American Persimmon

Site & soil

Persimmon is one of the most forgiving fruit trees we grow. University of Kentucky Extension describes it as surviving on everything from poor sites to river bottoms, and from partial shade to full sun. It is just as clear about what to aim for: moist, well drained loamy soil and a sunny site give the best growth and the best fruit. Avoid both extremes. Waterlogged ground and bone dry ground each hold it back.

Soil texture is not fussy here. Coarse, medium and fine textures all work, across a pH range of 4.7 to 7.5, which covers most of what we see on a West Virginia hillside. Give it full sun. We class persimmon as an understory tree because at a mature 30 feet tall and 20 feet wide it sits below a full canopy of oak or walnut, but fruit set follows light, so put it in a gap or along the sunny edge of a planting rather than in deep shade.

Worth knowing if you are planting a mixed food forest: persimmon is on Penn State Extension's list of species tolerant of juglone, so it is a sound neighbor for black walnut. What actually limits any tree planted near a big walnut is competition for water and the shade of that canopy, so give it room and light either way.

Planting

Plant bareroot stock while it is dormant, in late fall or in early spring as soon as the ground can be worked.

• Persimmon puts down a deep taproot early, and NC State Extension notes that taproot makes the tree difficult to transplant. Plant it where you want it to stay and plan not to move it.
• Keep the roots moist and out of the sun and wind from the moment you open the box until the tree is in the ground.
• Dig deep enough to take the full length of the taproot without bending or coiling it, and wide enough that you are not folding side roots to fit. Set the tree at the depth it grew in the nursery, root collar at grade.
• Backfill with the soil you dug out, firm it with your hands rather than your boot, then water it in to settle soil around the roots.
• Mulch a ring around the tree to hold moisture and keep grass back, and pull the mulch away from the trunk itself.

Spacing

Space trees 15 to 30 feet apart. Kentucky Extension reports 20 feet between trees in the row and 27 feet between rows working well in a production planting, which is a good default. Go tighter toward 15 feet only if you are deliberately growing a close row and accept that you will be pruning for light.

First-year care

The first season is about roots, not about growth you can see. Water is the input that matters.

• Kentucky Extension is direct about this: young plants should be well watered to aid establishment, while mature trees are somewhat drought tolerant. Water deeply and on a schedule through the first summer rather than lightly and often.
• Once established, persimmon is a moderate water user. Alabama Extension credits its drought tolerance to that deep taproot, which is the same root that made it awkward to plant.
• Keep grass and weeds out of the mulch ring. Competition at the root collar costs a young tree more than any pest here will.
• Slow growth is normal for this species and is on the spec above, so resist the urge to push a young tree with fertilizer. A first-year persimmon that looks like it is sulking is usually just building roots.
• Deer are on the wildlife list for a reason. If you have pressure, cage the tree or tube the trunk for the first few years.

Pruning

Persimmon asks for less pruning than almost anything else in the orchard. Kentucky Extension says the trees require little pruning once they reach bearing size, so the work is front loaded into the first few years.

• Prune in the dormant season, late winter before growth starts.
• Early on, pick a single leader and remove competing leaders, crossing branches, and anything dead or broken. That is the whole job.
• Favor branches that leave the trunk at a wide angle over narrow forks, and head the tree back if it is getting taller than you want to harvest from.
• On a bearing tree, limit yourself to dead wood and enough thinning to get light and air into the center.
• NC State Extension notes that mature trees throw root suckers that can become a weed problem. Cut them at ground level when you see them instead of letting a thicket build around the trunk.

Harvest

Harvest is in fall, and your first crop should come 3 to 6 years after planting. Because these trees set fruit parthenocarpically, the fruit is seedless or close to it, which makes it far quicker to turn into pulp.

Judging ripeness

Ripeness is the whole game. Unripe persimmon is, in Alabama Extension's words, powerfully astringent and unpleasant to eat, and one green fruit will put a person off the species for years. Ripe fruit is soft, almost squishy, and has gone from pale orange to deep orange, red, or even a dusky blue. It lets go of the branch with very little encouragement.

You will hear that persimmon needs a frost to sweeten. Kentucky Extension calls that a popular belief and says what the fruit actually needs is a long ripening period. Edible fruit often hangs on the tree through fall and into winter, unaffected by freezing temperatures. A hard freeze does pull the astringency out of fruit that is already ripe, which is probably where the story started, but softness is the test, not the calendar.

Picking and handling

Ripe persimmon bruises easily, so handle it gently and do not pile it deep. The production trick Kentucky Extension describes is to lay a tarp under the tree and knock the fruit down onto it, which doubles as a ripeness check since ready fruit drops first. Pick up what falls daily if you want it, because every animal on that wildlife list will beat you to the windfalls.

Fruit that is ripe but still a little astringent is not wasted. Kentucky Extension notes that ethylene treatment, freezing, and drying all remove astringency, and persimmons store just above freezing. Most of ours end up as frozen pulp.