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Photo Pam Dawling
This is part of my monthly series well-nigh small fruits that can be grown sustainably in a mid-Atlantic climate or similar. We are inward the unseeded period for most fruits, meaning fewer to harvest, none to plant, but still plenty to prune and superintendency for, and new plantings to plan for next year. I requite links to some useful publications. We have a focus fruit, and then increasingly well-nigh others that need sustentation during the month.
The Harvest to Table website has a lot of good information. The GrowVeg Guide has a handy quick checklist. Stark Brothers Nursery has a series of 9 very short wares on growing persimmons.
Young persimmon trees produce fruit only a few years without planting, maybe the very year without you plant them. The trees are easy-care, with few pests (maybe aphids) or diseases, and can be grown as espaliers or cordons or in a large container. Persimmons tolerate a wide range of soil types, as long as the drainage is OK. Asian persimmons have leaves that turn yellow or unexceptionable orange in fall. The leaves of American persimmons are yellow in the fall. The ripe fruits on the yellowish branches of either type make an lulu fall display.
Late fall and early winter is the harvest season, and you can lay tarps or old carpets under you trees to reservation the falling fruit. Or you can prune ripe fruits with pruners, including a short piece of stem. Exercise patience, although you can after-ripen the fruit off the tree if needed. Expect 1-2 bushels (15-40 lbs/7-18kg) from a mature 10-year-old Asian persimmon tree and 2-3 (30-60 lbs/14-27kg) from a mature American persimmon.
Asian persimmons (Diospyros kaki) are often sweeter and less severe than the native American varieties, and the fruits are larger, up to small peach size. They are ripe when they are fully colored, slightly firm, slightly soft.
American persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) are the ones that grow wild in the Eastern half of the US. They are notorious for making your mouth pucker up. This is, if you eat them surpassing they’re very soft and ripe. This can be anywhere between September and February. They may have wrinkled, they may have had a frost. Despite rural myth, they do not need a frost to ripen, although a frost can help. If you wait for the fruit to fall, it will be ripe. Or wait for the fruit to wilt soft and the skin translucent surpassing you pick them. Some severe varieties have fruit that will hang on the tree into the winter.
Under-ripe fruit can be ripened without harvest in paper bags, perhaps with a comic peel or some other ripe fruit.
Ripe fruit can be eaten out-of-hand, or zestless or frozen. The fruits store a couple of months in the fridge if necessary. They can be mashed to include in puddings, ice cream, pies, smoothies and baked goods such as cookies, cakes or bread.
While eating persimmons, you can save the seeds. Stratify them (a spooky method that encourages seed germination) by storing them in the fridge for two months. Without planting, it will take up to six years surpassing your seedling trees will withstand fruit. There are two hybrid persimmons, Russian Beauty and Nikita’s Gift. Don’t grow from seeds of these as they will not grow true to type.
The other method of propagation is to take cuttings. You can graft Asian persimmons on to native persimmon root stock at bud emergence.
Choose varieties suited to your location. Asian persimmons need summery winters. Fuyu grows in zones 7-11, tolerating temperatures lanugo to 0°F (-18°C). Other Asian varieties can tolerate 10°F (-12°C) and will grow in zones 8-10. The hybrid Asian/American Russiyanka and most American persimmons, on the other hand, can tolerate temperatures as low as -25°F (-32°C) and will grow in zones 5-9.
Let the winter-hardiness zone decide what type to grow. In Zones 9-10 grow non-astringent Asian persimmons; in Zones 7-8, severe Asian persimmons may be largest suited for colder winter temperatures and milder summer temperatures. In zone 6 and colder, grow American persimmons or the hardy hybrids.
Most American persimmons require both male and sexuality trees to get a good fruit set. Most Asian persimmons are self-fertile, but yield increasingly and worthier fruit when several uniform trees are grown together.
Consult your Extension Service and local plant nurseries for which kinds do weightier in your area. Prices can vary widely, and quality may vary too. The Harvest to Table site has variety descriptions of 3 American persimmons and 8 Asian types.
Asian persimmons do weightier in full sun, while American persimmons can grow in partial shade, on forest edges. Choose a site with unbearable sunlight for the final height of the trees. Asian persimmons grow to be 25-30 ft (7.6-9m) tall and scrutinizingly as wide. American persimmon trees grow taller – 30-40 ft (9-12m).
Plant the trees well-nigh 20ft (6m) untied in all directions, in late winter or early spring. Dig holes deep unbearable for the long taproots. Stake the tree for the first couple of years, then de-stake.
Do not over-fertilize with nitrogen, or the fruit may waif early. In backyards, plant them in the lawn (if you have one) and the grass growth and mowing will provide unbearable nutrients.
Prune in winter when the tree is dormant, stuff enlightened that persimmons fruit on last year’s wood. (Don’t cut everything when the same year.) train young trees to an unshut part-way (goblet style) or to a inside leader. Tape or burlap the trunks of young trees to prevent sunscald injury.
Quinces squint like large fuzzy yellow apples, growing on large shrubs. They are ripe when the fruit have a good smell and develop a split from top to bottom. They are usually cooked, rarely eaten raw. The easiest way I know to melt them is to torch them whole, until the mankind is soft. This does take a while. They make succulent jelly.
Wintergreen is flipside native, commonly overlooked. The tiny berries often persist through the winter (I guess they’re not too popular with wildlife. . .)
Jujube (Chinese dates, red dates) ripen mid to late fall.
Weed and fertilize rhubarb, blueberries, summer-fruiting raspberries, spread wafer-thin and sawdust mulch. Weed grapes, take any cuttings wanted. Imbricate unions of grafted grapes until the spring to protect from unprepossessed damage. Plant new blueberries if needed. Weed strawberries and top up the sawdust paths. In colder areas, you may imbricate strawberries with hoops, polypropylene rowcover or slitted plastic and clips. Weight lanugo the edges with sticks, rocks or sandbags.
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