today has included very slow and painstaking persimmon surgery

[kaberett]

WHEREAS the persimmon did actually, astonishingly, hatch; and its stalk and root seem(ed when last I looked) to be doing pretty well; AND its seedling leaves have not managed to emerge from the seed casing*; and it is likely to die if it fails to Venture Forth--

-- THEREFORE (pretty sure I've got this terminology hideously muddled and alas this is insufficiently an area of special interest for me to go checking) I have spent today carefully soaking the seed casing in a tiny bit more water; putting a tiny pseudo-cloche over the whole thing for high humidity; and occasionally sitting down with the fancy tweezers and a small pair of scissors to very gently and extremely gradually, with lots of careful bracing, remove a tiny bit of casing at a time.

All That I Am wants to squish and twist the thing off but I know that doesn't work even with seeds that are less... robust... than this, so: an absolutely tiny bit of progress at a time, and then More Water and leaving it alone for at least an hour, because the last thing I want to do here is rush and get careless. And maybe-just-maybe if I keep going carefully I'll manage to get it to a point where the plant can do the rest itself, which would definitely be preferable.

(I am targetting the seam along the edge of the casing, for hopefully maximum effect with minimum risk. I am also idly thinking about clonal propagation of apples.)

* about which I am trying not to feel Guilty or Inept, because yeah I left it to germinate on a piece of kitchen towel in a nice damp environment because for sound statistical reasons I did not expect it to actually work and wanted to be able to provide myself with visual evidence that it hadn't

Comments

[sfred]

<3

[lunabee34]

It sounds like you are being extremely gentle and kind to Persimmon, so no guilt needed.

[archangelbeth]

(good luck!)

[ewt]

I would like to get into grafting Nice Fruits onto the ornamental apples, pears etc that the council tends to use as street trees, but I believe I have missed the window for this year.

Specialised grafting secateur thingies are a thing. Can't remember the name.

[lokifan]

Good luck!!