This season the persimmon trees had struggles with pests. Birds kept on biting them, and only taking one bite out! Because of the damage to the fruit they were causing, the persimmons were falling off the tree early and were ugly! As a response to damage fruit produces ethylene, a plant hormone that causes the fruit to ripen and mature at a quicker rate. Therefore, the persimmons were falling off earlier than they should have. So, in order to save the crop we had to pick early and blet them, allowing them to ripen off the tree. This practice is commonly done on persimmons, pears, tomatoes, and bananas. This Fuyu variety of persimmon is a less astringent variety so technically bletting isn’t necessary, but because of the presence of the bird pests we had to harvest them this way this season.
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AuthorI'm a Biological and Agricultural Engineering student that is adding on a Horticulture minor to indulge my inner plant geek! Archives
December 2018
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