Jerry Lehman's Orchard Fall 2017

[cousinfloyd]

Yes, the fruit ripened for me. I’m sure there was some drop, but I thought there was plenty of fruit that fully ripened on the tree for the size of the tree. There’s fruit again on one of the trees this year – I haven’t looked closely at the other one – but maybe not quite as much as last year, even though the tree has a grown a little more. A third Smith’s Best graft from 2016 that was reduced that first year to a fraction of an inch by a twig girdler has fruit on it this year that I fully expect to ripen.

My big disappoint in terms of kakis taking a long time to fruit is Saijo. I think every other kaki I’ve grafted has either fruited within 1-3 years after grafting, mostly 2 years. (So far that includes 20th century, Tam Kam, Wase Fuyu, Smith’s Best, Tecumseh, Pen, Nikita’s gift…) I grafted Saijo in two places in 2014, and neither tree has given me any fruit yet. One of them set a tiny number of fruits for its size (~4" diameter and maybe 18’ tall) this year, but I think they’ve all aborted. That makes Saijo about 4 years (and counting) slower to begin bearing than my other kakis.

[RUenvsci]

Saijo was my best performer… I think it depends more on maturity of the tree. My saijo took a significant beating this past winter, and in other winters. However, it would come back nicely. It produced so much fruit last year that it should have been thinned bc the quality suffered. I purchased the tree in maybe 2014 or 2015, which puts it at maybe 7-8 years old when you consider it was likely grafted a few years prior to purchase.

[cousinfloyd]

Just to follow up on my previous report, the two trees I grafted to Saijo in 2014 still haven’t fruited. The one tree, the larger of the two and by far the largest of all my kaki persimmon trees, that set a tiny number of fruits appears to have aborted all of those.

Meanwhile I checked the other Smith’s Best tree, one of the three I grafted in 2016, the one that had a smaller crop last year, and it has a very nice, full crop this year, quite a bit better than other Smith’s Best tree that had the bigger crop last year. Not to exaggerate the difference between the different astringent kaki varieties which wasn’t very big, but I particularly enjoyed the taste of (unpollinated) Smith’s Best last year.

[BobVance]

@scottfsmith

Back on the topic of Miss Kim, one of mine ripened early and it was really good.

At what point do you pick Miss Kim? I’ve got about 5 on my tree that look orange. Do you pick them as soon as they color, or is there some other indicator? I’m a bit nervous that something will eat them soon.

[scottfsmith]

Sorry, I have not had it for a few years now and can’t remember exactly. But for astringent ones I usually let them hang until they are strongly orange colored.

[BobVance]

Would this qualify? This is one of the only situations where color blindness actually bothers me.

[Barkslip]

Tony would pick all those, Bob. He said about this plate of persimmons the same color level as yours or, more:

@tonyOmahaz5

The weather is getting colder and the critters are after all the fruits. I think counter ripened are as good or even better than tree ripened because I let them soft ripe to get the sugar level up a bit.

Here’s @tonyOmahaz5 photo:

10/14/2020
Tony, what’s all that spaceship stuff you got there to ripen them with?

[mamuang]

Bob,
Agree with @Barkslip. Yours have more color than Tony. You may want to keep it on your counter for a few days before eating

[Barkslip]

Yeah, I agree , Tony has a lot of persimmons with a lot less colorthan yours. If Tony’s are sour green, he’ll pick them. Tony also picks with diluted orange, color.

[PharmerDrewee]

It looks like something already took a peck at that persimmon. Thanks for posting a picture of this variety. There aren’t many out there of Miss Kim. It’s amazing you’re successfully growing kaki in New England.

[tonyOmahaz5]

Nothing special. My wife bought for me a fruit flies protector/cover from the Asian Market and the shining stuff is an aluminum foil wrap to prevent leakage from the ripen fruits if I forget to eat them in time.

[Barkslip]

Perfect.

Thank you, Tony.

Dax

[BobVance]

@Barkslip

Tony would pick all those, Bob. He said about this plate of persimmons the same color level as yours or, more

@mamuang

Yours have more color than Tony.

Thanks- I picked some back in September and one of my daughters asked “Why are you picking green fruit?” Evidently some shades of dark green can look Orange to me (light green can look yellow).

@mamuang

You may want to keep it on your counter for a few days before eating

I picked another last week which has started to soften a bit on the counter. I’m not sure how soft I should wait for though. The H-120 American persimmons I picked in September needed to be translucent jelly-like before they lost (most) of their astringency,

Just after writing the above, I decided to try it. It was actually a bit softer than I thought and ready. I guess the skin is a bit thicker for Miss Kim, than H-120.

17.5 brix and pretty tasty:

I ended up counting only 4 remaining fruit, so something may have swiped one. So, I picked 3 of the 4 (leaving one, in case I made a mistake…).

@BobVance

it’s really taken over the top of my multi-graft and I was thinking that I should do something about that before it shades out the rest. But, if it’s good, I’ll just let most of it run.

Inertia made the decision for me. Miss Kim did shade out everything else on the tree, so it is now a 3-4’ tall rootstock with Miss Kim on top.

@PharmerDrewee

It looks like something already took a peck at that persimmon.

I checked it over and don’t see any bites in any of the 3. I do see some dimples. Maybe healed bug feeding sites? None appear to be open wounds.

@PharmerDrewee

It’s amazing you’re successfully growing kaki in New England.

Miss Kim seems one of the hardiest. I grafted it back in 2015, so there have been some winters at least a bit below 0F in that time (not sure if we got the -9F before or after that, but I think we had at least a -4F).

But, Miss Kim is astringent and I really prefer crunchy persimmons. I keep failing with non-astringents at my site, so I’ve started planting some of the hardier ones (Tam Kam (which took -4F successfully before being mostly killed by -9F), Ichi Ki Kei Jiro, and Gwang Yang) at rental properties which are about 10-20 minutes South of me, closer to the ocean. But in the one winter I’ve had them there, it has been pretty mild, something I wouldn’t mind continuing for a while, as +10F means even some figs can get by unprotected.

[Barkslip]

(4) seedlings have shown their sexes. (3) are males below:

flowers are clusters of 3’s

And a female which will be planted… “F1 100-45 x open-pollinated of Jerry Lehman’s Orchard” (2017-2022 seedling) flowers - singular:

I have another 8 or 12 seedlings yet to be sexed…

[PharmerDrewee]

Woah! That’s pretty fast, Dax. Do you think having them potted could have sped things up?

[Barkslip]

Yes, they weren’t neglected but, they stayed in a #1 for 4-years.

I thought that’s what sped them up, myself, Andrew.

[Francis_Eric]

While on this subject
Hi Dax , and others @TrilobaTracker

OF another species To speed up grafting for a different species Aronia (rose family )
is used to have a pear flower after grafted to for first year

I plan to try this with the Florida species

(graft onto to speed up results )

I know A bit about Annonaceae species
What I want to know what about the ebony species in persimmon

Any experts ?

I want to know fast flowering species in ebony family

(I also put out add to collaborate with others )

Why I did mention you @TrilobaTracker trilobatracker
you did have a passiflora (maypop ) in pot that flowered very fast
Some may over look this (not you) but anything to speed up this is welcome advice

Jerry Leman was A very Nice Man .
Honest Gave him $500 , for 2 buckets of pawpaw seed
of that Money

He gave Me Back $250 ,
for 2 buckets of seed

and also gave me one hundred 4 foot pawpaw trees…

Funny Because Me, and my travel friend had a dispute
We drove past , but did stop
I didn’t think we would !!

*I had my vulnerabilities of the paw paw seed craze *
*that inflicted my imaginary, fallacy ,wishful thinking *
*Sweet divine , lick of the lips savor every last bit *
*Smell of the room whole house full of perfume *
*mouth water touch, feel, sound, of the wilderness *
in tune an the sound

• tune down in silence peaceful solitude .*

would not mind hearing @JustPeachy another seed grower in my area His thoughts

[Francis_Eric]

A lomg post

Can you see how great Jerry Leman Was

I gave Him $500 bucks
He gave back $250)

Also 100 4 foot trees (with 2 buckets of seeds)

Jerry Leman was A non judmental man
as well as a person that shared wealth of his informataion …

Have you also
seen Different countries research papers
Who was a donner for research

Yes that is right
Jerry Lehman.

(edit funded research
if wanted to can supple research
He paid Cash for such endeavors . , )

(note I get a kick out of the blue seeing this )

[Barkslip]

@Francis_Eric
He was a plantsman/person. He did it for the love of it and he consumed it, ha-ha.

Good evening to you…

[parkwaydrive]

Is Pfiffer a selection from the wild or the result of planting a seed from a cultivated variety?