Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I am firmly fixed on the idea that people blame it on viruses because they don’t know what’s actually causing the real problem, which then yes may produce viruses upon cell death, possibly hastening the disease.
Maybe people have talked about many plant viruses, including the first virus ever theorized, and it turned out that the disease was caused by something much more observable, not even fungus, mold, parasites, or bacteria, but insects, so embarrassing, anyway, I have a theory about KSDS (since there are no injections to be blamed, like SIDS and the other sudden deaths) that it is like the grafted oak trees that just suddenly die, not because of any disease, but because of self-pruning.
American Persimmons are self pruning, I actually guessed that from how much their shape reminded me of red oaks, and sure enough, they also have troubles when grafted. I’m pretty sure the difference here is about the genetics being different enough that it triggers a mechanism to kill the part of the tree that has “mutated”, and when that part is too large, everything dies.
Does anyone have a Persimmons Frankentrees where the trunk and scaffold are still American and the KSDS suceptible varieties have delayed graft failure but the main tree survives? Please let me know this might confirm my theory.
In any case, I think hybrid seedlings are the solution! The genetics will be more similar and they might lose the ability to self-prune. Also perhaps there’s a non-self-pruning American Persimmon which could be propagated for rootstocks?
A little more evidence that it’s likely not a virus, of course the virus would pass through the interstem and multiply itself (if the theory of self-replicating, pathogenic viruses were actually true).