Rojo Brillante Persimmon: Restoring Old and Unproductive Orchards Through Reform Pruning

In Maddaloni, in the province of Caserta, Agronomist Vito Vitelli is overseeing the recovery of a Rojo Brillante persimmon orchard, a modern variety that over the years has nevertheless been managed according to now outdated practices.

The main issue does not concern the cultivar itself, but rather the excessive accumulation of woody structure over time. The trees are tall and heavy, with few productive tiers, while the vegetation progressively shifts toward the upper part of the canopy. Under these conditions, light struggles to penetrate the interior of the tree, the formation of new fruiting branches decreases, and fruit drop increases significantly, as the fruit is often unable to be adequately supported by an unbalanced vegetative structure.

This is a very common situation in many persimmon orchards across the province of Caserta, where insufficient training and technical knowledge have frequently resulted in oversized trees characterized by excessive wood and reduced productive efficiency.

Modern international experiences developed in Spain, Israel, and China demonstrate instead that persimmon trees express their full potential when maintained young, compact, and well illuminated. Today, true efficiency no longer depends on the size of the tree, but rather on the ability to maintain productive surfaces that are well exposed to light, balanced, and continuously renewed.

For this reason, Agronomist Vito Vitelli proposed a reform pruning strategy to be gradually applied on part of the farm. The intervention involves major cuts directly on the trunk, even at 60–70 cm above the collar, in order to eliminate the old unproductive structure and stimulate vigorous vegetative regrowth. It is a bold yet highly effective choice for rebuilding the tree according to more modern and efficient criteria.

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Following vegetative regrowth, the formation of the new productive structure proceeds through internal canopy cleaning, selection of the best shoots, and vegetation management aimed at creating a more compact, balanced canopy rich in fruit-bearing branches.

In this specific case, the MATAIX management system will be applied, maintaining six to eight main axes and shortening the new summer growth to approximately 18–22 cm in order to rapidly stimulate the formation of new productive branches.

At the same time, both irrigation and nutritional management have been completely revised. Increasing the number of drippers while reducing their individual flow rate allows for a more uniform water distribution and greater root system efficiency.

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The old 4x4 square planting layout also now shows clear limitations. According to Vito Vitelli, modern persimmon cultivation should move toward wider row spacing combined with greater intensification within the row, using configurations such as 5 x 2 m or 5 x 1.8 m. In the case of the Maddaloni orchard, since modifying the existing row spacing was not possible, the chosen solution was to increase tree density along the row, gradually shifting from 4x4 m to 4x2 m.

The final objective is to exceed 1,100 trees per hectare and establish a more modern, efficient, and sustainable orchard system.

According to Vito Vitelli, the future of Italian persimmon cultivation inevitably depends on renewing productive structures: less wood, more light, and greater photosynthetic efficiency.

Editorial Note:
Original content by Agronomist Vito Vitelli, developed and optimized with the support of artificial intelligence tools for educational, informational, and technical enhancement purposes.

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