This is how the tree looks now.
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That look great. I’m looking forward to trying Nikita’s Gift again.
I bought a few fruit from One Green World a few years ago and they weren’t great. Maybe they were picked early.
From all accounts they are an excellent variety.
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I find that my astringent persimmons vary greatly in quality as to exactly how ripe they are. You have to pull = not good. You have to twist several times = good but some astringency. They come off very easily = spectacular. They fall off = squirrels eat them, not you.
John S
PDX OR
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I remember hearing somewhere that you can remove mild astringency from persimmons with a few drops of ethanol around the calyx, and refrigerate over night. Does anybody know if there is truth to this?
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Yes. There is a post on this in the forum.
There is a lot of hear say and speculations about the many ways to remove astringency from persimmons…most will work but have serious disadvantages:
Freezing works very often but destroys the structure of the flesh, the flesh gets an unpleasant glassy-silicon like structure. The fruit cannot be kept once you thaw them, they will start to rot if not consumed.
Placing the persimmons close to other ripe fruit like apples or bananas will hasten the softening process but it will also turn the flesh to a mushy state instead of gelatinous like when it naturally softens.
The alcohol treatment has the same effect as the ripe fruit method…
The only method that I can recommend to every persimmon grower is the CO2 treatment like it is commercially done with most of the kaki production in Europe. This treatment is very simple and can be done at home. All you need is a soda stream…if you do not have this already than this is perhaps a good time to purchase one.
Here is how it works: all you need is a decent sized airtight plastic bag (no punctures!!!). Put your freshly picked astringent persimmons in the bag until half full. Squeeze the top of the bag tight and suck the air out using your mouth/inhaling. Stick the nozzle of the soda stream carefully in the opening where you just sucked the air out and push the button of your soda stream so the bag fills with CO2 gas. Tie the top of the bag with a piece of binding wire to keep the CO2 gas in. Put the bag with persimmons in a box or preferably a bucket with lid so that you can close it airtight. Leave this for 48 to 72 houres at room temperature. After this procedure your persimmons will still be firm but without astringency and very important: your persimmons will not rot and you can still store them. They will even go on to turn gelatinous like all persimmons do eventually. This method requires some testing because some varieties need only 48hrs while others may need 72hrs. you can easily test your variety using only a pair of persimmons and raising or lowering the treatment time until you have reached perfection.
One of the varieties that can easily be treated is Nikita’s gift…
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Too laborious, in my opinion. In most cases you’ll end up with the same result as with a bag of apples: - soft and mushy fruit. CO2 treatment has been developed for one specific variety - Rojo Brillante, which is harvested underripe and after treatment stays firm for a very long time. The end product is crunchy and juicy but somewhat lacking any flavour. Many people myself included prefer the taste of a fully ripe and soft persimmon.
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Personally I like soft persimmons with a jelly like consistency and high flavor.
But I realize there are others with who prefer firmer texture with less sweetness and flavor.
Perhaps the CO2 could be a valuable technique that can be used to produce crunchy/juicy persimmons for those that like them but cannot grow the non astringent kinds due to their climate.
I wonder if this technique can be used on American persimmons picked before they fall or hybrids that are very cold tolerant.
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I have tried CO2 treatment using small gas cylinder on Hoverla and Nikitas Gift with no success. After treatment the fruit was still mildly astringent when firm and turned soft in few days. These are hybrids…unlikely to work with American persimmon. I can’t imagine eating hard and crunchy D.virginiana.
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I have used CO2 treatment on nearly all my variaties including nikitskaya and it works fine for all of them. Personally I prefer a naturally softened persimmon because I like the juiciness and the more pronounced aroma. But it seems that most people prefer a crunchy persimmon. In Europe e.g. it is virtually impossible to market a soft type pca persimmon because people wouldn’t even know what to do with it. They would bite in an astringent persimmon, throw it away in horror and never try to eat one again …they just don’t know any better.
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Mikatani, I thank you for posting this. I’d been thinking of how to use dry ice, but I have a Sodastream and that seems so simple and obvious now that you suggest it, but it hadn’t occurred to me.
I also prefer a perfectly ripened astringent persimmon. The problem is, its a very small window during which it is optimal, and its difficult to nail it on more than a few fruit if you want to eat one or two a day for many days.
What I like about non-astringent persimmons is that I can buy a dozen of them and start eating them right away until I’m finished with them.
Treated seems the best of both worlds.
I also have a handful of American persimmons that have been coloring up slowly and I’m afraid they’ll be damaged or stolen by wildlife before I pick them. When I do pick them firm, I don’t know when they are safe to eat. I prefer them firm soft, rather than mush, but it is very risky both from an experience and waste perspective if I try to get them at just the moment they’ve lost their astringency.
If I use your method, perhaps I can just eat them when the texture seems ideal, and not worry about whether all the astringency is gone.
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I haven’t tried the method with american persimmon and don’t know if it will work but it’s worth a try. It works fine for nikitas gift so it may also work for americans. I’ll try rosseyanka and see how that works…
Just wanted to follow up on this thread… I had a lot of NG this year, so I picked some prematurely in October hoping to artificially ripen them. I didn’t treat them with CO2, but I closed them up in ziplock bags. They turned bright red and ripened, but the taste wasn’t as good as leaving on the tree as long as possible. Some still haven’t ripened up yet despite being a deep red.
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We haven’t had frost yet and leaves are still green.
All neighborhood trees still have persimmons on them. Maybe they can keep ripening on the tree into December
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Ramv
How come you don’t put your Nikita’s gift trees into the ground? Your climate is very mild.
It is in ground Tony.
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I am still putting fruit sox on my American persimmons here in Portland during the last 5 days. The fruit is hard when I put them on and softening up, developing a spectacular flavor. It keeps the birds and squirrels off of them.
John S
PDX OR
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They are coloring up beautifully here. Should start tree ripening In a week or so.
Saijo by comparison seems much later
I am looking into a second, and possibly third persimmon to go next to NG. Should I go with a full American, another hybrid, or a Saijo? I need to decide before they are all bought up.