Hi fruit enthusiasts!
I purchased a Nikita’s gift 5 gallon tree in early June. It was fully leafed out and looked very healthy.
After nearly 2 months the tree has put on zero growth! It still looks healthy and hasnt lost an leaves but it hasnt grown one bit!
I have two other (larger) persimmon trees in nearly identical conditions. (Saijo and Jiro) and are growing well. In fact the Saijo is a fairly fast grower and Jiro has lots of little fruits on it.
Any thoughts? Should I be concerned?
No concern. A lot (usually the majority) of large trees take many/several years to establish while the smaller grafts grow rapidly for the start.
It might sit there for three years and grow inches a year.
Dax
You also see top growrh, only. Sometimes there is much more happening underground the first couple years–i had a 12" 2 yr old pawpaw graft die this spring, dead wood snapped off to ground level cleanly. Thought it was a goner…in 2 weeks it put up a fresh 18" shoot, so bigger than the original–go figure.
I wouldn’t be concerned either. Although Nikita’s Gift is a very prolific grower, I noticed that it only has its growth spurt in the spring. Other varieties will have a second growth spurt when they are young… As long as the roots are getting established, I wouldn’t worry much about top growth at this stage.
Thanks everyone! I didnt know that NS has only one growth spurt and probably already had it earlier this spring!
I have a Jiro Persimmon that I planted last spring that did nothing at all last year. It leafed out and looked healthy, but didn’t grow a bit.
This year was a totally different story, lots of new growth all over the place.
I know what you mean. It leafed out with the first flush of growth and then stopped growing. That’s what mine do.
But a tree can’t leaf out without growing. Leaves don’t appear on last yrs wood. Leaves only develop on new growth. So any tree that leafs out in spring grew some.
None of my Asian persimmons grow especially fast, even after a few years in the ground. The American persimmons grow like weeds. I assume NG, being a hybrid, would grow based on the dominate traits of either the Asian or American genes, and, I think, NG leans more toward the Asian type. Being grafted on native rootstock doesn’t seem to make any difference in growth rate.
Either way, I wouldn’t expect much growth in the first year.
My this year planted Fuyu leafed out and grew about 3-5" and stopped. I’m assuming it will get at least another small burst of growth. It looks healthy so I’m not worried about it. It is still hanging on to it’s fruit.
I planted my Nikita’s Gift in April. It leafed out in May/June vigorously, but hasn’t grown since. Same for my Fuyu.
Cheers
I can affirm that my Nikita’s Gift does not have the second growth spurt that my pure Asians do. Saijo and Tam Kam have added about a foot in the last few weeks.
This is really interesting to learn! But slightly different from my experience in that the Asians are all growing quite well.
My Jiro/Fuyu is growing some nice fruits and is also putting out some new growth. The Saijo has almost continuously grown all season but no fruits yet. It is over 8 feet tall and a beautiful looking little tree.
NG was around 4 feet tall when I got it along with a few tiny (less than 1 foot tall) fig trees. In the last two months the figs have all grown taller than NG!