Hi growers. Will you be so kind to give me pruning advice for this grafted Barbra Blush American Persimmon I just planted? It’s about 4 ft tall and appears to have been head-cut at the nursery where my green arrows is in the picture. There is also one little side branch about 20" from the ground (my red arrow). My goal is to keep the tree at 10 ft tall and wide at max! It will get at least 5-6 hrs of direct afternoon sun. Specific questions:
Do I prune now? If yes, where?
Do you recommend modified central leader or vase shape? (I prefer the latter but have read the the former is better for Persimmon)
Do I keep that little side branch?
Do I need to stake the trunk to make the upper part of it straight (right now it has a good 30 degree lean at the top)
I would not be interested in keeping that small low branch. I would remove it so the tree can put energy into adding some girth and starting some scaffold branches a little higher up on the tree.
Since I have deer pressure here… i am letting my persimmons establish first scaffold branches in the 5-7 ft range. If you have no deer problems you could start lower than that.
Can you show a close up of the twist/head cut? I’m wondering if this was a bad support stake attachment. I’ve seen a few trees that have developed this kind of weird angle when the support stake was attached slightly away but tightly forcing the tree to do that.
Also - just making sure you see the graft union somewhee too?
Sure, here are a couple photos showing the head cut and also the scaffold I added to straighten up the main stem. Please let me know what you think of the headcut.
Apart from that, I’m curious to know if I should head-cut the tree at knee height to encourage an open-center given my limited space and sunlight. I did this to a Jiro Persimmon last year (this one is Barbra Blush American though) and it developed two main branches at below head-cut and while I think they are gonna be fine when they thicken up, the branches are quite flimsy, making me think if I should have gone with a central leader form. So, I don’t want the same thing to happen to this one as well. Thank you in advance.
Small persimmon often regrow a new leader and abandon (or give less energy) to the other prior leader for various reasons. I suspect they pruned out the less vigorous upright, but who knows. Can you see the graft union?
Thank you, @scottfsmith. I see where you want me to cut it. Here’s a bit of backstory for why I thought I would not headcut the stem on this American persimmon tree.
3 years ago, I got a Jiro persimmon and since I had heard about the open-center form and cutting the stem at knee-high, I went a head and cut the tree at knee-high. What resulted was two branches that turned out to be two flimsy branches as shown in the 2022 photo below:
Now, the branches can hold themselves up even if I remove the scaffold (but I’m a bit concerned about the angle of the fork after fruit weight is on the branches).
After this experience, I read and heard in some places that persimmon prefers a central/modified central leader form, and I kicked myself for head-cutting that tree and attempting an open center. That is my source of reluctance to head-cut this new persimmon tree. I thought I would let the stem go up and over a couple years develop a modified central leader form. I guess my main concern is that I head-cut it and do not get any branch that goes straight up to be my new leader, as it happened with the Jiro. What are your thoughts?
