My pruning book recommends not taking out more than 25-30% of limbs in one year for any mature tree. It also says that persimmons fruit on new growth, and you can severely head one back (top it) and new growth will sprout out below. You must prune while it is dormant. It also says the wood is brittle, and it is very important to develop good 45 degree branch crotches and a good scaffold structure. Carla in Sac

Thanks again, Tony. I'm thinking more and more that the actual mechanics of my persimmon grafts isn't my problem. I have grafts, for instance, that I did in April that are still alive but haven't hardly put on 1" of growth. I have another graft that quickly put on over 12" of new growth then a little over half of that growth shriveled up and died. It's still alive but the remaining leaves have looked prematurely ready for winter ever since and there hasn't been any new growth for a couple months. And a healthy majority of my persimmon grafts start to grow after two or three weeks, which makes me think the problem isn't an initial drying out; most of them just suddenly whither and die 2-6 weeks after that. Temperature might have something to do with my issues, particularly whether grafts get off to a strong start, although I've grafted persimmons from early to late, and there doesn't seem to be any timing that avoids the problems (except perhaps grafting onto potted plants that I can put in controlled temperature locations.) I'd suspect compatibility issues, but I've had similar problems with native (including local) and Asian cultivars, although probably more so with the Asians. Curiously, though, I only had success on my potted root stocks with Asian and AsianX scions, whereas all my full successes in the field were with native scions. What further complicates the incompatibility theory is that other people seem to do much better grafting all types of persimmons onto D.v. The only things I can think to improve on for next year (at least for grafting onto in-ground trees) are to protect all my grafts in row cover "bags" to protect them from the psylla and to even more carefully and obsessively rub off competing growth daily.

I generally graft multiple scions when I'm bark grafting to trees 2" in diameter or larger. They can be the same or different varieties. This improves the chances that at least one scion will take. I let them all grow through the first growing season. During the first dormant season I inspect them. If the bases are getting at all close to each other, I'll cull all but one. On larger trees I may be able to wait until the second dormant season before culling. I use the culled branches for a scion source to graft other trees. That is why I sometimes let them go two dormant seasons on larger trees. It kind of works like a scion farm. It is possible to let more than one scion grow permanently from a bark graft. However, this is generally problematic. You are creating the same kind of crotch angle that we generally want to get rid of because they are weak and are at threat of breaking at some point. If you want more than one variety from a single tree, I would recommend using some other grafting technique that does not create the bad crotch angles you get when bark grafting multiple scions. As for grafting techniques, I'm not highly experienced with many grafting techniques. I generally bark graft persimmons because I've had such great success rates bark grafting native rootstock growing wild in the field.

I can't answer about the pruning, but I'd recommend getting that mulch out of the cage. To me, it looks like the mulch could harbor meadow voles or mice.