Hi, I have 2 questions. I have just filled in our swimming pool and looking to plant fruit trees, is there a dwarf persimmon available in New Zealand. I am also trying to find a dwarf mandarin that is seedless, is the Flying Dwarf seedless. Thank you.

Hi Diane, Satsuma is a good seedless easy-peel mandarin variety. Citrus are grafted on to either seedling grown trifoliata rootstock or dwarf Flying Dragon rootstock, it is the rootstock that dictates whether a variety is dwarf or a standard sized fruit tree. Persimmon are grafted on to one type of rootstock, there two fruit types, astringent (eaten when they are jelly-like) and non-astringent varieties which can be eaten when they are hard, in NZ the main variety grown here is Fuyu, a non astringent variety. They can be grown as an espalier against a wall or trellis, this way the tree will be less space hungry if you don't have the space for a 4m x 3m tree. They can also be grown in a large container which will help restrict the size that the tree will grow. Use a quality potting mix for container grown fruit trees such as Tui Citrus and Fruit Mix, it is a free draining mix as well as containing the right mix of nutrients for healthy fruiting trees. The Tui Team