This summer was the second year for one of my American Persimmon trees. The first summer it didn't really grow but, this past summer it grew like crazy. But it would appear as though it got confused about which direction is up. What should be the top is growing straight out to the right (west). Then mid way through the summer it chose one of the side branches to be the top and that grew over two feet.

Check this out, its not as obvious in the picture as it is in real life, so I've marked what should be the top with a red arrow.

So the real story here is that there was a lot of wind early in the summer. The whole tree was really floppy and sagging over after the first couple wind storms. I staked it for one month and it responded by doubling the truck diameter during that month. It's now quite wind strong. Unfortunately that didn't help the top so much. It was already leaned over too much. I think I'll probably prune that limb where it goes sideways and just see what happens next summer.

Here are a couple more shots of it.