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!
You can also try yeast with water and sugar, if you’re itching to have options:
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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.
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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.
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Have you tried Miss Kim?
I hope to do some seed crosses of hybrids with these most hardy kaki! 
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I did, but I think I killed it by the way I protected it its first winter. I’ll probably try it again.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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Korea kaki didn’t work for me. But that’s one I might try again anyway.
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Oh ok. Yeah what is the coldest you have seen in your area in the last decade?
Negative 16 or so.
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Oh ok yeah thats borderline for these most hardy kaki. Mass might make the difference depending how fully dormant they are and windchill and ice and humidity etc. I imagine if you sized one up in a 5 gal pot for 2 or 3 years before putting inground the extra mass might give it the extra chance it needs.
Im sure glad Inchon is working for you! Probably my next 2 top picks for you would be Gora Goverla and maybe Sovietski or Davids Kandy hybrids. And for sure JT-02 and NB-02!
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I’ve got a bunch of named hybrids, but I’m mostly interested in growing out my own hybrids at the moment.
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Oh ok thats great I look forward to hearing what neat fruits your seedlings turn in to! Being you will have them on their own roots is another nice plus!
My NOT Izu, probably Jiro, has 50 or so fruit still hanging with all the leaves off. I’ve always been a bit envious of people’s pictures of such.
I have a coworker who has a “Fuyu” that bears abundantly. She offered to drop some for me at work, and I accepted. I’d guessed from the description that they are also Jiro, and they look the same.
My wife and I tried one of each back to back and she thought they were the same. I notice that mine have a small bit of astringency. The one’s we’re trying were picked a week or two ago. I’m curious to see what the ones that have still been on the tree a week or so past leaves are like.
I should probably pick a bunch of them, since I imagine they are much more tempting now that they are naked, and the only thing edible left around the spot.
It bore very heavily this year. I cut out 50-70% of the tree when I grafted back on Izu this summer, and it still bore 70-100 fruit. Last year it made 3 or 4.
BTW, the male flowering young Chocolate 15 feet away did a pretty spotty job of pollenizing it, it seems.
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I bet you the pollination helped the tree hold onto more fruit. My Nishimura Wase pollinated itself and there was hardly any fruit drop.
I forget; did your Cardinal persimmon from OGW ever do anything or did you not buy into that? Mine doubled in size, but is still a small stick.
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