Hello! First time here on Growing Fruit. Last fall I planted a Fuyu Persimmon. I am in Arlington, TX so zone 8. The tree receives full sun everyday. It budded out and the leaves looked great but now the leaves have stopped growing, started turning yellow, and losing some leaves. Any suggestions? I tried multiple pics but new users can only post one pic per post!
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Is it getting enough water?
Also leaf tip is brown. Could it be overfertilized?
So back in March I fertilized twice with all purpose Miracle gro that I use on all of my plants. Have not since because it is fairly high in nitrogen and I didn’t want too much foliage growth. I have sprinklers that give between 1-2” of water per week. On the hottest days we’ve had, the leaves will droop a lot. When that has happened I have hand watered and they will perk back up.
I’m wondering if there’s an issue with the depth of spread of the roots. Do your sprinklers run a little every day, or a lot once or twice a week? Also, about the tree: did it come bare root or potted? If potted, did you break up the root ball or put it straight in the ground? Did you add any amendments to the hole, or just backfill with native soil?
Sprinklers are set to run twice per week. I planted this tree the same time as a pecan, shumard oak, and redbud. The others are doing great. I mixed potting soil with the “native” clay soils typically found in new suburban neighborhoods. The tree came potted and I broke it up pretty good. I can actually see a coupe of roots on top of the soil now… kind of odd to me. I was worried about root rot so I planted it a little higher out of the ground than I usually do with my other plants and trees.
I have not done a soil test but I have some epsom salt and lime I’m thinking about adding a little around the tree to see if that helps any…
This is my first fruiting plant. All other plants and trees are just flowers, shrubs, shade trees, etc
Where did you get you’re tree? How tall was it? Did you cut it back? How big was the pot it came in? If it was a bare root recently put into a pot, the roots might be having a hard time supplying water if it’s 5-7 ft tall
Bob, Dallas
Sounds like you’ve got the right idea on the sprinklers and the root ball. It’s generally recommended to only put native soil back in the hole. What may be happening is that the roots don’t want to leave their hole, and it’s basically in a container the size of the hole you dug. This is especially common on clay soils.
Hmm thanks for the input!
I purchased the tree from a nursery, not sure if it is okay to post names of places but it’s a large chain nursery in the DFW area. The tree can in relatively small pot considering it is about 9’ tall. If I remember correctly it was a 3 gal pot. I have not cut it back any.
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Also, it is not staked, I generally do not like staking trees and the wind has been blowing very hard lately but the tree has held up very nicely so I am assuming some rooting has happened.
That’s the other thing, since it was so big. Big trees need a little more TLC to establish their root systems than little trees, so it might just need another season of extra attention.
I don’t think 9’ persimmons in small pots are a good idea. It was probably rootbound. I tried a 6 ft tall nursery Fuyu in a small pot once, it died. I’m not sure what would work now, I guess try keeping it watered, maybe prune a little.
If it doesn’t make it, next Feb try a bare root from Doans in Irving, & cut back to 3 ft
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Awesome. Thanks for the help everyone!
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