WAIT!! More cold and time is needed. You're currently right on track.

Oriental persimmons shouldn't be soft when you pick them up. If they are orange, I usually go and harvest my persimmons. You don't have to do anything with them, just leave them for a few days inside and they will be delicious. If you wait more, they can be damaged by frost. This is just my way of doing, but it works. I never had any problem with my persimmons storage, they will last indoors for long time. An they taste so good.
Olga

OK...so far, 1 vote for leaving them be, and 1 vote for picking them and bringing them in!

HELP!
(:

Olga, I had 3 lonely persimmons on this tree become red-ripe "prematurely" about 3 weeks ago (for some strange reason).
I picked one of them that was soft as a ripe peach directly from the tree, and ate it right on the spot.
I know the early ripening HAD TO be a freak thing...but are you saying that it is not typical to wait until they're somewhat soft like this?
If not...what do you think about bringing them inside & putting them in a plastic bag with either a couple of apples or some bananas to hasten the ripening?

don't let them freeze. You will ruin them. Pick them, apple-ripen them, and what you got you got. That's the problem with persimmons one zone too cold.

I find that mine taste better if left on the tree longer. According to my logs I picked them at Thanksgiving last year. I don't recall if the fruits froze or not, their freezing point is well below 32F with all that sugar etc. In colder climates they may need to be picked sooner. I don't think it gets below 20-25F before Thanksgiving here.

One downside of leaving them on is the deer can discover them. If deer figure out when they are ripe they will eat them up. This year a deer bit into an unripe one and just left tooth marks. Hopefully that deer will convince all his buddies to stay away :-)

Scott

Once all traces of green are gone from the skin they can be harvested and stored till they soften. I usually leave mine on the tree till they just start to soften but well before they are fully soft unless the weather forecast calls for temps at or below 26F which will usually freeze them.

I would not put them in a bag, just let them be the same as you do with harvested apples. Nothing special, they will soften and be tasty soon.
Olga

Well...last night it got down to 29F, and the night before 31F, but the forecast is for warmer temps this weekend...

Checked them again yesterday.
Still hard as a rock!

Not ALL of the persimmons are pumpkin-orange!
Some of the ones in the more "shaded" interior regions of the tree are still somewhat greenish-orangish.

With all due respect Olga, I'd rather not bring them in prematurly if it means sacrificing taste or texture in the end. I'm not saying what you do is "wrong". It's just that I may be unlike others on this thread in that I don't have as much at risk...
(why?)
There's absolutely 0 chance of deer getting to them; as I've never seen hide nor hair of Bambi in this "tight" neighborhood, throughout the 9 years we've lived here.

And again, the neighbor is giving them to me in trade for my work. Nobody else even knows they're there.

(Truth is...she admittedly told me she wouldn't know what to do with them, anyway!)
(:

Thank you EVERYONE for your input!

If the persimmon is non-astringent (e.g. Fuyu), then it can be harvested and eaten while hard. If it is astringent (e.g. Tanenashi), then it needs to be soft before being eaten. You have not specified which type of persimmon it is. If you don't know, you can try testing one persimmon to find out.

Sherman

Is it acorn shaped or tomato shaped? If tomato shaped probably a Fuyu, then pick them now and enjoy.

I picked a "Fuyu" a few days ago which was all orange, but it was astringent. It looks just like a Fuyu, and it is from a scion I was told was Fuyu by the person that gave it to me. What do you think is going on?

Scott

Was it just a little astringent, or really pucker your face astringent?

Thanks for the tip, willyt, because I had NO CLUE what type they were!

They're definately dead ringers for tomatos when the green part's trimmed away.
As a matter of fact, I completely fooled a neighbor of mine into thinking one of (the 3 "premature ripe" ones) WAS a tomato, just as I dared him to bite into it.
Those 3 were CERTAINLY juicy!

So, you're saying the Fuyu SHOULDN'T get soft, huh?
Hmmmm, why then did those 3 persimmons get a wild hair and decide to turn "juicy"...a solid MONTH before the rest of the tree really get to the orange-red stage that it is now?

This weekend I took a chance & made a loaf of persimmon nut bread with 2 large persimmons that were quite red in color, but still, somewhat... "hard".

Everyone loves the bread... (so far)!
And so far, no 'undesirable side effects' have been reported to me!
(:

My main quandry, is do I move forward right NOW with my plans to make persimmon PRESERVES?
Or do I wait until these 35 or so remaining persimmons get "softer & juicier"... like what I had experienced with the 3 delicious pre-mees I was teased with back in late September?

(F.Y.I The persimmon preserves will be used primarily for 2008 Christmas presents, along with blackberry-plum preserves I made in August.)

I pick the Fuyu type when they are really orange and start to soften. When I squeeze them, the fruit gives just a bit instead of being rock hard. I put them in a drawer for a week and eat, but you could probably use right away.

As Sherman was trying to tell you, and his point seems to have been lost, In Oriental persimmons there are two types: astringent and non-astringent. If one is even a little bit astringent then it falls into the "astringent" classification. If it is a non-astringent persimmon then it won't have ANY astringency. Non-astringent persimmons should be picked when they begin to color up and are still as hard and crisp as an apple and that's when it should be eaten out of hand. As was previously suggested, pick one and try it. It won't hurt to let them get to the soft ripe stage but then they quickly become mushy but that won't affect the product you intend to make.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bittersweet Gardens.Com

Eddie1,You are dead on-the spot.
Thanks for clarifying.
They are definately NON-astringent persimmons.
I bit into a "harder" one, and it was not bitter at all.
As a matter of fact, it was quite sweet.

But I'm glad I waited a little while longer anyway, because they're growing "soft" on the interior, to a degree.
This is the ideal ripening stage for making bread & canning preserves!

Thanks again!

Just to let ya'll know...

I ended up getting 74 good persimmons off this tree yesterday.
( :

Most of them ARE ripe!
Out of the 74, there are maybe two dozen that need some legitimate ripening time.

Aside from having a few around for just...."eating".
I figure that's just about right for making two batches of preserves (twelve, 8 oz jars altogether), as well as 12 to 14 loaves of persimmon bread, which I can make & freeze at my leisure, as the "less ripe" ones designated for this purpose begin to ripen slowly in our semi-heated garage between now and .........?