@Vincent_8b, I think persimmons really respond to fertilizer. Yours is evidence of that. I fertilized mine during their first two years, then stopped. According to some readings (I forget which - maybe Lee Reich’s book), if you give them too much nitrogen fertilizer, they will set fruit then all of the fruit will fall off.
On little persimmon trees, this is a bare root Chocolate persimmon tree that I planted this Spring. The little thing was only about a foot tall, and was covered with flowers but not leaves. Then it turned brown and I assumed it was dead. In July or August, it leafed out again and now looks pretty good. So I cleaned up around it, mulched, and put up a better deer cage last week. I will add 1-inch plastic mesh some time this winter, because this is the main deer area and they will pull leaves through the steel mesh once they become more bushy.
One thing I noted on fertilizing for Saijo. My soil tests low for Calcium and Magnesium. I was using lime for the calcium. However, the Saijo leaves were pale, yellowish green. When I fertilized with Epsom Salts, the leaved became greener, larger, and thicker. The NIkita’s Gift, on the same D. lotus rootstock, did not have that problem. Now, each year before it leafs out, I give that tree a dose of Epsom salts, about 1/4 Epsom salts in 2 gallons of water.
