruit.

The fruit ripen at varying times and so it can be difficult to prepare for a display. The fruit forms on the new growth each year. Pruning can be hard after the fruiting is over. The tree grows quickly. Bill applies fertilizer on a regular basis. He uses Romeo products out of Half Moon Bay, California. He uses the general purpose 15-30-15 fertilizer. Romeo products can be found at a number of retail stores and nurseries in the San Francisco/Bay Area. He feeds fertilizer all summer.

Bill used a bonsai soil mix of Akadama, lava rock and perlite or pumice. His preferred portions are 60% Akadama, 30% lava rock and 10% perlite.

Pests and diseases: Bill recommended three doses of a fungicide for the winter months.

Bill started his demo on the largest of three trees. First, he eliminated one side of a bar branch. He used a sharp knife to clean the wound, a common task for deciduous trees. Cut paste applied over the cleaned wound. He then removed any dead branches and unwanted branches. Aluminum wire was used to wire various branches. The branches can be brittle and so wiring must be carefully wrapped around the branches using both hands; left hand to guide the wire in place and right hand for wrapping the wire around the branch. That is if you are right handed, of course.

Bill described the technique for creating ramification in deciduous trees by allowing some branches to grow outward as long as needed to gain the strength and thickness desired, and then cut back to the secondary branches. Bill kept the demo tree tall and slender with slight movements in the wired branches.

Watering: Bill said he will allow the tree to be on the dry side before watering. Do not let the tree dry out completely.

As with many of the deciduous bonsai, morning sun and afternoon shade seems to work best.

Bill offered the demo female tree with a companion male tree as one of the evening’s raffle prizes. Another female semi-cascade tree was also offered for raffle.

Bill’s Princess Persimmon at GSBF Convention Exhibit 2018
Bill’s Princess Persimmon at Demo June 25, 2019

Demo Princess Persimmon tree.

2 thoughts on “Demonstration by Bill Castellon – Princess Persimmon”

  1. Would you know where I could purchase Princess Persimmons starter plants (both male and female)? I appreciate any lead you may provide. I like to get some for a research project. Seeds are readily available but I can’t find the live plants—many thanks for considering my request.
    Regards,

    Mohsen

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *