Thanks! This is great! I couldn’t remember how they looked when I ate them last year. I just kept tasting them till they weren’t astringent anymore.
Do you know if the spotty leaf thing is fungal? or something else?
It’s fungal, though I think that is somewhat common, depending on the variety, to get that later in the year.
After 10 years of trial and error, I finally have my first in-ground ripe persimmons on the Keweenaw Peninsula. Tree has been in ground for 3 years. It was a 4a winter last with a low of -22 and a week of sub-zero temperatures. Picking Prok today 09/30. We had about a 110 day frost free season this year. Going to finish these under glass. The main trunk got damaged last winter, but still had the ability to make a crop. I can not emphasis enough for far northern growers that grafted persimmon trees must be painted white every year, and the graft union must be buried the first several winters. I think my tree is auto-pruning the top now to focus on the new growth it sent from above the graft union.
I have about 60 other persimmon trees in ground and some are now topping 6’ so I hope this is the beginning of a good thing.
Edit: These Proks ripened at about 2100 GDU’s and 125 days of active growing if that helps anybody.
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I still remain surprised that this root sucker pushed 6ft of growth since July. The tip is still actively pushing more growth in spite of already being hit with 3 days of frost. Didn’t expect it to go into October still growing, going to make some fabulous rootstock. The even crazier part is I didn’t fertilize it because it didn’t start showing growth until after the suggested cutoff date for fertilizer here.
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I had my first Sosnovskaya persimmon today. This persimmon I ate is probably not a good representation of how this fruit will be at it’s peak. The reason why I say this is because I got the tree shipped to me with fruit on it, and the fruit I ate had fallen off the tree in the shipping box. It was completely green and hard. Also, the grafted tree is young. Sosnovskaya must be a very precocious variety!
I put it in a brown paper bag with a banana and an apple for 7 days. By day 7 the persimmon was orange and it was soft enough for me to be confident I could try it. The persimmon had no astringency in the taste.
The texture was like a very ripe plum. It felt soft but had structure to it when cut in half. This fruit did have 3 seeds in it. The flavor had a moderate sweetness to it and reminded me of an apricot along with distinct Persimmon flavor notes. I didn’t taste any spice notes to it (no cinnamon, vanilla, etc). It also did not have any caramel, brown sugar, etc notes. But I was actually quite surprised it tasted good for being so underripe when it fell off the tree. I was expecting it to still have tannins in it. It just shows you that you can have a Persimmon fruit be that underripe and it can be salvaged. I have two more fruit on the tree that are ripening naturally. It will be interesting to see if there is a noticeable difference in taste in this young tree.
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Nice looking persimmon and it appears to be seedless.
Why do you peel the skin back? I’ve found Americans are to easy to eat with their thin skin.
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Check out this thread.
I had a nice crisp Orange IKKJ yesterday… I peeled it first.
TNHunter
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Yeah, I’m aware of bezoars. However, I think you have to eat a ton of them. I also don’t have stomach conditions, though, so it’s not as much of a worry to me.
Anyway, I was just curious. That’s tedious for american persimmons. I only peel thick skinned persimmons.
I have a Sosnovskaya and Sophie’s gift that I grafted growing in pots. I’m wondering if it would be better to plant them now in fall or keep them through winter in pots in my garage and plant out next spring? Any advice to keep them alive through first winter would be much appreciated.
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I’ve gone through both scenarios in Zone 7.
I now prefer to plant in Fall for this one big reason. Persimmon feeder roots are very fragile. When planting them in the ground it’s possible to get plant shock and have it grow slowly. If you plant it in the ground in fall. The roots can repair themselves for a couple months before the tree goes dormant. Then it walks up in spring ready to grow. If you do it in spring and the plant gets shock, it can focus its energy on repairing the roots and it can be frustrating seeing the tree not grow quickly.
The risk is the winter protection in the ground. I use metal core plant stakes. I find them for a good price at Ocean State Job Lot. Here’s an example of the stakes: Tiller & Rowe 6’ Plant Stakes, 5 ct
I do use a heavy duty digging bar to punch a hole in the ground for the stake because where I am there is heavy clay/rocks in the soil. Then I put the stakes in the hole and tap them down a little with a rubber mallet. Then I put a bunch of leaves that fall from the trees near my yard as insulation near the trunk. Also when I plant the tree I make a nice sized ring around the tree and put several inches of pine bark mulch down. That helps suppress weeds around the tree as the tree grows, makes it easier to mow the lawn near the tree, helps retain water for the roots, and insulates the roots. I plant my trees high due to being in zone 7 with heavy soil. Lowes sells 2 cubic ft of pine bark mulch for under $4.50 a bag.
Then I wrap heavy duty tarp around the stakes to lock in the leaves. You can lock the tarp one of two ways. It just so happens that the stakes I linked to above have the same width as the grommets (eyelets) of the heavy duty tarps I get at Harbor freight. So it’s just as simple as wrapping the tarp around the stakes we put in the ground earlier. Then hopefully you have an extra stake laying around. Use that stake just for putting through one of the tarp’s grommets (https://tytarp.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/f-1.webp), and drive it into the ground. That tarp isn’t coming off!
The other method of tying down the tarp I’ve used is wrapping dollar tree paracord around the tree and tie it down to lock the tarp in place: https://www.dollartree.com/product/327328
The stake method is much easier though.
I figure I can do this for very young persimmon trees to help them through the first couple winters. I also have huge pine trees in the range of my planted persimmon trees, so the tarp idea is also done just in case a branch from the pine trees just happens to land where the young persimmon trees are due to heavy winds/snow during the winter. The one downside to this method (I try to think of everything) is that it might be tough for water to make it to the root area of the tree due to the tarp being around it. I do try to water under the trees a little every few weeks during winter as a precaution.
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The main reason I have these persimmons is because they are “hardy” so I’m wondering if I just leave them to themselves can they survive winter? I really don’t want anything I have to baby or that can’t cut it here
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Plant them.. put a tree cage on them.. if you happen to get a record low this winter…
You can do what I did with my IKKJ it’s first winter when we got in the single digits a few nights.
Blanket, tarp, rake some mulch up around the bottom.
If you plant it this fall… it may not grow a lot top side… but those roots will grow and it will be ready to take off with top growth next spring.
Good luck !
TNHunter
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Yeah, they can. It’s just increasing the odds in your favor to get it established in the first year or two.
If I had persimmon rootstock to graft trees I wouldn’t care as much. Instead I’m buying my persimmon trees for $70 to $100 a piece. So there is more incentive for me to make sure each tree makes it.
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?Jiro starting to turn. There are only 4 remaining so I’m hoping the bag will keep the critters from taking off with them.
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My 6 sided Mikkusu is showing a little color now.
I have 2 Prok fruits still on.. not hardly ripe yet.
My IKKJ has several fruit on and it is getting nice and orange. Ate one this week.. it was crunchy, a little sweet, a little flavor somewhat like a nice cantaloupe. I am going to let most of them ripen more.
Found one soft red Kasandra today. I have 6 or so more on the counter near ready.
Kasandra is loaded with fruit.
Question.. do any of you have a fruit picking tool perhaps with a handle that extends for reaching higher fruits.. and will snip a hybrid persimmon off at the stem and allow you to catch the fruit.
I need something like that.
TNHunter
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I guess you could get a pole pruner and attach a bottle with the bottom cut off. Itd be tricky though.
Was thinking of something like this.
A fruit picker that can cut the fruit stem and it falls into a bag.
This could be used for apples pears, etc.
Has anyone tried something like this on hybrid or Asian persimmons ?
TNHunter
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