After six years my persimmon finally fruited. I picked one fruit that was a bit soft and dark orange (it had a bit of rot), and it was mildly astringent and mildly sweet. I have no idea which variety the tree is. Anybody has experience with persimmons? Should I wait for the frost to pick them?

Let them fully ripen to the point they will burst open if you squeeze them. I usually pick them when they're soft and let them ripen more on the counter for about a week.

Those are huge! I only have experience eating them (just a little). I've had a small kind from a tree in Indiana and a large kind from a grocery store. Both were good, in different ways.

https://greenblender.com/smoothies/7202 ... persimmons

The photo looks like the hachiya type, which are astringent until fully ripe. Freezing the ripe fruit may remove the astringent nature.

Frost will help take out the astringency so as long as it isn't getting into the low 20s you should be okay.
As suggested above, some people actually freeze their nearly ripe persimmons to take out the astringency.

In my area, squirrels will start stealing them as soon as the astringency drops, so we need to pick them before they get fully ripe and just let them ripen inside. As long as they are fully yellow/orange they ripen inside just fine.

Another way to remove astringency if you want to try it is by putting some persimmons in a sealed container or zip lock bag with a small dish of a teaspoon or 2 of high proof Alchohol like vodka. Leave them for 3 or 4 days and the Alchohol will infuse the air inside and take the astringency out of the persimmons. This is good if you don't like the really soft flesh of fully ripe astringent persimmons, since you can do this and eat them a little firmer. Sometimes they may have a bit of an alchohol taste, but I like that actually. If you don't like that flavor, it usually disappears after a day when you take them out of the bag/container and they are back in fresh air.

Light frost is forecasted for the weekend, I'll pick them after it. Neighbors are asking me all the time what these are, especially now that the leaves are falling off. I tried both astringent and non-astringent "ready to eat" persimmons, the astringent ones both unripe and ripe. This one is very mildly astringent, and the flesh is still firm. The tree tried to fruit the last two years, but it was attacked by some leaf disease and shed all the fruits. I spayed this year with an fungicide for anthracnosis of apple and it helped a lot.

In my country, we get persimmons from Spain and Israel, mainly. Some brave people have grown them in a greenhouse, or as an indoor plant - but it doesn't survive outside without assistance... not in our normal winter.

Would love to try this fruits straight from a tree, but so far, I have to do with a supermarket one..

I tried one that got very soft and deep dark orange. The sweetest fruit I ever tried. It's like jam. The astringency is gone completely. I cut the top off and ate it with a spoon.

arnorrian wrote: ↑Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:40 am I tried one that got very soft and deep dark orange. The sweetest fruit I ever tried. It's like jam. The astringency is gone completely. I cut the top off and ate it with a spoon.

Yes, it does get very sugary... There is a variety which cannot be eaten while hard - it will turn you into a sourpuss immediately (called 'kaki plum')
The ones we get these days in the supermarket, are OK to eat while still hard.
I like mine not too soft, not too hard, but medium

Diospyros virginiana, the native to the eastern part of North America persimmons, are very sweet and delicious when ripe. I’ve got a couple of young trees growing and hope to have my own little supply one of these years.

Diospyros texana Is another persimmon that grows wild here in parts of Texas and is reportedly very tasty, I just am never in the right place at the right time to harvest any.

I’m making it a point to enjoy more of the wild edibles available. Persimmons are interesting fruit, wild or cultivated.

We just called the large ones back in the 70's Japanese persimmons.
Some years ago I would drive by a church everyday that had several of the trees.
They would be loaded with them.
Never stopped to pick anything because I didn't want to be accused of stealing.
But right after a good cold snap they would all be gone.
I don't think the church folks did it unless they came out at night to do it.

lovely tree! I grew a persimmon tree from a seed, not sure what kind, since i planted a few seeds together, one from a kaki type and a few American persimmon seeds from an etsy seller. Only one seedling survived the first winter. it’s been five years now, hoping to see some fruit soon. My tree looks much younger then yours though, probably because it was started from a seed. I need to learn how to prune it properly.

@arnorrian wait till they're super soft & make persimmon bread, delicious! Especially with lots of walnuts. I had too many last year so I peeled & deseeded them(yeah they were like jam, so ripe) & froze them so I could bake thru out the year. Persimmons taste great in recipes with cinnamon especially.

peebee wrote: ↑Mon Oct 17, 2022 10:49 pm @arnorrian wait till they're super soft & make persimmon bread, delicious! Especially with lots of walnuts. I had too many last year so I peeled & deseeded them(yeah they were like jam, so ripe) & froze them so I could bake thru out the year. Persimmons taste great in recipes with cinnamon especially.

I'll try throwing the fruits in the freezer to ripen it by force, because I waited for a hard frost till February last winter. Nobody has time for that!

They look fantastic... I don't believe I've ever tasted a persimmon.

They are sold at grocery stores around Xmas time. Wait until the fruit is soft and squishy. I eat it like jam on toast. Where I am now living there is a persimmon tree but apparently one 90 yr old gent picks all the fruit and doesn't share. I have helped myself to a few and am keeping them with some apples outside to help them ripen slowly. Hope it works.

There are also non-astringent varieties that can be eaten while still firm. Many are put off by persimmon because they bought fruits and didn't know they need to wait for them to go soft and dark. I make a hole in it and just suck the content out.

In Japan unripe fruits are crushed and soaked in water for a couple of weeks. They release a lot of tannins and make the water dark brown. This liquid is used to paint their wooden houses. Tannins protect the wood from insects and fungi, and with repeated painting the house becomes darker and darker.

So it turns out they can be ripened easily by placing them single layer in a paper bag with a couple of bruised apples. It takes just a few days. I made persimmon and cinnamon cake from them.