I ordered this Saijo persimmon from Home Depot and it arrived today. Overall it looks like a nice tree but most of the leaves have an issue where they’re stunted or curled, maybe from aphids or some other pest. There are a few normal looking leaves on it though. It has some healthy looking buds for next year and has what looks like overall good form. I suspect it will be okay but really could use some other opinions on this. Please let me know what you think. Thanks in advance.
It will be fine. I have seen that a number of times on new persimmons. Did you order that on line from Home Depot?
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Keep your receipt. HD is pretty good about replacements if it rolls over, just make sure you understand replacement details. I had a Hachiya do this and it failed, only time can tell, it may do better planted
Dennis
Kent, wa
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Most of the leaf damage looks like it came from persimmon psylla, which is pretty common and nothing to worry about. I get some of that every year at my orchard. You can spray an insecticide when you start to see the damage next year, or just let the tree push through it with new growth, which is normally what I do.
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Yes, it’s a five gallon Saijo ordered from the Home Depot website.
I appreciate everyone taking time to weigh in on this. I’ll watch out for psylla next season and spray them if I see any.
Just to echo what @SMC_zone6 said, the psylla are a common occurrence on persimmons here in zone 7B North Carolina too. It looks ugly, but they don’t usually seem to have any dramatic effect on the overall health of the tree or fruit production. They only like to feed on new growth, and usually the first flush of new growth in the spring comes before the psylla have started feeding. The only time it’s more of an issue is when there’s a late frost that kills that first flush of leaves, and then the psylla go after the regrowth in a big way. Or when you have a new graft and the psylla suck it to death. Spraying psylla is tricky because it’s hard to get to them once the leaves curl, and the young leaves break easily if you try to uncurl them.
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Many of my young trees had psylla – all of them recovered except a couple of unhealthy ones.