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Andrew L Myrthong2014-12-126

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Introduction

• Diospyros Kaki

• Ebenaceae

• Native of China

• National fruit of Japan

• Chromosome no. 2n=90

• China, Japan, Korea are the largest

producers

• Rank 14th in the world as the most consume

fruit after cherries and before avocados

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Production figures in tonnes per year[10]

Country 1970 1990 1995 2000 2005 2011

China 457,341 640,230 985,803 1,615,797 2,212,151 3,259,334

Korea 30,310 95,758 194,585 287,847 363,822 390,820

Japan 342,700 285,700 254,100 278,800 285,900 207,500

Brazil 21,659 46,712 51,685 63,300 164,849 154,625

Azerbaijan - - - 96,000 108,965 146,084

Spain - - - 30,000[11] - 70,000[12]

Italy 59,600 68,770 61,300 42,450 51,332 50,236

Pakistan - - - 19,000 19,000 19,000

Israel - 17,200 11,000 14,000 48,000 29,271

New Zealand

- 972 1,600 1,352 3,000 2,526

Iran 25 925 1,000 1,331 1,748 2,123

Australia - 329 640 759 943 642

India - - - - 220 380

Mexico - 275 274 247 369 223

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China

Japan

Korea

Brazil

Italy

Israel

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The Plant• The genus contains almost 400 species

Species Common names

Main region of cultivation

Uses

D. Kaki Kaki, Japanese or Oriental persimmon, Yamagaki

Japan, China, Korea

Fresh and processed

D. Lotus Date plum, Ghae tsao, Mamegaki

Asia Tannin source, rootstock

D. Virginiana American persimmon

North America Fresh and processed, rootstock

D. Oleifera China Tannin source, rootstock

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• Multitrunk or single stemmed deciduous

• Grows upto 6m height

• The branches are brittle and easily damaged by wind

• Leaves are large and glossy green

• During autumn leaves turn to yellow, orange and red colour thus,

acquiring an ornamental value

• Trees bear either male or female flowers

• Flowers are borne in the leaf axils of new growth from one year

old wood

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• Female flowers: large and cream coloured,

with dark green four lobed calyx

• Male flowers: small and occur in 2-3

flowered cluster

• Fruits shape: spherical, acorn or flattened

• Fruit colour: light yellow orange to dark

orange red

• Astringency is due to tannins in the flesh

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Cultivars

• Classified into two major groups:– Non astringent and astringent

• Further subdivided based on their response to pollination:– Pollination constant: no change in flesh colour

after pollination– Pollination variant: light colour when seedless

and dark reddish brown when seeded

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Cultivars Harvest period Fruit characteristics

Tree characteristics

comment

Izu Early to late march

Orange red, medium size

Dwarf and medium vigour

Earliest but prone to fruit fly

Jiro Early to late march

Orange, round, excellent quality

Highly vigorous, high parthenocarpic ability

Stylar end cracking problem

Fuyu Mid april to late may

Orange red, medium sized and round

Medium vigour Superior quality and recommended

Suruga Early april to early may

Crimson, medium size

Semi dwarf Late maturing, susceptible to leaf spot

20th century March to april Small to medium size

Low vigour Need pruning and thinning

Non astringent cultivars

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Astringent cultivars

• Triumph• Nightingale• Flat Seedless• Hiratanaenashi• Dai Dai Maru• Hachiya

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Fuyu Flat Seedless

Hachiya

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Soil and Climate

• Soil:– Well drained sandy loam soils– Soil ph 6 - 6.8– Heavy fruit drop in alluvial soils

• Temperature:– 16 to 220C– When dormant tolerates upto -15oC– Chilling requirement (100-200 hours)– Total sunshine(light) is 1400 hours

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Propagation

• Seed

– Obtained from firm mature or soft ripe fruit

– Firm mature fruits give better seed viability

– Germinates best at 280C

– Take 2-3 weeks to germinate

– For long term storage, seeds should be dried to

45% moisture and stored at 0oC

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Vegetative Propagation• Cutting:– Root cuttings and 2 year old stem cuttings – Low success rate

• Grafting and Budding:– Whip or cleft grafting in September (75% success)– Chip or T budding in late February to early March (97-98%

success)

• Topworking:– Late Feruary to mid March– Trees (3-8 years old) grafted at 1m height with 5-10

scions/tree

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RootstocksThree rootstocks are used:

• D. kaki– Uniform vigorous seedlings, long taproot with fewer fibrous laterals

– Compatible with all cultivars

– Most preferred

• D. virginiana – Tolerant to drought and waterlogging– Suckers severe and not uniform in size and vigour– Susceptible to cephalosporium wilt

• D. lotus – Uniform size, fibrous root system– Incompatible with non astringent cultivars– susceptible to crown gall

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Micropropagation

• Apical buds on media supplemented with 10µM zeatin 0r 0.20µM IAA recorded the best shoot development

• In vitro propagation is still in the early stage of development

• Acclimatization of persimmon micropropagules depend on several factors:– Optimum temperature(280C)– Continuous lighting rather than under a 16-h photoperiod– Enhanced photosynthetic photon flux

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Cultivation • Planting and plant density

– Best planted in July or early August when dormant

– Planting after bud break cause transplanting shock

– Pit size 1m3

– Density depends on cultivar, rootstock and soil type

– Dwarf cultivars: 5.0 x 2.5 m (800 trees/ha)

– Semi-dwarf cultivars: 5.0 x 3.0 m (660 trees/ha)

– Vigorous cultivars: 6.0 x 4.5 m (370 trees/ha)

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Training and Pruning

• Dwarf cultivars are suited to modified central leader

• Vigorous and semi-dwarf cultivars suited to palmette

• The advantage of palmette:

– Reduces wind damage to branches and fruit,

– Earlier production, high yields and

– Greater mechanisation at harvest and during tree canopy

management

• Tatura system allows closer inter row planting (1000

trees/ha)

19Fig: fuyu cultivars trained to a palmette system

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Pruning

• Light pruning when dormant and during early

summer for better framework

• Summer pruning improves fruit size and

colour

• Avoid heavy pruning– Flowers borne on current season’s wood

– Reduces crop setting

– Forces excessive vegetative growth

• Mature trees require only thinning of weak,

shaded, dead and diseased branches

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Manuring and Fertilisation

• 125-250g N, 30-40g P, 150-300g K

• P requirement is low and given only when needed in autumn

• N and K applied in split doses– One third before or at bud break

– Remainder over summer in two or more splits

– Avoid heavy application to prevent fruit drop and calyx

separation• Fertigation is recommended

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• Irrigation:– Under tree mini sprinkler system is suitable– Prevent line cracking, leaf drop– Spring-early summer is the critical period

• Mulching:– To control weed growth– Mulching with rice straw and hull increase the

yield

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Pollination and fruit set

• Female flowers can set fruit parthenocarpically

• Low fruit set and fruit fall main problem

• Presence of adequate pollinisers is important

• Gailey, Akagaki and Omiyawase

• 1 polliniser interplanted with every 8-10 trees

• 2-3 beehives per hectare is recommended

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Biennial bearing

• Observed in some cultivars

• Related to crop load, seed production, tree

vigour or age, soil moisture and pollination

• Overcome by disbudding and fruit thinning in

the ‘on year’

• Chemical agents: NAA, Ethephon, Paclobutrazol

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Cincturing

• Removal of a strip of bark from around the trunk

of the tree

• Done during or just after the flowering period

• Increase precocity of bearing of young vigorous

cultivars

• Undesirable effect of retarding the tree growth

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Pests

• Yellow brown stink bug - (Halyomorpha halys)

• Coreid bug - (Riptortus clavatus)

• Fruit fly – (Bactrocera tryroni)

• Mealy bugs – (Pseudococcus spp)

• Fruit spotting bug – (Amblypelta nitida)

• Vertebrate pests - Birds and Bats

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Diseases

• Cercospora leaf spot - (Cercospora kaki)

• Circular leaf spot - (Mycosphaerella spp.)

• Crown gall - (Agrobacterium radiobacter var.

tumefaciens)

• Dematophora root rot – (Dematophora

nacatrix)

• Anthracnose – (Gleosporium kaki)

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Disorders

• Calyx-cavity(syn. Dehiscence)

– A cavity develops beneath the calyx

– Act as habitat for mealy bugs and fungal growth

– Avoid excessive N and K fertilization

• Skin Russeting:

– Due to excessive N and high Relative humidity

– Exact cause unknown

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• Calyx-end cracking:

– cause unknown but minimal in fruits with no seeds or

less seeds

• Sujika:

– White lines produced on the rind of the fruit

– Severe in light fruited trees

– Night temperature of 18-200C produced more sujika

– Ringing in mid June is effective

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Circular leaf spot

Line cracking

SunburnBlack spot

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Harvesting• Fruits are well developed

• Full orange to orange red with no visible

green background

• TSS 14-160Brix

• Avoid early and late harvesting

• Harvested by clipping, leaving the calyx and

a short stem

• Handle with care so as to avoid bruising

• Two-three pickings recommended

• Yield: 30-40 t/ha

Fig: mechanically aided harvesting

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Packing and Storage

• Remove field heat as soon as possible

• Graded according to size, colour

• Packing and grading done manually

• 12 to 30 pieces of fruit per tray and weight

of 4–4.5kg per tray

• Stored for 3 months at 00 C and 90-95% RH

• Under CA storage with 5–8% CO2 and 2–

3% O2 at O°C stored for 5-6 months

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Astringency Removal

• In non astringent fruits, after pollination the soluble tannins disappear

• In astringent cultivars, astringency is not lost until fruit is mature and

ripe

• Treatment of the fruit with CO2

• The astringency of fresh juice is reduced by the addition of soluble

pectin

• Placing the fruits for 2-3 days in ethanol also help remove astringency

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Composition

• According to Ito (1969),persimmons contain:

– Water: 79%

– crude fibre:0.4%

– pectin:0.7%

– Vitamin A: 2710 IU/100g

– Vitamin C: 11mg/100g

– Malic and citric acid are predominant in all developmental

stages

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Uses • Traditionally kaki is used in dried form

– Sun drying for 20-40 days

– Artificial drying at 32-330C

• Jellies, jams, peeled skin is used in pickles, canned in sugar syrup

• Production of tannin

– Mordant for protecting wood

– Treatment of hangover

– Antidote against cobra venom and bacterial toxins

– Pertussis vaccine

– Control agent for viral infections (e.g. TMV)

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Fig: Sun drying of persimmon

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References

• George, A. P. and Nissen, R. J. 2002. Persimmon. In: Bose, T. K.,

Mitra, S. K. and Sanyal, D. (eds), Fruits: Tropical and

Subtropical Volume-II(3rd Ed.).Naya Udyog, Calcutta, pp. 65-116.

• Ullio, L. 2003. Persimmon growing in New South Wales.

Agfact(3rd ed.) Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Research

Institute, Camden[on-line]. Available: www.agric.nsw.gov.au (17th

March 2015)

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