I planted a Rosseyanka Persimmon tree last fall, this Spring it leaved out before everything else, looking really healthy, but for the last 5 months it has not Produced any new growth what so ever. I added fertilizer to the soil when I planted it and have used Miracle grow general purpose fertilizer a few times this summer. why won’t this tree grow, what has stunted it’s growth?
This is completely normal. Persimmon trees don’t grow continuously but have growth spurts. Some varieties only have one spurt, others have multiple. Most of them stop growing by early summer as they get busy making roots.
Don’t over fertilize. Just be patient.
ps – welcome to growingfruit!
Thanks, that makes sense.
I agree with @ramv . My persimmons and pawpaws will not start growing again once they’ve decided to stop for the summer. With good fertility, it can sometimes grow for longer, but I suspect I have less influence than I think I do.
The exception, of course, is if the tree gets major damage or defoliation. If it’s not ready to be dormant, the tree will often put out a new round of growth. I wouldn’t recommend doing this intentionally.
Can’t tell if water or drought is your issue as I don’t know where you are located. This year I learned what I should have already known during our drought. My watering pattern around my Chocolate persimmon tree has always been very near the trunk, because when I planted it that’s where I mulched, while on another growing near my strawberry patch, my pattern goes out to its crown perimeter because that’s where my strawberries are located. All during the drought my Chocolate was typically wilting in spite of my frequent watering, while my Ichi ki kei Jiro always looked perky and growing as if a drought never occured. As I compared the two, I discovered that by changing my watering pattern two weeks ago around my Chovolate it changed its growth character very quickly. So lesson learned: mulch and water the perimeter where your feeder roots are growing. Sort of like skating towards where the puck is going!
This tip may be useful to some.
Dennis
Kent, wa
My prok graft this spring did a long continuous growth spurt until about a month ago… it had grown around 6 ft… and it stopped… and at the shoot tips some nice buds have formed… but for the last month or so… no more new growth.
My kassandra did something similar… it grew around 3 ft… stopped a few weeks… formed nice shoot tip buds… paused about a month… and then those buds started sending out new growth again. It has reached around 8 ft of growth now.
My new IKKJiro… did a nice early growth spurt… paused about a month and just in the past couple weeks… cranked up again and is growing more.
My WS8-10 has done continuous growth all year and has reached near 7 ft now.
My JT02 graft… took off early and has not slowed down… right at 10 ft of growth now and still going.
I wonder if some of the ones that have stopped… might resume again… once it cools off some and rains more… my apple trees usually grow quite a bit in Sept Oct…
most everything stops growing by mid july here with the exception of grapes and kiwis but they too slow way down.
@steveb4 … check out my IKKJiro…
August 25 and busting out more new growth. It is near 5 ft now and was just a twiggy thing when i planted it this spring.
I think all persimmons like it here.
It has had nothing but compost and wood chips.