Persimmon tree drop all the flowers. Need advice

Are you doing adventures of the Mayan ruins , Cenotes , villages , snorkeling . ?
Please tell ……. Lots to see there.!
The way that food spread looks …. I would just plan on gaining
20+ LBs.
You can always lose that later .,. Right ! ?

Technically, we have to think of persimmons the same way we think of typical Euro pears, right? The trees need several years to mature.

Wish I knew this sooner.

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You are a patient man. I get mine fruiting at 2-3 years of age planted bareroot or from grafts I do myself.

Is there anyone successfully growing Nikita’s gift in the North East/Midwest?
@mamuang, do you have late spring frosts where you live? i.e. spring frosts that occur after NG has leafed out? I suspect it is a variety that doesn’t tolerate cold weather as well as even some kakis.

Here in the PNW, it is my favorite variety among all persimmons, Asian or American. But I am yet to taste fruit from hybrids like JT-02, Kasandra or Chuchupaka. Maybe this year.

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Please tell me how this experience varies, if at all, across Asians, Americans, and hybrids.

For my Prok (American, bare root purchase), maybe I could have had a little fruit in Year 3. But (see below) I probably removed any fruit that may have been developing.

For my IKKJs (Asian, bare root purchase), it was a struggle just to keep the trees alive. There was 50% top kill after Year 1, maybe 20% after Year 2. So no, there was no fruit in Year 3.

For my Kassandra (hybrid, bare root purchase), there was minimal flowering until this year. That’s despite no material top-kill.

For my JT-02 (hybrids, grafted by me early 2021, planted in the ground this year), there were blossoms this year but I use Year 2 for growing scaffolds. So I removed the blossoms. The young tree seemed willing to hold fruit, but I wouldn’t let it.

I have trees, grafted by me this year and planted last month, of Barbra’s Blush, H63-A, Dollywood, Sheng, and Saiyo (all 1st Year). I also have a new purchased Giboshi (effectively 2nd year), just planted. I hope they all survive the winter. But if ANY of them produces flowers next year, I’ll remove them. Basically, I don’t think it’s in the best interest of a 2nd or 3rd-year tree to produce fruit.

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I think it depends on the variety. Some like 20th Century flowered the year after grafting. 100-46 is a particularly precocious American. JT-02 also seems precocious and flowered the year after grafting, but got hit by frost so no flowers survived.

My trees seem pretty vigorous and some 3 year old trees are upwards of 10-15 feet with many branches. We have similar cold hardiness zones, but my summers might be hotter for longer which persimmons seem to appreciate. I might get more growth out of mine. Also, the winters aren’t too terrible with only a few particularly cold days in the single digits. Kaki don’t seem to be very problematic here for winter survival unless it’s a polar vortex year. I do notice that persimmons growing in spots with more sun exposure flower more profusely, and hold onto more fruit. Are yours planted in full sun or get some shade.

@mamuang Has a Kasandra that flowered as a 2 year old tree. However, it might not hold its fruit.

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Same here. You can help your trees form stronger branches by thinning out weak growth during dormancy. I notice it enhances vigor, and form thicker growth on the remaining branches.

Here are some Diospyros sp. ( persimmons) that you may encounter down that way

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I will to take a look if time permits. Did snorkeling and jet ski today. Ate a good lunch with soft shell crab deep fried, first try of lobster sashimi, and more fruits.

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@jrd51 Um glad you tagged me.

Last year was the first time my Fuyu was able to hold some of the flowers and also developed in to fruit, so I was really excited that finally it hold some of the flowers, not all of them but enough for a young tree.
Also the graft that I did on the same tree was able to develop flowers and then the fruits.

So my take is that young trees or newly planted trees it would take a few years to do so but first they have to develop the root system in order to concentrate or putting the energy into fruiting and also like someone mentioned that the tree is going to hold the amount of flowers/fruit that it can handle.

When it’s hot and they have water, it’s a race from a small size to see if they will get taller than field corn their second year :slight_smile: Winter mostly just causes tip die back on my virginiana if at all. -30ish was definitely enough to do that on some.

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I think that’s right. If you can graft onto a very mature tree, you’ll probably get fruit much quicker. But most new trees are grafts on young rootstock, so it takes time for the roots to develop.

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My Ichi did that for 4-5 years, then it fruited for me for 2-3 years before a cold winter killed it back below the graft point.

If it weren’t in a poor site (everything around it has grown phenomenally well) I would re-graft it, but given that it is shaded pretty heavily at this point I think it is a lost cause. I will replace it in the next year with another persimmon in a different location.

Scott

My experience with Asian persimmon grafted on native ones is very simple.
I pick fruits from a persimmon tree growing along the shore by our boat dock that produces very sweet, tasty fruits, keep the seeds from that only, which is a very small tree. Plant the seeds, graft on that tree seedling, either the first or second year, W/T graft only. The big advantage? Taproot. Robust growth,no flowering for second and third year, than let it rip! Taproot can handle a lot, leave the tree alone, let it do it’s thing.

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