Hello!
I am new to this forum, and have a question about my fuyu persimmon tree. It's 5 years old, has only bore a small amount of fruit so far. In previous years the fruit tasted normal. You could eat it hard or wait for it to get gelatinous and a bit sweeter. This year we finally have a little more but they are awful. If let to fully ripen to the gelatinous stage they are mealy and not very sweet. Not astringent, just mealy texture, so much so that we didn't want to eat it. If eaten when fully orange but still firm, it's not at all sweet and even a bit astringent. Strangely white on the inside.
Any idea what this could be? Some other context: We live in NE Portland. I had put protective socks made of pantyhose on them to dissuade the squirrels. I gave it some fertilizer in spring and early summer (don't remember what, but likely Steve Solomon's mix), and watered during the heat and intermittently during the other parts of the summer. Fruit size looks pretty normal. It lives near an English walnut tree which I know isn't great but isn't any different than when we got normal tasting fruit.
I am totally stumped and would love to hear your thoughts!
Dawn,
Welcome to the forum. I don't know the answer to your question, hopefully somebody else will provide a good one.
I got some Fuyu type persimmons from Costco earlier in the month, and they weren't up to quality either, similar to what you describe. When allowed to soften they became mealy, and low density, a bit pithy in the middle.
I assume these were from California.
Welcome, as well 
Had your persimmons colored up like normal? Did you pick them earlier than prior years? Had they endured a hard freeze? Do they get full or partial sun? Had there been a substantial fruit drop prior to maturing..?
I grew Asian persimmons (an American too) at a marginal elevation where they needed all the sun & heat available, then left them to be harvested just before a ‘mid-twenties’ freeze, which could have been as late as ‘now.’
Thanks to you both! Yes, it's in near full sun, picked when the fruits were fully orange like normal (well almost... they got a little more orange after harvest, but all the green was well gone). I picked a week or so ago, though it hasn' t really been that cold. I don't remember when I picked previous years. Last year I had no fruit whatsoever; it all dropped. In general, I get more fruit drop than I would have thought. We had extraordinary heat this summer, and so did California, so if Jafar is seeing it in commercial fruit.... is it a possible effect of the heat? Mine had the pithiness too.
Seems I had around 15 years experience with mine, and there must have been some heat fluctuation. I’d get scorched black sunburn patches on the outer facing skin after extremely hot weather, but don’t remember it affecting the fruit quality. The worst problem I’d have was if they froze, there’d be an obvious section of ..a kinda puckered frozen area that never colored up or softened but instantly decayed.
They’re known to drop early fruit fairly heavy, actually an amazingly beneficial trait that ‘self thins.’ I can’t imagine commercial fruit, most likely from CA, having a connection to OR’s unusual heat… The tree’s still relatively young, perhaps it shut down the nutrient flow due to the excessive heat, and rather than drop the fruit, as it was beyond it's normal shedding time, ‘hung onto’ them … only to end up with an undeveloped ‘mealy’ texture..?
The longer I've been growing my own fruit the more I've noticed the variability in fruit quality from year to year. I think in earlier years of production you are just so excited to get something, then to get a different variety every year for 20 years. I used to read about the old timers talking about the variability. I guess I am one of the old timers now.
John S
PDX OR
In SE Portland, I have now eaten a softened persimmon from three separate sources, trees all within a mile of here. This all within the past 10 days. They all softened to the typical smooth texture, mild flavor and hint of sweetness, vibrant color. One is a known Fuyu, the others have the same shape and size fruit. So it would seem that the summer weather and general location did not adversely affect the fruit in this part of town. 2 of these 3 trees are not tended, and the third has only an anti-squirrel trunk shield as special treatment and is in partial sun.
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
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