I worked with @DennisD to put together a Google form to collect the data he’d been asking for in the post linked below. I’ve set it up so you can answer series of questions (mostly multiple choice) and it will store your response in a spreadsheet as a public resource. We ask for a few required bits of info, but most of it is optional. Please fill in as much info as you feel comfortable sharing.
Here’s a link to the survey:
and here’s were you can see the responses once they start rolling in:
For those of you with a lot of trees, if it’s easier to fill in a spreadsheet directly, please contact me for a template that you can fill in.
@Matt_in_Maryland
Please let your persimmon growers know about this thread. I’m about 2 weeks away from entering my data, but by now there are members who probably can begin entering their ripening data. Jay has done Yemen’s work to create this input form, so let’s encourage members you know to use it. Thanks
Dennis
Kent, wa
Good Morning I Cliff England and we Have or Have had all Major cultivars of Persimmons over the last 30 year Pre - Internet year too
So What you have in theory is a great Ideal but like My Self Being in a Zone 6a at approx 2000 feet in Elevation does present its challenges one of them being the most resent events like Polar Vortex’s
I have attached the Old list of the trees we have in the Orchards and we are currently in between other tasks working on the updated inventory of the Farms Still it is no easy task when you have nearly 8 thousand trees on 40 Acres
Yes I will take any question you have and yes I will have sometime later on to work on the data sheet for Persimmon Ripening times
Here’s a reminder for everyone to add your ripening data as we’re getting in to the thick of persimmon season. We have 3 responses so far. A great start, but let’s see if we can really fill that spreadsheet up!
Sounds like a great data to compile, especially on the americans, more hardy kaki, and hybrids, that would work in shorter season climates and zone 6 and.
I started picking Nishimura Wase in earnest on 10/19. These were not thoroughly pollinated and need to soften indoors. The seeds in the pollinated fruit were brown and hard so they are mature.
100-46 dropped its first fruit today but doesn’t look completely soft so it’ll have to ripen further indoors.
Picudo, Tipo, and Miss Kim are fully orange but I will leave them on longer since they are astringent and there is no frost in sight. I will pick them at my leisure to dry or let them soften on the tree.
i have posted one submission. sorry im not much help this year due to the heatwave most my persimmons have dropped. Thank you for having a place to share data on persimmon harvest.
I don’t have Sheng so I can’t provide feedback on that, unfortunately. I would be interested in it for cold hardiness, but it isn’t supposed to be remarkably cold hardy from what I understand.
Maybe have 3 stages. Coloring, full orange, and soft ripe no astringency.
We have a short season here. I just want it to get far enough on the tree that it will eventually be good if brought in before hard freezes. That’s probably a different stage depending on variety.
I returned to Washington Extension Station in Mt Vernon, WA to check on their 4 persimmon varieties- Izu, Jiro, Ichi-kei-ki, Saijo. All are now about 7/8 to fully orange and hard. A week earlier I had picked some half-orange and tried to ripen indoors, the Izu, Jiro, and Ichi in a closed bag with apple, and the Saijo in closed bag with apple and CO2. Total bust - the soft Izu, Jiro, Ichi and (no longer astringent) Saijo all tasted like squash baby food!
I returned this week and tried again. Same procedure thing with Izu, Jiro, and Ichi. After a few days they were soft but totally bland. I am keeping the Saijo in bag with CO2 and no apple this time. Still hard. Will wait to taste till it gives a little.
I am among the most northerly NW gardeners so, even with an exceptional summer, not enough HEAT here.
No silk purse out of sow’s ear without ghouse help.
Something I realized this week… especially today… is that the amount of sunshine your persimmon tree and even the individual fruit on the tree gets… seriously affects the ripening time.
More sunshine… ripens much faster… less much slower (as much as 3 or 4 weeks) difference for same variety … wild american.
My sisters trees today only had fruit left on the north/shady side… and some of those were still firm… where all fruit on the sides that got more sun… had ripened and fallen off already.
Probably the Cambridge dictionary says it best: completely developed and ready to be collected or eaten.
What we want to know is if it can be eaten directly off the tree, or is more time required to either get ready to eat due to astringency or inadequate warm weather to fully ripen the fruit.
For example my neighbor has a tree and the fruit resembles Saijo, but this fruit never gets ripe enough to eat directly off the tree, and by the time it loses astringency, the fruit is like mush! Not really ever edible. I have heard some people say Saijo ripens well here but if my neighbors tree is really Saijo, I could not recommend it for this climate.