This blog post is chock full of useful information for pruning American persimmons to keep them small.
I found his advice at the end about how to make sure the birds peck a lot at just a few fruit, rather than a little bit at all the fruit, to be particularly useful. Especially since he uses fruits that are already bird-pecked or otherwise damaged that he wouldn’t want to eat anyway. Giving those to the wildlife seems perfect. I wonder if that would work for all species? If so, that would be a great technique for both gardener and birds to have a comfortable quantity of fruit!
I have a couple persimmon trees I grew from seed using the Field West variety from Experimental Farm Network. I’ve kept them in pots so far for fear of them getting gigantic, but I could really see myself planting into the ground with this method!
As an aside, I wonder if my trees will ever bear fruit. I read somewhere that some varieties of persimmon need both a male and female tree in order to bear fruit. I fear I won’t know for a few years before I find out if I can’t get any fruit on my trees! At least I’ll still be able to make tea and wrapped sushi with the leaves.
