Good move - persimmons love to starve out grafts, you need to watch them carefully. Those particular shoots are low enough relative to the grafts that it might end up being OK, but I have had cases like there where the grafts seemed to start but then get out-competed by the other growth and never get going. This is on persimmons, other fruit trees think differently.
Speaking of persimmons, it looks like my 12-year Hachiya did not make it through the last winter. Thats sad, it was a big beautiful and productive tree.
Scott
Sorry to hear about your Hachiya. I was able to keep my Ichi Asian persimmon alive now for 8 yrs by planting it real close to my house and winter protectiing it by wrapping with a painter cloth sheet and hang a high watts light bulb the center of the tree and only turn it on when the temp get down to -4F or below. I kept this Ichi at 8 ft so it was easy to wrap it.
Tony
Off to a good start, hope it continues!
I’m seeing something strange on my Saijo graft. It keeps pushing out leaves but then they drop once they near full size, sometimes with black spots/edges. I thought I saw webbing, so I presumed spider mites and have been treating with soap every couple days to no avail, so maybe it’s not bugs. My Izu and IKKJ grafts seem to be unaffected. Is it a bad graft union, perhaps? Hopefully the other Saijo scion I grafted does better, I’m not very optimistic this one will make it. Anyone have advice?
Ampersand
There is a possibility that the rootstock rejected the scion. It happened to my grafts on occasions.
Tony
American persimmons in particular seem to randomly reject things. I had one virginiana stock I could not get anything to stick on for several years. I eventually got something on it but its highly dwarfed. I would just hope it eventually gets in a good groove.
Scott
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Thanks, guys! We’ll see what happens…
Could persimmon psylla be sapping the life from the new growth?
I haven’t seen any critters, but I guess it’s possible.
I had significant issues with psylla with my seed grown persimmons last spring on my deck. By the time I recognized it, I had a lot of damage. I used Sevin and uncurled slightly curled leaves. I completely removed any heavily curled leaves or those that dried out.
I knew what to look for this year. I did two things. At the first sign of anything white on the leaves, I sprayed with Sevin. I also put out a bug zapper near the trees in hopes it would attract and remove any adults before they could lay eggs.
So far, the problem is significantly reduced from last year.
Jack
That bug zapper seems like a good idea.
Tony
Tony,
I actually started using the bug zapper when starting trees indoors. Fungus gnats were an issue at one point. Hanging electrical tape from my lights would catch a lot of adults to keep them from laying more eggs. I ended up doing two things for them. First, I got some permethrin that I sprayed on the top of the potting mix and second I got that bug zapper. At night when the timers turned out my lights, it was the only light source in the basement. It killed adults quickly. With those too measures, the fungus gnats were just a slight nuisance this year.
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Mosquito Dunks and Gnat Nix work for fungus gnats, too.
Yes, I also broke the dunks in half and rub them against each other to dust the top of the medium in each cell with planting trees. I was trying everything I could.
Here’s the Izu and IKKJ, 4 out of 4 took and are starting to grow fast with the rain and hot weather. The Saijo grafts on my other tree are trying to push out more buds, hopefully some make it. I also juat got my Tam Kam from Edible Landscaping last week and planted it.
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Ampersand
Looks great. Keep us updated through out the season.
Tony
Thanks Tony! Here’s the Saijo, I’m cautiously optimistic at the number of buds. For bonus points there’s a young MBvs fig in the background. Newly planted Tam Kam below that.
-Kelby
And wow, did Saijo take off! I was worried it was failing. Maybe it was a bug problem that was causing leaves to drop before…
Awesome. Just make sure the deers don’t chump on them and you will enjoy their fruits in about 3 yrs or so.
Tony
Don’t worry, the deer have been enjoying my plum and apple trees.
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