Diospyros, Hybrid Persimmon 'Nikita's Gift'

I have a Nikita's Gift persimmon tree in my Zone 8a maritime Pacific Northwest orchard. It was planted in 2013. It started bearing frui...Read Moret in 2016 and had about 3 dozen persimmons in 2017. There have not been any disease or insect problems. It does not require a pollinator. The fruits are seedless unless there is a male persimmon tree nearby. The persimmons can not be eaten until they are fully ripe, due to astringency. When fully ripe, they are soft, with flesh almost like jelly, juicy, sweet and flavorful,with no astringency. They ripen here in mid November to early December. If taken off the tree when the fruit color is orange, but the fruit is still firm, they can be placed into a large bowl with a banana, and covered with plastic wrap. The banana gives off ethylene gas, which will ripen the persimmon fruits. The fall leaf color is a brilliant yellow.

This hybrid persimmon combines the larger fruit size and dwarf habit of the Asian persimmon (Diospyros kaki) with the greater winter hard...Read Moreiness of the American persimmon (D. virginiana). Persimmons have no serious pests or diseases, are highly adaptable about soils, and are easy to grow organically.

'Nikita's Gift' has a dwarfer habit than the other common Asian-American hybrid, 'Rosseyanka', which without regular pruning can grow much larger.

Bloom is late enough in the season that spring frosts rarely affect fruiting. This cultivar is self-fertile and usually seedless.

The fruits color up orange long before they are ripe, and are highly ornamental, especially after leaf drop.

Well-ripened fruits are good eaten fresh, used in cooking, dried, or made into fruit leather. Fruits are unpleasantly astringent and taste truly nasty unless ripened till the flesh is very soft and the calyx is easy to pull off intact, close to or even after first frost. They may be harvested by tapping the trunk and taking the fruit that falls. They may also be picked up to a month early and allowed to ripen off the tree.

Bred by Pasenkov around 1960 at the Nikitsky Botanical Garden in Yalta, the Ukraine.