You’re right, though. I don’t think I properly underscored a) that it’s still going to be nicer than your typical wild fruit and b) that some will look much nicer than others. And you raise a good point about confounding variables. I have to admit most of my “experience” of the differences in fruit appearance and texture comes from careful study of photos and reviews here. I feel like I have decent understanding of the broad strokes, but there’s no substitute for physically getting a hold of a variety.
YMMV. Cliff told me that early ripening was the only good thing he could say about Mohler. By that I assumed he meant there are better options if your zone permits. It’s getting hype on here, but how many have tried it? I have not.
Too much is made of that unless you are going into commercial processing. Otherwise, throw the whole fruit into the freezer and be happy for the whole year (getting out what you need as needed)… until you have trees dropping fruit again.
I started out with Prok and Yates, which seemed to be the most ideal early season varieties I was aware of at the time I planted them- around 2007. Not long after, I learned of Mohler by way of Lee Reich. It’s exceptionally early- the earliest I know of, ripening nearly a month before Prok here. Also very flavorful, with no discernible astringency when harvested at the proper time, basically when they fall.
Yes, I know he has said that. One data point. Just repeating what Cliff said. A different data point. It’s good to try different varieties and see what works out.
Somebody’s words anyway. Who knows what’s up with that. He told me something totally different when we were discussing early persimmon. He did not recommend it at all. I will take his word for it.
He highly recommended J-59 and Journey for very early, although he said J-59 is too small to be commercially successful. My guess is that with newer discoveries, his opinions of older things change. Since he isn’t selling trees, it probably isn’t a big deal to update those lists.
I am partly just ribbing you, as I’m in the insane category who grafted Mohler anyway. I’m willing to try anything once. But, just wanted to share what I heard.
Oh, btw, Journey is good to at least -17F.
Edit: forgot one. Cliff recommended Jenny’s early as very early.
As an exercise, I’ve thought about visiting the Walmart near TNHunter and getting all the ripe persimmons from that native tree before he can. Fortunately, I’m more the sharing type so would probably just drive by his place and have a persimmon fest.
@Fusion_power … in a few years… hopefully… i am going to need a lot of help eating all these persimmons. You will be welcome to have some anytime they are ripening.
We might just do that. On the other hand, I’ve already got a dozen grafted persimmon trees and will probably graft 20 or so more next year. You might have to drive down here and give some a try.
Yes, it will be interesting to see. He did say Mohler was early, but when he made the statement that included J-59, my guess is that Mohler didn’t rate as high in his opinion. Just guessing though. I think there are some regional differences in how they perform. I think JCW was harvesting J-59 during the “normal” persimmon season, so that didn’t make me think that it’s that early… but maybe with more heat it might be. I’ve had some things that Cliff said was late like Wonderful (on his website), that ripened somewhat early (the tree is young so I don’t have a ton of confidence in that yet). Or, fruit like H55A that was reported to not be as good (on here or wherever), that was pretty amazing last year. But, I have a hot, shorter season climate (around 30 days over 100F last year), so completely different situation/climate. Basically a big experiment to see what works well here. I shouldn’t discount anything until it proves it doesn’t work.
Can I get more information on Garretson? I can hardly find anything on it except that it’s delicious, some people prefer it over Early Golden, and it ripens early. No specifics on flavor (is it just sweet, or does it have other flavors?), what the fruits look like (does it have a lot of brown/black, or a pretty orange skin?), if it tends to hold some astringency, or production reliability.
I’m having the same trouble with H-63A and Lehman’s Delight, aside from they’re delicious and have no astringency when ripe.
I was able to find a few posts where people said Prairie Star (Early Jewel, H-118) can sometimes hold some astringency, sometimes drops unripe fruit during hot spells, and often has the ugly brown/black skin that turns me off. I took it out of the running because of these, so they were very helpful to know.
I can’t comment on flavor beyond what others have said, but I can say that it is very highly productive at a much younger age than early golden. Also, if you want nice dark green leaves, early golden is likely to get ratty looking leaves from anthracnose or whatever else causes some persimmon to have awful looking black leaves. Maybe early golden is just unlucky, but I’ve seen it on multiple trees in different locations.
Note that many of these named varieties are fairly or very highly related, so differences in flavor might be fairly subtle. For most all of them, if you want a caramel flavor, you can let them ripen on a counter longer (almost like naturally dehydrating), and they will develop that.
My notes (which I wouldn’t bet my life on) say that Garretson is a child of Early Golden and a female parent of G1, G2, and George (all open pollination). But my uncertainty is what motivates my question in a separate thread about the Early Golden group.
I have finally decided to take Mohler, Prairie Star (H-118), and Early Golden out of the running, since they seem to be nearly identical to or be surpassed by others. I’m thinking of taking Garretson and H63-A out too, since H63-A, Prairie Star, Lehman’s Delight, and Claypool seem to have an equal number of fans, and I’m favoring the sound of Claypool and Lehman’s Delight. I cannot find enough information on Garretson to make a final decision regarding it.
Here’s my updated list of what I might get:
Yates
Claypool (H-120)
Lehman’s Delight (100-46)
Elmo (A-118)
Debating on:
H63-A
Garretson
Don’t want to get, but confused if I should:
Szuki. Basically my understanding of this is that’s it’s a male tree that also produces decent to good fruit. One study suggested that this variety can positively impact the fruit of others, and I’ve seen/read other testimonies that suggest a pollinator makes a difference; however, plenty of others swear it won’t make any difference other than adding seeds. I really don’t know what to do about this one, especially since we do have wild persimmons out here (though none on our current property).
@Robert I don’t know why you deleted your post, but I’m very glad you posted it, and I got a copy in my email. I found it quite helpful, though out of respect I won’t say anything more than that.
What’s your opinion on Szuki? Should I get it for pollination, or try letting the wild ones pollinate (if I decide to have a pollinator )?
