Persimmon grower cultivates specialized market

During early autumn, prior to the start of his citrus harvest, grower Tom Prescott of Porterville has another orange fruit on his mind.

Early October is the time his Hachiya persimmon crop begins to color and buyers begin to call and place orders for the acorn-shaped fruit.

Those calls set in motion packing operations for Prescott and his son, Paul. Wanting to avoid the middlemen, hauling and packing costs, Tom Prescott heads a small harvest crew that sizes, grades and field-packs persimmons to order for customers.

While his citrus fruit goes to packinghouses for grading, packing and marketing, Prescott said he prefers to control the quality and to cut out extra handling by sending his persimmons directly to market.

Prescott Ranch's "Tree to You" labels for 30-pound boxes of persimmons mean just that. Prescott weighs each box, determines if the fruit has enough color and size and is free of "shoe polish"—black marks on the fruit from bruising or sunburn. Pulling a citrus sizing ring from his pocket, he said the fruit has to be at least the 113 size for shipment; the number equals the number of pieces of citrus fruit that will fit in a 40-pound box.

During the next two months, as demand continues, Prescott said he expects to harvest about 15 tons per acre.

Most of his fruit, he said, goes directly to customers in Los Angeles or San Francisco. He has also sold persimmons to buyers on the East Coast and New Mexico.

One of his larger buyers is Morita Produce in Los Angeles. Brian Matsumoto of Morita said the quality of the fruit from Prescott Ranch has always been good.

"He makes sure there is no junk in the boxes, it has color and no black marks," said Matsumoto, who sends trucks to pick up fruit from San Joaquin Valley growers.

This year, Matsumoto said, the early market for persimmons was sluggish, but he said he expected more demand as highly colored fruit came to market.

Persimmons are harvested when they color. This year was slower until the third week of October, when temperatures cooled somewhat and brought on more color. Prescott said he starts harvest when the fruit turns a salmon color, and green is minimal.

Persimmons are clipped from the tree, rather than pulled; pulling will cause the stem to be lost and the fruit to ripen and go soft in the box. The calyx always remains attached and does not normally come off until the ripe fruit is peeled. Prescott said some Japanese customers ask for longer stems, so they can tie two pieces of fruit together and hang them to dry after they are peeled.

Hachiya persimmons are astringent fruit, inedible until they turn jelly soft. At that point, they are also very fragile and do not travel well. The other variety of persimmon—the Fuyu—is a round, flatter-shaped fruit that is non-astringent and can be eaten when crisp. Persimmons are a small crop in California, with most of the acreage planted in Fresno and Tulare counties.

Prescott said he viewed Hachiya persimmons as a way to diversify his farming operations. Major markets are primarily ethnic, with Chinese or Korean customers buying the bulk of the fruit.

Prescott said he retrieved Hachiya budwood from a family persimmon tree in Tustin, and had the cuttings grafted onto lotus tree rootstock at a nursery. Lotus rootstock is a common rootstock for persimmon and other trees, he noted, because it adapts to a wide variety of soil types, even tolerating hardpan.

He planted the started seedlings nearly 20 years ago. The trees produce fruit as early as the third year, but at 20 years, he said, they are at peak production.

Prescott described persimmon as a low-maintenance crop. He said the Hachyia is self-thinning, which reduces labor costs. The trees have few significant insect pests but, as he noted, there are also few products registered for use on the crop.

"Fertilizer and water are the main inputs. They don't require a lot of care. We haven't had any insect problems," he said.

This year, the trees set a lot of fruit, making it necessary to prop many limbs to prevent breaking.

Prescott said the farm follows good agricultural practices in handling and packing, and is able to ensure quality control. Besides picking for size and color, they sort out sunburned, misshapen or damaged fruit.

Bird damage is generally minimal in this early stage of the season, but Prescott said damage can become significant as other food sources dry up later in the season.

The only other predator he has dealt with in his persimmon grove was a hungry black bear that foraged in the grove at night, and left behind signs that he had been feasting on persimmons.

The bear eventually moved on, but is the reason the farm's fruit label includes "Oso Good" and a sports a bear cradling a basket of persimmons.

(Cecilia Parsons is a reporter in Ducor. She may be contacted at ceciliaparsons8@gmail.com.)