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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-428
Date Plum
Diospyros lotus
Date plum fruit turns blue-black and cherry-sized, and like its persimmon relatives it is harsh and astringent until nearly overripe, at which point it turns rich and sweet - dried, it takes on a date-like flavour, which is where the name comes from. Its seedlings are the standard rootstock used for grafting Japanese persimmon. The tree throws no root suckers, unlike American persimmon, so it spreads only by animal-carried seed, and its long taproot makes transplanting difficult once it is past the seedling stage.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 7–9
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moist
Vertical layer
Canopy- Soil pH
- Not yet recorded
- Plant type
- Deciduous Tree
- Mature height
- 29 ft
- Mature spread
- 20 ft
- Plant spacing
- 20–30 ft
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
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American Chestnut
Castanea dentata
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American Elm
Ulmus americana
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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