I just ate my first persimmon of the year. It was an H-118 American Persimmon, marketed as Prairie something by one Green WOrld. Very tasty and about the normal time to start getting my American persimmons. I didn't have many persimmons this year. My Szukis mostly male died suddenly. I suspect my neighbor shot some Roundup over the fence. She threatened to do that to another neighbor. She is a very difficult person.
I am thinking of buying some scion for Szukis and grafting another tree. I'm also thinking about H63a, but we'll see.
John S
PDX OR
Sorry to hear about your tree. That's unconscionable. We got our first H118 Prairie Star several days ago. I picked it just translucent and then waited a couple of days to eat it. No others have turned translucent since, but I expect we'll get more by the weekend. This is looking like a good crop.
I think that Saijo is a really good tasting persimmon. If I were going to grow Asian persimmons, that's one that I would grow. I think they are at their best when almost liquid. Don't invite over a prissy upper class grandma in expensive clothes to eat one.
Every time I hear the name, "Saijo", I think of this 70's soul classic. It sounds like it's by the Stylistics, but it's by a one-hit wonder called Blue Magic. Check out the suits and the dance moves!
John S
PDX OR
My favorite is still Nikitas Gift, although it ripens very late.
This fall Im doing some editing of my orchard. I cant take care of everything and a lot were just "I wonder how this will do?". My American Persimmons - Yates and Prairie-something - have just never produced enough to matter, and are too small. The flavor is very good. But I'm removing them. Also, my Saijo on D. lotus has always been sickly and barely produces. It's going too.
I'm keeping the Nikitas gift. They are very tasty. Off in a far corner of the yard are Chocolate and Coffee Cake. They took a long time to establish and grow stronger. This year both have their first fruits. I'm interested in how they will taste. They are pollination variant so that might be a factor.
One thing that I really noticed this year is about pollination. Since my Szukis mostly male American persimmon died/was murdered?, the number of fruit among all my trees that set has plummeted. I've only had 3 this year, compared to maybe 20 or 30 by this time last year. The fruit have no seeds, as opposed to many seeds last year, and all of the previous years. Experts have said that having seeds is correlated with having larger and better quality fruits among the American persimmons.
I think I'm going to buy some scions this year of Szukis and try to graft another tree. In his early research, Claypool noted how big of an effect the quality of the male had on the ultimate quality of the persimmons. That's why I bought Szukis originally, and that's why I'm going to get another one now.
John S
PDX OR
That is a valuable anecdote. My H 118 is setting more fruit than my other trees, even without the mostly male Szukis as a pollinator. But it has 5 persimmons. The Garretsons have one. The young Yates has none. The Early Golden has 2. None have seeds.
That's still 1/5 of the persimmons I got last year, and much less than I got the other years, with seeds.
Time will tell, but I still think I 'm going to try to graft another Szukis.
John S
PDX OR
Well keep us updated.
I've been seeing big swings from year to year in all sorts of aspects of getting useful fruit. Ripening dates, sets, critter pressure, diseases. I'm nowhere close to having a routine that I can count on.
In some ways that's very exciting , others very frustrating.
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
John S
1 Guest(s)