There is much wisdom and thrift in growing American Persimmon from seed. The American Persimmon is still semiwild and the vast majority of trees grown from seed collected from excellent trees of known parentage will produce fruit that is quite satisfactory for home or small scale commercial use. Just any old seed from unknown trees is not advised as the fruit can be extremely variable and sometimes unacceptable. The main advantage of expensive grafted trees is that they will all be female whereas seed grown trees some, perhaps even half, will be male and bear no fruit. One needs a male tree to pollinate the female fruit-bearing trees to guarantee fruit and excess males can be removed.
There are many ways of growing persimmon trees from seed but a few basics must be considered.
1 The seed is not ripe when the fruit falls or is picked and must be after ripened otherwise know as stratified. This is a process of storing the seed with full moisture content at a temperature of 34-40 F for 2-6 months simulating winter’s passage. During this time they need oxygen and so should not be in a tightly sealed container or freezer bag as they will consume all available oxygen and then fail to stratify. The addition of a very slightly damp horticultural vermiculite or other mostly sterile media will prevent drying. They must not be allowed to dry out and so the media must be kept slightly damp to provide 100% humidity in the container. As the air very slowly exchanges through a slightly loose lid or tiny holes in a bag some moisture will be lost and very slowly the media could dry. It must never be allowed to dry completely. The seed must be fully hydrated in order to stratify properly. If the seed dry they will show a wrinkled surface and should be fully rehydrated prior to germination. They can have lost up to 20% of their weight by drying and it will require 7 days of contact with wet media or soaking in water to regain full moisture if dried to 20% weight loss. Change water daily. They rehydrate somewhat faster at room temperature but still require days not hours.
2 The seed will not sprout well at a constant temperature. When the seed are in outdoor conditions in the soil as the sun warms and shines in the spring the soil in the top few inches is warmed greatly during the day on sunny spring days then cools to about 60 F at night, a regular cycle of heating to 80F then cooling to 60F. This triggers the seed to grow and in about 10 days the root will appear. Without this regular warm/cool cycle the seed will not germinate. If the seed was stored over winter properly all the seed that ever will sprout, will germinate rapidly. The remainder of the seed will not germinate. Many seed lots can germinate at 90% or more but some especially hybrids may only achieve 50% even under best conditions. Some seeds can germinate without stratification but the yield will be lower than with stratification and the yield varies greatly with cultivar.
If one is blessed with abundant seed they can just plant the seed in the fall covered with about 1 1/2 -2 inches of soil and let nature take its course. This is easy and usually satisfactory. Some protection from squirrels might be needed because they have an extremely sensitive sense of smell and can find acorns, nuts, and seeds quite easily even buried in several inches of soil. They don’t remember where they buried nuts, they simply sniff them out when hungry and they can sniff out what you buried also. in addition, raccoons are extremely interested in any disturbed soil and will dig in it to find whatever might be buried there.