My guess is some kind of a root problem. Maybe over watering. How does your soil drain? It's very hard to drown a tree in well draining soil but very easy in others.

Thanks. fruitnut.

Its clay soil and that may be the problem. However, it is the only fruit tree I planted this year (out of 12) that this happened.

Any suggestions? Maybe stop watering for a while?

The usual suggestion for poor draining soil is to plant on a raised bed. Build a bed at least 12 inches tall out of well draining topsoil. Plant on top of that.

You might first want to do a percolation test. If I were to dig a 15 inch deep hole in my soil and fill it with water it would drain away in a few minutes. Fill it again and it would still drain away in 15 minutes. If you do this on your soil and the water stands there many hours, you may well need a raised bed.

I agree with fruitnut that the source of this problem probably originates in the roots or is otherwise systemic rather than a process that is affecting the leaves individually.

In addition to water damage from poor drainage previously mentioned, you should consider a few other possibilities:

I would expect a tree the size of yours to need a fairly large root ball. Some nurseries will severely root prune field grown trees and stick them in containers for sale. Under nursery conditions they may hold their own, but once planted in the garden, the remaining root mass may not be adequate to meet the requirements of the tree, and it will go into decline. If you find this is the case, you'll need to pay particularly close attention to the water needs of the tree through the summer and then just hope for the best.

Check for signs of borer damage both above and below the soil line as these can cause a similar picture.

Also, consider the effects of any lawn chemicals/herbicides that you are using in the vicinity of the tree.

I've had container persimmon trees from nursery's look like that the first year. Some of them don't seem to like being transplanted, Bare root persimmons seem to fare better for me.

I bet if it survives through the next month, it'll be ok next year

Thanks to everyone for the responses. I do think that the area that the tree is in probably has poor drainage. (It's clay.)

I checked for borer damage, but didn't see anything. TruGreen does fertilize my yard, but none of the other newly planted fruit trees (including two other persimmons) seem to have been effected.

At this point, I was thinking about digging the tree out, digging the hole deeper (for better drainage) and putting it back in the hole. Would that make sense?

Would I be better off digging it out and putting it in a container for a while?

FWIW - this is a Saijo Persimmon.

Norm

If you dig it up, do it while the tree is dormant.

A deeper hole may or may not help drainage, depending on what the problem is. If there is a relatively thin layer of compacted soil (aka hardpan), then you have a chance of breaking through it. if that is the case, you don't have to dig up the tree. Instead, you can dig a few deep, narrow holes around the tree with a post hole digger. In most spots in my yard, the first foot or so is hard clay, but then I get to soil that is much looser. In one spot, I dug a post hole 3 feet deep, and it was hard clay all the way down.

Alex