The persimmon tree in our backyard is planted by previous house owner and now is about 12 years old. There was no fruit for the first 5 years, and only about 10 persimmon for the 6th and 7th years. Then it grows more and more fruit every year and the fruit is sweet and healthy but inedible. The tree itself is also heathy. Now it grows nearly 100 fruit every year but the fruit is abravise to tongue. It is not edible. We've tried different fruit tree fertilizers, lime and more frequent watering, the persimmon still looks good but not edible. Is the tree too young to grow edible fruit? But the plum tree is doing well under same conditions in our backyard.
It may be one of the persimmons that need to soften before being edible. Many of the American persimmons need to be almost pasty before they loose the astringency. Then the fruit is like eating a soft date. Are the fruit small, the size of a golf ball? (American persimmon).
Thanks for your information. I've tried your way before but it didn't work. There is still astringent taste. That's why I think of the acidity of soil or the young tree would produce astringent fruit. The fruit is much bigger than a golf ball. It's alike the same size of persimmon that we could buy normally in market, and it's as big as the puck in ice hocky game.
Well, this doesn't contain an answer to your question, but it might give more information: Persimmon from the Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service. Perhaps it is a seedling persimmon, and not a cultivated variety selected specifically for taste. I don't think the soil acidity will affect the taste so much as to render it inedible - another factor is more likely the cause.
It is my understanding that all astringent persimmons will eventually ripen to a point when the fruits lose the astringent taste. However, most people are fooled into believing that the fruit is ripe before it really is - especially if it looks orange and is very soft to touch. For some astringent persimmons, that simply is not enough. They need to ripen to a jelly like consistency before it's good enough to eat. The only way I can describe the consistency is that of trying to pick up a piece of Jello. I look for the skin to start to turn increasingly translucent. Here are some methods described to help speed up the process of removing astringency: 1. Treating with carbon dioxide 2. Treating with alcohol 3. Freezing the fruit overnight and then thawing I have no idea what 1 and 2 involves. I have also heard of putting the persimmons into a plastic bag with a ripe apple in it. I have not heard of soil conditions affecting astringent taste. Persimmons are broadly divided into two types - those with astringent fruits, and those with non-astringent fruits. If your variety has astringent fruits, there is really nothing you can do in terms of modifying the growing conditions that will change the situation. Your only solution is to have patience and let the fruits go really, really ripe before eating. By your description, you have a tree that bears astringent fruits. Even those varieties that are non-astringent may bear fruits that have an astringent quality to them if eaten before they soften, if these fruits are produced during years when the temperatures are cooler. They need a sufficient length of warm to hot weather to develop and ripen properly. During the years when I suspect there wasn't enough hot weather, I leave the fruits on our Fuyu persimmon tree for as long as possible - i.e., untill the forecast of a prolonged spell below freezing, before I pick them. I have yet to pick the fruits this year - I estimate that I can leave it on the tree for another 2-4 weeks. (It actually looks very decorative, with those yellow/orange fruits hanging on a leafless tree!) Just to complicate things a bit, amongst each of the two major varieties of persimmons, there are those that are described as "pollination constant" and those that are "pollination variant". That is to say that the flesh of the fruits (color and taste) depends on the successful pollination of the flower, and, therefore, the seed. A pollination constant astringent variety is always astringent, whether the flowers are pollinated or not, whereas a pollination variant astringent variety of fruit tastes astringent if the fruit developed from an unpollinated flower, but loses astringency if it developed from a pollinated flower. Fruits from the same tree may then taste different, depending on whether the flowers have been pollinated. The flesh around the seeds of a pollinated "pollination variant astringent variety" will appear darker. Pollination-constant nonastringent persimmons are always edible when still firm. On the other hand, pollination-variant nonastringent fruits are edible when firm only if they have been pollinated - if unpollinated, they remain astringent until they ripen to a soft consistency.
