bhawkins:

You have an amazing memory. The 3 Asian persimmons I planted bareroot in early '07 (var. Eureka, Fuyu & Hachiya) from Womack's Nursery, DeLeon, TX, are now beautiful trees around 8 feet tall. This winter I will do some pruning on them. Branches are long and supple, with big shiny leaves and no insect problems whatsoever. But they have become a little crowded, hence the pruning and possibly a little branch spreading, although I don't know if that is normally done on persimmons.

In spring, '08, they all set some fruit, but it had dropped on all trees by late midseason. This spring they again set some fruit, but most had again dropped by midsummer. I say most because there is one large, orange fruit on the Fuyu, and three at a slightly smaller stage on the Eureka. These are not going to drop, and I will probably leave them until sometime in November, since we don't normally get real cold until then.

I think my experience with Asian persimmons may be fairly typical. They are not precocious to fruit, but once they begin they become dependable fruiters, and I expect next season to show a major turnaround, given the maturity of the trees.

I regard Womack's as an excellent nursery source, not only for Texas growers but many others as well. The only problem I have with them is their 6-tree minimum, which I filled out with 3 plum trees, all of which are also doing well, and one, Morris that has been a fine plum surprise with quite a few large plums this season. I would like to order some peach trees from them for planting next spring, but that 6-tree minimum may prevent that since I don't have all that much space left.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Hi Jellyman -

It's been a long time since I visited here, but your posting prompted me to say that my Fuyu persimmon is acting the same way! But don't dispair, this year it set quite a lot of fruit (now 3rd year), and all but one dropped off. The same thing happened last year.

However, the one fruit that remains is huge! Almost as big as a soft ball, and now getting ripe. The one that finally made it last year was delicious. Let it ripen completely. I note we have had a few cool nights, so that is apparently what is bringing it on.

I hope - as you mentioned - that future years will bring better yields. It is a beautiful specimen, however, and I'd keep it anyway just for the ornamental aspect.

Bejay

I have 3 year old Jiro and Ichi. They behaved the same way until this summer. Just a few fruits that mostly dropped. But this year I have more fruits on Jiro (about a dozen) and Ichi is loaded. Too many for such a small tree, but I can't bring mysel to thin them. They are beautiful now and quite big.
Olga

thanks don! i've always been envious as to how well they've grown for you. my 3-year old kaki's are 5.5 ft, & also dropped all their fruit. very pretty tree's

Hi all. I was reading your inputs and our Alabama extension folks the other day mentioned if you use nitrate-based fertilizers on your japanese persimmon trees, you will get a lot of unwanted fruit drop. They recommended using a Urea-based fertilizer to minimize the fruit drop. We also have 3 year old trees and I use a Urea-based fertilizer and have had very little fruit-drop these past 2 years.

Ken Barber
Millbrook AL

Thanks. I also read somewhere that not sufficient levels of potassium could could cause this drop. So I started to add potassium to my pesimmons this year. Don't have the reference, sorry.
Olga

One word on my experience - after harvesting the one (and only) fruit on my persimmon, I noted a dark area around the stem part of the fruit. The tree got only one dormant spraying last winter (too much rain then), so am wondering if one reason for fruit drop might be due to stem rot.

Will try to get more spraying this year. Also appreciate the previous comments on fertilizing, etc.

Bejay

I just ordered a bare root Saijo persimmon from Womack's Nursery - see https://womacknursery.com/collections/persimmons . It's on native persimmon rootstock. They don't have the 6-tree minimum requirement anymore.