I’m in the Willamette Valley in Oregon and I’m looking to fill up about a half acre with some non astringent Asian persimmons and would like the to be pretty openly grown. I don’t really care about yield or efficiency since they will mostly be for shade and aesthetics. The ground I’m that spot gets pretty soggy in the winter so I would like something I could harvest before the end of October. Most descriptions of early varieties indicate a smaller tree and I would like something with some decent size ~15+ feet with good spread. Does anyone have experience with Matsumoto Fuyu or Ichi Ki Kei Jiro, would either fit the bill? Any other varieties that might?
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I have three IKKJ, planted in 2015. I’ve got them ~12’ apart. It’s pretty easy with some modest pruning to keep them ~15’ tall and 8-10’ wide.
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I have a 2 year old IKKJiro. Got it from Starks.
On their website they say a mature tree will be 8-10 ft tall and wide.
Mine has gone thru 2 growing seasons and is 7 ft tall now and has several nice branches. I have not pruned it for height yet.
Persimmons grow like crazy here so I dont doubt mine will have to be pruned to keep it 10 ft or less.
TNHunter
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That depends what you mean by ripen. Non-astringent Asian persimmons can be eaten while hard. My fruit is deep orange but still hard in mid October. A few fruit may soften in late Oct. The weather gets cold before most of the fruit soften, so I pick the tree in early November and ripen the fruit inside.
Be ready for an onslaught. It’s not hard to get ~80-100 fruits per tree.
Yeah sorry I meant hard ripe. I like them in between hard and soft. I have a farm stand where I can sell most of the crop, mid to late October is very busy, but business slows down in November. Wouldn’t bother me if wildlife ate a lot of the crop as well.
As I said, I planted mine in 2015. I didn’t get a crop until 2020 – so the 6th year. There were huge crops in 2021 and 2022, but then a very damaging cold snap in Feb 2023. I was lucky to have the trees survive and regrow in 2023. There was a very small crop in 2024 but I’m hoping for a big crop again in 2025.
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We have a Giant Fuyu Persimmon tree. It’s probably 25-30 years old. It’s ~25’ in diameter. In California, it’s ready to pick around End of October to Thanksgiving. Perfect for holiday baking. You can eat them firm like an apple, which many people enjoy. Or you can wait until they are super mushy and basically drink them at that point. I have too many on my one tree that I sell some. In total this year, I had ~1200 persimmons on one tree. It’s a lot of work during that time, but I purée and freeze some for the following months. We love it.
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the IKKJ is smaller tree (8-10ft) than matsumoto (10-12ft). you can also try hana fuyu (8-10ft) and tam kam (10-12ft) the fruit size is little larger than the first two they all ripen similar time.
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