Defoliation or leaf damage during spring and early summer will reduce or stop flower bud initiation. This situation can arise when late frost, grassgrub, bacterial blast, hail, drought or spray damage reduces leaf photosynthesis on the replacement shoot. Flower initiation is also limited on shoots which have developed in shaded sections of the canopy. Light exposure is as important in the development of productive replacement shoots as it is in fruit quality. On any training system the grower must aim for a shallow canopy to ensure adequate light exposure of fruit and replacement shoots.
Persimmons have a tip-bearing growth habit which requires careful management.
Ideally the fruiting zone should be located within 0.5m of a leader or subleader. In particular, the maintenance of a narrow fruiting zone on a Ruakura 'Y' is required to avoid wasted canopy space. Tip bearing growth habit of Persimmon. A renewal pruning system has been developed for the Ruakura 'Y' trellis which can be applied to other training systems. Shoots are then cropped the next season.