American persimmon report

12 years ago

I thought there might be a few members that might find my ongoing trials with American persimmons interesting. I have decided to remove the varieties 'pipher', 'golden supreme', 'blue', and 'evelyn' from my plantings. All of these are productive but the quality of the fruits do not come close to 'early golden', 'yates', and 'ruby' which are exceptional in flavor and productive. I am very short on space so only the best can stay.

'Meader' is also a good variety if weak wooded but has the highest sugar content of all the ones I have tried. It is not seedless as claimed at least in my climate.

My 'szukis' which is going into its 5th or 6th year has been all male for me so have not gotten any fruit. I may be removing it soon since I do not need a male tree.

I have planted others such as 'dollywood', 'craggs', 'weber', 'wabash', 'morris burton', but none have fruited yet. I will be planting 'elmo' this spring.

I also have 'john rick' but I cannot discern much if any difference between it and 'early golden'. It is a good variety.

'Blue' and 'szukis' make especially ornamental trees and I imagine 'wabash' will as well.

Of my 3 favorites so far 'yates' ripens first sometimes starting at the end of August followed closely by 'early golden' Their ripening overlaps quite a bit. The fruit of 'yates' is slightly larger than 'early golden' and the flavor and flesh color of these 2 are very similar though 'early golden' flesh is more clear. 'Ruby' has the largest fruits of these and is a later ripening variety extending the season into November and sometimes into December. The flesh color of 'ruby' compared to the other 2 is more yellowish/orange. The other 2 being darker orange.

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Comments (5)

chills71
12 years ago
Ive wanted Szukis for a while, but it seems to sell out before I even see its offered each year (I swear it is sold out as soon as the new prices are listed at nolin river...)

~Chills

I planted Elmo at my (ex) Mother in Law's 2 years back. I did get visitation rights in the divorce, though.
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wlh8723
12 years ago
I would like to try a few of these in Georgia. I would graft a scion onto a native that is growing on the edge of a pine clearing. Can you or someone you know spare two or three bud sticks? I can send you a self adressed bubble envelope and postage stamps.
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First, esablish that the tree is really not fruiting and not just prematurely losing its fruit. If it really is not fruiting, you would need to establish just what type of tree that you have - whether male or female and then perhaps also whether of the 60 or 90 chromosome race. Sounds tough to figure, but a few clues can lead you to what's likely its identity. If you know that the tree was grafted or you can see signs on the tree that suggest this, then it is most likely a 90 chromosome female. If the blossoms grow in sets of three then it's male; if they are not in groups then it's female. If the leaves are rather large, say greater than 9 inches, then it's more likely 90 chromosome. There are a number of other clues to look for as well. Once you've figured what you have, this is what I'd propose you do: 90 c female - If this tree is not fruiting it probably needs pollination. The best way to provide this is to plant a grafted 90 chromosome male which is available at some nurseries. Cliff England has them. You can also consider grafting a male scion to the tree but the tree may self-prune it off. Varieties like Szukis which sometimes can have male flowers may not be reliable sources of pollen. 90 c male - This tree will not fruit. It can be useful as a source of pollen for most of the named American persimmons that are available at nurseries. So you would need to plant another persimmon tree, preferably a grafted one. Your fruit will have seeds. 60 c female - Again, if not fruiting, probably needs pollination. I don't think you'll find a grafted male, so you would need either to graft a 60c male scion to your tree or buy and plant a few seedlings from a southern nursery (which would most likely be 60c) and in a few years when they bloom pare down to one that is male, having triplet blossoms. 60 c male - I would topwork this tree with one of the 90 c females varieties that doesn't need pollination to fruit.
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It's been an unusual year here for American persimmon with higher than usual yields and a very long ripening period. I've had this Yates tree in the ground for what must be close to 15 years and I've harvested a few dozen fruit from it each year, no more. But then this year for some reason it was heavy with fruit, so much that I had to brace the branches to support the load. The tree was dropping ripe fruit from the middle of September and it hasn't stopped with still a substantial crop hanging now in November The deer have caught on to this reliable source of food and have been cleaning up the falls.. I've always considered this to be a good persimmon with good size and flavor to the fruit., but at least this year has shown itself to be a strong producer and have a long season. Growing Ruby persimmons is a stretch for the length of my growing season and even in a good year I haven't felt that I could sufficiently ripen them, but this year's growing season is coming to a close and the crop is just hanging in there falling short of full ripening. On the other hand Rosseyanka, the hybrid, is also mostly a late ripener, but these can be ripened off tree or dehydrated maintaining good quality. 100-46 is a large reliable good tasting persimmon that I've topworked onto poorly producing trees, quickly turning these into productive trees, even some with borderline acceptable sun exposure. Prok is a variety that I've long been aware and have considered superior for several reasons but mostly on the basis of it's texture, which is firmer and more gelatinous than some of the others, which can be mushy or pasty. I've one H118 tree and it has consistently produced poor quality persimmons. I can't even remember the source of the scion wood so I can't vouch for the authenticity of the variety; I only know that this tree hasn't worked for me.
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creekweb
12 years ago
This past year squirrels plundered my American persimmon crop with unusual greediness, and my response of early harvesting of the fruit was only marginally successful as the fruit did not ripen so well off the trees. I am hoping this squirrel activity was an aberration rather than a trend.

I would have to agree with your thumbs down assessment of Evelyn. Each year I expect a better fruit from this tree, but to be honest, as you mention, it falls short of a number of other varieties. It's late, it loses its astringency slowly, the pulp is somewhat mealy and its sweetness and flavor are mediocre. The squirrels seem to leave it alone, which of course is a good thing, though I can't help interpreting that as just another confirmatory nay. I will be topworking it this year probably with a kaki.

I really like Yates - among the best for flavor with bright orange speckled pulp and reasonable productivity, but a squirrel magnet. Not so early for me with NC10 and Osage a full month earlier. Ruby has been about the same size as Yates but ripening later and not as tasty.
My largest American persimmon overall this year came in at 2 3/8 inch diameter, roughly the size of a Great Wall kaki.
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skyjs
12 years ago
I finally got my first Garretson this year. I picked it a bit too early. I'll have to wait a bit next year. I had several Early Goldens and they were good. I even harvested some seedlings from a park and let them gradually ripen in unheated storage. Most of them ripened. Some rotted. It was another low heat year here, so only the early ones ripen in our climate. I grafted Szukis and NC-10, so it will be awhile til I can eat them. I believe my American chestnut trees pollinated my persimmons because they were all seedless. I don't think the squirrels know what the persimmons are yet, but some birds tried to eat them. I am thinking about using cages for the squirrels, as they eat a lot of my fruit.

I will say that Meader and Early GOlden both taste really good. Ruby does too, but in a lot of years, they won't ripen properly, so I wouldn't recommend it for a northern/coastal/low heat environment.
John S
PDX OR
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denninmi
12 years ago
My Meader produces about 1/4th seedless fruit. They are much smaller than the ones with seeds, but so nice to eat that way. If they had no pollen source, no doubt they would all be seedless, but I have 2 large mature wild male persimmons from seed that, while useless as fruit trees in other respects, pollinate my seedling wild female but, more importantly to me, are really nice trees in prominent and critical spots in my landscape, so they are staying until such time as Mother Nature takes them out. I just wish they didn't send up bazillions of suckers, but that's just how they roll.

I planted 2 'Prok' in the spring of 2010 that I got in fall of 09 from Stark and overwintered in the garage the first winter. Had ONE little fruit on my 3 foot Prok this fall -- it blew me away. That one was seedless, about twice the total mass of my largest Meader, but more impressively to me, much earlier, ripening mid-late October, and tasted to me much more like an Asian persimmon. I think I'm going to LOVE my Prok.
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American persimmon report

Comments (5)

chills71

wlh8723

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