FWIW, here are typical examples of my Ichi Ki Kei Jiro, JT-02/Mikkusu, and Kassandra fruits (left to right).
This is my sole, first ever JT-02. It grew on a graft that I put on IKKJ last year. I also have a 2nd year tree (JT-02 on DV rootstock) that I started at the same time. But it will be a couple years, I think, until it ripens fruit. I figured that by grafting I could take a short-cut to a taste.
Weights are 217 g, 70 g, and 49 g, respectively.
How old and tall are your Saijos? Thinking of planting one next to my pawpaws but want to make sure it won’t shade them out before they can get more established.
They are 3 years old and are around 12 and 16 feet tall with top pruning. It seems to be more upright and narrow in form right now with stronger branches at the top of the tree. You could prune the lower branches to give your pawpaws more light.
I’ll try! There’s only one JT-02.
Mangos and pomegranates sure look funny when grown in Pennsylvania.
Where’d you get the orange acorns? I’ve never seen orange acorns before, not to mention that big.
They’re actually orange grenades as printed on the far right.
Hi,
Can you or anyone tell me where I can find a Miss Kim tree. Thanks.
I bought mine from Edible Landscaping 3 years ago. It sure is precocious.
One traditional Chinese way to remove astringency in kaki persimmons:
Collect some marsh pepper smartweeds (they’re everywhere in my garden), put a layer of smartweeds at the bottom of a container, then add a layer of astringent persimmons, then put another layer of smartweeds and then repeat, add water to cover everything (some people also add wood ashes) and seal the container. Leave the container in a cool place for a week. The astringency will be gone and the persimmon should be hard, crunchy and sweet.
I never tried this method. But you can give it a try. I know personally people used wood ashes to speed up the ripening process of astringent persimmons.
That sounds interesting. Why does this process remove astringency? I have plenty of nonastringent fruit this year. I’m trying to store and slowly ripen the astringent fruit so I have some for winter.
Here’s a nice Saijo that ripened early after being damaged by a bird peck. It was deliciously sweet.
Lovely looking persimmon. Any thoughts on how your Mazugata compares to Saijo? I thought it maybe won some taste tests at the old research station at Wye or something like that.
No idea why the smartweeds were used - same as many Chinese traditional medicines, I guess all tries and errors and the good recipes were passed down. I guess flavonoids in smartweeds may play some roles here.
My Saijos are still on the tree and I will let them hang a little longer. Everyone is praising JT-2 but in our area (I am a little southeastern to you) Saijo has no problem surviving then what’s the point of planting JT-2? Fuyu and Hana-Fuyu have no problem surviving too. I have seen at least 10 years old Fuyu trees in the neighborhood.
JT-02 has better flavor and is sweeter than the Fuyu types. I think it is also better than Saijo.
Walter,
I think they are both very good. I’ve had plenty of Saijos by now but only 1 Mazugata. There are a few others that will be sampled whenever they soften. The texture is different. Mazugata seems smoother while Saijo seems meatier. Saijo has these large membranes that cover the seeds. Those almost have a crunchy texture despite being soft. It’s quite interesting and appealing to me.
@ramv JT-02 is flavorful but it’s a bit watery for my tastes. That’s no reason not to grow it if you have the space or if kaki aren’t hardy enough.
I would let mine hang longer too but we are expecting temperatures in the low 20’s next week. I don’t want them freezing which would hasten them softening. The texture also goes downhill in my opinion when kaki freeze. Saijo seems actually pretty late to ripen. The seeds in the ones I’ve eaten so far weren’t fully dark. They were excellently sweet though.
