I picked all of my Cardinal hybrid persimmons today from the potted tree in a 5 gallon container. A smaller one had actually been knocked off when I was watering a week ago, ripened up inside and was eaten yesterday, so that makes the total harvest 14. They probably average 80 grams, so definitely smaller than last year when they were around 100g, but it was a lot for the small tree to carry and I didn’t water as much as I should have or even fertilize it in the last year. It is certainly quite the trooper.
As you can see in the first picture, they go quite reddish when ripe, showing an obvious link to the Honan Red side of its family tree. I ate one of the ripe ones and would describe it almost as a smaller Royo Brilliante, but with a bit more richness from the DV side. It is firmer than a Hachiya type would be, like RB, but not as firm as Nakitas Gift or any of the DV fruit I’ve eaten. Overall, xcellent fruit and I would gladly eat many more than I have this year. Since it is growing in a pot, I’m not sure if it would be larger and better in the ground, but I’m sure it would be happier.
There were a couple of smaller undeveloped seeds last year and I’m seeing that again this year. Actually the larger seed in this one might be viable, but I’m too old to start a bunch of random seedlings.
The smaller persimmon in my hand is a 58 gram Barbara’s Blush and the larger is the Prok which weighed 75 grams. BB has been very mild this year just like last year. Prok is mild (to put it nicely) to the point of being just plain bland. We’ve had ~.20" of rain in the last 2+ months here. I just can’t picture the flavor improving to the point where I’m not disappointed with BB and especially with Prok.
Still waiting to taste LD and see if it improved since last year. Hopefully JT-02 improved since last year too. Everyone is eagerly awaiting Kassandra. Still waiting to get my first taste of Nikita’s Gift, Claypool (H120), Yates, and Rosseyanka.
To my surprise, a couple persimmons appear tp be ripening on my 3rd year potted Taishu. That’s way early for this variety in this area. Neither IKKJ nor Izu is doing anything similar.
This is at the bottom of my Cardinal. My walking onions have now been started in small patches at the bottom of 30 or so fruit trees… on the north side… i plan to start some bocking 14 comfrey on the south side next spring.
I’m sorry that these are bland for you, and it certainly concerns me about my prok which hasn’t even started to fruit.
As a side note…When I tasted the first fruits off my Early Jewel, they seem bland to me, however it was my first time even trying American Persimmon cultivar. But about midway through the crop this summer, they started to get much richer in flavor. Sadly I collect the last of them yesterday; I have about 5 left ripening on the counter. I think I got a total of 40-something off its first year of fruiting.
Anyway, I was hoping that the inconsistent reports of Prok(some love it, some say its bland such as yourself) was due to perhaps differences in climate like heat units or maybe even soil nutrients, but I think Missouri gets pretty hot in the summer and has better soil than my Texas clay surely…?
Meader starting to ripen. Still a little astringent. A few seeds sometimes due to a few male flowers. No wild trees in my area as I never found one. I am 73 years old and hunted and fished a lot.
I think on average my area has ~30 days per year with a high temp over 90 degrees. This year was fairly average for temps. I’ve wondered about soil nutrients affecting taste. My main persimmon orchard is on really poor Ozarks hillside clay soil. Broomsedge (poverty grass) is the main grass that has grown after I clearcut all the trees off of the hillside. Thing is, the wild tree that made me fall in love with persimmons is in the same poor soil, so that makes me doubt that poor soil is to blame. I know taste is subjective and my palate is not refined, but others have the same opinion of the lack of impressive flavor in Prok and BB. LD was similarly bland last year. These all have great pulp to seed/skin ratios and are sweet, but that’s pretty much all we’re tasting is sweetness with some generic American persimmon flavor.
Got my first Claypool (H-120) ever. Great flavor. Very rich. My wife said she could taste butterscotch. I couldn’t. That’s happened on more than one variety now, so it might just be me not able to detect that flavor. Anyway, it was great, and we’re looking forward to more. This tree is a 2nd year graft and is not in a great location. Size is smaller than BB (I didn’t weigh this one) and it has a flatter shape. Claypool jumped to the top of the list for my favorite pure Americans. The taste has made me really glad I grafted several more trees over to Claypool this last spring.
Possibly unpopular alternate opinion- Propping makes for easy harvest without ladders…
If deer are present, branches would have to start 10’ up to avoid browsing with fruit load.
That said, I’ve familiarized myself more with the DV tendency towards self pruning limbs that don’t have a lot of light resources.
I protect my new grafts inside if new when possible; If they came to you alive it might have been user error but it’s hard to say. If not fully healed they might not have the same cold hardiness of a mature tree.
We have a few threads discussing this challenge and some answers… Long story short, if you know a rootstock is likely to have KSDS, graft it to good DV genetics.
If it is endemic to your location, sourcing rootstock from somewhere else might be a good approach.
I think of it similarly to grape grafting to resistant native rootstock, except in this case you have to be selective with the scion too.
Hey Pedro! Take a quick look at the diagrams available online for proper pruning technique. Ideally you’ll want your final cut a bit closer to the bark collar than the photo shows for the best healing results.
Water when the leaves curl when it’s hot, that is likely your tree trying to tell you it’s thirsty!
I know I don’t have to tell you, but plant those seeds or give them to someone who will!
Awesome work there Tony! I might need to get some scion from you on this one. I don’t think I had any takes.
