Name your 30 best American persimmons

[clarkinks]

Wanted to continue this discussion from this topic Who's Growing Improved American Persimmons? Suggestions welcome! . If i understand everyone correctly here is the list of what i think people are saying are the top 30. Let me know if your top 30 persimmons are different. I tried to leave off the types susceptible to the cold.

Prarie Star h118 aka early jewell
Prarie Sun A33
Prairie Dawn H-55A
Prairie Gem F-25
Elmo A118
100-47
Lehmans Delight 100-46
100-45
100-43
100-42
Dollywood D128
Szukis
Prok
Barbaras Blush WS8-10
H 63A
H91A
Early Golden
I-94 Valene Beauty
C100
Geneva long
Claypool H 120
Meader
Weber

Ruby
Garretson
Korp
Yates /juhl
Meyers
Lena

The 100-47 is very hard to find. @parkwaydrive grows this one. bruce_crossing | Flickr

** update **
Morris Burton has been removed from the list due to the discovery of kaki dna. It is actually a hybrid. @DennisD @SMC_zone6 thanks for your help.

Jerry Lehman on Non-astringent American Persimmons

@alan asked that I bump this out to its own topic. So here’s what Jerry wrote me about some non-astringent American persimmons he has. I’d imagine Cliff England has these trees as well. I forwarded some cuttings to one person on this forum, but I’m not sure where else to get them. My plan is to use these in some of the hybrid American/kaki persimmon breeding I’m doing. Here’s what Jerry said: I made a trip over to the Claypool orchard to collect additional varieties for you. So here is some i…

[clarkinks]

Think i have access to 100-46, Geneva Long, Barbara’s blush, prok and Weber blue so far and last year I grafted early golden, h118, A 33.

[ansayre]

Great. Thanks for putting this list together. I see a lot of references to Morris Burton. Does that make the list (have to remove one :-). It would be nice to have a top 10 subset-list. I am starting seeds now for 2025 grafting. Waiting is hard.

[disc4tw]

It’s my understanding Lena and Morris Burton are very good tasting.

Maybe @OckooMicrofarm has some further inputs on pure DVs?

[clarkinks]

I updated the list to include 30. Hopefully that covers most of the best types.

[Richard]

The beginnings of another great persimmon thread

[clarkinks]

Persimmons such as 100-29 aka deer candy were intentionally left off the list. My understanding is they are better for deer than people. @KYnuttrees can correct me if i’m incorrect on that American Persimmon for thought .This thread is looking at american persimmons only not hybrids or kaki.

[clarkinks]

@disc4tw

I think i watched a video of @OckooMicrofarm earlier on yates https://youtu.be/moZSnIeD6Ak?feature=shared @ross does a nice video here https://youtu.be/Wpeg0l0xfsQ?feature=shared

[Matt_in_Pennsylvania]

The six (6) I want to trial are on your list:

Claypool H120 (smooth juicy flavor)
Garretson (flavor… precocious… very cold-hardy)
Early Golden (already have… very cold-hardy)
Lena/Mitchellena (the one they use in pulp processing for persimmon pudding)
Lehman’s Delight 100-46 (flavor… precocious)
Meader (rum raisin… cold-hardy champ)

[clarkinks]

@Matt_in_Pennsylvania

Very nice list! We will find them!

@SMC_zone6

How do you rate L 104 several years later?

Jerry Lehman on Non-astringent American Persimmons

@alan asked that I bump this out to its own topic. So here’s what Jerry wrote me about some non-astringent American persimmons he has. I’d imagine Cliff England has these trees as well. I forwarded some cuttings to one person on this forum, but I’m not sure where else to get them. My plan is to use these in some of the hybrid American/kaki persimmon breeding I’m doing. Here’s what Jerry said: I made a trip over to the Claypool orchard to collect additional varieties for you. So here is some i…

@snowflake

Cold hardiness of some of these could be a factor. I know you have tested hardiness of persimmons and had some that were dissapointing. Do the 30 i picked look fairly hardy?

[snowflake]

@clarkinks

Do the 30 i picked look fairly hardy?

I think they should all be nicely hardy in your location. I don’t know enough about Meyers though. Most all true D.V. should be good to -35F ish. When I hit -30ish a few years ago, I got some severe damage on young grafts, but I mostly didn’t lose any trees as they at least all regrew from somewhere above the grafts. Any hardiness issues for me might be related to trees not hardening off soon enough in the fall causing burn back on smaller wood, or waking up too early in the spring (I haven’t had issues with that on true D.V. yet).

I suspect that the fall burn is the main issues that I see. Geneva Long seems to get that each year although John Gordon had that as a recommended one for the north country, so maybe my rootstock is having issues, but I don’t know.

[clarkinks]

@snowflake

There is some speculation that Geneva long could actually be a hybrid. That would explain a lot.

Geneva Red persimmon

There are a few threads where “Geneva Red” was mentioned by @Mikatani as being one of the earliest and sweetest persimmons for a cool/cold climate like the PNW and many parts of Europe. My climate appears extremely similar to @Mikatani, and his observations seem uncannily similar to mine – only he has tons more years of experience. Most American persimmons haven’t been impressive for me with the exception of H-118. Others like H63a are very good early in the season but later they don’t lose as…

[Richard]

@clarkinks

Geneva long could actually be a hybrid.

By hybrid, you mean interspecies hybrid?

[clarkinks]

@Richard according to American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) – The Fruit Nut

Geneva Long cross section. One of John Gordon’s top five recommended varieties. Possibly a virginiana X kaki hybrid.

Just for reference (not my photos)

@Barkslip did a good job of documenting persimmons here when he was at Jerry Lehmans orchard Jerry Lehman's Orchard Fall 2017 . I’m very specifically trying to seperate american from the crossed hybrids of kaki x american cold hardy hybrids in this thread Hybrid Persimmons that are reportedly cold hardy

[OckooMicrofarm]

Lena and Morris B. were both stellar. Definitely deserving.

C-100 is a dud. Cliff showed me the tree and described it as “living up to the opposite of the hype” - it was a small fruit, tasty, nothing to write home about.

Meader is smallish, but the flavor is quite good.

I’d have to pick H63a and Lehman’s Delight as being in my personal top 2. H-63a is something special.
Lehman’s U20A / Celebrity is also in my top 10 alongside those two.

Yates/Juhl can be bland some years, I find it doesn’t get the full rum/caramel flavor profile on a lot of it’s fruit – though often the ones at the top of the tree do have it. I don’t include it in my top 10

Prok is problematic in that it is somewhat insipid and my tree, some 11 years old now, seems to be finicky about holding its fruit. Big fruit.

Elmo is fantastic; Dollywood is fantastic

Claypool H-120 is excellent, better than H-118 / Early Jewel

[snowflake]

@clarkinks

Geneva long could actually be a hybrid

I think it’s just another D.V… From John Gordon in Ontario:

In a cool season usually only Dickie, NC-10, Yates, and Geneva Long ripen full crops. Persimmon blooms late enough for bloom to escape late spring frost, however frost injury to foliage is often a spreader of persimmon black spot on foliage and fruit. Geneva Long is the most commercial, completing the season large, firm, ripe; the best at ripening in-doors. All benefit from days after-ripening indoors. Geneva Red is high flavor late-ripe persimmon.

Geneva Long is unusual because its fruit looks and tastes like a semi-oriental persimmon. It is the only native persimmon that can be recommended for fruit stand sales because it retains texture after ripe for about a week. Even yellow-green, Geneva Long has a not-too-astringent a fruit. It is mid October ripening. The fruit retains texture so it can be sectioned like a tomato to be put in a salad/desert.

[Robert]

@OckooMicrofarm

I find it doesn’t get the full rum/caramel flavor profile on a lot of it’s fruit

What varieties would you say has those flavors the strongest. I like those better than the standard apricot like flavor and I’m trying to find all the varieties that have it.

[Lucky_P]

I had Geneva Long for years. Nothing about it suggested any kaki influence, to me. Larger fruit than NC-10, but less flavorful. Still… a good persimmon.

[BlueBerry]

I don’t have 30 persimmons. But the 4 I do have I’ve named:
Eisenhour,
Nixon,
Reagan,
Trump

All likely seedlings from big heavy bearing feral tree across the road.
Eisenhour and Reagan taste great but are pretty small.
Nixon had first fruit but squirrels got it.
Trump … could be all male, or maybe he just needs more time to bear fruits.

Dried persimmons are tasty.

[ansayre]

Yates appears twice in the list (?)

I added “Claypool” in front of the numbered selections (please correct where wrong) and there were two listings that rank flavor in the other threads.

1.,2.,3.

Claypool A118, Elmo , , |
Claypool A33, Prarie Sun , , |
Claypool F-25, Prairie Gem , , |
Claypool H 120 , , |
Claypool H 63A , ,A+,+ |
Claypool H-55A, Prairie Dawn , , |
Claypool H118, Prarie Star, aka Early Jewell , , |
Claypool H91A , , |
Claypool I-94 Valene Beauty , , |
Dollywood D128 , + , |
Early Golden , , |
Garretson , , |
Geneva long , , |
Korp , , |
Lehman 100-42 , + ,A |
Lehman 100-43 , + ,B |
Lehman 100-45 , + ,A-/B+|
Lehman 100-46, Lehman’s Delight , + ,A,+ |
Lehman 100-47 , , |
Lehman, Barbara’s Blush WS8-10 , , |
Lena , ,A |
Meader , ,+ |
Meyers , , |
Mohler , , ,+|
Morris Burton, , A,+ |
Prok , + ,A |
Ruby , , |
Szukis , , |
U20A / Celebrity , , |
Weber , , |
Yates /juhl , , |

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