HELP! Persimmon tree keep dropping fruit!

13 years ago

Hi all, I currently have a 7 year old persimmon tree and for the past couple of years have successfully had fruit with only a few fruit falling from the tree before maturity. This year however, it's a different story. I have about 10 fruit falling from the tree each day. It's heart-breaking. The fruit is continually maturing, and getting bigger, however, they are still falling from the tree without provocation. Incidentally, I have another persimmon tree that's over 10 years old and for the first few years all of the fruit would drop before reaching maturity. This is the first year that the older tree is holding onto its fruit with only minor droppage and seems like the majority of the fruit will successfully reach maturity (fingers crossed). I'm not sure why the trees decided to switch roles this year with the younger tree dropping most of its fruit and the older one hanging on to most of it. Does anyone have any ideas on why they're dropping? Someone suggested it might be that they don't have enough water but I water a couple times a week and they are getting plenty of water (not over-watered either). Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks for your help!

Featured Answer

Charlie

13 years ago

I have a 7 year old fuyu persimmon in northern virginia that often does the same thing. My research indicated that it was due to variations in the environment, i.e. hot/cold and wet/dry. If too great variations occur the plant drops fruit. We have had a very wet spring and early summer, but I am still seeing a big fruit drop this year.

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Comments (8)

paleopaque
Original Author
13 years ago
Forgot to mention, I am in the Southern California area (along the beach, Santa Monica) with high in the low 70's Fahrenheit. Thanks again!
Tony
13 years ago
Paleo,

Too much fertilzer will cause fruits drop. I do not fertilize my persimmon trees and just mulch them.

Tony
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paleopaque
Original Author
13 years ago
Hi Tony!
Thanks for the input but I haven't fertilized them in recent years. I did once or twice to my older tree several years ago but after the fruit dropped (very quickly) I read somewhere that fertilizing fruit trees while fruiting will cause them to drop so in subsequent years I stopped fertilizing altogether to prevent residual ferts causing the fruit to drop at a later time. Its been several years since then however. Also, the smaller tree that's all of the sudden started dropping fruit (when years before it would only drop a few) is now dropping 10 or more a day, despite the fruit getting larger each day. I'm really stumped. Anyone else have any ideas?
paleopaque
Original Author
13 years ago
Hi Tony!
Thanks for the input but I haven't fertilized them in recent years. I did once or twice to my older tree several years ago but after the fruit dropped (very quickly) I read somewhere that fertilizing fruit trees while fruiting will cause them to drop so in subsequent years I stopped fertilizing altogether to prevent residual ferts causing the fruit to drop at a later time. Its been several years since then however. Also, the smaller tree that's all of the sudden started dropping fruit (when years before it would only drop a few) is now dropping 10 or more a day, despite the fruit getting larger each day. I'm really stumped. Anyone else have any ideas?
paleopaque
Original Author
13 years ago
I should also clarify that at about the 3rd year it started producing fruit and I got quite a large crop of fruit (I mulched it with the shells of roasted sesame seeds that year, byproduct of sesame oil production, and had the biggest crop ever). After that bumper crop year, it started dropping more and more fruit each year until this year when it decided it didn't want to hang on to fruit and is dropping it in large bunches. If anyone else has any ideas it would be greatly appreciated.
paleopaque
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the tip. We did have a one or two foggy days, probably a 10 degree difference between the previous days, so that could be a possibility. My mom is now telling me she fertilized in April so maybe it was the fertilizer. Oh well, I guess I'll keep my fingers crossed and see that happens next year. If anyone has any ideas on how to keep them from dropping any further I'd love to hear them. I heard something like triple phosphate or green sand (what the heck is that?? lol) would help. Anyone?
HU-299000430
2 years ago
I read an article in organic gardening years ago about monks beating the evil sprits out of orchard trees , they start older trees to begin to produce fruit again. I

have seen more than one perfectly healthy persimmon tree drop its fruit, I had one that did this every year one year it had only two left on the tree and my wife decided to weed wack around the tree when she pulled the trigger the end of the machine came up and damaged the trunk of the tree i got to eat the last two persimmons. I think the trees will drop fruit in favor of growth ,when life is threadened it will hold them, after that i would wack the base of the tree of the with a pvc pipe only once or twice , you can easily over do it, it will bruse the cambibum layer cutting back and threating the life. most greatest need is to reproduce. af after that when i saw them start to drop i would wack the tree and it would hold the fruit