American persimmon plant spacing

[Gmule82]

I’ve got 12 female grafted going into the ground within a few days. My question is spacing? What do people recommend? Somewhere I thought I heard they do well in close spacing bunched together. All my persimmons growing are still small. Most are meader, deer magnet and candy. Zone 5a upstate NY

 

[Native Hunter]

American Persimmon trees can get huge in old age. I've seen some over 60 feet tall and with a 30 foot spread. However, it does take them many, many years to grow to that size, and they can take some crowding and still fruit well. I think you would be okay going 18 feet if they aren't shaded by any other nearby trees. I've seen some wild ones in fence rows that were crowded badly by other trees but still fruited very well.

 

[omicron1792]

American Persimmon trees can get huge in old age. I've seen some over 60 feet tall and with a 30 foot spread. However, it does take them many, many years to grow to that size, and they can take some crowding and still fruit well. I think you would be okay going 18 feet if they aren't shaded by any other nearby trees. I've seen some wild ones in fence rows that were crowded badly by other trees but still fruited very well.

And you can also cull the weaker ones later to make more room.

 

[b116757]

30’ spread for a persimmon is huge I’d love to see that specimen. Around my area persimmons don’t have much of a spread they can get tall but don’t seem to spread out much at least the native ones in my area. I’d agree 18’-20’ spacing is likely plenty.

 

[BrushyPines]

American Persimmon trees can get huge in old age. I've seen some over 60 feet tall and with a 30 foot spread. However, it does take them many, many years to grow to that size, and they can take some crowding and still fruit well. I think you would be okay going 18 feet if they aren't shaded by any other nearby trees. I've seen some wild ones in fence rows that were crowded badly by other trees but still fruited very well.

I came across a female persimmon a few years ago on my property. It's at least 20 foot tall and it was very crowded with trees on all sides. I was shocked at how much fruit it produced being so crowded. I'm in the process of releasing it by cutting all the trees crowding it. Just don't want to cut all the trees at once and cause the persimmon to break during a storm.

 

[Native Hunter]

I came across a female persimmon a few years ago on my property. It's at least 20 foot tall and it was very crowded with trees on all sides. I was shocked at how much fruit it produced being so crowded. I'm in the process of releasing it by cutting all the trees crowding it. Just don't want to cut all the trees at once and cause the persimmon to break during a storm.

I made the mistake of doing that very thing once. I had a very tall, mature persimmon growing up out of a big cedar tree. I didn't realize that the cedar was helping to brace the persimmon tree and cut down the cedar. Later, the persimmon tree got so heavily loaded with fruit that the trunk actually broke off about 10 feet above the ground. This didn't happen in a storm - it was entirely from fruit load. I learned a good lesson from that.