I understand Garretson was bred out of Early Golden. It seems that as a rule, a variety only survives in commerce if it is superior in some way from what it was bred from. I keep reading that Early Golden consistently won taste tests at Wye, and nothing similar is reported about Garretson. What does Garretson offer that keeps it on folks’ radars? Is it superior to Early Golden in any way?
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I started looking at Early Golden and it seemed it was a good start to American Persimmons. Many people recommend Prok persimmon for American.
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I don’t have Early Golden, but I believe it’s downfall was seeds. Kind of like Meader. Meader I do have and is good, but medium size with a couple seeds. EG has tons of offspring.
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I’ve purchased a grafted ‘Garretson’ from Stark’s to set out this Spring in my cool 5A climate.
Last Summer I also grafted a scion from ‘Early Golden’ sourced from England’s Nursery. The variety was originally introduced by Emil Adelbert Riehl (1837-1925) of Alton, IL and despite the name, may be closer to mid-season than super early according to what I’ve read. The scion did take, but I’m not sure yet whether it has survived the Winter. I’m actually more excited about the ‘Garretson’ as my problem is having enough heat to ripen the fruit.
‘Garretson’ is believed to be a seedling of ‘EG’, but a clear history of the variety is hard for me to find. What little I’ve been able to find indicates that it was introduced by a Joel Vale Garretson (1833-1912) of Adams Co., PA. and distributed further by J. F. Jones Nursery. The first published mention of the variety seems to come from the end of the 19th Century. I’m hoping anyone reading this who knows more about its origin will post it here.
As far as some virtues of ‘Garretson’ :
– Prof. J.C. McDaniel (1912-1982) describes it as “one of the choicest of American persimmons hardy to Zone 5” and "matures slightly ahead of ‘EG’, with a slightly smaller but more delicately textured fruit, of a flavor that generally is rated superior to that of ‘EG’.
– Lon J. Rombough (1949-2012) wrote, "While Garretson will produce male flowers fairly often, Killen can go several years without producing any.” (I find this an interesting trait.)
– Prof. George L. Slate (1899-1976) at Geneva, NY reported it as doing well there in a climate very close to mine.
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That’s interesting info about Garretson. I’ve always been surprised about the dearth of history about its origins considering how popular it has been and still is. The short timeline between the discovery and release of EG through the Riehl nursery (~1880s from what I’ve read) and the reported introduction of Garretson is interesting. Will be nice if we ever get sequences of the two.
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I have grown both Garrettson and Early Golden for many years. I like Early GOlden. I simply find Garrettson to be fantastic. It is one of my favorite fruits overall. Even better, since we’ve been having lots more heat recently, some persimmons like H-118 Prairie, haven’t produced any fruit in such heat.
John S
PDX OR
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My H-118 doesn’t seem to like really hot summers either. Of the ones I have that seem to thrive in heat are Ruby, Golden Supreme and Miller.
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I like Ruby. It needs more heat to ripen than many others. I’m going to try to grow H-118 in a more shady part of the yard to see how it responds.
John S
PDX OR
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In my book “Uncommon Fruits…” I wrote “About 1880, an early-ripening, flavorful, small-seeded American persimmon was discovered on a farm in Alton, Illinois.” I’m in the colder part of zone 5, recently rebranded as zone 6; Early Golden will not ripen here. I wonder how its flavor compares with Szukis and Mohler. I can’t imagine a better-tasting persimmon than either of these – and they reliably ripen here.
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i will be getting Early Golden and Elmo in august from Starkbros, i have high hopes that they will be great choices, life is short and making the right choice is important in all what we do. I am considering Garrettson as well, but have not pulled the trigger yet and ordered…
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you can force ripping by using a banana in a one gallon bag with the persimmons inside with it in the refrigerator.
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My issue with early golden is that it is known for die back. I love the flavor of EG but dieback indicates it’s not cold hardy enough for me. Lawrence is nearby and its a zone warmer and still can get dieback there. I have eaten EG , nikitas gift etc. there in lawrence and they really are much better than wild persimmons that i have eaten all my life. All my early golden grafts died back last year which left me feeling devastated to be honest. I spent a bunch of time , did a bunch of work grafting , carrying water to them etc… Early golden would be fine in a protected area in your zone. The south side of a building or house would be ideal. Prarie Star and prarie sun are doing very good here for me with no extra work on my part. Here are some other options of ultra hardy types like meader in the link below. I highly recommend talking with @snowflake as John has given me some great advice on persimmons. @jrd51 may have some great advice as well on cold hardy persimmons. @snowflake grows in a similar zone to yours. My zone is 6a though very similar to 5b like yours.
https://onegreenworld.com/product-category/fruiting-trees-shrubs/persimmon/american-persimmon/
Does your early golden get some tip die back ? Very good report thanks!
Excellent research thanks for posting that information.
Im not sure how true it is but i read early golden was known about much earlier. I think it was like so many named types start out. “Up the road there is that early golden persimmon i like that one” . Eventually it became a named type of wild persimmon.
It does not have many seeds. One fruit might be seedless the next have a seedor two. It is no more seedy yhan any named variety.
All astringent persimmons that are named types are bred from early golden for the most part. The gene pool is very small.
I agree it is a good first persimmon for people in zone 6b and up. Some people in 6a can get away with growing it. I think zone 5b is pushing it and you will get tip dieback unless its protected, a mild winter , or an older tree.
The flavor of early golden is excellent! If there is a male around they will have a seed or two sometimes. The photos below i took in September when they get ripe here.
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not good, they advertised EG down to zone 4, there is no honesty anymore.
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It will survive to at least -30F although it may not be as pretty doing it.
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in my location, maybe about 8 years ago it got to -25 to -18 for a few weeks and i lost my sweet cherry tree that year, it was however 16 years old on dwarf rootstock, it was a magnificent specimen to behold, prefect shape and size, exploding in fruit production with great dessert quality cherries none could resist, the center piece of my patio and that winter it died,
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Kansas gets cold and stays cold sometimes weeks or months like that. I told you my experience with ones i grafted. I hope your experience is different.
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yep, i considered that cherry tree part of the family, it was painful to cut it down. We typically don’t get that cold here, it was a fluke 100 year cold-spell. Not saying showing love and caring to a fruit tree makes it grow better, but perhaps the tree can sense it, i don’t know, but the tree was absolutely beautiful and productive.
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The fruit has to attain a certain maturity before ripening can be induced. Also, while Asian persimmons can be ripened with a banana (or apple or some other fruit that releases ethylene, a ripening hormone), American persimmons generally to not respond to induced ripening.
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I had no success trying to remove astringency from Americans using ethanol. This comment indicates that ethylene doesn’t help either.
So one last resort: Does ripening continue for internal, metabolic reasons after a fruit is picked, assuming that it is fairly mature already?
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Side note… I had a Keener branch loaded with fruit break off in a storm last year at the very end of summer. The persimmon were very green with a slight hint of orange. I cut the end of the branch clean, sealed it with plastic to avoid further moisture loss, and hanged it in a south window like tomatoes. The persimmon all ripened and were just only ok. The taste definitely wasn’t close to a tree ripened fruit.
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