Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The persimmon - what a disappointment


This feels like Déjà vu - I remember how excited I got last spring when I saw my brown turkey fig tree covered in figs. That tree dropped every single fruit before they turned ripe and we had no figs the entire season !

Last fall, I bought this persimmon tree and it was one of my most expensive aquisations. Its deciduous, so I waited impatiently for the first leaves to appear, and lo and behold, the tree sprouted at least 20 or more blossoms. Was I excited, I was already tasting those fuyu persimmons, arguably one of the best fruits. To my dismay, in the last few days, the tree dropped every single fruit ! I don't know if it was the extreme drought, the constant 20-30 mph wind or the fact that I don't have another persimmon for pollination that caused the drop. I read up extensively about persimmons and the fuyu doesn't need a pollinator, in fact the un-pollinated fruits are supposedly seedless and better tasting. I also read that you're not supposed to give a high nitrogenous fertilizer before blooming, I did give it some of the special fertlizer mix I bought at Excalibur before it started leafing out, but not a lot. I also made sure to water the tree frequently when it was so hot and dry.

In short, I'm speechless and utterly disappointed that I have to wait another whole year before I "might" have it bloom again, and then another 6 months before the fruit ripens !!! Grrrr!

2 comments:

  1. Yes, this has got to be a huge disappointment. Perhaps you now have time to further investigate what caused the fruit drop and take the appropriate measures. I will say, the tree's foliage looks very attractive but I imagine this is little consolation.

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  2. I don't know if I maybe mulched it too well, or was it the fertilizer ?

    I'll go to Excalibur Rare Fruit Tree nursery and ask for advice.

    I'm going to have to either put up some extra fences, or plant windbreaks to try and tame the wind. I really don't want extra fences, plus I'll have to get HOA approval and city permits ... the other problem is that I don't want to dedicate precious space to unwanted windbreak plants.

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