Following up – I picked fruit today anticipating a “compare and contrast.” Trying to be fair, I picked six good-looking fruits, which wasn’t difficult. All but one fruit came directly from the tree. The top pic shows the fruits – three from Dollywood (top), three from Barbra’s Blush (bottom). The Dollywood fruit without the calyx is the one that came from the ground.
All 6 fruits are pretty clean. Notice that the skin on Dollywood is glossy, whereas the skin on BB has more of a matte finish. The skin on Dollywood seems tough and durable, the skin on BB seems on the verge of rupture.
The bottom pic shows the insides, Dollywood on the left. The flesh is bright orange. With one minor exception (11 o’clock), there no black rot. There are some poorly developed wannabe seeds. BB is on the right. The flesh is dull orange with brown tones.
Both varieties taste good. Both were non-astringent except for some residual astringency in / under the skin. But they’re different – Dollywood is slightly milder, BB is stronger maybe richer. But Dollywood seems more consistent – the three fruits taste pretty much the same. BB seems more variable, some better than others.
All this said, I’m loath to reach any firm conclusions. I can’t say that the contrast evident here will persist across trees / fruits / seasons. Maybe it’s some sort of accident. It’s just what I see today. One fact that makes me cautious about jumping to conclusions is that according to my notes, Barbra’s Blush is a product of the cross of Dollywood [D-128] x F58. So we’d expect the two varieties to be very similar.
As I recall, I remember commenting last year that H63A has glossy skin but BB doesn’t. So this isn’t an observation isolated to this season.
Jenny’s Early is Pure American = produces a large fruit sweet early, productive and very precocious. Is a smallish tree. No pollinators needed; will set fruit without a male but this tree is not as vigorous growing as others. Noted because it may require improved planting site**.**
This is the only American listed on Cliffs site nuttrees.net… that he states is a smallish tree.
May require improved planting site… if you are going to try growing it in a pot… well you will be doing that.
There are few, if any 60-C persimmons in commerce. Most ‘discovery’ and breeding has been with the 90-C race.
While I have a couple of local 60-C selections that I have selected and propagated - and shared with a few folks (see SFES in the linked article below), the only two 60-C cultivars that I’m aware of having any significant distribution are ‘Ennis Seedless’ and ‘Sugar Bear’(from Clifford England). Ploidy Level in American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) Cultivars in: HortScience Volume 55 Issue 1 (2020).
Point of correction: ‘Brace #1’ came to me from Don Compton - it is not MY selection.
Somebody just “liked” this post, which led me to re-read it. That prompts me to add a comment.
Note the black growth near the calyx / pith on some fruits, especially the BB at the bottom right. I believe that this is a fungus that gets a foothold where there is a break in the skin. It is most common near the calyx, invading when the calyx begins to detach. No doubt this fungus is more common in varieties that tend to drop as they ripen. That implies that we should prefer a variety whose calyx stays attached without gaps as the fruit ripens. Among these two varieties, Dollywood would be the preferred choice (ignoring other criteria).
