Hey y’all, been a long time. Life and all that, hanging in there.
First harvest coming in from my Saijo persimmon tree. Can anyone advise me when to pick them for best flavor? A couple were softened on the tree, but the rest I will soften on the counter.
Thanks all.
I have no answer but just want to say that I am so glad to see you back here.
Hope all has been well for you.
All I recall is @thecityman grows Saijo. Hope he will chime in.
Very nice harvest! Your tree must have escaped the hard freeze in April and the frost in May. A lot of my persimmons leafed out too early and got burned back.
Did ok here, only the house facing side of the tree has fruit though. I assumed it’s weather related.
At this point in time , it doesn’t matter whether you pick the fruit and ripen on counter or leave to ripen on the tree. They won’t develop any more sugars — in my limited experience.
Nice to see you back, Kelby! No doubt our friend @mamuang mentioned me because I not only have Saijo but its probably my favorite fruit of everything I grow- and thats saying something@! I rarely plant more than one tree of the same kind, but I have planted 4 Saijos! I often describe them as jello-like in texture and just heavenly in taste. Sweetness is by far the most important trait in good fruit FOR ME and saijo checks that box 10 times over! Ok, sorry… but I can’t talk about this fruit without doing a little cheerleading for it. ha
Now, I have all the respect in the world for @ramv , and we all know there are countless factors that can make 2 fruitgrowers of the same fruit have different experiences/outcomes. But I find there is a fairly substantial difference in letting Saijo ripen on the tree Vs on the counter. Pretty big difference. I don’t find that much different in most of my other persimmons, even in my other astringent ones. So generally I’m in agreement with Ramv, but not on Saijo. I encourage you to try some both ways and see what you think. Certainly part of the difference in our experiences may be due to WHEN you pick saijo you put on the counter. I certainly hope they are at least already completely orange (no hint of green left). That will help a lot. But even then, I find tree ripened Saijo to have a better texture, a more complex flavor AND markedly sweeter than counter ripened.
One last comment, and PLEASE don’t take this as me not giving you enough credit for knowing about Saijo or persimmons in general because I don’t know the extent of your experience growing them. But I’ve seen folks who think that once the fruit goes from green to orange they are ripe or very close. In reality they continue to ripen a LOT on the tree after they turn orange. What I find interesting with Saijo is that they can turn orange and then hang around slowing ripening more, but then they take the final step all at one- like without 12 hours! Mine will go from being an unripe, hard (not just firm but downright hard). THen in less than a 24 hour period they go from completely hard to completely soft and ready to eat. THey take on sort of a translucent color that is noticeably different from the pre-soften color seen just hours earlier.
All this rambling is just to say #1) Saijo Persimmons are unbelievably good (ha!) and that I suggest you leave their fruit on the tree until they change to a darker, translucent orange than the lighter orange color they show right up until hours before they are true ripe. I even leave mine on a day or two after they get fully soft and take on the aforementioned ripe color. I think they get even sweeter.
Good luck, and enjoy your new fruit! It’s a doozy! ha
Thanks for the info! They have been coloring up for over a month now. Most of the fruit is on the NE side of the tree, so minimal direct sun. I assume this impacts color intensity like other fruits? They are more yellow than orange.
There’s no freeze in the forecast yet (keep getting close), so I’ll leave them and pick as they soften! I’m looking forward to it, I’ve only had store bought hachiyas until now. Well, 1 underripe Nikita’s Gift a few weeks ago (damaged and ripened early, not terribly flavorful or sweet).
Kevin, I will leave my fruit on the tree this year. They look beautiful that way anyway. 
@thecityman Well you weren’t kidding about them being tasty! I tried to eat my first soft one today. I got one tiny bite then my 3 year old ate the rest of it.
Have to get my ladder out, looks like some at the top of the tree are pretty orange.
