Persimmon trees/lack of fruit

Question

I have two persimmon trees, two different species bought three years ago from Lowes and Home Depot.

These trees are planted in my front yard and they get at least 6 hours of sunshine a day. They have been planted 15 feet apart. The holes were prepared about 15 inches wide, and 24 inches depth top soil and organic material (peat moss and fine wood chips) was mixed with local soil, then they were planted. Each of them are now 6-7 ft. height. One bloomed and had no fruits at all. The second one this year bloomed and had hundreds of tiny fruits. The fruit sizes were about 1/4 inches and ripened.

They are located in a lawn (grassy area) where it was fertilized twice. We had an extreme drought this summer at Nashville, TN. I watered them several times. I think nitrogen from the fertilizer and lack of water and not thinning of fruits resulted in poor fruit production in one of these persimmons. The other one bloomed in a different time and cross pollination did not happened and resulted in no fruit.

Please let me know about your experience with persimmon fruit trees.

Thank you.

Fred Djahanguiri,
Environmental Engineer

Answer 1

The persimmon tree that produced flowers but no fruit might be a male tree, or it might be too young to produce fruit. If it is an American persimmon, Diospyros virginiana, there are separate male and female trees, and the males will never produce fruit but will pollinate females of the same species.

Persimmon trees show biennial bearing behavior, meaning that they alternately produce a heavy crop of fruit and a light crop of fruit every other year. That is probably what you are observing with the second tree. To increase the size of the fruit in the heavy-bearing years, you will need to thin the fruit, as explained in the following article:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/fegen/biennial-bearing-information.htm

Here is more information about growing persimmons:
http://www.extento.hawaii.edu/kbase/crop/crops/i_persim.htm
http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/vegetables/tree_fruits_nuts/hgic1357.html