Variability of American persimmon fruit quality on one tree

General Fruit Growing
#1

I’ve got one American persimmon, a Prok planted in 2015. It has been bearing heavily for 3 years.

On average, I find the fruit good but not great. Some potentially good news is that, apart from any issues re astringency, there’s a fair degree of variability among the fruits regarding flavor and sweetness. Even among fruits that are essentially no longer astringent, the flavor and sweetness range from rather poor to quite good, maybe C- to B+.

Question: Do other growers observe any similar variability? If so, do you know the drivers?

Next year, I plan to prune the tree more aggressively to increase the sunlight falling on fruit in naturally less sunny positions, e.g. the interior and/or the north side. I also plan to thin the fruits to increase the sugars going to the remaining fruits. Any thoughts? Any other ideas?

2 Likes
#2

I don’t have experience with persimmons, but in general high fruit load (lack of thinning) and location of fruit on the tree can result in the high variation in quality like what you observed.

1 Like