North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Martha L. Davis" <martha_davis@earthlink.net>]

Regarding persimmons:

Some people don't like the texture of ripe astringent persimmoons either Kaki 
or american.  In both cases when ripe the skin barely holds the pulp in.  
Generally even if you don't like them fresh cooked products are excellent.  
It is not all that common to dislike the texture.  

One ripening problem that I have seen with the smaller american persimmons is 
that sometimes they dehydrate before they ripen properly.  Putting a group of 
them in a brown paper bag solves the problem.

Having looked at a whole range of American crosses in Claypool's Experimental 
Orchard some of them never lost astringency, not many trees of that type, but 
some do exist.

I have seen American persimmon growing well and fruiting at least into Zone 
4, but not colder than that, I would be really surprised at zones 2 &3.  If 
you can get the fruit as far along as starting to turn color the ripening in 
a bag works quite well with no apparent loss in flavor quality.  The most 
cold tolerant Kaki's that I have heard of died at -10.

Martha 

High elevation NM formerly zone4/5 in Illinois