Persimmons are a strange duck (Ebony family). You have heard of chill hours? In addition to modest chill hours, they need heat hours...a need for a certain number of accumulating heat units before they break dormancy. I found this out in Jan-Feb when I was removing all the trees that had died from the previous dormant planting, i.e, that never broke dormancy or were duds and whose few leaves shriveled up in the heat. When I pulled up the "dead" Coffeecake persimmon (Nishimura Wase) [see like you, I should have checked to see if it was green under the bark rather than assuming] there was an incredible healthy appearing root system present. Turned out fine. So if you do pull it up be prepared to either put it back or transplant it to a container in case it is still very much alive. The last of the trees at a nursery are often in pretty bad shape. And it does sound like you may not have watered it enough...but it is still alive so there is hope in the spring. Here is a link that might be useful: see note on heat units This post was edited by Fascist_Nation on Mon, Nov 4, 13 at 9:52

According to Dr. Elaine Ingham if your compost tea brews longer than 3 days you need to add more molasses to feed the bacteria since they will run out of food beyond that. Here is a link that might be useful: Making Compost/manure Tea

Oh, thank you so much GardenGal! This is my 3rd attempt to grow one of these and I do have the ideal outside space for it to go into eventually. However, I love the idea of leaving it in a pot for a while. Right now it is in a 1gal pot. Do you have a recommendation for the size to transplant it into? Also, would you stake it in the pot? I so appreciate your advice. I just love this beautiful hydrangea and so want this one to be successful...in spite of my carelessness.

Did it come that way with the mulch when you bought it? the way you described the roots, it was severely under watered. You mainly need to worry about over watering when the tree is inside and in a soil made up mostly of peat. Pebbles are not needed at the bottom and do not help with drainage. They actually keep the soil from draining as it would without them. A soil made up of 5 parts pine bark, 1 part peat and 1 part perlite would be a good choice. You should read these two links: your ficus lyrata has pretty much the same cultural needs as ficus benjamina. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1493078/ficus-trees-in-containers http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/2842847/container-soils-water-movement-and-retention-xxii?n=418