Question for you persimmon experts. I've been marking and clearing around wild persimmon trees for two years. Most of them have been found growing in the shade of some larger trees, on the eastern perimeter of a couple small hillside fields I quit mowing about 8 years ago.
Most were identified and marked with orange surveyors tape by finding persimmon fruit on the actual tree. Then I would remove vines trying to choke the trunks, and clear about 5-8 feet around some of the larger trees (2-3" diameter trunk) so they could hopefully flourish. It seems the year following such clearing the trees would have little or no fruit. The trees are definately gettting bigger, so I'm hoping it's just a one year setback for the fruit, and future years will improve the yield.
Just curious, does removing the shade around a persimmon tree growing in the wild cause some sort of stress that stunts the following years crop, or is something else going on?