Fall is creeping south through the Ozarks. Last weekend the National Weather Service in Little Rock issued a frost advisory for Fulton, Izard and Sharp counties, with lows near 33 and a warning to protect tender plants. And whenever frost shows up in Arkansas, someone repeats the old saying: don't pick a persimmon until it's been frosted.
Here's the fun part for a homeschool scientist: the experts disagree with the saying. According to University of Arkansas Extension horticulturist Janet Carson, frost is not required for persimmons to ripen. The fruit just needs a long season. Unripe persimmons are full of tannins that make them bitter and puckery, and a ripe native persimmon turns deep orange, feels soft and pulls easily off the branch. Arkansas's native persimmon tree, Diospyros virginiana, also feeds songbirds, raccoons, squirrels and deer well into winter.
So which is it, folk wisdom or science? This week your kids can test it themselves, and then try growing a persimmon tree of their own from a small cutting.
What your kids will learn
Grades K–5
- How fruit changes as it ripens: color, softness and smell
- That some plants can grow from a piece of another plant, not only from seeds
- The jobs of stems, leaves and roots
- Observing, measuring and drawing changes over time
Grades 6–12
- Testing a claim with a fair experiment: one variable changed, everything else kept the same
- Plant hormones: how ethylene speeds ripening and how auxins help a stem grow new roots
- Asexual propagation: why a cutting grows into a genetic copy of its parent tree
- Recording data in a science journal and drawing evidence-based conclusions
This week's activity: the Great Persimmon Ripening Test
Pick up three or four firm, acorn-shaped persimmons at the grocery store (these are often sold as Hachiya and are the puckery kind when unripe). You'll also need a paper bag, a banana, a marker and a notebook.
- Make a prediction. Ask: what will ripen a persimmon fastest, cold, warmth or a banana? Have kids write down their hypothesis before you start.
- Set up three spots. Put one persimmon in the refrigerator (your "frost" test), one on the kitchen counter (your control) and one in a closed paper bag with a banana. Bananas give off ethylene, a natural gas that tells fruit to ripen.
- Score it every day. Gently press each persimmon with one finger and give it a softness score from 1 (hard as a rock) to 5 (soft like a water balloon). Note the color too.
- Chart the results. Younger kids can draw each fruit and color in a bar for its score. Older kids can graph softness over time for all three spots.
- Draw a conclusion. After about a week, compare. Did the cold one ripen first, like the saying predicts? Or did warmth and the banana win? Talk about what the results suggest about frost, and what you might test next.
- Bonus field trip. If you know where a wild persimmon tree grows, visit it to look, not taste. Count the fruit still hanging, look for bird visits and animal tracks underneath, and sketch the bark, which looks like little blocks.
Grow your own persimmon tree from a cutting
Once your kids know how persimmons ripen, the next question is where persimmon trees come from. Growing one from seed is slow: UA Extension notes that seed-grown native persimmons can take 4 to 9 years to bloom, and you won't know right away whether a seedling is a male or a female tree. That's one reason growers make copies of trees instead, and your kids can practice that skill at the kitchen table.
The Persimmon Tree Cutting Rooting Science Kit comes with a real persimmon tree cutting about 4 inches long, rooting powder and step-by-step rooting instructions. Curriculum and worksheets for your child's grade band (K–5 or 6–12) are emailed after purchase so you can print them at home. Kids learn how rooting hormones help a bare stem form new roots, plan a fair test, and keep a science journal while they watch for the first roots.
For a true side-by-side experiment, choose the add-on version. It adds a second persimmon cutting, two 3-inch peat moss pots and two different types of soil, so kids can compare how each cutting does, plus instructions for planting a cutting once roots appear.
Join the growing community
Every kit includes an invitation to our Facebook group, Aardvark's Seed Planting For Little Hands, where kids and parents get support with anything they need. Post your ripening chart, share a photo of your cutting, and cheer on other young growers across Arkansas, West Virginia and Arizona when their first roots show up.
Put the saying to the test
Frost season is starting in Arkansas, and that makes this the perfect week to find out whether the old persimmon saying holds up. Run the ripening test, then start a cutting and see what grows.
- Persimmon Tree Cutting Rooting Science Kit: $19 for the kit, or $29 with 2 pots, an extra cutting and 2 growing mediums
