Try this persimmon multiple-choice test to hone your harvesting skills: The persimmon fruit is best eaten ... a) soft, b) hard, c) crisp or d) gooey. In fact, all of the adjectives apply. The oriental persimmon tree (Diospyros kaki) comes in two families, one with nonastringent fruit that are eaten crisp and hard, like the "Fuyu" cultivar, the other with fruit that are astringent until soft-ripe and gooey, including the "Hachiya" cultivar. It is important to know which type of persimmon is hanging on your tree before you begin to harvest. If in doubt, taste one in September. If your mouth contracts dramatically, follow the astringent-persimmon harvesting directions.
Look on the label that came with your persimmon tree to find out when to harvest the fruit. Each cultivar has a different harvest period. If you lost or never had a label, begin to inspect your persimmon tree in mid-September. The harvest period for most persimmons runs from mid-September through mid-December, although a few individual fruit may ripen before or after that range.
Gauge whether your nonastringent persimmons are ripe by their color. When the young, yellowish-orange fruit turn deep orange, they are ready for harvest. These persimmons should be firm as an apple when harvested. Cut them from the persimmon tree with garden clippers, making the cut just under the calyx that attaches the fruit to the branch. Lay them gently in a basket for transport to the kitchen.
Determine whether astringent persimmons are ripe with a gentle squeeze. Ideally, harvest these persimmons when they are soft with a jellylike consistency. Avoid tugging or pulling them off. Use a garden clippers and snip just above the fruit and under the calyx.
Things You Will Need
- Garden clippers
- Opinions differ on whether a gardener in a hurry should harvest astringent persimmons before they are fully ripe. California Rare Fruit Growers advises picking them, like nonastringent varieties, when the color deepens, and then allowing them to ripen at room temperature before eating. Although this approach may lose you some flavor, you will not have to compete with the bird population to enjoy the fruit. Mother Earth News prefers that you gather only ripe fruit, picking a few every day or so during the ripening period.
- Harvest both types of persimmons carefully and transport them in a single layer in your basket; both types bruise easily.
- Once a persimmon is ripe, its shelf-life is miminal. While mature, hard astringent persimmons will last a month in the refrigerator or six months in the freezer, you only have a brief window of a few days in which to eat them when they are ripe. Nonastringent persimmons also only last for a short period after they ripen.
- California Rare Fruit Growers: Persimmon
- University of California Fruit and Nut Research and Information Center:Persimmon Fact Sheet
- Mother Earth News: When to Pick Persimmons and How to Preserve Them
- University of Hawaii Extension: Persimmon: General Crop Information
- National Gardening Association: Edible of the Month: Persimmon
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