It’s generally accepted that persimmon cold hardiness declines significantly, probably more than other temperate fruits, as the winter turns to spring and so forth. I don’t recall the exact mechanism but basically a persimmon hardy to 0 F in January may only be hardy to 20 F in March or April.
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Thank you @scottfsmith and @zendog. They are beef steak and san marzanos that are mostly impacted. I’ll check more closely for aphids but didn’t see anything my first go around. Wouldn’t surprise me though. They are performing better than the tomatoes last year, this time I’m still getting flowers and fruit but just deformed leaves!
So, I’ve never seen this before this year. I am growing Kellogg for the first time and it looks like your pictures and while big, is not setting fruit. At first I thought it was from the big cold dips this late spring, but they persist with new growth. I can’t find any reason for the deformed leaves and am going to pull them. My cherry tomatoes never get this.
On a different note- are people seeing many hummingbirds? I had a handful of days with them but none in a few weeks. Concerned. The monarda and scarlet runner beans are starting to bloom, so I really hope they come back.
I used to have 2 hummer females and a male every year
My garden is a hummer paradise
But this year I just have the male
I’m really sad
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I just went for a walk on this lovely night and discovered even more peach trees in my neighborhood that look perfectly healthy and have predominantly clean fruit. In addition to that, in the absence of kids to watch biking in the middle of road, I noticed that a large tree a block up my street is absolutely loaded with beautiful apricots! I had no idea it was an apricot tree. I’ve never seen an apricot tree in my life. Probably 10 years old. Beautiful. Healthy. All the fruit trees in my neighborhood are healthy (and I’m discovering there are so many), and I’m going to bet that they are nearly all neglected. Nothing is thinned or pruned and many have branches that look seriously at risk with the next storm. I saw 2 properties that I hadn’t noticed before do have pruned peach trees and one clearly was trying to keep the trees shaped and small, the other was just cutting away from a walkway. A few houses down from me in either direction there are big peach trees (5yo and other is old, old) that I know are entirely ignored and loaded with fruit. Also a few houses down is a neighbor with a big and beautiful tart Cherry tree at least 10 years old, in just afternoon sun that produces massive amount of clean cherries, enough to share with the birds and for them to offer for us to pick whenever (I can’t seem to remember when they’re ripe!). That house planted a sweet cherry from Home Depot 2 years ago, and it’s healthy and has made cherries both last and this year. And, every fruit tree in the neighborhood that’s visible is unprotected from deer. Except mine. This is a dense 7k lot neighborhood.
I’m feeling like, hello I HAVE to be able to grow stone fruit! And, yet, frustrated as to why I’ve had what feels like ALL the diseases and bug problems in a 15 month time frame. I was absolutely riddled with leaf spot AND shot hole within 2 months of planting stone fruit last year. Shot hole reappeared this year, but 2 copper sprays seems to have eliminated it. I’m out there every 7-10 days spraying biofungicides and obsessing over my trees, pruning the open, watching for problems…why??
Is it just that all my neighborhood trees are bigger and established? The potted Home Depot trees are better than my carefully selected, supposedly disease resistant bareroot ones from legit nurseries? Or that they only have 1-2 fruit trees and I have a million? Or I’ve read too much and cursed my lot with all the problems everyone here says I will have growing stone fruit in the DMV when those problems don’t exist a few houses down and within a 2 mile radius in the neighborhood? Despite my lot also being the only one with fruit trees that also has gardens of native plants and is buzzing alive with life while all the other trees are in turf lawns with a few foundation boxwoods and smattering of other useless plants? I’m frustrated.
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I was examining tree leaves the other day and noticed some trees were inexplicably diseased while others nearby of the same species weren’t. So that can happen.
More diversity of plants and insects can potentially also mean more carriers and vectors too. Although I don’t know whether that’s likely to be an issue in this case.
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@Eme I think you have identified some reasons…
I would not discount having just one fruit tree in a big area. The trees definitely spread diseases and bugs to each other. If the person cleans up drops and removes dead leaves, which is more likely if they have a manicured yard, it’s even better.
When I re-established “lawn” and mowing around a bunch of my fruit trees it knocked diseases way, way down. I imagine a lawn of fescue with a good distance to any forest or bug paradise would be a big benefit.
I actually wish I had more “lawn” since all I do is mow it and don’t have to weed it and I don’t worry as much about insects and such. I have plenty of paradise for pollinators (and bugs I don’t want) nearby. The “lawn” is only around my trees and house. “lawn” is in quotes because I’m pretty sure it’s a mix of grass type weeds that I mow. It’s not winning any prizes.
Even if they’re not thinning or pruning they might be spraying them 1 or 2 times a season. My brother’s wildly overgrown plum tree (that branches did break off due to overloading) does get a spray with whatever the generic thing from Lowes is that has synthetic fungicide in it. Otherwise, it just gets covered in rot.
Agreed. It’s almost impossible to harvest any edible peaches or plums without spraying. If it’s a rainy year the entire crop will rot and that’s not counting the PC damage. They look good from a distance, but if you got up close I’m sure you would see the PC damage. The rot won’t show up till they are almost ripe. I’d bet the farm they are not harvesting tree loads of perfect crop without spraying. Or much at all for that matter.
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Probably helps that it’s been so terribly dry this year (well an hour or two south of you here in VA at least, I’m thinking DC is also in a drought).
My Indian free peach I planted last spring and had the most sickly leaves by this time last year, has looked nearly spotless in comparison with how little rain (and even how many more days it’s been relatively milder humidity for my area).
I’d be curious if those trees look as amazing in a year with normal weather (Assuming that’s still a thing).
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I don’t know, I really think nearly all the trees are not sprayed. Most of the peach trees (20?) are against the street and the bigger ones are covered in fruit. I have examined the fruit and only see the rare PC mark; they are largely clean. We shall see what happens in the next few weeks.
@benthegirl i am thinking that the mulch is just harboring diseases to splash back at my low trees. It makes sense that a turf barrier would be protective.
Total, awful, very bad drought here. - but that hasn’t stopped my stone fruit from getting leaf spot and shot hole again. I have watered my vegetable gardens - and a few times the fruit trees- nearly every day since planting this spring. I have never watered my veg garden so much as we normally have rain throughout spring, and then maybe 3-4 week drought beginning or mid summer when I start complaining about the time suck of watering. planning for irrigation next year since the droughts just keep getting longer and longer.
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Maybe road dust acting like surround ?
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I’ve got a dozen stone fruit trees and get a bumper harvest
But I spray for sure
I also had the experience of having a serviceberry tree that was just a dud. My neighbor had a tree and never sprayed that had tons of fruit wo rust. Mine always had awful rust despite great location and lots of care. That tree was a dud and I got rid of it. I have several new serviceberry shrubs that seem to be doing well..sometimes it’s just the tree
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Any idea how the fruit on your neighbor’s tree tastes? I’m always looking for strongly rust resistant serviceberries but haven’t encountered very many in my area. The ones I have found don’t seem to produce very good fruit
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It’s delicious
I am embarrassed to say I’ve sampled it many times
Just don’t know the cultivar because it’s been there for a decade or more. I assume it’s not autumn brilliance
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My Heritage Rasps are finally starting to form. I think I might have some pollination issues back where I have them. What a cool plant though.
Exciting, my asparagus crowns are finally popping up! So cool to see them alive and seemingly well.
Not as exciting, seems like some beetles are getting to my eggplants. I am trying neem, not sure if it will stop them. I’m starting to lean towards Kaolin clay. I see a lot of folks here use it.
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My eggplants always seem to get these little beetles. The beetles have never done in the plants and I just wait them out.. never sprayed anything on them.
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Do they destroy most of the leaves and just grow faster than they destroy? Wondering if I might have a different or multiple culprits on my hands.
They put little holes in the leaves. They are called flea beetles. They don’t chew the edges, they just put tiny holes all over. If something is destroying most of the leaves it must be something else.
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Flea beetles are really the only pest I’ve had with eggplants and theycan easily destroy the smaller top leaves and even eat the growth point when they are bad. They are particularly rough on young plants, especially in the early season when the cooler weather is slowing or even stunting eggplants. I’ve lost a few plants over the years to them, but they were smaller plants when I planted out and it was probably the combination of heavy flea beetle infestation and cold weather both weakening the small plants. Once the plants are a foot or so tall, they seem to be able to grow beyond the flea beetles and maybe flea beetles are even past their main generation.
Since I grow in a community garden, I see a lot of pest pressure since every one is basically supporting the population of any pest that exists around here. At the community garden I usually hit them with Surround at planting and then again a few weeks later when new leaves have emerged that need to be protected. If we get a lot of cold and they aren’t growing much I might give them a third spray 3-4 weeks after planting just to keep the flea beetle pressure down. It doesn’t completely keep them off the plants, but definitely does for the most part. If I’m growing eggplants in my own yard, the pressure is less and I can usually grow plants without any intervention.
Here is a video I did a few years back on using Surround on eggplants. You can see what they flea beetles look like and the kind of damage they do as well as how I use the Surround.
You might have another pest that I haven’t encountered on eggplants, but at least for me, flea beetles are the only real issue and only early on.
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