Tree · Ebenaceae
Persimmon
Diospyros kaki
Give it full sun and a little patience, and the persimmon will hang your garden with fall color long after the leaves have gone.
Full sun
Every 7–14 days
USDA 7–10
20–30 ft · 6.1–9.1 m
Overview
The persimmon is a slow, easygoing fruit tree that quietly gives back twice a year, so it is a kind choice for a first tree. It greens up all summer, then glows through autumn and holds its bright orange fruit on bare branches deep into winter. It belongs to the ebony family and grows to a generous 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 m) in time, so give it a proper open spot rather than a tight corner.
Most home growers happily start with the Asian persimmon, which comes in two friendly camps. Astringent types like Hachiya stay sharply tannic until they ripen to jelly soft, while non astringent types like Fuyu turn sweet and crisp and can be eaten firm. Once you know which kind you have, the picking time falls neatly into place.
Once it settles in, the tree is fairly drought tolerant and asks very little of you in feeding or pruning. The only patience it needs is early on. A young tree takes its own sweet time coming into bearing, but hold your nerve and it repays the wait with decades of fruit.
Care
The short version: give it full sun and deep, well drained soil, keep the water steady while the tree is young and setting fruit, feed it lightly if at all, prune only to tidy the framework, and let astringent fruit ripen right through before you pick. You have got this.
Light
Persimmon loves full sun and is happiest with it for most of the day. The more direct light it drinks in, the better the fruit colors and sweetens, and the sturdier and tighter the tree grows.
Water
Water it regularly while it is finding its feet and right through fruit development, letting the top half of the soil dry between drinks so you do not overdo it. A settled tree is fairly drought tolerant and rides out dry spells with ease, though it never likes its roots sitting in waterlogged ground.
Soil
Plant it in deep, moist, well drained loam and it will thank you. Persimmon is not fussy about texture and happily takes clay, loam, or sand, but it does its best at a slightly acidic pH of 6.0 to 6.5.
Temperature
Asian persimmon copes with a wide range, roughly 10°F to 95°F (-12°C to 35°C), which suits hardiness zones 7 to 10. It does need a real winter chill to fruit well, and a hard late frost can still nip the spring blooms, so a sheltered spot helps.
Humidity
Ordinary outdoor air is all it wants, somewhere around 40% to 70% humidity, so there is truly nothing for you to manage here. What matters more is easy airflow through the canopy, since that keeps leaf spot from getting a foothold.
Feeding
Go easy on feeding, since less really is more here. A balanced fertilizer in early spring is only worth it if growth looks weak, because too much nitrogen drives fruit drop rather than a fuller crop.
Pruning
Pruning is wonderfully light. Take out dead, hurt, or crossing branches in late winter, gently guide a young tree toward a strong frame, and pull off root suckers as soon as you notice them.
Repotting
Persimmon is an orchard tree at heart, not a pot plant, so it is rarely repotted. Plant it once in its forever spot with room to spread, then leave the roots in peace.
Size & spacing
Do give it room to be itself. A grown tree reaches 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 m) tall and spreads 15 to 25 feet (4.5 to 7.5 m) wide, so set it well clear of buildings, power lines, and other trees from the start.
When to plant
Persimmon keeps a slow, gentle seasonal rhythm, and there is no rushing it. Set young trees out in early spring once the hard frosts have passed, then simply wait for blooms in mid to late spring and fruit that colors up in fall and lingers into early winter.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: Early spring after the last hard frost, as bare root or container trees.
- Harvest: Blooms mid to late spring; fruit ripens in fall and early winter.
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 7–10
Temperature: down to -18°C
Troubleshooting
Take comfort in the fact that persimmon is a healthy tree with very few real troubles. Most of what you will spot is cosmetic or just a quirk of the fruit rather than anything to fear. Find your symptom below and you will almost always see that the fix is a light one.
A little fruit drop is nothing to fret about
It helps to know that some fruit drop is simply the persimmon's habit, though a thirsty tree or one loaded with too many fruit will let go of far more. Keep the soil gently and evenly moist all the way through fruit development and the tree holds on better. If the branches are groaning under a heavy set, thin them early and let the tree keep what it can carry.
Fix:
- Keep soil evenly moist during fruit development and thin heavy crops.
Do not worry over small bumps or fluffy patches on the twigs
Those little bumps and cottony tufts are just sap feeding insects like scale or mealybugs, and the black film beneath them is sooty mold settling on the honeydew they drip. A light visit does the tree no lasting harm, so you can relax. If numbers climb, a spray of horticultural oil sets things right, and the tree's natural helpers will tidy up the rest.
Fix:
- Usually minor; treat heavy infestations with horticultural oil and encourage natural predators.
Spotted leaves look worse than they are
Dark, angular marks on the foliage point to fungal leaf spot, and happily this is a looks-only problem that seldom slows a persimmon down. Gather up the fallen leaves and bin them so the spores have no cozy place to wait out winter, and thin the canopy a touch for freer air. You will rarely need to reach for a spray.
Fix:
- Rake and remove fallen leaves and provide good air circulation; rarely needs treatment.
That puckery first bite is easy to avoid
The dry, mouth gripping feel comes from soluble tannins in unripe astringent cultivars like Hachiya, and it is no reflection on your growing, so take heart. Simply give astringent types all the time they need to soften down to jelly ripe, and the sweetness comes. Non astringent types such as Fuyu skip the fuss and stay sweet even while firm.
Fix:
- Let astringent types soften fully before eating; non astringent types such as Fuyu can be eaten firm.
Toxicity
The ripe flesh is a safe, sweet treat for people, and the tree itself carries no chemical poison, so you can put that worry aside. The one real catch is mechanical: the hard seeds and large amounts of fruit can knot up into indigestible masses, which matters for horses and livestock grazing windfalls and for dogs that gorge on dropped fruit. Simply gather up fallen persimmons and fence stock away from the tree through fruiting season.
Toxic to
Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Safe for
People
Cats Mild
There is no chemical poison in the flesh, so a curious lick or nibble will not hurt your cat. The only worry is a mechanical one, since a swallowed seed or a tummy stuffed with fruit can bring on some mild stomach upset.
Dogs Mild
A dog that helps itself to windfalls may get an upset belly or loose stool from the seeds and the sheer amount eaten. On rare occasions a small dog that bolts several whole fruit, seeds and all, can pack them into a blockage, so it is worth keeping an eye out.
Horses Moderate
Horses truly are the ones to watch here. Steady grazing on dropped persimmons through fall and winter can bind the seeds and pulp into a gastric phytobezoar, and that can lead on to colic, impaction, lethargy, and weight loss.
Rabbits Mild
A small taste of ripe flesh here and there will not poison a rabbit, yet the seeds and the sugar are not kind to their gut. Offer persimmon only as a rare treat, and leave it out entirely for young rabbits.
Livestock Mild
Cattle, sheep, and goats can browse fallen fruit with no chemical harm, though a steady gorge on seedy persimmons risks the same impactions that trouble horses. The kind thing is to fence them off the windfalls through fruiting season.
Birds Mild
Wild birds happily feast on ripe persimmon and thrive on it, taking the soft flesh and passing the small seeds with ease. For your own pet birds, stick to seedless bites of ripe fruit and never the hard pits.
People Ripe fruit safe
Ripe persimmon is a lovely, safe fruit to enjoy fresh or dried. Just let astringent types soften first, leave the seeds behind, and go gently on quantity, since eating a great many on an empty stomach has been tied to bezoars.
Foliage and ripe flesh are not chemically toxic; the hazard comes from swallowed seeds and large amounts of fruit, especially unripe astringent fruit.
Helpline numbers
United States
ASPCA Animal Poison Control: (888) 426-4435 (fee applies)
Poison Control: (800) 222-1222
Canada
Poison Centres: 1-844-764-7669
Varieties
Persimmons sort first into astringent and non astringent camps, and that single trait quietly decides how you eat them. These are the names you are most likely to come across.
Fuyu
A forgiving non astringent Asian type whose sweet, crisp flesh you can happily enjoy while the fruit is still firm.
Hachiya
An astringent Asian type that simply needs to ripen all the way to soft and jelly textured before its pucker melts into sweetness.
Jiro
A non astringent Asian type much like Fuyu, ready to eat firm and sweet straight off the tree.
American (Diospyros virginiana)
The native American persimmon takes cold in its stride down to about minus 20°F to minus 25°F (-29°C to -32°C) and is often dioecious, so you will usually want both a male and a female tree to see fruit.
How to propagate
Persimmon is propagated to keep a fruit you already love, not because it is quick. Grafting holds the cultivar true, while seed is a slower, more surprising route used mainly to raise rootstock.
GraftingDemanding
Named cultivars almost always begin with grafting or budding onto seedling rootstock, and that is how a grower holds on to the exact fruit of a Fuyu or Hachiya. It does ask for a steady hand and good timing, which is why it sits at the demanding end of propagation, but plenty of gardeners get there with practice.
SeedModerate
Persimmon sprouts willingly from seed, so that part is encouraging, but the seedlings come up variable and slow to bear and rarely give you the fruit you hoped for. Because of that, seed grown trees are mostly raised as rootstock for grafting rather than for a crop of their own.
Myths
Every persimmon is mouth puckeringly astringent.
Rest easy, because only the astringent cultivars like Hachiya need to soften before they sweeten. Non astringent types such as Fuyu and Jiro are crisp and sweet eaten firm, with none of that dry, puckering bite to catch you out.