Mine too, too small and nothing special about its flavor. Yates/juhl and early golden are much better.
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Hi @tonyOmahaz5
I am up in the Minneapolis āheat islandā, Zone 5a/4b. But still itās 45 degrees north. I ordered a Meader persimmon for spring 2025. My primary goal is to have a persimmon I can harvest after the apples are done in mid-October. Iām told Meader can harvest into the first week of November. Again my main objective is to extend my harvest time.
I saw you have a 8 cultivar multigraft in Omaha Zone 5. Iām wondering what order your persimmons harvest in?
I read that in Iowa Prok harvests late Sept, before Meader. Iām interested where the other varieties lie and if I can find one that harvests after Prok, in the later end of the Yates and Morris Burton windows, as much as possible toward the later half of Meader.
I could order a custom graft from NutTrees while I waiting on PerfectCircleFarmās breeding efforts, since Iām deferring starting my own multi-graft for a future year.
Doing a google image search on āpersimmon harvest windowā, I saw graphs that included Prok, Yates, Morris Burton, and Meader that I can use as timeframe references.
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The multi grafted American persimmon tree was at my old house. I moved to a new average home last July. As I remember the ripening time was Prok,Yates, Early Golden, H-120, H-118, MB#3, Knightville, then Meader.
Tony
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Mikatani Gosho. Picked a few off the tree as we are expecting a historic windstorm. I hope they will ripen. @Mikatani
It is still a young graft. Just 3 more left on the tree
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Another one to check out is Mohler. Itās not as widely available from nurseries but scion wood is available from a few places. There isnāt a ton of discussion about it but I think itās one that folks up in NH/VT have had success with (@hobilus I believe recommended this ine to me).
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I wrote down some early ripening persimmon this year, maybe double-check this info (its not in any particular ripening order):
Prok, Early Jewel (H118), H120, Jennyās Early, Journey, J59, Mohler, Geneva Long, Early-Golden, Yates, H63A, Geneva Red
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These will perfectly ripen indoors. Of course maybe a little less sweet because the sugars actually develop at the very end of fruit ripening on the tree. As long as the leaves havenāt dropped they will get sweeter.
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Which has more american flavor between Kasandra and JT-02? How much earlier is Kasandra?
IMO, Kasandra.
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Do either of them have any caramel flavor to them?
In my location, Kasandra ripens a few fruits in late October but in early November most fruits are solid orange (not the red-orange that they become when fully ripe) and either hard overall or soft only at the bottom (not soft overall as when fully ripe). At the same time, JT-02 has ripened no fruits; all fruits are greenish-orange and hard.
The problem with answering the question is that both varieties seem to require warm temps (>60 F) to progress to ripe, but in November such temperatures are infrequent. So most Kasandra and all JT-02 must be finished indoors. When indoors, JT-02 seems to ripen quicker, partially closing any gap.
So in theory, given hypothetical warm autumn temps, Iād guess that Kasandra would be ~2 weeks earlier than JT-02. But in practice here, they ripen indoors at roughly the same time. The grower can control the exact timing by refrigerating the fruit until needed. Either one will finish given 1-2 weeks, more or less, at room temp. I havenāt kept careful records but my sense is that fully orange Kasandras will take a week or less. Greenish-orange JT-02s will take a couple weeks. Iām eating both right now.
A final note: The toughest aspect of the indoor ripening process is gauging the loss of astringency. Both fruits, but especially JT-02, become quite soft ā even liquid inside ā before astringency is totally gone. The last vestiges of astringency seem to persist just under the skin. You can fast-track the process by skinning the fruit and drying it; you can circumvent the issue by not eating the skin.
p.s. Kasandra has a flavor that might be called ācaramelā especially if seeded. JT-02 is sweet and fruity but doesnāt have that same flavor. I donāt. know for sure if that nuance of Kasandraās flavor should be classified as caramel.
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As in the past, my harvest from one Kasandra tree was enormous. I didnāt count, but I think there were ~1000 fruits. After giving away 300-400, I was still left with a huge pile. I experimented with various approaches to drying.
My main takeaway is that ālow and slowā is best. At 95 F (a relatively low temp), it takes ~3 days for a halved fruit to dry. Meanwhile, residual astringency in the skin disappears.
A second takeaway is that itās best to remove the calyx (itās obtrusive) and pith (it hardens).
Finally, itās also best to remove skin and seeds. The skin harbors the last astringency and it also turns hard as it dries. The seeds are just a disruption. But skin canāt be peeled once the fruit gets soft; and removing seeds is a huge PIA. In any case, eating the fruit with the seeds is manageable.
In this case, I let the fruits get as ripe as possible indoors at ~50 F inside the garage, so peeling is not an option. Unfortunately, there is still some residual astringency in / under the skin. So now what?
Hereās roughly 1/2 of the remaining fruit:
I decided to remove the calyx / pith from each fruit, then dry the whole cored fruits. Hereās a tray. Iāve got nine like this, plus more left over:
Of course Iāll update in a few days with results.
Separately, Iām also trying some fruit leather after removing seeds. Finally, Iām going to try to make a simply fruit sauce for Thanksgiving. Iām concerned that (1) any fruit that I donāt dry immediately may get moldy; and (2) any fruit that I donāt dry at all (i.e., the fruit sauce) will have some residual astringency. My solution was to spray it all with vodka. I hope it disinfects temporarily and also reduces astringency remaining in the skin.
Edit: p.s. When the fruit is ripe, the calyx can be pulled off manually and the pithy core comes with it.
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IMO persimmon ripen better inside with higher temps. They should lose it eventually.
Thatās doubtful. They will sit a long time just getting more and more gooey. Why not just bag them up and freeze them? Some people claim that removes astringency on some persimmons. At minimum itās an easy way to deal with them.
Do you know it either Kasandra or JT-02 throw any male flowers?
I just did some more dried Hachiya hoshigaki. Soft dried outside and Honey sweet dried date texture inside. I can see why they are so expensive in Japan for desserts with green tea. Delicious 
.
Tony
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My first Kaki Pentula Fruits on a 5 years old plant. Not yet tested 
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@jrd51 ā¦ have you tried freezing kasandra pulp. Did it retain flavor well ?
When we were at Englands Orchard we tried PawPaw ice creame and it was delicious.
The recipe was simple tooā¦
50% pawpaw pulp
25% vinalla yogurt
25% cool whip
I am wondering if you could substitute persimmon pulp for pawpaw and it would still be as good. Persimmons with taste of vanilla are excellent.
They froze the pawpaw icecream in long narrow zip lock bagsā¦ something like 1.5 inch x 6 inch. It had the zip lock on the narrow end. You could open that zip and push the ice cream up with your fingers.
It was very convienient.
TNHunter
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pretty
Iām not to sure where I should post this but I am looking for a new persimmon variety and I canāt find any info about what I am looking for. First off let me start by saying I live in zone 7a, I am looking for a kaki style astringent persimmon, I already have Rossyanka and Nakitas gift planted in ground. What I want is a persimmon that is larger if possible ( like a kaki) but most of all has a strong apricot flavor! I often hear that persimmons taste a little like apricot but I have only experienced this once. It all started when my daughter brought an unknown persimmon back from California and it had the best apricot flavor. It was almost like eating apricot jam. Anybody know of any astringent persimmons that have a good apricot flavor? If I were to guess I would say the one I ate was a Saijo based on the size and shape of it. Last I really like the rum flavor of American persimmons so I will probably get a H-118 as well. I have heard this variety has a strong rum flavor and that will probably be the last of my collection as a really donāt have anymore room. Any ideas?
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<< warmer >>
Yeah, I figured the fruits would ripen faster at higher temperatures. The thing is that there were so many that I couldnāt afford for their pace of ripening to exceed my pace of processing. 
Also, I knew that Iād be drying most of them and that theyād lose any residual astringency as they dried, so I wasnāt very worried.
My main issue is with the subset that Iām gonna make into sauce. Those I need astringent.
<< gooey >>
I wish that were true. A small proportion ripening in the garage were already showing blue-green mold. And Iāve had them rot in the past.
<< male flowers >>
I donāt āknowā but I have seen no male flowers.
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This is also why I leave most of my fruit on the tree until whatās inside is processed.
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