Persimmons are still a bit of an unknown fruit, yet there's so much to say about them. From their origin and how they're grown, their different varieties, to their cycle and their harvest. In this article we'll answer each of these questions, little by little.
Let's dive right into growing this delicious fruit that came from Asia and adapted perfectly to the Mediterranean climate. To learn everything there is to know about it, we're heading out to the fields of Eduardo, farmer and founder of Campos del Abuelo. On his plots he grows oranges, but persimmons too. What's more, he planted them from scratch, so he knows the whole process first-hand. Shall we discover it together with him?
Origin and production of the Persimmon
Just like the orange, the persimmon is native to Asia. Although no one knows for sure how it reached Spanish soil, the strongest theory says it arrived from China in the 17th century. Some claim it came from Japan, though. Either way, the truth is that to this day both countries are the world's leading persimmon producers.
In Spain it adapted perfectly to the Mediterranean climate, which is why the Valencia region, specifically the Ribera Alta of the Júcar River, is one of the places where the most of this fruit is grown. In turn, Spain produces persimmons for export to other European countries.
The truth is that this fruit is linked, in a way, to the past, to the fruit our grandparents used to eat. Once ripe, it's very high in sugar, which makes it the perfect treat for anyone with a sweet tooth, but at the same time a very healthy treat.
Growing persimmons
Growing this fruit, like any other, starts with a tiny seed. This seed belongs to a tree we call the "rootstock", meaning a tree that will bear fruit but has no specific variety. That's why, once the rootstock tree has grown, what you need to do is graft the tree with a specific variety. Eduardo explains it to us straight from the field:
Persimmon trees are planted bare-root. In other words, you put in the seed, it grows, and then the variety is grafted on. The seed we use for the persimmon rootstock is the Lotus variety. There are several rootstocks, but the best one for our variety is Lotus.
Just like avocado plants, oranges or mandarins, persimmon trees have to be grafted with a variety to produce fruit with specific characteristics. And for the persimmons on the plots of Eduardo and his family, the variety they're grafted with is the Rojo Brillante persimmon variety, a unique variety born from a spontaneous mutation in Valencia.
Keep in mind that the trees take quite a long time to grow, and it's quite a process before they bear fruit. Eduardo explains it like this:
Once it has grown about two hand-spans, it's grafted with the variety we're going to have, which in this case is Rojo Brillante, the most widespread and the one customers love most. Then it's left to grow for roughly one season. In one season the tree reaches about half a metre, a little less, and it already has a nice little trunk, so it's pulled up and transplanted.
With this job in particular, you have to be careful not to damage the young trees. Eduardo explains the best way to do it:
It can be pulled up by hand or by machine, because it has a lot of roots and isn't easy to pull up with tools, you have special tools. It's pretty hard work by hand, but it can also be done by machine. Both ways work well. By hand is better because you dig deeper and do less damage to the roots. But anyway, it can be done either way.
A curious fact Eduardo shares with us is that fruit trees aren't measured in years, they're measured in "greens". He explains it like this: you plant it, and the following year is the first green. Even though you planted the tree in April or May, you count the green, which is the next year. Anyway, in years, mine will turn eight this April.
The importance of innovating
Those of us who work the land know it's hard work and, at the same time, always changing. New challenges come up, like pests or weather setbacks that change everything. That's why it's good to adapt to what's new, but also to try innovating on what you already know yourself. Eduardo knows all about this, and he did it with his persimmon trees.
In my particular case, I shook up the world of persimmon planting a little, because on the advice of the person who sold them to me (and we became very good friends, by the way) I planted them very small, just a bit bigger than a cigar.
He had already done it himself and realised they did just as well. The difference is that if you bought an already-grown tree, it cost you €3, and he gave me a good number of them for free. That's because they were little trees nobody wanted, but they were good ones.
I got a lot of criticism around here, they told me I was crazy, that I didn't get it, that farming wasn't my thing. But by the end of the summer, my trees were exactly as big as the ones people had planted for €3.
Soil, climate, water and the persimmon growing cycle
We keep walking with Eduardo among his persimmon trees. Now he tells us about the climate, soil and irrigation these plants need.
To understand it properly, let's start with the soil and climate this crop likes. Our farmer explains it like this:
The persimmon is a tree that adapts very well to almost any soil and almost any climate, both cold and warm. As for handling the cold, that's because the tree drops its leaves and doesn't sprout until March, so they generally don't freeze. Occasionally there might be a frost in March and a few leaves freeze, but normally it doesn't happen.
It seems incredible that the persimmon tree doesn't usually suffer from frost. Nature is amazing. But that's not its only trait; it's also particular about the soil it likes:
As for the land, it accepts practically any soil, except those with a lot of moisture. For example, plots where the water table is very close to the surface and that are very damp – it doesn't like those and doesn't do very well. Apart from that, no problem, it can be planted in any kind of soil.
Something very important in any crop is irrigation. Without water, nothing we do could exist, and that's why it's a topic we care about. For example, stepping away from persimmons for a moment, in an article on this blog we talked about the water footprint of avocados.
But let's get back to watering persimmon trees, which, according to Eduardo, is pretty similar to oranges:
The watering is normal watering, like an orange tree's, it doesn't need more or less water, because there are times, at the start, when it needs a bit more water, when it's sprouting and when they start to grow.
The persimmon tree in particular is a tree that produces a huge amount of flowers. But the tree itself has to drop them and keep just the right number, otherwise it doesn't have the strength for all the flowers to set and turn into fruit. And it's important that, when it starts to "esporgar", which is the technical word, that is, to drop those flowers, you water them less.
Now here's something really curious. The tree shouldn't get water during flowering. Eduardo explains it like this:
If the tree is very well fed during flowering, what it does is want to grow, and then it drops all its flowers. So for 20 days the water is shut off, the tree drops what it needs to drop, keeps the flowers that will later become fruit, and from then on it gets normal watering, just like an orange tree.
The persimmon tree's cycle
Every tree or plant has its cycle. And the persimmon tree's, like that of oranges, mandarins or avocados, is an annual cycle. For the persimmon, Eduardo walks us through it month by month:
If we look at the cycle from the first days of winter, first of all it'll drop its leaves. Keep in mind the fruit has already been harvested. After that, it stays dormant for about three months.
And at the end of February, early March, depending on how cold it is, they slowly start putting out shoots. And at the same time as they put out shoots they put out flowers too. When the first flowers start dropping, that's when, as we said, the water is cut off.
As soon as they flower, pollination begins too, the traditional way, with bees and the trees pollinating each other. There's no problem with fruit set, because these are varieties that set a lot of fruit. Fruit set is that moment when the flower has been pollinated and slowly begins turning into a future fruit.
The fruit starts growing and keeps growing until late September, early October, when picking begins. And picking can stretch until 15 or 20 December.
They're harvested when they turn orange, they lose their green colour and turn a deep orange. From that moment on, they can be picked.
When it comes to picking, there's something important to keep in mind: persimmons have very thin skin, so they're very delicate.
For example, it's not unusual for them to get scratched while growing just from rubbing against a leaf or a twig. Even the slightest rub leaves a mark on the persimmon's skin. That's why the harvest is done by hand and with great care.
Specifically, they're picked by hand, one by one and carefully, and placed in the crates. And for the persimmons we ship at Campos del Abuelo, which go straight from the tree to your home, you also have to be really careful packing them into the boxes. They mustn't get knocked because, as we explained, it leaves a mark.
And as you know, the harvest marks the end of a cycle and, in this case, the end of this article. We hope this little journey through the world of persimmons has brought you a bit closer to a fruit with so much history and hard work behind it.
Now that you know where Campos del Abuelo persimmons come from, we hope you'll give them a try. And if you visit our online shop you can see the products we have available this season.
Until next time, and thanks for reading!
