Just data: The state of the crop here in coastal RI at month-end Sept.
In order, top to bottom: Sheng, Giboshi, Saijo, Nishimura Wase, Taishu, Izu, Kasandra, JT-02, IKKJ. Sheng, Giboshi, Kasandra, JT-02, IKKJ are in the ground; others are in pots. it’s tough to see the IKKJ fruits but there are at least 6 in the picture, ranging from green to light orange.
@snarfing … here is that crosssection pic of my last barbaras blush.
I ate it for lunch today… no astringency, rich, delicious.
It had 3 developed seeds in it… and one flat underdeveloped seed.
As luck would have it… I hit one of the seeds when cutting the crosssection.
It has some black speck in the fruit pulp… which I also see in Rich Tooie.
TNHunter
Thanks for the pics!
Damn im really not sure which variety to get lol.
Dollywood, bararbas blush, 100-46, prok ! Who knows
I -think- those are my main contenders
Are your Giboshi ripe now? Mine have another 4 to 6 weeks to go.
are these undeveloped seeds? also, are they or seeds in general safe to eat, unlike pawpaw for instance?
Is geneva different than geneva long? Either way i am leaning more and more towadd 100-46.
@kinghat … those do look like tiny undeveloped seeds to me.
That one on the left… you can see the seed sack.
My H63A had 1 fully developed seed and like yours… several tiny underdeveloped seeds that were in a seed sack. The seed sack had developed much larger size but the seeds never grew to fill that sack.
In my IKKJirro… that reddish one that was so soft… you could clearly see the seed sacks that looked to be fully developed… but there was no sign of a seed in them.
In some persimmons that seed sack is well worth dwelling on… sucking all the pulp off them while eating… extra flavor can be found there.
Not sure if eating underdeveloped persimmon seeds could be harmful to you in some way.
I sort of doubt it.
Most animals eat persimmons seeds and all…and the seeds pass right thru and end up being distributed nicely away from the mother tree.
TNHunter
100-46 seems to be ripening most of its fruit all at once this year. They seem to be getting more of a reddish blush than I remember from the last few years I’ve had fruit. A half dozen ripened early and have already been eaten, but now I think these look close enough to harvest and let them finish softening inside. The tree is 3-4 years in the ground and was planted as an 18" small grafted tree.
As you can see by this bite (probably squirrel) the animals are beginning to sample the fruit. I’ve already had the ripe H-63a disappear out of the tree, which is part of my decision to harvest these and bring them in while they’re still here.
Lehman’s Delight here tastes like rum.
Found a couple Kasandras that had changed from orange to reddish… felt of them and they are quite soft allready.
I am going to give them a few days in my counter top ripening chamber and then try them out.
TNHunter
Well I could not resist… had to try one of those after dinner tonight.
It had absolutely no astringency… 1 developed seed, was delicious… somewhat similar to IKKJ (very soft ripe).
My wife ate half and loved it too.
Looks like kasaandra will tree / countertop ripen just fine for me. I was suprised that I just picked this one today, midday… and by 630… no astringency at all.
TNHunter
Wandered to the closest wild persimmon near my work over lunch. Sure enough there were some ripe ones! Check out this fruit set. Might save some seeds for rootstocks.
This morning I found an IKKJ that looks suitable for doing a crunchy fruit taste test. It is nice and orange all over and still quite firm.
I will try that one out at lunch time.
Also found another Kasandra… turning reddish and it is quite soft already. I may try it tomorrrow.
TNHunter
Well… had lunch and a couple persimmons.
This is what that firm/little crunchy IKKJiro looked like.
It was sweet and flavorful… the firm somewhat crunchy part was Ok with me. I could sure eat some that way.
But the flavor and sweetness was definately a few notches below that red tinted super soft fruit.
Think I will wait for the majority of them to turn red and really soft.
I followed that IKKJ up with a Kasandra that I picked yesterday. Absolutely delicious !!!
Not even a hint of astringency.
TNHunter
Tasted my first few Nikita’s Gift. Weight was ~90 grams. Taste was good, but not as good as last year’s Kasandra. I was a little let down since I’d heard so many say that NG was their favorite for flavor. Texture was similar to Kasandra but more watery. It was pleasant enough but sure didn’t blow me away. I’ve had some named Americans this year that were better than NG, and my wife agreed. She specifically said NG reminded her of sweet rice. I didn’t know that was a thing, but she said that’s exactly what she tasted. I was hoping NG would have more aggressive flavors. Seems to be consistent across a lot of the named cultivars, but hopefully it will improve some as it gets older.
Well, I picked some fruit today.
Nashimura Wase (top two photos). This fruit looked almost fully ripe, so I figured I’d try it. The good news (other than early enough maturity) is that there was no astringency. The bad news is that the flavor was good but not great. I’m gonna let the next one get more fully ripe.
Saijo, Taishu, Izu (third photo, left to right).
a. Taishu was not 100% ripe but it was cracking at the bottom, so I ate it. As shown (fourth photo), the bottom 2/3 was soft. Taste was very good, better at the bottom than top. Again I think that I’ll let the rest of the crop get fully ripe if I can avoid cracking.
b. Saijo turned out to be 100% ripe, and it was delicious – better than the Taishu.
c. Izu is definitely not ripe, so I’ll leave it on the counter.
Interestingly, despite the presence of various male-flowering varieties (e.g., Nishimura Wase, Taishu, Chocolate) within a few feet of these fruiting trees (Nishimura Wase, Taishu, Saijo), only the Nishimura Wase was seeded.
FYI there are 4-5 Taishu fruits and roughly a dozen each of Saijo and Izu still on the respective trees. So this taste test is far from finished.
Note: All of these fruits come from potted trees. My in-ground trees (IKKJ, Sheng, Giboshi, JT-02 and Kasandra) are not nearly as far along.
I got a couple more " caramel cocktail" trees/ h-63a/ paradise.
I find it interesting that Gurney’s seems to have been able to tissue culture the trees as the ones I recieved have no graft line or appearent cutting form. Great roots though, these anderson bands are great.
They look perfect.
The strange thing is that on their website they say that “Caramel Cocktail” will grow to 35ft to 60ft.
I bought H-63A/Paradise a month ago because from everywhere I’ve read, the tree is MUCH smaller for an American Persimmon variety. Heck, Cliff England’s own website says his 20 year old tree is only 14ft tall.
EDIT: I found this thread on these forums saying that Gurneys themself say that they are grown from cuttings. Interesting if they’ve figured out how to do that. Maybe that’s why the trees are so massive from them? They aren’t using a rootstock that would make the tree smaller? hmmmmm.
