Three or four weeks after Cliff England’s field day, Larry Burton of Bear Wallow Farm and I toured his persimmon orchard, accompanied by Mr. England, himself, gathering baskets of unripe persimmons, paying by the pound. Our purpose was to help ourselves decide which scions to purchase for development in our hobby orchards. My notes are simple ,and only for myself but i see that there is so little info out there, that it might be helpful to “throw down”. I remember asking Cliff about a certain persimmon, him retorting “I don’t know. I’ve never eaten one!”
The persimmons were precisely identified and brought home to bench ripen. The following is my conclusion.
- Mount Roman Kosh nice fruit but a tad of astringency in the peeling. In all fairness, could that be on me, maybe eating it too soon?
- Zirochka UKR F Star. Didn’t ripen. Cliff said it was deserving of being tested further south i. e. longer growing season. I saved the seeds, however, thinking they could be the result of pollination by a different hybrid and be useful after grown out?
- Uzbek Huge, excellent , burnt orange flesh, tender skin. A must have.
- Adolph Luschick A giant. Possible best in taste. Reminded me of Nakita’s Gift. Cliff frets that the tree won’t hold up to the big fruit. It’s a hard knock life, Cliff!
- Pamyity Chemaya Another giant. wonderful , delicious.
- Pamyity Teheryicie Big. Larry and Cliff liked it as well as Chemaya, but I didn’t. I do concede that it is a nice fruit.
- Whopper Dark flesh. Special. It must be included for the variation.
- Nikita # 4 Red flesh. Very sweet. Excellent.
- V Derevanko. It’s all the rage. Such as JT-02 and Sophia’s Gift was. I thought it a bit dry with a tic of retained astringency.
- Cardinal . Sweet. Delicious.
- Chuchupaka seedless must have
- Pamyati Naji I’m a huge fan. chocolate. seeded, astringent until ripe. It’s large.
- Monzano Lots seeds. Great taste. Kumi favorite.
- Bozhy Dar 15-30 UKR I have two.
- Sosnovskaya One of Cliffs favorites. It’s big enough. flawless Very very tasty. A commercial orchards dream. Stores for a lengthy time etc. etc. A Sophia’s Gift sort of persimmon.
- and there is Davids Kandy, Norwood and Korwood etc. the list is endless and positive.
On my desk, I have a box of Fuyu from Costco. They are firm and crispy, sweet and very good.
Its a good time for persimmon lovers!