After battling drought and then flooding rains, a south-east Queensland orchard is celebrating a record persimmon crop.
Rod and Jeanette Dalton have been growing fruit on their 20-hectare farm at Grantham, in south-east Queensland for decades.
They’ve never seen a season like this one.
“We’re getting fruit like we’ve never had before in 20-odd years of growing them,” Mr Dalton said.
“Certainly there are some trees in here we’re pulling 70 kilos-plus off in one pick.
“We have already picked those trees twice before.”
Bumper crop after years of drought
On average, the Daltons’ persimmon orchard produces about 45 tonnes of fruit per hectare. This season it’s been more like 70 tonnes per hectare.
“This is definitely the best harvest we’ve had,” Jeanette Dalton said.
“It’s the best quality overall, too. It’s much more compact in size.
“Nowhere near as big as some of the biggest fruit we had last year, but we’re not getting all the little fruit either.]
“So overall, it’s much more uniform — so it’s beautiful to pack.”
The bumper crop comes off the back of years of drought, followed by last year’s flooding rains.
On average, the Grantham area experiences about 700 millimetres of rain annually. During the drought, they were down to 300mm in a year.
“Then last year we got over 1,600 millimetres,” Mrs Dalton said.
“It’s never been that wet in the time we’ve been here at all.
“You know, 355mm in one day towards the end of February last year – that changed things basically overnight, water everywhere.”
But a bumper crop is only valuable to those who want it. So who is eating all these persimmons?
“The challenge remains in Australia that the majority of the non-Asian population probably has never seen a persimmon and certainly doesn’t know how to eat it,” Mr Dalton said.
Popularity of persimmons
There are only about 100 persimmon growers in Australia spread out across the country.
Last year ,the industry produced about 3,500 tonnes, at a value of approximately $17 million.
Alison Fuss, Executive Officer of Persimmons Australia, says many people have the wrong idea about persimmons.
