I neglected to take photos. There should be more coming though.
I picked a quart or so of Meader to finish ripening indoors away from animals. Young tree. A few seeds from self-pollination. No wild trees here. It blooms heavily but does not set all of them. I think a male tree would improve fruit set. I need to graft a male onto this tree or seedlings. It will take to long for a seedling male.
@Robert here is the first MB#3 that has ripened. I found it on the ground under the tree a couple of days ago and let it finish ripening inside since it was still a bit firm. The first picture shows it next to one still on the tree (a branch on my Prok). This one was one of the smaller ones of the dozen or so that set this year, but none are very big. Basically like most wild fruit in the area.
Here it is next to a medium to small H-63a. Many of my H-63a are larger than this one, but it does seem that H-63a has a lot more variability in size compared to my other varieties.
And here it is cut open before tasting. Good American persimmon flavor, but I didn’t find it exceptional. This was the first one, so I’ll keep an open mind before tasting the others, but so far I wouldn’t be recommending it to anyone.
There was just one seed in the fruit. I’ll be curious if the rest have more seeds since everything else on the tree seems very well pollinated. Cliff had reported it as being a hybrid, but it did drop just like a regular DV fruit. If it is a hybrid I would guess it is mostly DV at least.
I think even female persimmon trees can throw out a male flower from time to time, thus seeding your fruit.
Thanks for the pic. That’s what I got. You can see the slight ribbing on it just like mine. Pretty sure it’s just an american. Morris Burton itself has not been very popular among the forum people that have tried it. I’ll taste it soon, but most likely I’ll graft it over to H120 to match the rest of the tree. The H120’s have decent size to them. I’m grafting over Rosseanka as well. This next grafting season I’m trying to get some varieties that have no EG in them. All of those EG varieties seem to taste the same.
We are just back from a week in Wyoming (35th wedding anniversary trip)… Jackson Hole, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, etc… great trip.
I found that all my remaining H63As… ripened and dropped while we were gone… bummer… but perhaps next year we get more… and they mature some flavor wise.
I found one really ripe (soft gooie) IKKJiro… and two Barbaras blush… and a few CHE fruits ripe this morrning. We ate the IKKJ and CHE with breakfast… both were delicious.
This is what that IKKJ looked like inside… completely seedless, jammy, syrup like very nice flavor, sweet, not quite like an American but definately very good. My wife was especially fond of IKKJ. Cant wait for more of those to ripen. Around 20 left on the tree.
Need to try some crunchy… but this gooie one was excellent.
TNHunter
Do you like the IKKJ, or any non-astringents, when they are still firm?
Based on the last sentence he hasn’t tried them firm yet
I’m not sure if I read that part, but I meant generally, not necessarily this season or grown by him.
@murky … I have not tried one crunchy yet…
But the gal in the video below loves them crunchy.
At around 3:45 in the vid… you can see that.
TNHunter
A bit off topic - but I think crunchy fruit is preferred in the mid-latitudes and soft/gooey fruit more preferred in the tropics
In the tropics, many staples (mango, banana, papaya, jackfruit, sapodilla) ripen rapidly and sweeten off-plant via ethylene. With short farm-to-stall distances and high turnover, sellers can offer fruit at peak softness without it rotting in a warehouse first—so grocery stalls commonly stock ripe-today fruit.
In temperate countries, fruit often travels farther through colder, slower chains. Retailers minimize losses by favoring firm cultivars and selling earlier ripeness stages (hard peaches, crisp pears), letting them finish at home. Many people don’t even wait for the fruit to finish ripening so this gave rise to crisp and still sweet peaches/nectarines/stone fruit hybrids (like the Zaiger varieties)
I think persimmons follow the same pattern - People who grew up eating crunchy fruit prefer crunchy persimmons. They are usually picked 2 months before peak ripeness so have lots of the crunch that average people like. Most people don’t seem to like sweet fruit but they consume a lot of sweet candy or cola.
e.g. My neighbors will not touch the figs or persimmons I give them – too soft for their palates and too sweet.
LOTS of counter examples but this is a general observation.
That’s a compelling explanations for how tastes are evolved. I appreciate figs and astringent persimmons to be eaten when they are fragile. But bananas, and to a lesser extent pawpaws, I prefer too firm to drink through a straw ![]()
Liking crunchy texture isn’t mutually exclusive with liking sweet fruit.
But I can see how people may be predisposed to wanting things crunchy over other considerations.
I like both crunchy astringent, and soft non-astringent persimmons. If the non-astringent were the only persimmons that existed, and they only came soft, I’d probably like them. I just don’t like the ones I’ve had nearly as much as the way I prefer.
I think I’m prejudiced against runny food in general though. I like jellied texture soft persimmons, not slurp and dribble or stringy ones.
LOL, I think you have the beginnings of a Texture Gradient. Can you formalize this a bit, like a 1-10 scale where each number is associated with a descriptor (e.g., 9 = SLURP).
Visited (Rich Tooie) today… it is just starting to drop a few fruits. I ate a few that were ripe… no astringency… and collected a few that will need a few more days under glass.
Rich tooie has a much richer base flavor than 100-46 LD at Englands last fall… and much richer than my first H63A fruits.
I will be trying my first Barbara’s blush in a few more days. Dont expect best flavor ever from first fruits… but hopefully over time these improve much.
TNHunter
My Kasandra looks like this today… 30+ fruit on here in year 3.
My IKKJiro also in year 3… 20+ fruit on.
I picked one more IKKJ… it is nice and orange… and a little soft. It may not be crunchy… but will report back on how it tasted compared to the one that was very soft and jammy.
I found another Barbara’s blush persimmon on the tree that was quite soft. Tried it out… and it had a richer flavor than my H63A did… it tasted more like Rich Tooie… and less like H63A and Lehmans Delight.
TNHunter
This is what that orange and a little soft IKKJ looked like when cut.
It tasted very good… not quite as good as the very soft one… but good enough. My wife and 2 year old granddaughter agreed.
Love the no seeds.
TNHunter
My BB has not fruited yet, but glad to hear it’s better than H63A. Like you I haven’t been real impressed with H63A. I’ve got some first year H120 to try pretty soon, so will give a report on those.
The non astringent asians I think get more flavorful the softer they get. I’m not a big fan of them compared to the astringents.
@TNHunter So, at this point would you rank Rich Tooie at or near the top with regard to American Persimmons?
Also I’m curious what your opinion is regarding IKKJ compared to American. Personally I prefer American flavor but was wondering if that was just isolated.
I’ve tasted lots of wild persimmons (like Rich Tooie) and many of them are better tasting than the named varieties I’ve tried. The down side though is they usually are not much more than bags of seeds with a little pulp.
We have no male Virginiana nearby. So they should all be seedless









