How to Grow a Persimmon Tree, Complete Growing Guide!

what's going on Growers it's James Prigioni coming   to you live from Jersey today me  and tuck are going to share with   you how to grow a persimmon tree and what  everyone should be growing on let's go Persimmons are truly an amazing fruit and as  long as you live in zones 4 to 11 you can grow   them look how absolutely stacked this tree is with  fruit right here is why everyone should be growing   a persimmon tree if you live in a cool climate  zones about four to nine then you could grow   the astringent American persimmon this persimmon  you eat when it gets really soft like jelly and   I'm telling you it tastes sweeter than even honey  or if you live in a warm climate zones about 7 to   11 then you could grow the Asian persimmon this  one is not astringent and you can eat the fruit   when it's hard like an apple if you want you could  do what I did and go for The Best of Both Worlds   and go with the hybrid persimmon this one right  here is the Nikita's gift a self-fertile hybrid   persimmon that gets fruit large like the Asian  persimmon does but you eat it when it's soft like   the American persimmon if you don't know what  astringent means it's a chemical in fruit that   gives you that dry mouth feeling caused by the  tannins in the fruit so the American persimmon   has high levels of tannins and these break down  as the fruit ripens that's why you have to wait   for the fruit to get soft before you actually  eat it or it's not going to taste good and it's   going to give you that dry mouth feeling on the  other hand Asian Persimmons have a low level of   tannins that's why you can eat them when they're  still hard and they taste delicious which kind of   Persimmon Tree you grow is going to be dependent  upon your climate but whether or not you grow in   Asian persimmon or an American persimmon tree  you're still going to have a fantastic tree for   a number of reasons first off persimmon trees  are low maintenance and easy trees to grow also   if you live in a cool climate like me you won't  have to worry about an early Frost killing your   flowers because the persimmon tree flowers very  late in the spring this is the last tree to bloom   in my whole garden also persimmon trees can  tolerate a wide range of soils they do best   in a fertile soil that drains well like most  fruit trees but they can manage in poor soil   persimmon trees don't need much fertilizer either  a thick organic mulch will conserve water and it   will also break down and provide nutrition  for the tree these wood chips work great   I haven't fertilized this tree since I put it in  the ground about five or six years ago and look   how much fruit it's still putting out Tuck's out  here with us like always the loyal pup he's just   wandering around doesn't have a lot to do because  we're not digging up any carrots or eating any   baskets but still this guy's the guardian of the  garden always paying attention always watching our   backs so we love him out here I also wanted to  mention that we still are selling the merch the   fall merch get get a nice hoodie so you can keep  warm as the weather gets cold we got some beanies   and stuff too so check it out at jamesprigioni.com  when it comes to pruning Persimmons it's easy   because the tree only needs a light pruning  to encourage New Growth that's where the fruit   will be but if you want you can also prune the  tree back a little harder if you want to keep it   smaller the best time to prune your persimmon tree  is going to be when they're dormant especially for   the hybrid and the American persimmons and what we  want is to grow this to a central leader form so   you'll notice one central leader growing up the  whole tree another important thing when you're   growing persimmon trees and most fruit trees is to  encourage wide Branch angles so we want the angle   of this Branch from the central leader to be at  least 60 degrees so a wide branching angle like   this makes for strong branches that can hold a lot  of fruit what we don't want is branches with sharp   Branch angles so if you have a branch with a sharp  angle like this then it's going to be much weaker   and it's liable to break if you get crazy amounts  of fruits like this so when the tree is Young it's   important to train the tree to wide Branch  angles so it can hold crazy amounts of fruit   it's important to note that Persimmons flower and  produce fruit on current season's growth so this   right here was the current season's growth and  this is where the persimmon is so what you want to   do is periodically take out some of your branches  so that new ones can grow and also what you want   to do is head back some of your branches so you  want to cut some of your branches back like this   what this will do is will it will encourage  more lateral growth and then you'll get more   fruit just as pruning is important thinning  your trees is also super necessary after your   trees have flowered and fruited so you can see  how much fruit this tree has on it and I have   already thinned this thing if I didn't thin this  tree there would be a few adverse effects if I   allowed this tree to produce all the fruit that it  originally had on it what could have happened is   it could have broken some of the branches because  of just the sheer number of fruit and the weight   that's why having wide Branch angles is important  another thing is if I didn't thin this tree the   fruit would have been even smaller than it is on  here so what we want to do is thin the fruit so   we have some fruit that gets really big instead  of having just a really lot of fruit that stays   small and the worst thing that could happen is if  you don't thin your trees is your trees can skip   a year of production so if we thin our trees  out then and they don't over produce then the   tree should produce fruit every single year but  if we allow all the fruit to stay on it and it   um it gets to a level of overproduction and  stresses the tree out a lot then it'll skip a   year of production so if we want to get fruit  every year thinning is very important if you   have a young tree it may drop some of its fruit  but if you have an older more established tree   and it's dropping the fruit before it ripens then  it's a good sign that your tree is over producing   and you need to thin more even though I did thin  this tree I should have thinned it more than I   did because the fruit is smaller than it usually  is I'd say I probably could have thinned it about   a third of what was left here that would have  really reduced the stress in the tree but it's   hard to take away the fruit sometimes and cut it  out even though it's the right thing to do one   of the best things about persimmon trees is that  they're relatively Pest and disease free one issue   if you live in the south is persimmon Wilt but  if you want to avoid that what you should do is   just plant resistant varieties so if you want to  compare something like a persimmon tree compared   to growing an apple tree growing a persimmon tree  is like a walk in the park but you don't have   to sacrifice flavor for ease not to mention how  beautiful these trees are especially in the fall   when the chlorophyll starts to drop out of the  leaves they get this like yellow orangish color   it almost looks like the tree is on fire it's just  absolutely breathtaking to see in real life one of   my favorite things about Persimmons is the fruit  ripens and is ready to eat when everything else   in the garden is finished all the other fruit so  when the season feels like it's almost over the   persimmon tree comes through with its impressive  array of production and Beauty there's a reason   I stuck it in the front corner of my food Forest  so at this time of year every time I look out the   window and every time I come out the back door I  get reminded that every season has its gifts for   the astringent persimmon like this the Nikita's  gift it'll start to ripen when the frosts come   so the exposure to cold causes cell damage  this releases ethylene this ethylene helps   to ripen that persimmon so now that is nice  and ripe we're going to crack into it and uh   see how it actually tastes let's open this baby  up another way to ripen these Persimmons is to   actually put them in a bag I'll show you later  oh my gosh look at that thing it's like jelly   absolutely stunning to see but let's  actually get a taste in see how good it is   you got to grow fruit at home  to get this kind of Persimmon oh my gosh so sweet and then like I say sweeter than honey  almost has like a fruity like citrusy almost kind   of flavor but just I mean it's hard to say with  words it literally just tastes like a like I would   think a persimmon honey would taste so good if  you don't want to wait for the frost a good way   to ripen the fruit on your own is the same way you  ripen green tomatoes so you can take a container   or a brown bag take your Persimmons put them  in a bag and then put an apple in that bag the   ethylene gas given off by the Apple will help to  ripen those Persimmons this way you could extend   your Harvest over a bigger period of time if you  have you know a lot of fruit just like this one   you don't want to come in all at once so you could  ripen them earlier the same way you do your green   tomatoes overall in my opinion persimmon trees are  the kind of tree that everyone should have in the   ground you only need one if it's self-fertile and  maybe two if you need one to pollinate the other   not only will they provide you with beauty but  they'll provide you with consistent delicious   Harvest late in the season not to mention  how easy they are to grow that's today's   video girls thanks for watching I hope  you enjoyed it I hope you got something   out of it I hope me and Tuck encourage you  to get a persimmon tree in the ground again   it grows in so many different regions  it's such a fun tree to grow and it's a   it's amazing to have that fruit late in the  season it's just awesome you'll notice I use some   Felco pruners got some new Falco pruners and the  people are over at Felco give us a discount code   for you guys if you want to use it if you want  to grab some Felco pruners because they're the   best quality ones you can get use the promo code  James10. I also wanted to mention uh look at this   guy he's just hilarious he's always going to come  in for the final shot yeah he's he's shining it's   the sun's going right at him and he looks so  handsome love this guy also wanted to mention   to check out some merch at jamesprigioni.com if  you want a sweatshirt if you want to uh a beanie   or something just something to support team grow  and I also wanted to thank one of our new channel   members Jersey Dix1 one thanks for being a part  of Team growth thanks for having your hand in   everything we're doing back here it's very cold  out the cold weather has definitely come we've got   the double layer on the hoop house but it might  be late in the season still getting fresh fruit   and still growing fresh greens James Prigioni and  Tuck will be back at you again real soon we out!

Channel: The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni

Views: 181,400

Keywords: persimmon, persimmon tree, how to grow a persimmon tree, persimmon tree how to, how to, how to grow, persimmons, persimmon fruit, persimmon prune, pruning pesimmon, persimmon harvest, harvesting persimmon, fruit tree, organic fruit, organic gardening, james prigioni, logal paul

Id: UnrayqyS7EQ

Length: 9min 46sec (586 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 26 2022