PlantFiles: Date Plum
Diospyros lotus

A deciduous tree from China and Asia Minor, it bears a fruit ½-¾" across, yellow becoming purple black. The flesh is firm sweet and date like. In the Orient and California, it is much used as grafting rootstock for kaki.
Growing to 9m by 6m at a medium rate.
It is hardy to zone 5 and is frost tender. It is in flower in July, and the seeds ripen from October to November. The flowers are dioecious (individual flowers are either male or female, but only one sex is to be found on any one plant so both male and female plants must be grown if seed is required).

The plant is not self-fertile. Seed - best sown in a cold frame as soon as it is ripe. Stored seed requires a period of cold-stratification and should be sown as early in the year as possible. It usually germinates in 1 - 6 months at 15°c. Pot up the young seedlings as soon as they are large enough to handle into fairly deep pots and plant them out into their permanent positions in early summer. Give them some protection from winter cold for their first year or two outdoors. Cuttings of half-ripe wood, July/August in a frame. Layering in spring.