I did a side by side taste test of the following persimmons
They are arranged left to right in the following photos
H-118,
Elmo(A118)
H63a
Nikita’s gift
Notes
Elmo A118 - sweet, nice american flavor, stringy, least sweet of all the varieties tasted.
H63a - very sweet, Nice American Flavor but muted compared to H118, very smooth/not all stringy.
H-118 - Strong American flavor, Easily the strongest of the lot. Very sweet. my favorite today.
Nikita’s gift. – Hint of American flavor but compared to the others - practically zero. the sweetest persimmon today.
In this taste test H-118 was #1, Nikita’s gift was a close #2, H63a was #3.
I just measured the brix values of the fruit and they surprised me.
Elmo - 18
H63a - 20
Nikita’s gift - 22
H-118 24.
I thought NG was sweetest but it turns out that H-118 was actually a bit sweeter.
NG and H-118 are almost tied. I really liked NG a lot on a second tasting. NG was bird pecked and usually sweetens up even more by early November. If you can grow NG without the fruit dropping – like in the western part of the country, it may be one of the best. H-118 is my favorite American persimmon.
Thought you were waiting to get MB to do this. Have to admit that H63a is a little disappointing. I grafted it this year with high hopes. Nikitas Gift is a dropper here. Your pic is the closest I’ve come to tasting one, but it does look good.
MB refuses to drop. When it eventually drops, I’ll be able to compare it with Nikita’s gift and H63a but I won’t have h118.
The same folk that ranked h63a highly also rank Prok high. Others call Prok “bland”.
I prefer a strong persimmon flavor and will probably also like Meader and Early Golden.
I have Meader and some of the other classics. Personally I think the classic varieties are tasting the best of what I’ve tasted. Also, I agree. The more hardcore the american persimmon flavor the better.
I have to believe that there are multiple cultivars labeled “Prok.” I have been able (just now) to ripen sweet non-astringent H63A and Dollywood fruits without letting them over-ripen – dropping from the tree or turning to absolute goo – but I’ve never been able to accomplish the same with Prok. I can’t believe that my Prok is the variety that some people rave about. I now suspect that my Prok was mislabeled. If so, then some other peoples’ Proks are mislabeled too.
Stopped by Claypool on the way back from St Louis yesterday. It was raining so we didn’t last long. The fruit suffered the consequences of being in a hurry, nobody wants to see pictures of smashed fruit.
Here is pulp of
C-5, D-128 “Dollywood”
F-128, C-60”Golden Supreme”
This is also the order of my preference in taste. All quality fruit, top 2 have a much thinner pulp than the bottom 2.
The fruit sizes shown aren’t fully representative. H63a is usually larger than in the photograph and approximately the same size as H-118. H-118 seems about average and is representative.
I wish I was able to show Morris Burton. It is even smaller than the H63a I have in the photo.
I’ve got Nikita’s Gift in my front yard. The leaves have a lot of color now, but the fruit is still very hard. Leaving it on. A very good-looking tree, and I value how it is self-fertile.
@ramv – In the past, some people have talked about Morris Burton as an American that loses astringency so early that it can be eaten somewhat firm. In your experience, how does it compare to other Americans?
