Diospyros Kaki - Cultivation

Cultivation

Kaki are grown worldwide, with 90 percent of production in China, Japan and Korea. In East Asia the main harvest time for kaki is in the months of October and November. The trees have already lost their leaves by the time of harvest. Occasionally, the brightly colored fruit is left unharvested on the tree as a decorative effect.

In China, kaki has been cultivated since time immemorial. It is considered to have four virtues: it lives long, it gives a large area of shade, it is used by the birds as a nesting place, and it is not attacked by pests. A vase adorned with a kaki cake, a pine branch and an orange is a symbol of the desire "great happiness in 100 affairs".

Throughout Asia, different healing properties are attributed to the kaki. They are said to be helpful against stomach ailments and diarrhea. Immature fruits are said to be a treatment for fever, if they ripen in containers until they are sweet as honey. The juice of unripe fruit is said to lower the blood pressure and the fruit stem to relieve a cough. To reinforce these effects, the fruit is peeled before use, exposed to the sunlight during the day and to the dew at night, until a white powder coating forms.

Cultivation of this species at first spread through East Asia. Since the 19th century, kaki partially replaced date-plum (Diospyros lotus, also known as Caucasian persimmon) in some countries of South Europe and West Asia, because kaki has bigger fruits than date-plum; cultivation in California also began at that time.

The "Sharon" is a variegated form of Kaki from Israel, named after the fertile Plain of Sharon. It does not contain seeds and tastes more mild, since it clearly contains less tannin. Cross cut, the Sharon shows a star-shaped pattern of lines with darker flesh.

In Spain, there is a variegated form of Kaki, the "Ribera del Xuquer" of the Valencia region.

Kaki is also produced in Albania, mainly in Elbasan region.