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["Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Years ago I planted several grafted persimmons on my property but on a spot without enough direct sun- still the fruit was highly flavored with plenty of sugar- the problem was that the astringency never quite left the fruit no matter how ripe.  I cut all but one of them down even though I realized I hadn't given them a fair chance as far as sunlight was concerned.

 

The one I left was supposed to be a John Rick as I recall, and I only left it because I never needed the space and it was much smaller than the other trees.  Even though there are no males in the vicinity it bore some small seedless fruit for the first time this year and when they were dead ripe I shook them off the tree and tried a few.  They were quite good.

 

This didn't surprise me, because a giant Tulip tree on a neighbors property had died opening up the spot to significantly more light- at least the quality didn't but the fact that if bore at all without pollination was unexpected.  I have been told by others that native persimmons can be quite delicious and many prefer them to the Asian types which they consider bland in comparison.