NIkita’s Gift continues to impress me. This is about the 5th year for this tree, 3rd year for bearing fruit. It was a very hot dry summer, I did not water them at all. They have no insect problems. the fall color is beautiful even without leaves. Yates already finished producing. There were not as many this year, but they were delicious. Most of the Nikita’s Gift and all of the Saijo fruits are still very firm. Now I’m planning to add Chocolate and CoffeeCake at the other end of my 2 acre property, because I’d rather they pollinate each other but not Nikita’s gift or Saijo. I don’t post a lot but there aren’t a lot of people growing persimmons in the Pacific NW and I think the information might be helpful.
Beautiful colors. So envious of you. My NG is about the same age as yours. Dropping fruit last year and this year plus needing winter protection is a pain to grow it where I live.
Your trees are so beautiful. If my front yard didn’t have a big shade tree, I’d gladly plant persimmons there to show off their ornamental qualities. The glowing orbs of fruit hanging from the tree are a wonderful sight.
I picked a few fruits here in Seattle today. Saijo, Nikita’s gift and Jiro. A dollar coin for scale. I am traveling next week and wanted to ripen some indoors on my travel.
Thanks Bear!
I also just got an H-118, which is a very early American Persimmon. Also Rojo Brillante should hopefully bear next year. I am told they do well in the UK so should be fine in our climate.
I’ve been hesitant to get Chocolate because of the seeds. I also didn’t care for the taste that much when I tried it last year.
RamV I’ll look forward to reading about your experiences with H-118. I think in many ways, the home orchardist is the “Research Center” for growing these less typical fruits in the home orchard, especially in less typical climates. By sharing experiences, we all learn more.
Here is that Yates tree from the original post, this year. It’s much earlier this year. We’ve eaten persimmons already. They are truly delicious. I do like that they are seedless.
I think I let Nikita’s Gift overproduce last year. It had only a handful of flowers, and fruits, this year. NG has a more spreading habit, compared to Saijo and Yates. The NG persimmoons are still very hard. I could not get to that area to water this year, and the fruits are smaller than last year. The Saijo has more fruits. It was slower getting established. They are also quite a ways from ripening. Again, no watering there.
I think I have enough persimmon trees now. I have a Prairie Star (or Sun?) that finally has some height, maybe bloom next year, and starts of Coffee Cake and Chocolate that I planted, quite a distance away from the ones that I want to remain seedless. Those last two are in that first stage, of just surviving and putting down roots, and might “shoot up” next year if nature allows.
Seem like Saijo persimmons aren’t good size fruits in PCN ? Should we need some different varieties? @Bear_with_me how did you know yates persimmon is good varieties for Pacific Northwest before starting to plant it?
@Vincent_8B, nice photo with the pawpaws. If you grew those in Seattle area, you are the pawpaw king!
When I bought Saijo, it was from Raintree. They said Saijo was the only Asian Persimmon that ripens at their nursery in Morton WA. Morton is not far from me in SW Washington, so I thought my experience would be similar. However, Nikita’s Gift is a hybrid of Asian and American species, developed and selected in Ukraine, so I thought, who knows? and bought that one too.
Recently my coworker in Vancouver WA told me she has a Fuyu that ripens. Maybe it’s warmer in town. Microclimates matter.
I wonder if rootstocks change things too. My Nikita’s Gift and Saijo are on Diospyros lotus roots. Maybe they are less vigor and less dry tolerant than they would be on Diospyros virginiana roots. I don’t know. My new trees of Chocolate (Tsurunoko) and Coffee Cake (Nishimura Wase) are on D. virgiana, but all I can say so far is they survived this summer.
Saijo is considered by some to be the best flavored. I read in some websites Saijo means “the very best one” but the Japanese-English translator on line says it means “Talented Woman”. I hope that doesn’t offend anyone, and maybe soneone with experience in Japanese language and culture can clarify.
My Saijo are similar size to Nikita’s gift, and smaller than store bought Fuyu. Maybe that is because I don’t fertilize or water it.
My friend planted both Prok and Yates. One of them died. The other has fruited for a few years now. We are not sure if these are Yates or Prok. The first batch that ripened earlier ( same tree) were smaller. These batch are larger.
Does height=fruit? My persimmon tree, though young, is about 8 feet high. I planted last year and grafted this spring. Grafts grew about 5 feet!
I hope your theory is correct and it will produce fruit next year, being so tall and all:).
Thank you for your nice comments.
Since I was recommended pawpaw to grow here and all the pawpaw seedling next year…,I think i am a pawpaw’s slave first before to become a pawpaw king hihi
Nurseries around areas always sold out Nikita’s gift persimmon. Maybe because of your online information. Thank you for those Daniel.
