The persimmon cultivar Rojo Brillante

Rojo Brillante persimmon fruit — Fruit of the **Rojo Brillante** persimmon. The elongated, large-fruited type with the intense orange-red colour is the trademark of the cultivar.

Savvas Pastopoulos, Agronomist MSc — Pastopoulos Agronomics, Neos Mylotopos, Pella, Greece

Persimmon is a crop that has been gaining ground in Greece in recent years. Of the cultivars grown here, Jiro and Karaliok have persisted to this day. Rojo Brillante is now available in Greek nurseries as well — the cultivar that redrew the world map of persimmon. It is also the cultivar that cannot be sold crisp without a deastringency chamber, and that is something to establish before planting, not after.

250–300 gaverage fruit
weight

PVAastringency group
— always requires
deastringency

6–7 yearsto full
production

8 °Cthe lower limit for
safe cold
storage

Contents

Where the cultivar came from
The tree
The fruit
Why the fruit is seedless
Astringency: why it is not like Karaliok
When it is harvested
Deastringency with carbon dioxide
Cold storage and the 8 °C limit
Soil, rootstocks and climate
The problem that travelled with the cultivar
What must be answered before planting
Sources

1. Where the cultivar came from

Rojo Brillante originates in Spain. It was selected by local growers in the 1960s among wild persimmons of the Ribera del Xúquer area, south of Valencia. It is therefore a chance seedling that stood out and was propagated, not the product of a breeding programme.

Although it has existed there for over sixty years, its spread effectively began in the 1990s, when the exceptional quality of the fruit led to explosive expansion of the crop in the province of Valencia. Today Rojo Brillante from the Ribera del Xúquer area accounts for about 83% of total Spanish persimmon production and is protected by a Protected Designation of Origin under the name Kaki Ribera del Xúquer.

The name and its variants The correct spelling is "Rojo Brillante" — Spanish for "bright red". On the market the deastringed fruit often circulates under trade marks, so the same fruit may be met under different names. There is also Ribera Sun®, a spontaneous mutation of Rojo Brillante with fruit about 30% larger, grown in exactly the same way, and Nuevo Rojo Brillante, a selection that breaks bud and flowers 4–7 days later — a delay that can help avoid spring frost damage — and retains higher firmness after deastringency.

2. The tree

The cultivar gives a vigorous, upright tree in its early years, of high vigour. It comes into bearing early, but requires 6–7 years to reach full production.

Size. Trained as an open vase it reaches 3–3.6 m in height and a similar spread.
Vigour. High. Productivity very high.
Flowering. It bears female flowers only, very abundantly, with high fruit set and relatively little fruit drop.
Cropping regularity. No marked biennial bearing has been observed under Spanish conditions.

The vigour of the early years is not neutral The upright, vigorous tree of the first years readily builds a tall, narrow framework if left alone, and the fruiting zone rises quickly to a height that makes harvest difficult. Because persimmon bears on current-season shoots, the logic of pruning differs fundamentally from other fruit trees and has to be set up correctly from the first year.

3. The fruit

Character	Value
Shape	Very broadly ovate to elongated, with a blunt apex and slight grooves
Size	Uniform and large, on average 250–300 g, with a mean diameter of at least 61 mm. The largest fruit comfortably exceed 350–400 g.
Skin colour at harvest	Yellow to orange-yellow, hue angle 66–75°
Colour after ripening	Intense red-orange, hue angle 43–57°
Flesh colour	Uniform yellow-orange, without brown patches when the fruit is seedless
Calyx	Large, wider than the fruit diameter, horizontal
Taste	Astringent in the ripe fruit, very sweet after deastringency

4. Why the fruit is seedless

The cultivar is seedless and parthenocarpic. The reason is simple and lies in flower morphology: the tree bears only female flowers and produces no pollen at all. If no other pollen-bearing cultivar is present in the orchard, no fertilisation takes place — and the fruit sets and grows without seeds, and with high productivity at that.

Fruit is also borne on shoots of the current season. The shoot that grows this year is the one that will carry the flowers and the fruit.

In Rojo Brillante a pollinator is a defect, not an advantage This is the opposite of what holds for most fruit trees. When Rojo Brillante is pollinated it forms seeds, and brown areas appear in the flesh around them. The fruit is downgraded commercially, because the market asks for uniform yellow-orange flesh.

In practice: a kiwifruit orchard needs males; a Rojo Brillante persimmon orchard does not want pollinators. If other pollen-producing persimmon cultivars, or male trees, exist on neighbouring holdings, this has to be taken into account when planning the planting.

5. Astringency: why it is not like Karaliok

Persimmon cultivars are classified on two questions: is the fruit astringent at harvest, and does the astringency change when the fruit acquires seeds? The combinations give four groups.

Group	What it means	Examples
PCNA	Non-astringent, regardless of seeds. Eaten crisp straight from the tree.	Jiro, Fuyu
PVNA	Becomes non-astringent when seeds form, and the flesh darkens.	Karaliok (Chocolate persimmon), Kaki Tipo
PCA	Always astringent, regardless of seeds.	Hachiya, Giombo
PVA	Astringent when seedless; seeds darken the flesh around them but do not remove the astringency of the fruit.	Rojo Brillante, Tonewase

The similarity with Karaliok is real — but it stops at one critical point

Both cultivars are pollination-variant: when seeds form, the flesh around them darkens and turns brown. Up to this point the behaviour is indeed the same.

The difference is what the astringency does. In Karaliok, which belongs to the PVNA group, the seeds remove the astringency and the fruit is eaten firm, without any treatment. In Rojo Brillante, which belongs to the PVA group, the astringency remains: seeds do not make the fruit edible, they only make it uglier.

That is precisely why Rojo Brillante is deliberately grown seedless and deastringed artificially. The only route to crisp, marketable fruit is the treatment.

6. When it is harvested

The fruit is harvested before it is fully ripe, when it is light orange with a little green. The index is skin colour: at harvest the hue angle lies at 66–75°, that is yellow towards orange-yellow. Deep red-orange, around 43–57°, is the colour of the already ripe fruit — and by then it is too late to market it as a crisp product.

The best cold store is the tree itself Rojo Brillante shows remarkable flexibility in the onset of ripening, which permits staggered harvest without loss of quality. In practice the orchard does not have to be emptied in three days: the fruit can stay on the tree and be picked progressively, according to the capacity of the deastringency chamber and market demand.

7. Deastringency with carbon dioxide

The fruit is astringent at harvest and requires deastringency in carbon dioxide chambers. The astringency is due to soluble tannins in the flesh. The treatment does not destroy them: it converts them to an insoluble form, so that they are no longer perceived in the taste.

Parameter	Value
CO₂ concentration	95–98%
Duration	24 hours (12 hours in some protocols)
Temperature	20 °C
Relative humidity	90%

The process takes knowledge and experience — it is not simply putting fruit in a chamber

The same treatment also ripens the fruit, so its timing and its conditions determine whether crisp or soft fruit comes out.

Temperature is not a detail. The same treatment at 15 °C proves clearly less effective, with astringency remaining. And the temperature both during and immediately after the treatment affects the appearance of internal brown discolouration of the flesh after cold storage.

The fruit is ready to eat 1–2 days after deastringency.

8. Cold storage and the 8 °C limit

Here lies a peculiarity of the cultivar that costs money if it is ignored. Rojo Brillante is susceptible to chilling injury when exposed to temperatures below 8 °C.

The characteristic symptom does not appear in the cold store, but when the fruit comes out of cold storage and is placed in shelf conditions: the flesh softens abruptly and turns gelatinous. The trader takes delivery of an apparently sound load and the product collapses on the shelf.

After deastringency, the fruit can be held for about 7–9 weeks at 10 °C and 90% relative humidity.
Application of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) reduces the symptoms of chilling injury, maintains firmness and limits calyx drop.
The combination of controlled atmosphere with a 1-MCP pre-treatment substantially limits softening and gelification.

9. Soil, rootstocks and climate

It requires fertile, adequately drained soils with pH 6–7.4. The need for good drainage is not a politeness: persimmon does not tolerate standing water in the root zone.

The rootstocks

The cultivar is compatible with the rootstocks Diospyros lotus and Diospyros virginiana, and is also grafted on Diospyros kaki. D. lotus is the predominant rootstock in Spanish orchards.

The climate

Persimmon breaks bud late, which protects it to a large extent from spring frosts. In Greece the issue is not so much spring as autumn: harvest is late and an early frost finds the fruit still on the tree. When selecting the plot, positions where cold air settles must be avoided.

10. The problem that travelled with the cultivar

When a cultivar expands at the rate of Rojo Brillante, its problems travel with it. The most serious one has a name.

Circular leaf spot — Plurivorosphaerella nawae

The fungus Plurivorosphaerella nawae, formerly known as Mycosphaerella nawae, was recorded for the first time in Spain in August 2008, in commercial orchards of the province of Valencia, following a mild and rainy spring. The symptoms are circular necrotic leaf spots and heavy defoliation.

It has become the most important limiting factor of persimmon growing in Spain. The critical epidemiological fact: all infections come from ascospores formed on the fallen leaves on the ground, and the ascospores are released mainly in April and May.

The practical consequence is immediate: managing the leaf litter — removing it or accelerating its breakdown — is a preventive measure, not housekeeping. And protecting the foliage makes sense in spring, not in the summer when the spots become visible.

11. What must be answered before planting

Four questions, in order

Where will my fruit be deastringed? Without access to a CO₂ chamber, Rojo Brillante cannot be sold crisp. It is the first question, not the last.
Is there persimmon pollen in the area? If there is, seeded fruit with brown patches in the flesh will result.
Does the plot drain? Fertile soil with pH 6–7.4 and reliable drainage.
How will the fruit reach the market? The cold chain must not fall below 8 °C, otherwise the problem shows up on the customer's shelf.

12. Sources

Crisosto, C.H. (2009). Persimmon tree named 'Nuevo Rojo Brillante'. US Plant Patent PP20729. Source for the selection of Rojo Brillante in the 1960s in the Ribera del Júcar, for the mean weight of 250–300 g, the 61 mm diameter, the hue angles of 66–75° and 43–57°, the exclusively female flowers, compatibility with D. lotus and D. virginiana, and storage of 7–9 weeks at 10 °C.
Evolution of production of the 'Rojo Brillante' cultivar in Spain and its impact on markets. Acta Horticulturae 1195. Source for the expansion of the crop from the 1990s and for the share of the Ribera del Xúquer area.
Berbegal, M. et al. (2010). First Report of Circular Leaf Spot of Persimmon Caused by Mycosphaerella nawae in Spain. Plant Disease 94(3):374. Source for the first record in August 2008 in Valencia.
Vicent, A. et al. (2012). Inoculum and disease dynamics of circular leaf spot of persimmon caused by Mycosphaerella nawae under semi-arid conditions. European Journal of Plant Pathology. Source for the origin of all infections from ascospores in the leaf litter and for their release in April and May.
Salvador, A., Arnal, L., Monterde, A. and Cuquerella, J. (2004). Reduction of chilling injury symptoms in persimmon fruit cv. 'Rojo Brillante' by 1-MCP. Postharvest Biology and Technology. Source for the susceptibility below 8 °C, the softening of the flesh on the shelf, and the action of 1-MCP.
Effect of a low oxygen atmosphere combined with 1-MCP pretreatment on preserving the quality of 'Rojo Brillante' and 'Triumph' persimmon during cold storage. Scientia Horticulturae (2015). Source for the combination of controlled atmosphere and 1-MCP.
Vicent, A. et al. (2011). Evaluation of fungicides to control circular leaf spot of persimmon caused by Mycosphaerella nawae. Crop Protection. Efficacy trials of active substances.
Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Valencia. The research institute whose work produced the established CO₂ deastringency protocol.

Disclaimer

This text is for information only. Plant protection products may be used only in accordance with the approvals of the competent authority of the country of use and with the product label. The approvals listed at fyto.plantprotect.gr are issued by the Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food and are valid in Greece only. Foreign publications frequently cite active substances that are not permitted in the European Union.

Foliar sprays on trees carrying fruit can cause fruit marking and leaf burn. A prior trial on a limited number of trees is required, with the same product at the same rate, followed by 5 to 7 days of observation before general application. Spray in the late afternoon or early morning, never in a heatwave and never on foliage under water stress.

Every intervention is carried out at the user's own responsibility, following an on-site assessment by a licensed agronomist. Pastopoulos Agronomics accepts no liability for the use of the information in this text.