Fruiting Persimmon trees are prolific fruiting & very ornamental looking with a naturally semi-weeping habit, lush glossy emerald green summer foliage that turns rich autumn tones in autumn before falling in winter.
They are compact smaller growing trees and don't take up too much room in the garden. They grow 3.5 to 4m tall naturally, but recommended you prune manage height lower for easier tree management and harvesting. Can be easily pruned to maintain a lower height (we keep ours around 2.5m tall). They are also a good espalier tree.
Of course, as we all know. The best time to prune a fruit tree is immediately after harvest.
Nutritionally, Persimmons are similar to carrots, apricots, mangoes, rock melons - loaded with healthful carotinoids, vitamin A, B & C compounds & minerals.
Persimmons thrive in warm sheltered sunny spots in good draining but moisture retentive organically enriched fertile soils. Adding coarse pumice to heavy soils helps a lot to improve drainage and aeration. Keeping a good bark mulch layer around the tree, year round, keeps the roots cool, moist and protected.
They are hardy to cold winters & frosts as they are deciduous (dormant) over winter.
Once planted, Persimmon take about 3-4 seasons to grow/mature before they start producing fruit. The better the growing environment, the faster they grow and mature.
The spring/early summer flowers of a Persimmon tree are small and completely green. So you may not even notice the tree is in flower, as they are hard to spot in amongst the glossy green foliage.
"FUYU"
Non-astringent variety. It's the commercially grown variety you see available in supermarkets, etc. Delicious sweet flavoured fruit can be eaten when the fruit is firm (crunchy and crisp like an apple) or soft and juicy (almost jam like).
As per pic #4 : Trees are grafted in tall p8 bags standing aprox 60-70cm tall from the top of the bag to top of growth. Trees are on a central leader stem and currently winter dormant. Handle the tree by the bag, not the main stem so as to not damage the fragile root system. Ideal time to plant now, so they establish in the garden and ready to put on new growth in spring.
Full cultural growing information provided.
Note regarding astringent Persimmons - I'm working on grafting Hiratananashi trees for availability next season. Watch this space!
