Hello All,
I picked about 70 Nikita’s Gift persimmons this year (two trees) a little before Thanksgiving. About half of them have matured wonderfully. They were soft and mushy to the touch, translucent in color, thin skin, and VERY flavorful.
However, the other half didn’t mature as well. Those that I stored in my kitchen shriveled without fully ripening, and most stored in the garage are shriveling to a lesser extent without maturing. Their skins are tough, and they are just “off”. Do you think lack of humidity had something to do with the persimmons that failed to ripen? Could this result from picking them too early? Let me know what you think!
In my experience, the persimmons that are picked too early don’t ripen properly. It sounds like you may have picked all the fruit when only about half were ready!
I’ve had a similar thing happen with store bought hachiyas early in the season versus now. I assume they pick them at the earliest possible date in an effort to extend their season, but they inevitably end up picking some too early.
I think my problem was a combination of picking the fruit too early and low humidity indoors. I trailed one last night by freezing and thawing, and it was amazing. No astringency left… I did the same with an unripe Hachiya, and it is now very soft. Next year, I’ll harvest after Thanksgiving and store with some moist towels.
Sorry to wake up a sleeping thread… It will dip below freezing here in NJ in a couple days, and I’m wondering if I should pick the Nikita’s Gift that I still have on the trees. I was hoping to harvest them around Thanksgiving so I can be pretty certain all will ripen naturally. Last year, I picked NG right around Halloween and about half ripened naturally.
I found that freezer/thaw ripened NG aren’t as good as naturally ripened NG. Any thought out there on whether I should harvest NG before NJ hits below 32F, or should I leave them on?
They’ll handle 32 fine. They’d probably freeze in the mid to low 20s.
Have you tried ripening by placing them in a bag with other ripening fruit. Mine ripen in 4-5 days that way. I like them soft, fully ripe, before drying. The dried fruit is better that way. Having a batch ready all at once makes drying easier.
Forced ripening as described seems to be as good for eating quality as just letting them set and ripen naturally.
Thanks, Fruitnut! It looks like NJ will be in the low 20s on Friday, so I’ll pick them before the freeze.
I did try ripening NG in a bag with other ripening fruit. I just think that NG is overall late ripening here in NJ… My experience has been that if a persimmon is picked too soon, it won’t ripen properly under any condition. I’ve noted the same with Hachiya bought from the farmers market… If they were picked too soon, they don’t ripen normally.
I ripen my Nikita’s Gift and Saijo by placing them in a food container with an apple or banana. Those fruits give off ethylene gas. I cover snugly with plastic wrap. The persimmons ripen in a few days, sometimes 4 or 5 days. I do multiple batches to spread out the harvest.