North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Jwlehman@aol.com]

Hello Richard,

Your questions are in italics. 

You are fruiting Rosseyanka, a kaki hybrid.  How does its flavor compare to pure kakis?   Taste is an individual sensation. I've tasted Saijo and Hachiya and would compare them more closely than the non astringent varieties. People who sample the fruit all agree it is very good.  

Could this be sold commercially?  But more as a pulped or pureed product than fresh fruit. They ripen very late and shriveled, not very eye appealing. As Lucky wrote, the skin is very tough holding the soft sweet pulp as if it were in a paper bag. Over this past week end and yesterday I cut the fruit from my tree, soft ripe and pulped about 60 pounds of fruit. It pulped out at 70% +/- producing 33 pints of beautiful orange pulp with very little black material. I can sell of this no problem at $4.50/pint. I estimate my total time to cut from the tree, wash in clean water, pull off each calyx which is persistent, run through the colander to be 7 hours. You do the math. Yes, I believe Rosseyanka has commercial possibilities. 

I've also cut fruit from the tree pealed and hung with string by the calyx in Japanese fashion with success. Don't remember the name for it right now. 

How do Asians used to pure kakis respond to Rosseyanka?  There is a local Asian market and wanted to take them fruit to test this question, but as I have a waiting market for all the pulp I can produce all went through the colander. Plus it slipped my mind and too late for this year.   


Would it sell in markets, that is, does it have similar shipping and storage traits as pure kaki?  Defiantly unlike non astringent kaki. But very similar to astringent kaki. 
 
Does Rosseyanka have traits that make it less susceptible to KSD? David Pierce has seen KSD in his Rosseyanka, I haven't. My personal belief is, and I could be dead wrong, KSD is a symptom of kaki in trouble from any of more than any one single cause and not a disease in it's self.  Yes, I believe Rosseyanka is less susceptible to KSD, especially seeing it is so winter hardy. David heavily fertilized his was and I suspect went into the winter too tender, was damaged, ...shepherd hooked, but not killed. I have a cutting here from his tree that exhibited shepherd hooking with no problems here and fruited this year.   

Does Rosseyanka do a better job of surviving the -10 winter lows, the later spring freezes and fluctuating temps, or both?  Absolutely survives -10 every year thus far.  

Does Rosseyanka break dormancy later than the kakis you've fruited?  Rosseyanka breaks dormancy and flowers at the same time as virginiana whereas my kaki have been about a week to 10 days earlier. 

Are the buds more cold hardy than pure kaki, either dormant or after budbreak? Yes.
 
Cliff England sells another hybrid (Kent?).  Have you tried to grow or tasted this?  See my response in another message this date titled "Kaki hybrid traits."

Any other hybrids you know of, with similar cold-hardiness to Rosseyanka? None that I know of. Nikitiskaya Bordovaya (NB) is a daughter of Rosseyanka back crossed to kaki. Is larger fruiting, nice red color, earlier ripening and delicious. But too tender for commercial growing in zone 5b. I also have Rosseyanka seedlings here (planted in the wrong place, poor soil) that are hopefully back crossed to virginiana, not apomictics, but haven't fruited yet. I sent some seed of NB to Japan for embryo rescue and two seedlings are in existence there. Hopefully they will fruit in a few years. I may get scion wood from them next spring. 

Both of these hybrids can be purchased from One Green World and Raintree nurseries. They are the intellectual property of Nikita Botanical Gardens in Yalta and receive royalties from the sale of trees.    

Jerry Lehman