We don’t have enough persimmon topics so I thought I’d throw this in 
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My concern is with pruning, esp. maintaining a smaller tree stature. In the 3 cultivars of D. kaki I’ve had over the years, I’ve only noticed flowers on new branch growth – never on past year’s wood.
Does anyone know of D. kaki, virginiana, or hybrids that produce flowers and set fruit on prior year’s growth?
I’ve been reading up on persimmons and I’ve read they only fruit on the several buds near and at the end of new branch growth.
Look it up for pruning. They suggest balancing between pruning some branches back a lot to develop new fruit on the new growth from that pruning the next year while keeping a balance of longer branches with already existing fruiting buds.
If you prune all your branches you will lose all the fruit buds set the previous summer.
This item you found:
contradicts this other item you found:
??
The pruned branches develop new growth to put on fruiting buds for the following year.
The description of this pruning was to maintain a smaller, more accessible tree for small gardeners.
It there is no pruning your fruit gets further away from the trunk and higher for harder picking.
Let some existing branches fruit as usual while cutting some back (and thus losing what fruit buds they hold) to spur new laterals from the pruned branch for the next year on new branches closer to the trunk and a lower height.
Idont know how kaki grows, but american persimmon is almost self pruning. on the small staturedtrees in particular, IME
The flowers emerge on the new growth at the base of each leaf like figs.
@Shibumi
Thank you for your responses.
For decades I have pruned D. kaki back to 2’ - 3’ scaffolds in southern CA climates and always had ample fruit production from mature trees the following year. I’ve no experience with D. virginiana or hybrids. My question is:
Does anyone know of D. kaki, virginiana, or hybrids that produce flowers and set fruit on prior year’s growth?
D.virginiana absolutely self-prunes lower or shaded limbs.
Folks who multi-graft persimmons often find that after a few years, grafts placed on low limbs ‘disappear’.
@Lucky_P , @hobilus
Thanks, I’m glad to be reminded of this D.v. “feature”.
Suppose I take Lehman’s 100-46 “Delight” grafted on a moderate D.v. rootstock, maintain the central leader height to 8’, and winter prune scaffolding back to 2’-3’ every year.
Would you expect the scaffolds to drop off over time?
I think your plan would work fine as long as its a dwarf precocious variety.
FYI- I see the Ukrainians are listing Bozhyj Dar and Dar Sofivivki at ~2.5m mature height x 3 meter spreadthough given your location that may be of less interest to you than to us folks in cold climates
@hobilus
Thanks, for D. hybrid (kaki and virginiana) I’m committed to Nikita Bordeaux. For D.v., 100-46 sounds promising in terms of height.
It appears that most of my flowers/fruit come from what I would call shoots of shoots, so not on main branches from the trunk. So as long as you maintained stubs of some secondary branches off your scaffolds with a few buds on each, I would think the new shoots from buds on those would reliably produce for you each year.
I’d be interested if this observation is consistent with what @Lucky_P, @PharmerDrewee, @hobilus and others who have a fair number of American persimmons see. It may be different than what I am seeing on more mature trees.
Y’all have far surpassed the extent of my meager knowledge/experience with regard to pruning & management…
I don’t have time or inclination to work that hard…lol
Per www.nuttrees.net "Dollywood=D128- This Persimmon tree was named by the Late Jerry Lehman while on a trip to visit Bill Owens in Dollywood Tenn. It has a most interesting growth habit (while producing large flavorful persimmon fruit of about 2.5 inches wide) it is a spreading tree while instead of growing upward it tends to spread outward from the trunk making a large canopy with drooping branches to include this growth habit with heavy production it is well worthy of having in the orchard. Limited numbers on hand. "