Then, I emptied a Pepsi into a 1 liter bottle. After replacing my mouth with bottle top, I started swishing the bottle back and forth to release the carbonation.
You may think this is a waste of soda. But, I’m actually fine with that. I don’t drink it myself and don’t want the kids to consume the HF corn syrup. They like it and sometimes buy it when playing sports. My wife feels like it is a waste of money, when it is much cheaper by bulk. at Costco. I’d rather see them sacrifice more money for it, to discourage consumption, rather than making it easy to consume a lot. So, I’d actually be fine with getting rid of all of it. But, using Pepsi this way isn’t actually an unpopular action in the house, as my daughter informed my wife that she likes Coke, not Pepsi…so there is nobody who would actually drink it. Its highest and best use is for the carbonation. The Coke she got has been hidden away, to be produced at my wife’s request in single can increments.
Citric acid + baking soda is actually a way described in a procedure in an academic journal. I want to say it was a study done in Egypt? Maybe Korea? I have to go back and look. Basically, they used a small cup containing citric acid (canning additive or lemon juice would work) inside a container. Dumped baking soda into the cup, closed the container with a small opening to let air escape while CO2 formed.
The best CO2 setup I have seen thus far is from @ncdabbler
When checking the 3rd tree which was grafted over to Chinebuli, I noticed that the low-growing rootstock branches actually produced fruit. I have no idea if these will be any good. Anyone else ever had a Persimmon produce berries?
Hopefully you aren’t about to tell me that Lotus persimmon are poisonous? I hope…I tried eating one of the soft ones earlier today, but it was astringent and I spit most out.
I’m not sure how the leaves differ. It was originally a Izu from Burnt Ridge in 2013 (winter-killed and re-grafted several times). From what they have now on the site, you can order Diospyrus virginiana as a rootstock from them, so I would think that that is what I have.
Here’s a pic with the top of the leaves. The one from the previous post showed the bottoms, as that was where the fruit was on that branch (I cut off the branch, then picked the fruit).
I googled “Lotus persimmon fruit” and found the following, as well as some pics which look similar. So, I think this is what I must have. I’ve probably gotten near it’s hardiness limits, as several years ago it got down to ~-9F.
Diospyros lotus:
A deciduous tree bearing yellow-black fruits about the size of a walnut. Fruits have an excellent flavor when over-ripe, and when dried, have a date-like flavor. The fruits are esteemed in Asia and in much of the Middle East. The small tree is hardy to well below 0F
From what I’ve heard, “well below 0F” is a bit of an exaggeration. But, it sounds like I should try drying them.
I don’t have any citric acid handy, but I do have vinegar. Kind of embarrassing for a guy with a chemical engineering degree to not think of the stereotypical middle-school volcano science project…
That does look like a nice setup. Maybe as I get more astringent persimmons I’ll need to look into something more elegant than my current approach (most options will be more elegant than that…).
I set out a few in the field years ago. We are zone 5b border 6a, so they struggle basically every other winter. -15F kills it completely at where I am at. At -10F, I still see a decent amount of dieback. I consider Nikita’s Gift more cold hardy.
Was it bland, bitter or off flavor in some way? Does it differ from previous years? I am curious as I have put in a request for scion wood of this variety (among others). Thanks!
I was researching persimmons in ARS GRIN the other day and I saw a few D. Lotus cultivars listed and their brix can reach 40 or more when left to ripen on the tree until the fruits are quite dark. At that point, I can imagine the fruits are like dates both in size and sweetness.
Wow!!! I cant believe that one is so huge!!! So what are the cold temps this one has seen? Do yall think its got a chance in zone 6b similar to Korea and Inchon?
It could just be that we don’t like soft persimmons. We’ll have to sample the others later. My wife said that some of the ones I brought to her were very good, while others were overripe. It’s possible that in my determination to not have any astringency, I sampled an over-ripe one.
Mine aren’t quite dark, but there was one soft one (looks like the twig it was on broke a bit, so it was sitting on the tree without really being connected and thus softened). I tried to get a brix sample, but the texture was gooey, more than juicy and gave sporadic results, though it sometimes seemed over 30.
From the links I saw, D Lotus needs a male for pollination. Maybe that is why I didn’t see a seed in the one I sampled. Unless they can be pollinated by one of my persimmons which has both male and female (I’m not sure if any are).
I grafted it in late May 2019. So it has only seen 2 winters and they have been the warmest (in terms of lows) that I’ve ever seen. Both were around +10F. In the ~8 years before that, winters ranged from -9F to +3F. So it hasn’t really been tested.
Interestingly, I saw something recently about this being a La Nina winter and therefore colder than usual for us. Which made me pessimistic, until I later heard that last winter was also a La Nina. If +10F is colder than normal, then I can grow any of the Kakis. It also makes it a lot easier to grow figs. 2 years ago (good timing!), I made the decision to stop trying to protect them and several have done just fine without any protection.
Oh ok. Yeah it and Korea and Steiermark may also be worth trying again since they have survived for Mr Cliff.
And Gora Goverla sounds promising for decent 6b hardiness on a super large hybrid.
Bob, with the color thing, have you looked into any apps that might exist for a phone to “tell you what color it is”? I have a friend who is color blind and mentioned his big issue being a police officer is determining traffic light colors, especially if the lights are stacked horizontally instead of vertically. The nuances between a ripe fruit (or not) have to be more challenging still. I could see why preference to non-astringent persimmons is important in this case.
Today (11/06) we picked what seemed like roughly half of the fruits on the IKKJs – 50 fruits. My granddaughters and I ate a few of them immediately, then saved the rest (and ~50 more on the tree) for later. Here’s a sample:
