Persimmon originated in China and has a long cultivation history. Persimmons are drought-tolerant, moisture-tolerant, early fruiting, high yield and long life. It is a tall deciduous tree, with a height exceeding 10 meter.
Persimmon trees can begin to bear fruit in 5 ~ 6 years after grafting, and enter the full fruit stage in 10 ~ 12 years, and the economic life can reach more than 100 years. Seedlings bear fruit later and begin to bear fruit about 7 ~ 8 years after sowing. Persimmon has a wide crown and strong natural regeneration ability. Under general cultivation conditions, the fruiting life can reach 100 years.
The trunk branches of young persimmon trees grow vigorously, and the growth length and thickness of new shoots are relatively large, and secondary branches often appear; The top has obvious advantages, strong branching ability, small branching angle and strong tree potential; The crown is upright, the bedding is obvious, and the central trunk is thick; After beginning to bear fruit, the backbone branches gradually formed, the crown expanded rapidly, the branch opening angle gradually increased, the vegetative growth weakened and the reproductive growth enhanced; The crown was basically formed around 10, and the fruit yield increased year by year. Later, with the growth of tree age and the increase of fruit yield, the big branches gradually bent, the lower branches under the crown and the tips of the big branches drooped, and the extended branches of the backbone branches were not much different from other new shoots in external morphology. Branchlets at the base of main branches began to wither and die, and the inner cavity gradually became empty, and the fruiting parts moved outward, resulting in the decrease of the growth of fruiting branches, short and weak, and the phenomenon of alternating fruiting appeared; While the big branches are gradually drooping, new branches are produced in the inner cavity, which can replace the old branches and extend forward. After several generations of this cycle, persimmon trees gradually entered the aging period.
The regeneration intensity of persimmon trees is greater than that of other fruit trees, and the regeneration times are also more; Because the last branch of persimmon tree has a short life span, it is easy to age after fruiting, and the latent bud has a long life span, so it is easy to sprout and renew branches. Therefore, when pruning persimmon trees, attention should be paid to renewal to keep the trees strong and prolong the fruiting period.
The length of fruiting year of persimmon trees is related to variety characteristics, environmental conditions and management level. Under suitable environment and good management conditions, persimmon trees can live for more than 300 years.
Persimmon trees cultivated in northern China are mostly on the edge of terraced fields, with extensive management and less pruning. Under laissez-faire conditions, their crowns are mostly in various natural shapes, such as semicircle, round head, cone or slant head. Due to the messy crown, crowded and crossed branches, poor ventilation and light transmission, poor tree length and potential, persimmon fruit yield and quality are low.
Most persimmon trees cultivated in northern China are kiwifruit (soft jujube and black jujube) rootstocks, with shallow root distribution and main root groups distributed in 20 ~ 40 cm soil layer; However, the vertical root system of transplanted seedlings can reach 3-4 meters, with developed lateral branches and many fibrous roots, and the ability to sprout fine roots is also very strong. Therefore, persimmon trees grafted with this seedling have strong drought resistance.
Different varieties of persimmon trees have different dryness and apical dominance related to plastic surgery. Persimmons cultivated in Shandong Province, such as Mopan Persimmon, Niuxin Persimmon, Flint Persimmon, Mirror Persimmon and Lotus Persimmon, have strong dryness, obvious apical advantages, few branches and relatively upright tree posture. For these varieties, attention should be paid to the opening angle of the main branches during plastic surgery to prevent the bad phenomenon of strong upper part and weak lower part. This kind of variety should adopt the shape of sparse layer of trunk. Other varieties, such as water persimmon, copper persimmon and Fugui persimmon, are suitable for natural happiness because of their weak dryness, unobvious top advantage, more branches and more open trees.