With such a good result, why not purposely injure the fruits so they become delicious sooner? Why depend on the birds?
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I’m circling back to this comment.
I’ve just picked my first crop of Kassandras on a tree planted in 2017. It was a huge crop >1000. FWIW, I didn’t see any of the cracking described. There was a small amount of cracking near the calyxes. There was also a small amount of blackening of skin, I think mostly on the sunny/south side of the fruit. And there was some apparent mechanical damage on fruit from movement of neighboring leaves / branches. But the vast majority of the fruit was unblemished. Fruits on upper branches were pristine except for occasional bird damage.
The water bath does the same thing as CO2 treatment. The point is to have an oxygen-poor environment to help acetaldehyde build up. The smartweeds may or may not do anything. I could see the wood ash creating an alkaline environment and doing something akin to what baking soda is supposed to do in baked goods with D. americana pulp. When I’ve seen videos of this process, I haven’t seen them adding anything other than water and something to keep the fruit submerged. I have seen them make sure that the water is warm.
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Here are 3 JT-02 lined up next to the ruler. The round ones laying around are Miss Kim for comparison and there is a Saijo there to give a common variety for further size reference.
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Thanks.
At the top. Dried Honey Jar. Unknown fuyu type and bird pecked unknown. Saijo. Wild americans at the bottom. The uglier they get, the better they taste.
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I am trying to dry my Miss Kim whole in this dehydrator. We’ll see how this goes. Peeling them is already tedious enough. I’m hoping the results will be like a lazy man’s hoshigaki.
Plenty more Miss Kim to peel…
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I notice that you cut off a good amount of branch with each fruit. Will that reduce the amount of fruiting spurs available for next year? In the same vein, I was thinking that there might actually be too many small branches in my tree, making the canopy too dense. Should I be thinning it out? If the fall or spring?
Note that the above pic was taken after I picked most of the fruit- there was a lot this year for the first time.
Speaking of fruiting for the first time, here is a IKKJ graft I made in mid-May (2022) which fruited immediately. The fruit wasn’t bad (20 brix), but did have a bit of lingering astringency. This tree got 9-10 grafts, all but 2 growing, but this was the only one which produced fruit.
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I cut off the fruit along with the branches if those branches looked small and weak. Some of the branches clipped were nearly touching the ground. Also some looked like they wouldn’t come back to life next year. They fruited so heavily that no leaf buds for next year formed, only flower buds this year. Take note of the nodes where flowers formed. Those spots most likely won’t yield any new shoot growth next year. If that’s all you’ve got then there’s no point keeping that particular branch.
I tend to thin out all the thin branches on my persimmons. The thin growth most likely won’t yield many great fruit or be able to support the fruits weight. I also prune any branches that point downwards, and any that are too upright unless I want the tree to grow taller.
Bob, try bending some of those thin branches in the middle of your Miss Kim. Some of them might already be in the process of being self pruned. A few already look like they’re getting crispy.
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Good thought on the baking soda> wood ash transition, I was going to say the same thing.
Is the smartweed discussed Persicaria pensylvanica? I think I have it all over the place. A friend’s chickens love the pink berries/flowers and house them regularly in their pen.
It is my understanding , and observation, that persimmons flower / fruit on growth of the current season . So , I believe cutting twigs off with fruit should not reduce fruiting the following year .
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You’ll need to keep some 1 year growth though. The flowers will originate from shoots formed last year, particularly from the buds closest to the tips of last year’s branches. EDIT: That last phrase especially applies to most kaki I’ve grown. Branches from a 2nd flush of growth also tend to not form as many flowers compared to ones from the spring flush in kaki.
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I just reread that and realized that the last sentence could be very unclear. I’m referring to a 2nd flush of growth from last year budding out in the spring not yielding very many flowers compared to branches that only had 1 flush.
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I’m going to try drying my many Kassandra’s. But I’m going to cut them in half, figuring the it may be easier to dry out the flesh if it is exposed. Also, this approach works well for me with figs.
Here’s the first small batch. FYI I’m putting them in a bin with ethanol for at least a few days prior just to ensure non-astringency.
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Have always thought a fig newton made with dried persimmon instead of figs would be a tasty twist.
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@jrd51 Let us know how long it takes. I’m going to try a couple saijo after I see your results. Sounds like those Proks have given you astringency phobia.
@Robert – Will do. Based on progress today, I’m guessing a day, more or less.
Yeah, astingency phobia for sure. But while the Kassandra reliably loses astringency when fully ripe, it does need to be fully ripe. I’m afraid to pass along some not-quite-ripe fruit to friends or grandchildren and turn them off forever.
Please share an after picture along with your impressions. They look good.
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Here’s the result, roughly a day later. The dehydrator was set at 135 F. It would probably take longer if I used multiple trays with more fruit
The dried Kassandra are underwhelming – only slightly sweet with a mild persimmon flavor. They are definitely edible, and the flavor grows as you eat more than one. But there is no concentration of sweetness and flavor as in dried figs.
FWIW, I remember having the same reaction to store-bought dried persimmons.
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