More on Persimmons

Last month I commented on native persimmons.  The flavor was pretty good, although the harvest season was short-circuited by the hurricane that blew through: it knocked a lot of immature persimmons down.  Although still relatively early by persimmon standards, my friend's trees are done for the year.

There's another tree I noticed in the woods near where I run.  It dropped a couple during the hurricane, but otherwise was holding onto its few fruits.  Yesterday (10/12) a couple more were on the ground, so I picked them up.

The flavor was comparable to the ones from the other tree, but what I noticed was that they were much larger.  Also, the pulp was flecked with brown, which is common (the other tree didn't have it, or at least have it in many fruits).

I'm not sure I'm enough of a persimmon connoisseur to tell the difference between cultivars, but I've never had an improved persimmon, just the two wild ones.  Cultivars have other advantages.  Most are northern in origin.  Often northern persimmons, when fertilized, produce fruit but not large seeds down south--according to the University of Kentucky CES.   This would be nice; the seeds of persimmons are large and numerous (but otherwise not very objectionable).

I've ordered native seedlings.  Hopefully I don't get a fistful of male trees...