Winter management experience for persimmon trees, a must-read for anyone growing persimmons

I. Persimmon tree planting

1. Choosing a site and building a persimmon orchard. It is best to choose a leeward, shaded site with deep soil, fertile and loose soil, and a relatively low groundwater table.

2. Digging holes and applying base fertilizer. Open the land into horizontal terraces following the mountain contour, and build them into mountain orchards with a front ridge and back ditch, reverse-sloping terrace surfaces, or “fish-scale pit” style. Plant at a row spacing of 6 m × 5.5 m, with 20 trees per mu or 50 trees (close planting). The hole surface width, bottom width, and depth of the planting hole should reach 1 m, 0.8 m, and 0.6 m respectively. First let it weather, then backfill the planting hole with weeds and topsoil to 80% full, and at the same time backfill a corresponding amount of organic fertilizer as base fertilizer, with the hole position 20 cm above the terrace surface. When planting, broadcast 1-1.5 kg of calcium magnesium phosphate fertilizer per hole to improve planting quality and growth.

3. Suitable planting period. The most suitable period for planting persimmon trees is after leaf fall in autumn and before bud break in spring, that is, before mid-February, generally no later than the Rain Water solar term.

II. Persimmon orchard management

1. Increasing fertilizer and improving soil. Persimmon trees are deep-rooted tree species, so the planting holes should be expanded, the soil improved, and more fertilizer applied to make the trees strong and vigorous. For persimmon trees in production, the holes should be expanded and the soil improved in winter, with holes 1-1.5 m long, 0.4 m wide, and 0.4-0.5 m deep. When backfilling topsoil, apply 100-150 kg of farmyard manure per tree, or 50 kg of dried pig or cattle manure, or 100-150 kg of mushroom soil, or 1-1.5 kg of calcium magnesium phosphate fertilizer, etc., mix evenly with topsoil and fill into the lower layer, then level the hole surface with topsoil from the orchard. Deep plowing to improve the soil can also be used, that is, spreading organic fertilizer along the drip line of the canopy, then deep plowing 20 cm at the fine root zone. For high-yielding persimmon trees, apply sufficient nitrogen fertilizer 6.5 kg, phosphate fertilizer 2.5 kg, and potassium fertilizer 0.6 kg per mu.

2. Pruning branches. For mature production trees with tall canopies or crossing and shading branches, moderate renewal pruning should be carried out after leaf fall in winter, mainly using short pruning, combining thinning and renewal, cutting off dense branches, crossing branches, water sprouts, and diseased or dead branches, so as to promote reasonable branch distribution and prune into a reasonable tree form.

3. Carrying out winter orchard cleaning. Winter pruning should thoroughly remove diseased fruit, diseased calyxes, dead branches, and fallen leaves, and eliminate overwintering sources of pests and diseases. For persimmon trees seriously damaged by scale insects, spray 95% mineral oil emulsion (jiejiamanling) at 150 times or 5 degrees Baume lime sulfur mixture from winter leaf fall to before spring bud break for control.