planting persimmon trees?

[Aviacs]

I've got 23 persimmon trees growing in root-cutter pots and would like to understand the best way to get them through winter?
Chemung county is now about 5b, so marginal but acceptable. Being on a plateau above any major cities (Elmira), we might be one zone colder?
Should it go ahead and plant them?
Or????
(picture is from last month.)

 

[Del_]

You can plant them now or later in the winter while still dormant.

You are going to have to protect them from deer most likely. They will eat them to the ground.

 

[Aviacs]

You can plant them now or later in the winter while still dormant.

You are going to have to protect them from deer most likely. They will eat them to the ground.

Are you saying it is better to plant them when dormant?

Deer are my biggest fear for planting.
Mice and similar are my fear for covering and not planting...

Any suggestions?

 

[ChuckMI]

Meader Persimmon is cold hardy in southeast Michigan. The fruit is small but has persimmon flavor and texture and is sometimes seedless. I would not expect the full-sized oriental persimmons to overwinter in Elmira. My tree is now too big to be bothered by deer, and I don't remember how I protected it when it was small. It sometimes sends up suckers some distance from the main tree, and the deer do not bother those.

 

[Aviacs]

Hmmmm....
Looks like my response got deleted?
These are supposedly diospyros virginiana. (North American, not Euro or Asian)
I had tried to sprout seeds from Central Europe collected over there (Armenia) and none germinated.
Friend sent me 2 dozen collected wild on a birding trip in Delaware.
Went through the same process as before- scarify, keep in fridge, etc, this time 23 of them germinated as seen.

I remember finding a persimmon tree near the fishing pond in MD when i was a kid.
It always seemed somewhat exotic, and the fruit was pretty good if you waited until it got translucent.
Otherwise it was like a mouth full of chalk.

 

[esean]

They'll do better in the ground than exposed to the elements in those pots. If you're not ready to plant them in their permanent locations yet, at least bury the pots in mulch for the winter.

 

[Aviacs]

This where i'm ignorant.
So, what do i do?
Put the pots in a trench in mulch and cover with straw?
or???

Also - there seems to be some suggestion that planting while dormant might be better than, say, in the spring or summer?
In an ideal world when is the best time to plant?
Still considering the deer problem.