I’ve been keeping up with two persimmon trees and tracking their growth. As you read earlier in my blog, I started three trees from seed. As they have progressed, one has died and two continued to grow. Of the two trees, one is approximately 1-1/2 feet tall and the other is roughly 2-1/2 feet tall.
As the California fall and winter arrived, the leaves fell from the tree. It’s a little ironic to call the October thru March season as fall and winter. It’s really only summer-lite and then a little fall. It never really freezes here. So the trees will survive outdoors in the pots.
In the images below I have a few items to make note. I am only describing the one tree for the time being because both trees are showing the same signs for the most part.
First, I have new growth from last year’s early branches on the tree. These are excellent signs that the new leaves are creating new branches. I’m very excited about this because these new branches will be next year’s growth that hopefully will have the potential of having fruit in year 3 of the trees life. I’ve been told that persimmon trees do not fruit until year 5, but there is always room for hope.
The next image is one that is more of a cool nature thing to view.
This image is the base of the tree. There are several items in action here. The older leaves that have fallen from last year reaming in the pot. My goal for this is to have them slowly decay and return nutrients to the soil. Additionally, these leaves will provide a small cover for the soil to prevent evaporation from the soil. As weeds have popped up in the pot, I have pulled them up and laid them on top of the soil. So, as they decay those nutrients will also return to the soil. There is also small signs of moss on the soil. I’m not too worried about this. The rainy season in California brought us several days of rain. I view the moss as good soil health. Over time, and watering, this soil will become its own solid ecosystem.
Should it rain again in the coming weeks and months I am going to keep an eye out for earthworms or red wigglers on the sidewalk. This is an easy way to get some more ecosystem friendly additions to the soil. The worms will eat what weeds I pull and let decay. Free food for the earthworms. And the earthworms will in result add their own poop to the soil, which will continue the cycle.