Sounds like Miss Kim is a precocious early bearer- hopefully the taste will also be good. I think it may bend down even without a heavy fruit load. I had to tie part of mine up, even though it didn’t have any fruit. That is probably why JFaE says that it is “dwarf by nature”. They also mention its “somewhat weeping form”.
JFaE description:
Miss Kim is an excellent variety for people in areas that are normally too cold to fruit persimmons. Trees are dwarf by nature and have a somewhat weeping form. Beautiful in edible landscapes and good for tight spots or patio settings. Fruit is large, tomato shaped and eaten when soft. Excellent flavor, usually seedless. Fruit ripens in October. Self-fertile. Zone 6-9
I’m confused when your calling early golden astringent because it’s ripe on the tree in September and has no astringency. Typical astringent types need a frost or two or to hang on the tree very late in the year until they lose astringency.
Hey Clark. Sorry for the delayed response. Non-astringent basically means you can eat them when they’re still hard, astringent you have to wait until they’re more of a jelly-like consistency. The frost thing isn’t really true. Persimmons don’t need frost to ripen, many just happen to ripen late, which is usually after a frost. Here’s a helpful quote about astringent/non-astringent persimmons from crfg.org and the link:
“Persimmons can be classified into two general categories: those that bear astringent fruit until they are soft ripe and those that bear nonastringent fruits. Within each of these categories, there are cultivars whose fruits are influenced by pollination (pollination variant) and cultivars whose fruits are unaffected by pollination (pollination constant). Actually, it is the seeds, not pollination per se, that influences the fruit. An astringent cultivar must be jelly soft before it is fit to eat, and such cultivars are best adapted to cooler regions where persimmons can be grown. The flesh color of pollination-constant astringent cultivars is not influenced by pollination. Pollination-variant astringent cultivars have dark flesh around the seeds when pollinated. A nonastringent persimmon can be eaten when it is crisp as an apple. These cultivars need hot summers, and the fruit might retain some astringency when grown in cooler regions. Pollination-constant nonastringent (PCNA) persimmons are always edible when still firm; pollination-variant nonastringent (PVNA) fruit are edible when firm only if they have been pollinated.”
Back on the topic of Miss Kim, one of mine ripened early and it was really good. It was pollinated and that can change the flavor, but pollinated I can say they are excellent. Maybe even a bit better than Hachiya. The downside is they are one of the smaller kakis. Unlike Great Wall and Maru, other small ones I fruited, they don’t have that many seeds. Those two varieties you are picking seeds out over and over.
I’m glad to hear that Miss Kim is doing well for you- 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. Given how bendy they are (even without much fruit), I’m guessing that it won’t get that high. But I may still put a Chinabel on one of the branches near the top, as I’d really prefer a cruncy-when-ripe persimmon.
I am a persimmon grower in Mid Missouri (6b). In 20`6 and 2017, I planted several Asian and Asian American hybrids in addition to grating many Americans from Lehman. Obviously, I am a few years away from significant fruit production. Most of my Asians and all the hybrids have survived the winter. What has your experiences been with fruit set and ripening with Nikitas Gift, Rassayanka and Kasandra?
Nikita’s Gift fruit is very tasty, firm, ,sweet, and ripen in late October into November for me but it was not cold hardy at all. All the small branches died back to the large main trunk at -10F with out winter protection by Wrapping up the whole tree. So I topworked it to JT-02 which survived -20F for me and -25 F for Dax in Illinois. I kept one 6 yrs old Rossyanka, one Multi grafted 8 varieties American persimmon, one 4 yrs old Kasandra hybrid ( I found out a few days ago that the -20F killed the top half of this tree so it was not as Cold hardy as the JT-02). I decided to topworked 7 four years old American persimmon tree to JT-02 this Spring Becaus in the last 9 years of trialing to get the best cold hardy and best tasting hybrid persimmon. I found JT-02 was the ONE. It tasted richer than Hachiya Astringent Kaki and that would put it in an upper escalon of Astringent persimmon.
My JT-02 aka Mikkusu 50/50 hybrid. Crossed in Japan and Jerry Lehman got a few scions and grafted in
Terre haute, Indiana. My tree will be 5 years old this season and last year I harvested 2 fruits for the first time. It tasted real good. I will take some photos of it this October. Here is Cliff England JT-02 tree loaded with fruits.
I assume you have experience with buying from Cliff… Is the shipping cost pretty reasonable? Wondering if it would be better idea to graft my prok (assuming I can trade for JT-02 scion at some point) or buy a new one…
I am a few years ahead of you, same zone, Pennsylvania. Last year was my first fruit.
Of the hybrids, I only have Rosseyanka, but she’s been the star of the whole collection. My best grower, and my best fruiter. Plenty hardy enough for our zone.
Be careful with the Asians. The non-astringents are borderline for our zone. Mine (Ichi and Hana Fuyu) overwintered fine for a few years, but died back severely in 2018’s winter. It remains to be seen if they will work out long-term.
