Starting in the mid 1980’s I began growing American persimmon trees on my farm in southwestern Michigan. I initially grew them within my nursery to sell as seedlings. Eventually I planted many in my open hay field surrounding my farm creating a hedgerow around 1600 ft. long. I had never tasted an American persimmon and only knew one extremely large tree with no fruit on a nearby college campus. I was using only knowledge in books and other people’s experiences to guide me. Eventually at a fruit growers meeting I was able to taste the fruit from other grafted varieties grown in Michigan. The limiting factor was the length of the growing season and having the fruits ripen fully on the tree. Unlike other fruit you cannot pick them early and ripen them indoors. They need the warm sun of fall until the fruit drops off on its own. I remember one tree crop pioneer who lived in my hometown of Saginaw told me his “Meader” persimmons were perched on a radiator in his home. “Ken. We need to reevaluate this.” I had a “NC-10”persimmon that did the same thing. Both of these are considered super northern varieties too yet fully ripened fruits were not possible. I am starting the process of naming the selections I planted so many years ago. When I had them in production, we used the seeds from these varieties to produce seedlings. All of them originally were grown from the northern most range in Illinois and Indiana.

Sugar Cream is the most luscious of the fruits with high sugar and bright orange color with only 2-3 seeds. The fruits ripen over a month period starting in mid to late September. The tree is a yearly heavy producer. The leaves are very large. The tree is very vigorous. It can be reproduced by grafting. The seeds are valuable in this cross because of the unique flavor profile and texture plus it’s much earlier than Early Golden.

Tango represents an almost seed free American persimmon. Small fruited-an inch in size-Tango has a rich orange pulp free of the usual compliment of 8 seeds per fruit. This variety is very heavy bearing and begins dropping in early to mid September. It is much earlier than Early Golden. This particular variety can be grafted. The seedlings can provide an avenue to develop a fully seedless fruit much like the origins of the Kaki persimmon varieties. This tree was totally seedless in the past. It would be worth testing to see if it is a self fertile variety. The yields are very high and can fluctuate some years to the point of limb breakage and then back again to medium heavy. This variety is not as soft as Sugar Cream and doesn’t smush easy as it falls from 40 feet up.

American persimmon has a large range and easily could be commercially produced organically in southern Michigan as a fresh fruit. Clonal varieties could play a role in smoothing out the acceptance of the fruit. The farther north you go, the shorter the season and the shorter the ripening period.The tree would grow fine but the fruit would be high in astringency and not useable. I happen to grow them in one of the cloudiest areas in Michigan similar to Grand Rapids. The zone of hardiness is fine but ripening of the fruit is the priority and may be lost if you have cool falls. Frost is not the ripening agent. Heat is. In the last 30 years of production of fruit, there was one year that little fruit ripened on my farm. Most years the fruit ripens to maturity but some selections are more reliable in this attribute. Those selections will be highlighted in future blog posts.

I have noticed the ripening followed the sugar content of Concord grapes which surround my location. If the sugar content does not get high enough in the grapes, then there is no harvest for juice. This is very similar to American persimmon and follows the degree days above 50F. Otherwise it’s a ‘no whistle week’ of dryness and mouth numbing astringency. This year the reflection of sun by the Canadian wildfires delayed everything by 1-2 weeks and pushed it back despite the high temperatures in the summer and fall. There are many influences in ripening the American persimmon fruit. Even after 40 years, I learn so much from them.

Enjoy. Kenneth Asmus