This is my second persimmon, the first having expired. This began as a bare root specimen at the beginning of the year–hardly any roots…
So much TLC later it was growing great then I think our lack of water got to it and it seemed to die midsummer.
So it got more attention (lots of dishwater…) and suddenly began to grow with a vengeance. Now it won’t stop. Everything else is dormant. Around here it’s not unusual to force some low chill trees into dormancy by manually defoliating, but I’m reluctant to interfere with this tree because I figure more root growth can’t be a bad thing for a specimen that started out with such a deficit.
I agree. American persimmons don’t need a lot of chill hours. I’m north in zone 7A but I’ve started some from seed for rootstock in containers. They were still on the small side for grafting after the first season so I let them go dormant in the fall. I mulched in the pots until I thought they had enough chill hours. Around Christmas time I brought them indoors and put them under light. They leafed out and got some extra growth before I eventually grafted them.
Leave it alone. The worst that can happen is a frost damages some new shoots. In my clime (North San Diego county) my persimmons went from green leaf to dormant in ~ 2 weeks. The persimmon is also the last to leaf out – approx. May. I usually have to wait until February before apples start to go dormant – but they do go dormant on their own.