I’ve been battling some major leaf curl and can’t figure out what is causing it and how to treat it. At this point, I think there are multiple issues, since I’m seeing white dust as well as half eaten leaves (along with the leaf curl). I’ve been treating it with Neem oil but it doesn’t seem to have any effect. I’d appreciate any suggestions you guys might have.
BTW, there are 3 potted persimmon trees: Saijo, IKKJ, and Tam Kam. Thanks!
Little critters called psyllid.
I spray mine with seven.
Hate those things… make your pretty persimmon leaves look awefull.
The rolled up leaf edges is psyllid damage… the white stuff… yes what they do.
Good luck.
Do persimmon psyllids live on any other species?
I’ve got some this year. I don’t remember having them before. Did I import them on a purchased tree? Can I eliminate them with a well-timed dormant oil spray?
@jrd51 … i see them on wild persimmons here too out in my fields… and in other parts of my county. Think they are just a natural persimmon pest.
I first noticed them last year when growing two persimmon seedlings from seed. I got a pretty good pic of one.
I sprayed mine with some seven spray… that was all i had. My wife actually buys that to spray pest on her flowers.
The seven did them in… and after that my leaves that came out looked ok the rest of the summer and fall.
This spring… i started noticing the psyllium damage on leaves about mid may… on some if my wild persimmons… and on my persimmon grafts too.
When a persimmon graft is struggling a bit and gets psyllium too… not good. I had a couple including zima khurma that almost did not make it because of that.
I sprayed… they recovered… the grafts are doing well now.
I would like to know a good organic solution too… hate spraying stuff… i wonder if something like spinosad might take them out.
Found that online.
How do you get rid of psyllids?
Neem Oil or Insecticidal Soap will kill off most Psyllids and preserve the safety of your beneficial insects. It needs to be applied weekly to get all of them. Often, when damage is seen, the psyllids have long since done their business and left
More info …
These products can control psyllids where infested plant parts can be thoroughly sprayed. Nonresidual, contact insecticides have low toxicity to people, pets, and pollinators. They have little adverse impact on biological pest control, because they do not leave toxic residues that would kill natural enemies migrating in after their application. Nonresidual contact insecticides include azadirachtin (AzaMax, Safer Brand BioNeem), neem oil (Green Light Neem, Schultz Garden Safe Brand Neem), insecticidal soap (Safer), and narrow-range oil (Bonide Horticultural Oil, Monterey Horticultural Oil).
Unless plants are too tall to achieve adequate coverage and avoid excessive drift of spray, these products are an especially good choice on acacia, eugenia, pepper tree, and other hosts with natural enemies that may not provide biological control until later in the season or are only partially effective at that location. Spraying nonpersistent insecticides early in the season before natural enemies build up and migrate from nearby unsprayed plants is compatible with late-season biological control. Monitor after the application. If natural enemies become abundant, avoid spraying again.
Spinosad
Spinosad is a fermentation product of a naturally occurring bacterium. This insecticide (Captain Jack’s Deadbug Brew, Conserve, Monterey Garden Insect Spray) persists about 1 week. It has translaminar activity (is absorbed short distances into plant tissue) so it can better reach psyllid nymphs in leaf and shoot crevices and pits in comparison with the products above. Spinosad can be toxic to certain natural enemies (e.g., predatory mites, syrphid fly larvae) and bees when sprayed and for about 1 day afterward; do not apply spinosad to plants that are flowering.
There are no wild persimmons here. My trees (American, Asian and hybrid) were not infested prior to this year. So I have to assume that I created my own little Psyllid ecosystem by importing them on some purchased trees or rootstock.
If Persimmon Psyllid don’t live on any species other than persimmon, maybe I have a chance of eradicating them with persistent spraying next year. I’ll also have to remove all root suckers growing from the rootstocks.
Some pretty good info on them. They do bother other things… and it seems there are many varieties of them… some or perhaps most are pest for specific things. Citrus, Potatoes, long list.
I Ignore this on my persimmons in Zone 7 as just cosmetic; have not seen it do any lasting damage to them.
I do too. It’s like a normal thing here. They are hard to get rid of anyways.
It is hardly noticable on larger trees… and i agree… not neceasary to treat for them. Mid to late summer they seem to grow out of it.
But now on a graft… they can cause so much damage… your graft may die… unless you treat them. I had a few persimmon grafts this spring that i am pretty sure they would not have succeeded without knocking the Psyllids back.
There is literally a psyllid for just about everything i grow.
https://www.psyllids.org/psyllidsPests.htm
I am hoping my ladybugs eat them all. They are a natural predator of psyllids.
I have found many Assassin Bugs lately… they also eat psyllids.
So for now i am letting the predators build up and eat as much as they can and hopefully they have babies…
I have one blackberry cultivar with psyllid damage… and my persimmons that i bought recently came with psyllid damage.
Here’s ladybug larvae prowling my DV seedlings… unfortunately he couldn’t catch the psyllid adults. They would flick off as soon as he made contact. I caught it on video too:
I never had them before this year, either. At least not enough for me to notice. I saw a couple adults early June, and just noticed some bad leaf curl on some seedlings today, with the nymphs found on the curled leaves. It sounds like they like wet springs, so maybe they’ve been here and haven’t been bad enough?
If they truly weren’t here, I’m really curious how they got here. I only bring in dormant persimmon trees and scionwood. There aren’t any wind trees around here. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else is growing persimmons in the city, but there aren’t any I’ve noticed (and I’m really looking!). I’ve probably got the highest concentration of persimmons for miles if not tens of miles.
I noticed some leafrollers, though havent poked around much. I also noticed leaves getting watery black spots and falling off on some trees. Not major, but probably 10~15% on a couple of trees. I was going to ask you all if you’d noticed that on any of yours and what it might be.
I haven’t noticed that, or not exactly. I did have one leaf turn dark slowly and roll up, which I then pulled off. Looked different from the psyllid damage. I was worried it was the first sign of a graft rejection, but the graft has shown no other issues in several weeks.
Same here, all my persimmons got clobbered by leaf rollers and psyllids a couple months back. Just about all new growth this year was lost to them in the space of about a week. Some insecticidal soap took care of it, but wish I had seen them earlier, before the damage was done.
I very rarely use pesticides, but these are young trees and I already lost one season of growth, so out came the poison.
One, perhaps distressing, thing I noticed is that the pest population really hasn’t gotten under control as the summer progresses. The typical line of thinking for more natural control is that early on the pest population is unchecked, but after a while the predators catch up and you get some degree of relief. Well, it’s a nice theory. My new bare root persimmon didn’t leaf out until July, and it’s planted away from the other persimmons and near my garden and meadow area where all the predator habitat is–and every new leaf that poor tree put out was hammered with psyllids. Until I sprayed it. I suspect the natural balance method works sometimes, but in this case it didn’t, and I needed something a little more artificial to save my tree.
The psyllids that I have here must prefer Asian persimmons because my Americans don’t seem affected. Or not much. At this point, most of my Asian trees are small. I’m gonna try a combination of dormant oil plus insecticide to wipe them out next spring.
