Nice. I find the fully soft Izu to have a nasty, pasty texture. But its pretty good when still soft firm, and definitely earlier than the Jiro type I have and Matsumoto Wase Fuyu, and Fuyugaki, Coffeecake or Saijo.
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It’s turned out to be mostly about ripening. That may not be obvious to someone in the PNW. 
But it’s way better to have your PCNA ripening in early Oct than mid November (when nights are often sub-freezing).
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Makes complete sense. I had not considered that.
Yes… ripening time is the main thing I was interested in.
I figure that IKKJ and Cardinal are going to taste similar… but if Cardinal ripens 2-3 weeks before IKKJ that would be nice.
Hope that is not just hype from OGW.
TNHunter
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Here’s the question I really want to answer. Is OGW’s “Cardinal” the same as the Japanese release Soshu? Note:
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OGW says that Cardinal is the Korean variety Jo-choo. But I can find no reference anywhere to an actual Korean variety by that name.
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OGW says that Cardinal is the earliest-ripening PCNA.
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Japanese breeders say that Soshu is the earliest-ripening PCNA. But to my knowledge, Soshu has not been sold to the public.
So my working hypothesis is that someone smuggled Soshu to Korea, where is is called Jo-choo. The Koreans sold it to OGW. But whether this story is exactly right, Cardinal = Jo-choo = Soshu.
If that’s remotely correct, then Cardinal is not hype. If.
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Soshu is written as 早秋 in kanji and means early autumn. The same kanji are pronounced in Korean as jo/cho-choo, so your theory checks out.
Btw, Soshu is more correctly romanized as Sōshū or Soushuu since both vowels are long. Searching for these romanizations brings up a few hits that don’t come up for Soshu.
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Thanks. That’s helpful, and it’s consistent with what I heard from a couple of other growers with knowledge of Japanese and Korean.
Unfortunately my Cardinal from OGW died suddenly this summer. I assume that it was notorious “sudden death” problem. None of my other trees was affected. I’m gonna have to try again. If I can get scions, I’ll graft myself on root suckers harvested here.
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Comparison of average Saiju asian to a small oblong wild American i found a few miles away. Just thought id share
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@jrd51 … my Cardinal from OGW was a tiny thing when it arrived.
What the graft union looked like.
Here at the first of November this is what it looks like. 17 inches tall.
I gave it special attention this growing season… watering, fertilizing… but it only did one rather short growth spurt.
One plus to this… it is still small enough to easily protect this winter. Hope it grows a lot more next year.
TNHunter
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Yeah, mine started small too but maybe twice the size of yours. It grew well in late 2023 and early 2024. Then it just shriveled away.
Lost my TamKam this year to I guess that sudden death crap. It was fine, then one day it was dead.
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Season is well and truly done. Progress on the grafts i did April 28th 2024:
NB02 Zima Khurma. Has grown about 63" from graft wound. 58" ish from top of scion.
100-46 Lehmans Delight. Has grown ablut 67" from graft wound.
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JT02 Mikkusu has grown 77" from graft wound.
All were grafted on D. Virginiana rootstock that has been in ground for 2 years. Mikkusu grew the most. Zima grew the least. Mikkusu’s rootstock was largest diameter and tallest, Zimas was thinnest and shortest. Interestingly Mikkusu’s rootstock was the the least leafed out at time of graft. Jjst nreakong bid really and that graft was the last to take. It had grown a mere 5" while the others had grown almost 2ft or more. As you can see, though, it ended uo thr most vigorous and ot kept growing later into the season than the other two. At height of growing season they were putting on over 1" per day.
I supplemented watering in early summer as we had unseasonable early heat and drought. Zone 7B northern tidewater Virginia.
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I suspect that the person who can answer this question is Jim Gilbert at Northwoods nursery. I assume they’re the ones who provided this to One Green World.
If anyone talks to Jim Gilbert, it would be good to pass on some feedback that we are not fans of him renaming fruit varieties. (Prairie Star instead of Early Jewel, Nikita’s gift instead of Nikita’s Burgundy, etc. etc. etc.)
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Someone did it this year. Hoshigaki from American persimmons:
As you can see, the results were mixed, but it mostly worked. My read on it is that the exact timing of harvest would make a big difference. They definitely need to have sweetened up, but still need to be hard.
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Dried some Hachiya persimmons today. Dipped in boiling water before hanging them to prevent molds.
Tony
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@jabberwocky … i have the world record for JT02 shoot growth from a graft to a wild dv seedling ;-).
9 ft 3 inches from the bud on the scion.
And… on a Prok graft I may have the record for the largest leaves too.
Persimmons grow like crazy when grafted to my wild dv seedlings.
TNHunter
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Very impressive thats awesome. I should have taken some photos of the leaves on 100-46 and NB02 some of thise were enormous.
These 3 were the first/only plants I’ve ever grafted. It worked out pretty well.
I found some photos from 16 June. JT02 had only grown about 10" while the other 2 had grown about 3’! I was convinced it would take years for that tree to get to size. I wasnt prepared for the vigor grafts are able to push in their first season.
Out of curiosity what is the science behind why grafts are so vigorous compared to normal growth? I dont think any of these trees would have grown anywhere close to 5-6’ if they hadnt been grafted. And why does that massive growth only last for a single season the first season? What is going on with the plant to cause this? Same thing for the unnaturally large leaves and general lack of branching of the scion. Its so odd.
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@jabberwocky … not sure why such tremendous growth happens that first season after grafting.
But this spring I grafted H63A to a very nice sized wild DV and it grew very strong … straight up. When it got to 5.5 ft tall… I tip pruned it… and it then branched out and developed several nice scaffold branches.
I should have done that with my JT02 last year… live and learn.
TNHunter
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