Asian persimmon
Diospyros kaki
also called kaki, japanese persimmon, persimmon
Little troubles it, so the work is all in the siting — warmth, shelter, and a leader trained young.
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- Orange
- Sunlight
- Full sun in a warm, sheltered spot, particularly where summers stay cool.
- Watering
- Water the young trees; moderate watering will do once established.
- Feeding
- A balanced feed in spring, with a compost mulch.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- May
- Pruning
- Prune in winter, training young trees to a central leader.
- Apr–May Bud Break
- May–Jun Flowering
- Jun–Sep Fruit Set
- Sep–Nov Harvest
- Nov–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Apr Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 13 ft 1 in
- In-row spacing
- 13 ft 1 in
- Between rows
- 16 ft 5 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody, with a taproot it keeps
- Working depth
- 24 in–5 ft
- Can reach
- 10 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 25–41 ft across, about 1.5–2.5× the width of the plant
It anchors downwards as well as sideways, which is what lets it stand in a gale and what makes it hate being moved. Plant it small: past a few years in the ground a taprooted tree transplants badly, and often not at all.
The habit is Asian persimmon’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Generally trouble-free No notable pest or disease problems when grown in the right conditions — one of the easy ones.
Comfrey, Clover, Lavender
Green-leaved fruit, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com