I'll be following this post myself as I'm also looking to grow some Asian varieties myself. What do you mean by astrigent or non astrigent?

I'm looking for more of a baking variety. Is one better than another for this?

We have 8 wild persimmon trees in and around fields and pastures. 5 of these are good for puddings but the others are usually not as sweet and a little bitter. The fruits are very good but it's just time consuming to process the pulp and we have to race the cows and deer to get our share. They also know which trees have the better fruit because they hit them first.

Claytamer, I am looking for recommendation on asian persimmon, not american persimmon that are good for cooking. I love persimmons fresh and for that purpose asian persimmons are much much better in my opinion. By non-astrigent I mean that you can eat fruits when when they are still firm right from the tree and by astringent, you have to wait untill they are soft, otherwise they are "astringent". These are different varieties. Jiro, Ichi Ki, Han Fuyu and some others are non astringent, I love them a lot, but they are very different in tast from astringent. I just want diversity of taste.
Olga
Olga

Also looking at Hachiya, anybody have experience with keeping it withing 10 feet size by prunning?
Thank you.
Olga

I like Sheng, attractive and delicious fruit. Saijo is better tasting, but I think it gets to be a larger tree. Both of these are Astringent asian varieties.

Bass

Bass, Thank you. This is good to know. I was looking at Sheng at Edible Landscaping ,but was not sure what they mean by "irregular branching". They specifically mention it for this variety.

Olga

Scott, Thank you very much. I will stay away from Hachiya.
Which one of the astringent persimmons is hardy and taste good for you? We are in the same climate so your recommendation will be extremely helpful.
Olga

Olga, I didn't mention any one because I don't have too many fruiting yet. Chocolate is my favorite by far, it is a darker fleshed kind. Some people don't like them because they will put seeds in all your other persimmons since they have male flowers, but other people believe any persimmon will taste better with seeds. It is not considered particularly hardy in the literature but I have not noticed the dieback on it like Hachiya. So, on that front it a safer bet than Hachiya but not as safe as e.g. Saijo. The only other one I have fruiting is Great Wall and it is very tasty but is small and stringy so I can't get too excited by it. I am going to topwork my Great Wall to some other variety soon. I have more than a dozen varieties I am waiting to fruit on so I will have a much better idea in a few years.

Scott

Scott, I just got chocolate persimmon. Will see how it does for me. I actually don't mind seeds, I am one of these people who thinks persimmons with seeds taste better. Also got Coffee Cake and Hana Fuyu. I got Sheng last year. Now have total 6 different persimmons, doe it lokk like addction? :(