I was curious as to what yall considered to be the best variety of persimmon tree. Japanese or common and what are the pros and cons for each variety. Thanks for any information.

i could not tell a Japanese persimmon from the other kind. i do know that on one of our places we have at least two kinds. Most have small fruit like the trees in the photo. There is another tree in a gully that is 30 feet tall and has fruit the size of tennis balls. The trees in this little grove were fertilized this spring

the tree in the above pic with the small fruit is great...when they drop, the deer all
over them. great place to bump into a OLD deer with bad tooferzz...he will like that
soft sweet flesh. in delaware...i hunted around those trees all the time. i think some
years were better than others for the amount of yield per tree...check on that.

Those are wild persimmons....I have them on my place and also Crab Apples....Like Todd said, deer really like them.

how well do they grow in the north?

It depends on how far 'north'...usually not that well though.

north being michigan

Common persimmon will be your best bet. The deer do not like the fruit until after the first frost. You can find out why if you would like, prior to the first frost they are incredibly bitter, but once it freezes, they get sweet! Most wild trees will yield more fruit one year and then less the next, that is because it has expended a lot of its enegry on the year it produced lots of fruit...so you are probably wondering how apple orchard trees produce lots of fruit each year...they spray it with a certain chemical or they can manually literally knock off roughly 75% of the fruit, so the tree stops feeding them, and has enough energy and food to produce a healthy crop the following year.

The 30ft. persimmon you said that is not bearing any fruit, could be because there are no other persimmons near by to pollinate it...

"The 30ft. persimmon you said that is not bearing any fruit, could be because there are no other persimmons near by to pollinate it..."

Went to that tree last week It isloaded this year. They are nearly as big as baseballs.

Common pesimmon, or Diospyros virginiana, has fruit that is about 1-1,1/2 inches long, and is yellow to pale orange in color. its hardy in zones 4 to 9.
japanese persimmon is 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Best in zones 7,8,9. So forget Michigan for this one.

You should fertilize them annually in the fall.