Does anyone have any personal experience on the following persimmon varieties? Fire Crystal; Tamopan; Chienting: Gwang Yang: and Tam Kam. I’m thinking of adding two or three trees and would like some anecdotal insight into which to or three of these might be the best additions to my home orchard.
Thanks
Tom Spellman, frontman for Dave Wilson Nursery in California raves about Tamopan. He says it has that classic goopy Asian Kaki Fuyu persimmon flavor, if that’s what you like. He ate them as a child. Tamopan has a unique shape.
I’ve never tasted or tried to grow it.
You might find this vid interesting, if you haven’t already seen it:
I’ve seen this video. I’ve not had a soft persimmon yet, so its hard for me to have a point of reference. It was this video that almost convinced me to get chocolate and coffeecake. Since then, I’ve changed my mind on that mainly because I suspect that I will like my other persimmons better if they are not seedy. God bless.
I prefer the flavor and texture of American persimmons over the few Asians I’ve tried, such as the “Sharon fruit” variety the Israelis grow and ship to grocers worldwide.
The American species has a texture more akin to a date-palm date, which I prefer to the cloying funky bletted glop of Kakis.
But I still have not yet tasted the purportedly better Chocolate or Coffeecake. I did buy those trees four years ago. They have survived in marginal locations, but still not fruited yet.
Sorry to hijack your thread. I hope others will chime in and give you more informed advice.
Rumor is the seedy persimmons taste better, and that has jived with my limited experience.
I’ve had very ripe and not ripe enough wild persimmons. As many times I tried, I was never been able to develop a taste for even the over ripe wild ones. I’ve resisted getting into growing or even trying Asian persimmons until last year after I tried a Fuju which I liked a lot. I would need to try an American one first before giving one space in my orchard. I’m at a point where when I add something, something else has to come out. God bless.
Marcus
I have tasted all of those and have still have growing all but Chienting, When I lost it to winter I did not replace as I did not favor the fruit but at that time did not know it is probably a Pollination Variant type and mine were not pollinated. Tamopan is not one I favor fresh that much either and I normally dry them. Tam Kam is a good non astringent and I prefer it to Gwang Yang so far, but my tastes of Gwang Yang has been limited and I think they are similar. I should taste a few of each soon. If you like Fuyu types you would like these Non-astringents. My Fire Crystal is just a branch grafted last year, but I tasted at JF&E which sounds like where you are shopping. and I really liked it above the other astringent you listed, but I would surely consider astringents like Saijo, Hao River, and Giombo as well
Coffee cake is good. A properly ripened astringent is much better IMO. Saijo was awesome, but that was a few years ago. Great wall was great too. My taste memory isn’t the best. Remind me in a month, these are my first chocolates, pic taken today.
Out of the ones listed, the only one I can comment on is Tamopan. Tamopan produces a large-sized fruit, and the tree can grow very large and productive. A mature tree can yield 20 milk crates of fruit, and it doesn’t seem to be that sensitive to fertilizer. It is also surprisingly cold-hardy for NJ. The drawback- the fruit quality, in my opinion, isn’t as good as a Hachiya or Saijo.
Beautiful. I already have young Saijo and Gimboyo trees growing as well as Hichia and two Fujus. .
Stay away from Tamopan. Big beautiful fruit but very little sugar or flavor…bland. I pulled mine after year after year…poor fruit. I grow Saijo, Honan Red, and Fuyu. Honan Red is my favorite. Very sweet, with to my taste buds…cinnamon flavor. Saijo is very sweet also, but not much flavor. Also grow American Prok and Yates. They are good, but I have some wild ones in the neighborhood that are much tastier. I prefer American to Asian, but Saijo and Honan Red are better than Prok and Yates by far.
Kingwood, is there a particular wild persimmon that’s a favorite of yours. If so, what’s it like?
There are many in the neighborhood, but two about a block from my home are very sweet and rich every year. The others I have tasted are nothing special. I think Prok and Yates are good, but I would not have grown them If I had tasted them before. I grew up in small town SW Louisiana and only ate Americans. During my youth I never had a large American that I thought was that good. The smaller ones were always sweet and rich. The two near my home are side by side and I assume one is a seedling. One tree is large and the other much smaller. Both have excellent fruit every year. The fruit are about half the size of Yates but seeds are large compared to the size of the fruit. I have been eating wild persimmons for many years during my travels and I would consider them medium size If I was any good at grafting, I would have grafted them… Honan Red in my yard is the closest Asian to an American that I have had. It is very sweet and flavorful. Most other Asians that I have had taste very similar. If you like American the neighborhood trees are very good, but not large.
We have a 130 gwan yang (grafted 23 years ago) orchard in southern Maryland (7b). The fruit is very similar in taste and shape as the fuyu only they are typically larger. No astringency at all. Delicious and mildly sweet when firm. When very very ripe, they have the same jelly consisterly as the indigenous persimmon but the flavor is definitely milder. Ours are female trees so we have very few fruit with seeds - BIG score!!! The horticulturalist who planted the orchard 23 years ago is walking me through grafting new trees and it is remarkably interesting. He taste tested many Asian varieties and the majority of his panel preferred the gwan yang. Not sure why? The gwan yang is delicious but I must confess that I don’t know if the grafting to American persimmon trees would have had any effect on flavor? I’m new at the horticultural gig but I’m learning!
Does the variety at the end of the video have a name now? Looks super heavy loaded.
when does honan red ripen after saijo?
