I thought astringent persimmons would be hard to beat as my favorite fruit, but I haven't tried as many kinds of fruit as you, so I'm glad you agree, since it means the pinnacle of fruity goodness has always been available in America, and it seems like they grow anywhere, so it's a shame people are spending big bucks in the store instead of letting kids pick them for free in every neighborhood.

If you like seedless fruit a little caution on getting that Meader you mentioned in the last video. That one makes male flowers.

This year I experimented with making Hoshigaki at different ripeness stages soon after the fruit turned orange. As one would expect, the fruit was significantly more sweet as the fruit ripened and produced better Hoshigaki. However, the less ripe fruit had no astringency and was still really good. The lesson being, ripen the fruit if you can, but never throw out any astringent fruit. Dry it instead :)

Have a suggestion for zone 8, where there's not always an annual deep freeze? Thanks again

So if you’re trying to maintain a smaller tree, won’t a dormant pruning promote even more vigor/unwanted growth in the following spring? I assume you wouldn’t want to sacrifice your fruit set with a spring/summer trim, but couldn’t you just avoid branches with flowers or fruit? I suppose that pruning for shape in the winter and size in the summer is an overarching generalization, but how do you prefer to balance pruning when you’re trying to keep trees small?

Hey Ross,

Where can I purchase one of these trees. Thanks

Kind of frustrating not getting more fruits out of a tree this size...My Fuyu not persimmon(from big box store) tree turned out to be an astringent variety that produced over 100 last year for a tree less than half the size of yours. They ripen from yellow to deep orange color and stay there for a long time before softening. Before we get to them, the birds would peck on them just like figs. So I am surprised that your fruits are still intact after ripening. My solution to this is after they turned deep orange color but still hard, I harvested all of them and put them in the freezer. We'd eat them after they are thawed, which had a texture of pudding, and sweeter than the Fuyu we have. You can still taste a little bit of astringency on the skin part, but not objectionable.

Is the American persimmon the only persimmon tree for zone 5b or is the fuyu and nakitas gift a possibility?

Perhaps not fertilizing it would produce more fruit.

I just got a little baby "Nakita's Gift" persimmon this year. I look forward to eating some yummy persimmons in a few years!