1 Introduction

‘Taishuu’ sweet persimmon is a high-value cultivar distinguished by excellent mouthfeel and strong market potential, and recent zoning work indicates that large areas of China are suitable for its cultivation, supporting continued industry expansion. At the same time, its production base remains constrained by clear ecological and quality-sensitivity boundaries: fruit size varies with habitat suitability, while mouthfeel depends strongly on precipitation during the growing season, high temperature during ripening, and low temperature during dormancy. The current promotion of ‘Taishuu’ has also been described as uneven and at times poorly planned, with orchards in northern regions facing cold injury, residual astringency, and reduced fruit size, and with marked quality differences among production areas affecting consumer acceptance (Yang et al., 2025). These concerns are commercially important because sweet persimmon breeding and cultivar replacement are increasingly oriented toward large fruit, high soluble solids, attractive skin color, and marketable fruit rate, as illustrated by cultivars derived from ‘Taishuu’, such as ‘Dannuri’ and ‘Yeonsu’. Relative to ‘Taishuu’, ‘Dannuri’ showed higher fruit weight, higher soluble solids, and a greater marketable fruit rate, which underscores that the present sweet persimmon industry is no longer satisfied with stable yield alone, but increasingly demands consistent premium quality at harvest.

In perennial fruit crops, canopy management is a central preharvest strategy for reconciling high productivity with high fruit quality because canopy architecture determines how light is intercepted and distributed, thereby influencing photosynthesis, flower formation, fruit set, assimilate allocation, and orchard microclimate (Patel et al., 2024; Dhurve et al., 2025; Chatzieffraimidis et al., 2026). Across fruit species, the shared conclusion is that the goal is not simply to maximize vegetative growth, but to create thin, exposed, and relatively uniform canopies that maintain efficient light distribution and balance vegetative and reproductive growth (Anthony and Minas, 2021). Evidence from apple shows that fruit quality heterogeneity within mature orchards is largely driven by uneven within-canopy light, with superior quality often occurring in the best-illuminated canopy zones; accordingly, narrow two-dimensional canopies and other light-improving practices have been recommended to enhance uniformity. Similar patterns have been reported in persimmon itself: fruit position within the canopy significantly affects yield and physicochemical quality, and in Costata persimmon the outer, upper, western, and southern canopy sectors produced more fruit and better-quality fruit under comparable conditions (Kassem et al., 2024). These findings indicate that for sweet persimmon, high-quality production depends not only on cultivar and environment, but also on whether canopy structure allows favorable light exposure and spatial uniformity of fruiting sites.

A broad comparative literature in other fruit trees further shows that canopy structure optimization can improve yield performance and fruit quality through training, pruning, spacing, branch renewal, and vigor control, although the optimal configuration is crop-and cultivar-specific. In peach, smaller and more planar canopy systems improve light, water, and yield efficiency and help produce more uniform fruit quality, while excessive density or over-foliation can intensify shade and reduce returns unless vigor and crop load are carefully managed (Anthony and Minas, 2021). In mango, a Y-trellis canopy improved photon flux in both upper and lower canopy layers, increased photosynthetic activity, and was associated with higher flowering, yield, and better fruit color and sucrose accumulation (Kishore et al., 2023). In peach and pear, studies comparing open-center, planar, and thinning-based systems likewise show that canopy form reshapes the internal light environment, which then affects fruit weight, soluble solids, dry matter, color, and yield distribution (Zhen et al., 2025; Yan et al., 2026). Modern orchard work in apple and sweet cherry also shows a close quantitative linkage between light interception and yield, with planar or engineered canopies increasing interception efficiency and supporting higher productivity, while digital or three-dimensional modeling now offers a more scientific basis for pruning optimization than empirical judgment alone (Tustin et al., 2022; Zhang et al., 2025a).

This article examines the effects of canopy structure optimization on the yield performance and fruit quality of ‘Taishuu’ sweet persimmon, with particular emphasis on changes in light interception and distribution, shoot growth, flower and fruit development, yield formation, and fruit quality under different canopy structures. In view of the relatively limited research on canopy optimization in ‘Taishuu’ sweet persimmon, and considering its tendency toward lateral canopy expansion as well as the sensitivity of fruit quality to ecological conditions and canopy microenvironment, this study further analyzes the roles of canopy structure regulation in improving ventilation and light penetration, alleviating canopy crowding, coordinating vegetative and reproductive growth, and enhancing fruit uniformity and marketability. Meanwhile, integrated canopy optimization and management strategies are explored in combination with training and pruning, rootstock-mediated vigor control, planting density, water and fertilizer management, and flower and fruit load regulation, while the mechanisms underlying the effects of canopy structure on yield and fruit quality are interpreted from the perspectives of light-use efficiency, assimilate transport, and source-sink allocation. On this basis, the study further examines current limitations in canopy structure evaluation and precision regulation, as well as the development potential of digital management technologies, thereby providing a theoretical basis and technical reference for establishing a scientific and efficient canopy management system for ‘Taishuu’ sweet persimmon and for improving yield stability, marketable fruit rate, and overall orchard production efficiency.

2 Characteristics of Canopy Structure and Its Regulation Basis in ‘Taishuu’ Sweet Persimmon

2.1 Tree growth characteristics and canopy formation patterns of ‘Taishuu’ sweet persimmon

‘Taishuu’ is described as a medium-vigor, spreading sweet persimmon, and related ‘Taishuu’-derived material also shows vigorous early growth followed by a spreading canopy with age, indicating a tendency toward lateral expansion rather than a persistently upright crown. In persimmon, vegetative development proceeds through bud, leaf, and shoot growth phases before reproductive development, so canopy formation depends on the seasonal coordination of shoot extension, flowering, fruit development, and dormancy timing (Guan et al., 2021). This matters because canopy structure in fruit trees is fundamentally built from the number, length, and spatial arrangement of shoots and branches, which determine flower-bud positioning and future fruiting sites (Dhurve et al., 2025; Yan et al., 2025). In persimmon specifically, canopy volume is a better indicator of tree-size control than height or canopy area alone, and trunk cross-sectional area is strongly positively correlated with canopy volume under both non-bearing and bearing conditions (Yakushiji et al., 2021).

Available persimmon evidence indicates that canopy formation pattern is highly responsive to rootstock-mediated vigor regulation. In ‘Taishuu’ and other Japanese persimmons, dwarfing rootstocks reduce canopy area and canopy volume, while in ‘Fuyu’ some dwarfing stocks maintained fruit weight, soluble solids, and skin color despite smaller canopies, and ‘Hourakudai’ improved yield efficiency per trunk area and per canopy volume (Yakushiji et al., 2021). Mean shoot length has also been treated in persimmon as an index of fruit productivity, implying that canopy optimization should target not only crown size but also a productive balance between extension growth and fruiting capacity (Tetsumura et al., 2019). More broadly, canopy manipulation through pruning, training, bending, and related practices is the main basis for regulating perennial fruit-tree architecture because it balances vegetative and reproductive growth while shaping the physical framework in which fruiting occurs. For ‘Taishuu’, these traits suggest that canopy regulation should focus on controlling excessive lateral spread, maintaining adequate branch renewal, and organizing fruiting wood into a more open and spatially uniform crown.

2.2 Effects of canopy structure on light environment and resource utilization efficiency

Canopy structure affects the light environment primarily by determining how much photosynthetically active radiation is intercepted and how evenly that light is distributed through canopy depth and across canopy positions. Across fruit trees, light interception is positively associated with productivity, but this relationship weakens when interception becomes too high, because dense foliage can raise total interception while worsening internal light distribution (Anthony and Minas, 2021). High density, large tree size, narrow spacing, and poorly chosen training systems therefore tend to create shaded interior zones, and these low-light zones limit photosynthesis, flowering, fruit set, and color development (Singh et al., 2020). Three-dimensional simulation studies reinforce the same mechanism: canopy density, branch distribution, and foliage arrangement strongly alter light interception efficiency, while open and evenly distributed canopies perform better than compact, crowded ones (Qu et al., 2025).

Improved light distribution translates into better resource utilization efficiency because photosynthesis, carbon assimilation, and fruit-zone microclimate become more uniform across the canopy. In peach, 2D fruiting-wall systems supported higher lower-canopy photosynthetic performance and greater yield efficiency than a 3D system, while in mango Y-trellis architecture improved PPFD in upper and lower canopy layers, increased photosynthetic activity, and enhanced flowering, yield, and color-related quality traits (Kishore et al., 2023; Chatzieffraimidis et al., 2026). Pear studies likewise show that open or flat canopies raise net photosynthesis and improve fruit size, soluble solids, and metabolite accumulation, confirming that canopy architecture regulates fruit quality through both structural and internal-light pathways (Liu et al., 2024; Yan et al., 2026). Persimmon evidence is consistent with this pattern: fruits in outer, upper, southern, and western canopy positions receive more favorable microclimatic conditions and show higher retention, yield, chlorophyll-related leaf traits, and better physicochemical quality than fruits in inner or lower canopy zones.

2.3 Requirements for canopy optimization under different cultivation conditions

The requirements for canopy optimization in ‘Taishuu’ differ with cultivation conditions because the ideal architecture depends on vigor level, planting density, row spacing, training system, and economic constraints rather than on a single universally optimal form. Under higher vigor conditions, systems that diffuse vigor into multiple leaders or into planar fruiting walls are preferred, and summer pruning or other vigor-control measures may be needed to keep canopies exposed and prevent excessive shading. Under dense planting, the main objective is to increase canopy surface efficiency without allowing the crown to become overfilled; higher tree numbers can improve leaf area index and yield, but excessive density accelerates shading, vegetative imbalance, and fruit-quality decline (Anthony and Minas, 2021). In litchi and other perennial fruit crops, wider spacing often improves individual-tree flowering and fruit quality, whereas intermediate spacing can maximize yield per land area, illustrating the central trade-off between per-tree quality and orchard-level productivity.

Canopy management should also be adjusted to canopy size and production objective. In smaller canopies, increasing canopy surface area and total branch length helps create more fruiting sites, whereas in larger canopies, optimization should focus more on internal light distribution because fruit-bearing zones otherwise shift upward and outward and spatial heterogeneity intensifies (Yan et al., 2025). For dense orchards, thinning-based canopy management improves lower and inner canopy light and tends to increase yield, but compact canopies favor quality uniformity while expansive canopies favor total yield, so crop-load control remains necessary (Yan et al., 2026). Quantitative canopy metrics such as canopy volume, LAI, extinction coefficient, clumping, and 3D light-interception indices can provide a more scientific basis for ‘Taishuu’ pruning than empirical judgment alone (Mattos et al., 2020). Overall, ‘Taishuu’ canopy optimization should aim to build an open, moderately compact, well-illuminated canopy that matches rootstock vigor, planting density, and management intensity, so that yield, fruit uniformity, and quality can be improved together.

3 Effects of Canopy Structure Optimization on Growth and Yield Formation of ‘Taishuu’ Sweet Persimmon

3.1 Optimization of tree architecture promoting rational distribution of shoots

Canopy structure optimization promotes a more rational shoot distribution by regulating branch orientation, canopy depth, and vegetative vigor, which together determine how shoots and leaves are arranged in space and how many effective fruiting sites are formed. In fruit trees, training systems reshape canopy size and depth and thereby alter the spatial distribution of shoots and fruits within the crown, while pruning, bending, and related manipulations remain the main tools for balancing vegetative and reproductive growth (Anthony and Minas, 2021; Patel et al., 2024). Structural traits such as branching pattern, plant height, and foliage distribution also affect developmental timing and yield potential because they determine how light is distributed through the canopy. In pear, canopy structural parameters including canopy surface area, canopy volume, total branch length, average branch length, and lateral branch number were positively correlated with average fruit number or total yield, while a high proportion of short branches was negatively associated with fruit number (Yan et al., 2025). For ‘Taishuu’ sweet persimmon, these findings indicate that architecture should not simply suppress growth, but should guide extension growth into a canopy with adequate branch length, moderate lateral branching, and evenly distributed fruiting shoots.

Evidence from other crops further shows that architectural simplification can improve shoot organization and production efficiency when it prevents canopy crowding. In peach, uniform and thinner canopies with reduced leaf density produced more even fruit distribution and more stable fruit weight through the canopy, whereas excessive density promoted shading and weakened quality. In litchi, vigorous unregulated canopies shifted fruiting toward the upper periphery, reduced light-harvesting efficiency, and lowered fruit quality, while reasonable shaping and pruning improved structure and laid the basis for early and abundant cropping (Singh et al., 2023). Persimmon rootstock studies also show that reduced canopy volume can improve yield efficiency without lowering fruit quality when vigor is moderated rather than excessively weakened, as seen with ‘Hourakudai’, whereas overly dwarfing stocks can reduce yield through insufficient vigor. This is important for ‘Taishuu’ because a rational shoot distribution depends on maintaining enough new shoot growth to renew fruiting wood, but not so much that branches overlap, internal shade intensifies, and productive shoots become concentrated only in outer canopy zones.

3.2 Improvement of flower and fruit development conditions enhancing fruit set and yield

Canopy optimization enhances flower and fruit development mainly by improving the internal light and temperature environment perceived by buds, flowers, and young fruit (Nateshkumar et al., 2025). Light distribution is closely linked to flower bud differentiation and fruit spatial distribution, and optimized canopies improve leaf photosynthetic function while increasing the probability that reproductive structures are formed in favorable canopy positions (Yan et al., 2025). In mango, Y-trellis and open-center canopies improved PPFD, photosynthetic rate, flowering intensity, and fruit yield, and path analysis identified PPFD, intercepted PAR, and photosynthetic rate as key predictors of flowering (Kishore et al., 2023). In litchi, poor light mixing in dense orchards limited flower development, whereas better-formed canopies improved fruit bud differentiation, ripening, and yield attributes. These mechanisms are directly relevant to ‘Taishuu’, whose reproductive development, like persimmon generally, proceeds through clearly staged phenological transitions from inflorescence emergence to flowering and fruit development, making the timing and canopy position of resource supply especially important (Guan et al., 2021).

Persimmon evidence supports the conclusion that better-illuminated canopy positions favor higher fruit set and stronger yield formation. In ‘Fuyu’, initial fruit set was highest in the upper canopy where irradiance was greater, and yield from a position depended mainly on fruit set at that position. In Costata persimmon, the upper and outer canopy and the southern and western exposures had higher fruit retention, more fruits per shoot, greater yield, and stronger shoot and leaf traits than shaded inner or lower zones. Older persimmon work similarly showed that fruits borne high and on the outer canopy had better coloration and higher soluble solids, and that hand pollination or GA treatment increased fruit set, although GA also reduced seed number and fruit size in that study. A recent ‘Rojo Brillante’ study also found that spring GA₃ or Promalin at budbreak increased vegetative growth, ovary weight at petal fall, fruit set, and final fruit size, while repeated autumn GA₃ delayed dormancy and reduced subsequent flower quality and yield (Figure 1) (Marzal et al., 2026). For ‘Taishuu’, this suggests that canopy optimization can improve fruit set and yield not only by exposing existing flowers to better conditions, but also by supporting healthier floral initiation, ovary development, and early fruit retention across a larger proportion of the canopy.

Figure 1 Budbreak stage of ‘Rojo Brillante’ persimmon trees in control trees and in trees treated once, twice, or three times with GA3 (30 mg/L) to delay fruit ripening, assessed 15 days after budbreak of the control trees (A), and vegetative growth stage 50 days after budbreak of the controls (B) (Adopted from Marzal et al., 2026)

3.3 Regulation of nutrient allocation improving yield stability and production efficiency

Canopy structure optimization also improves nutrient allocation by redistributing light capture and photosynthetic activity more evenly through the canopy, thereby strengthening carbon assimilation and the supply of substrates to shoots, flowers, and fruits. In apple, outer-canopy leaves intercepted more light and synthesized more photoassimilates, while sun-exposed fruit accumulated more minerals and fruits in outer canopy positions contained more sugars, soluble solids, and dry matter. In mango, canopy forms with better light distribution also showed higher carbohydrate and protein contents in leaves, consistent with stronger source activity (Kishore et al., 2023). Pear results directly linked improved photosynthesis to higher fruit number, yield, and flower bud number, and interpreted this effect as enhanced carbon assimilation supplying enough substrates for both current fruiting and next season’s floral bud formation (Yan et al., 2025). For ‘Taishuu’, the practical implication is that canopy regulation should be understood as carbon-partition management: a canopy with better illuminated, functional leaves can sustain both fruit enlargement in the current year and return bloom in the next.

This improvement in assimilate distribution helps stabilize yield and raise production efficiency, but evidence also shows that the balance is delicate. In peach, orchard-scale yield and light-use efficiency followed a saturating response to leaf area index, and over-foliation reduced yield, showing that more leaf area is beneficial only until internal shading begins to impair canopy function. In satsuma mandarin, leaf area index was the best predictor of fruit yield, empirical extinction coefficients were negatively related to yield, and trellis-trained trees outperformed modified open-center trees because of better light distribution and productivity (Yano et al., 2022). Nutrient studies in almond and apple further show that larger or denser canopies do not automatically translate into higher efficiency: season-long nitrogen increased canopy cross section, reduced porosity, and increased yield in almond, while homogeneous canopies improved N-use efficiency, and in apple high yield did not always coincide with high nutrient efficiency (Sandonís-Pozo et al., 2023; Singh et al., 2026). In persimmon, denser planting improved hectare-scale productivity in one study, but stress under dense spacing reduced productivity on D. lotus, while sustained deficit irrigation reduced fruit abscission and maximized irrigation water productivity without lowering yield (Román et al., 2026). Therefore, in ‘Taishuu’ sweet persimmon, canopy optimization should aim for a stable compromise between vegetative renewal, crop load, and canopy openness so that assimilates, mineral nutrients, and water are used efficiently enough to maintain annual yield stability and high-output orchard performance.

4 Effects of Canopy Structure Optimization on Fruit Quality Formation of ‘Taishuu’ Sweet Persimmon

4.1 Improvement of canopy light conditions promoting fruit appearance quality

Canopy structure optimization improves the appearance quality of ‘Taishuu’ sweet persimmon primarily by increasing light penetration and reducing within-canopy heterogeneity, because uneven irradiance creates clear differences in fruit external color and other visual traits across canopy positions. In persimmon, fruit at different canopy positions are exposed to different light and temperature conditions, and these differences are associated with variation in growth and maturation. Costata persimmon studies show that the outer, upper, southern, and western canopy positions produced the best physicochemical quality, whereas inner positions had lower carotenoid content, indicating that improved light exposure favors more desirable peel coloration. Apple work shows the same pattern: low light inside the canopy worsens coloration, whereas fruit from better-exposed positions show superior blush and color indices. Peach evidence further indicates that more evenly distributed light in lower-vigor, less crowded canopies produces more uniform fruit quality across positions, which is directly relevant to ‘Taishuu’ orchards seeking consistent marketable appearance (Anthony et al., 2021).

The physiological basis is that peel color development is tightly linked to ripening-related pigment changes, especially chlorophyll loss and carotenoid accumulation, both of which respond to the light environment (Tekin et al., 2025). In persimmon, external color is widely used as a nondestructive maturity index because it tracks the physicochemical changes occurring during ripening, and fruit normally reach harvest when a homogeneous reddish-orange color has developed. Preharvest ABA treatment in persimmon accelerated color development and increased carotenoid content, confirming that improved pigment accumulation is strongly associated with more advanced and commercially favorable visual appearance (Hasan et al., 2025). At the same time, appearance quality requires balance rather than maximum exposure alone, because high-exposure canopy sectors in Costata persimmon also showed more sunburn than lower-light sectors, while apple studies likewise note that excessive irradiance can cause sunburn or other disorders (Kassem et al., 2024). Therefore, canopy optimization in ‘Taishuu’ should aim to create an open but not overexposed fruit zone, so that light is sufficient for uniform orange-red coloration without increasing injury risk.

4.2 Enhancement of leaf photosynthetic capacity promoting sugar accumulation and flavor development

Canopy optimization also enhances leaf photosynthetic capacity, and this is central to sugar accumulation and flavor development because better-exposed leaves intercept more light, fix more carbon, and export more photoassimilates to fruit. Microclimate gradients inside canopies alter photosynthetic carbon assimilation and fruit quality, so suitable architecture improves quality by optimizing the canopy microenvironment rather than by increasing canopy size alone (Liu et al., 2024). In pears, more evenly distributed light in open canopies was associated with higher net photosynthetic rate and greater allocation of photosynthetic products to ripening fruit, while open-canopy systems produced higher soluble solids and stronger carbohydrate accumulation. In peach, enhancing leaf photosynthesis increased carbon fixation and promoted assimilate transport to fruit, strengthening source capacity and sink competition and thereby favoring sugar accumulation (Liang et al., 2023). Citrus results similarly show that improved carbon flow from source leaves to fruit increases sugar accumulation, and potassium promoted this process by strengthening both source activity and fruit sink strength (Wu et al., 2024).

For persimmon, sugar accumulation is a major determinant of flavor quality, and soluble sugars are positively associated with sensory flavor indices across germplasm resources (Han et al., 2023b). Persimmon flavor varies substantially among cultivar types, and differences in sugar metabolism between PCNA and PCA fruit are considered central to flavor formation (Figure 2) (Han et al., 2023a). Soluble solids are highly dependent on sugar-component contents such as fructose and sucrose, and sugar accumulation is also closely linked to carotenoid accumulation and color formation (Dong et al., 2024). Metabolomic evidence from peach shows that high-light fruit contain more sucrose, sorbitol, and catechin, whereas low-light fruit accumulate metabolites associated with inferior quality, indicating that canopy light environment changes flavor-related metabolism rather than only total sweetness. Thus, in ‘Taishuu’, improving canopy openness and leaf function should promote both greater sugar accumulation and a more favorable flavor profile by increasing the efficiency with which assimilated carbon is produced and delivered to developing fruit.

Figure 2 Fruit Profile diagram of four cultivated persimmon types (Adopted from Han et al., 2023a) Image caption: PCA: (A-I). (A) Zhongshi No.5; (B) Huojing; (C) Boai_Bayuehuang; (D) Haian_Xiaofangshi; (E) Lishuishi; (F) Xinan_Niuxin; (G) Zhongshi No.6; (H) Lintong_Banshi; (I) Hongdenglong; PVA: (J) Tonewase; PVNA: (K) Zenjimaru; PCNA: (L-O); (L) Shinshuu; (M) Taishuu; (N) Kanshu; (O) Youhou (Adopted from Han et al., 2023a)

4.3 Regulation of fruit maturation process improving texture and nutritional quality

Canopy structure optimization regulates the fruit maturation process by modifying fruit-zone light, temperature, and assimilate supply, all of which influence color change, firmness loss, and the timing of ripening. Persimmon maturation is characterized by progressive color development and firmness decline, and external color and firmness are strongly negatively correlated during commercial harvest progression. Studies in persimmon also indicate that changes in color and firmness occur together during maturation, whereas soluble solids can change only slightly, so canopy effects on maturity are often expressed more clearly through peel color and texture than through TSS alone. Peach data show that fruit maturity and dry matter increase with greater canopy height and exposure, while more even light distribution tends to reduce positional differences in maturity, suggesting that canopy optimization can improve maturity uniformity as well as ripening advancement (Anthony et al., 2021). This point is relevant to ‘Taishuu’ because commercial harvest standards in persimmon depend on the development of a substantial proportion of fruits to an inherent orange color while still retaining slight firmness.

Canopy optimization can also improve texture and nutritional quality by promoting favorable pigment, acid, phenolic, and antioxidant accumulation, although some traits remain sensitive to cultivar and maturity stage. In persimmon, preharvest ABA increased total phenolics, flavonoids, antioxidant capacity, and carotenoids while slightly reducing firmness, consistent with accelerated ripening and enhanced nutritional value. Pear studies show that open-canopy systems increased titratable acidity and altered carbohydrate, lipid, and phenylpropanoid metabolism, while greater solar irradiance promoted organic acid accumulation and enriched phenylpropanoid pathway activity (Liu et al., 2024). Persimmon nutritional composition is highly variable among germplasm, including soluble sugar, vitamin C, anthocyanin, flavonoid, and pectinase-related traits, so canopy regulation is acting on a quality system that is already biologically diverse. Nutrient balance also matters during maturation, because Ca and Mg status and the N/Ca and Ca/(K+Mg) ratios are closely related to color, firmness, TSS, and soluble tannin content in persimmon (Vilhena et al., 2022). Overall, canopy optimization in ‘Taishuu’ appears most likely to improve fruit quality formation by coordinating light exposure, photosynthetic supply, and maturation metabolism so that fruit develop better color, richer flavor, commercially suitable texture, and stronger nutritional traits.

5 Mechanisms Underlying the Effects of Canopy Structure Regulation on Yield and Fruit Quality

5.1 Mechanisms of canopy light environment optimization and improvement of light-use efficiency

Canopy structure regulation improves yield and fruit quality first by redistributing incident radiation more evenly through the crown, because dense canopies tend to overinvest in upper-layer light capture while leaving inner and lower leaves under-illuminated and less productive (Slattery and Ort, 2021). In fruit trees, pruning, training, and canopy shaping alter both total PAR interception and its spatial distribution, and this dual control is more important than maximizing interception alone (Falchi et al., 2020). Open or planar canopies improve light penetration and ventilation relative to natural or crowded forms, which raises whole-canopy photosynthetic effectiveness. This mechanism is consistent with the broader view that orchard productivity depends not only on how much light is intercepted, but on how efficiently intercepted light is converted into carbon gain.

Light gradients inside canopies also drive acclimation in leaf traits, so leaves exposed to higher irradiance typically develop higher area-based nitrogen and higher photosynthetic capacity, whereas shaded leaves contribute disproportionately less to whole-canopy productivity (Cheesman et al., 2025). In mango, espalier-trellis architecture improved light-distribution efficiency per unit leaf area even when total canopy productivity fell slightly because leaf area was smaller, showing that better structure can increase efficiency without always increasing total interception. In peach, 2D fruiting walls maintained higher lower-canopy photosynthetic performance than 3D systems, indicating that canopy optimization preserves productive foliage deeper in the canopy rather than restricting function to the outer shell (Chatzieffraimidis et al., 2026). For ‘Taishuu’, this means that canopy regulation improves light-use efficiency by reducing clumping, improving within-canopy illumination, and converting a larger proportion of leaves into effective carbon sources for fruit growth and quality formation (Mattos et al., 2020).

5.2 Regulation mechanisms of assimilate accumulation and fruit quality formation

Canopy regulation influences fruit quality through source-sink regulation, because sugars that determine sweetness and much of eating quality are produced in source leaves, transported through the phloem, and accumulated in sink fruits under coordinated metabolic and transport control. Fruit sweetness therefore depends not only on photosynthetic supply but also on phloem loading, long-distance translocation, unloading, and carbohydrate metabolism inside the fruit (Ren et al., 2023). In tree crops, fruits are strong sinks that compete with one another and with shoots, leaves, and roots, so canopy optimization affects fruit quality partly by modifying that competition through light environment and crop architecture. Light availability promotes fruit development directly through primary carbon metabolism and indirectly by enhancing assimilate translocation and, in some cases, fruit sink activity through warmer fruit temperatures.

Improved source performance tends to translate into better sugar accumulation and more favorable quality traits. In nectarine, enhanced leaf photosynthesis increased carbon fixation, promoted transport of labeled assimilate to fruits, reduced allocation to young leaves, and strengthened fruit sink competition. Persimmon evidence shows that soluble solids depend strongly on sugar components such as fructose and sucrose, and that sugar accumulation is closely linked with peel color development through carotenoid formation and the parallel decline in firmness. More generally, fruit quality responds most strongly during late growth when assimilate accumulation is high, and shading at that stage can reduce soluble solids (Falchi et al., 2020). For ‘Taishuu’, the mechanistic implication is that canopy optimization enhances fruit quality by simultaneously increasing source strength, improving phloem delivery to fruit, and favoring sink metabolism that supports sugar, pigment, and flavor accumulation (Ren et al., 2023).

5.3 Coordination mechanisms between vegetative growth and reproductive development

Canopy regulation also works by coordinating vegetative growth and reproductive development, which in fruit trees are linked through shared carbon, nutrient, and hormonal pools. Mechanistic modeling indicates that current photosynthesis, root nutrient supply, respiration, organ competition, and management practices together determine the carbon dynamics of shoots, roots, and fruits. Moderate pruning and thinning appear to provide the best compromise between current fruit production, average fruit size, and the shoot production needed to sustain next season’s cropping potential (Bevacqua et al., 2021). This supports the principle that canopy management should not maximize either vegetative extension or fruit number alone, but maintain a durable balance between present yield and future bearing capacity.

In persimmon and related species, this balance is especially sensitive during early fruit development, when vegetative shoot outgrowth and young fruit compete intensely for carbohydrates. Higher fruit drop in inner canopy positions is consistent with weaker light supply and stronger local carbon limitation, while outer canopy zones generally retain more fruit and yield better (Sun et al., 2025). Persimmon management studies further show that summer pruning can suppress excessive shoot growth while improving light penetration, fruit appearance, soluble solids, and flower-bud formation on remaining shoots, although responses depend on pruning severity and timing. Good bearing units in persimmon are also structurally specific, with one-year shoots of intermediate length showing stronger vegetative growth, more flowers, more fruit set, and faster ripening, which shows why canopy regulation must shape shoot quality as well as canopy openness. In ‘Taishuu’ sweet persimmon, canopy structure regulation improves yield and fruit quality because it integrates three mechanisms at once: a more efficient light environment, stronger and better-directed assimilate flow to fruit, and a more stable balance between shoot renewal and reproductive load.

6 Canopy Optimization Cultivation Models and Application Strategies for ‘Taishuu’ Sweet Persimmon

6.1 Age-specific canopy management strategies based on tree development stages

Age-specific canopy management in ‘Taishuu’ should follow persimmon developmental stages, because management timing depends on the sequence of bud development, leaf expansion, shoot growth, flowering, fruit development, maturity, and dormancy. During orchard establishment, the priority is to build a stable training framework while preventing excessive vegetative branching and early fruit drop, which in young persimmon orchards has been addressed mainly through winter pruning (Parra et al., 2022). Young-tree strategies should also consider vigor control through rootstock choice, because dwarfing rootstocks reduce canopy area and volume from early years onward, although excessively weak rootstocks can reduce yield (Yakushiji et al., 2021). As trees age, canopy expansion slows relative to trunk enlargement, terminal shoot length and leaf area decline, fruit size tends to fall after about 40 years, and hectare-scale yield eventually declines as tree density decreases, so older orchards require stronger renewal and de-crowding pruning than young orchards.

In juvenile and early-bearing orchards, moderate structural pruning that preserves a compact but productive canopy appears preferable to either no shaping or excessively severe pruning. In high-density olive, pruning split between winter lateral pruning and summer topping maintained a more compact canopy and improved yield while supporting vegetative-reproductive balance in young trees (Lodolini et al., 2023). In young high-density mandarin, form pruning initially reduced yield but later improved fruit size and production efficiency, with the benefit declining as trees became older (Cronje et al., 2021). In old citrus trees, productivity decline has been linked to poor light penetration in aging canopies, and corrective pruning improved yield and fruit quality (Al-Saif et al., 2023). For ‘Taishuu’, this supports a stage-based model in which young trees are shaped for framework formation and vigor control, full-bearing trees are maintained by selective thinning and topping to preserve light distribution, and aging trees undergo stronger renewal pruning to recover fruiting positions, canopy porosity, and fruit size (Dhurve et al., 2025).

6.2 Canopy structure optimization models based on planting density

Canopy structure optimization under different planting densities should aim to increase orchard light interception by raising tree number per hectare while keeping individual canopies narrow, shallow, and well illuminated. Modeling and empirical studies agree that closer spacing can increase orchard yield, especially when trees remain small, but yield declines when high density is combined with large canopy size because competition for light and imbalance between vegetative and fruit growth intensify. In peach, the preferred strategy is to increase orchard LAI through a larger number of smaller trees rather than through denser foliage within each tree, because narrow 2D canopies improve both interception and internal light distribution. This approach also has clear limits: once plantings become too dense, shading promotes vegetative imbalance, reduces fruit quality, and accelerates decline (Anthony and Minas, 2021). General high-density orchard theory makes the same point that high productivity and fruit quality are achieved only when dense systems maintain good light distribution and a balance between vegetative growth and cropping.

For persimmon, density-matched canopy models should therefore combine spacing, rootstock vigor control, and branch or tree thinning. In high-density non-astringent persimmon, early tree thinning increased central-canopy photon flux, improved fruit quality, raised fruit set, reduced water-sprout development, and produced much higher marketable yield and gross returns than the unthinned control. Rootstocks provide an additional density-management tool because they regulate scion vigor and facilitate canopy configurations more favorable for fruit quality (Kassem et al., 2024). In persimmon, dwarfing stocks reduced canopy volume substantially, and ‘Hourakudai’ improved yield efficiency without reducing fruit quality, making it suitable for compact, higher-density systems. Irrigated persimmon data also show a trade-off: denser layouts tended to improve hectare-scale productivity, but under lower irrigation they could induce transient summer water stress and reduced productivity on some rootstocks. A practical model for ‘Taishuu’ is therefore a moderated high-density system using size-controlling rootstocks or stricter canopy thinning, with timely branch removal once canopies begin to touch, rather than maintaining large free-growing crowns in close spacing (Mitra, 2019).

6.3 Integrated regulation of canopy management with water-fertilizer and flower-fruit management

Canopy management in ‘Taishuu’ should be integrated with water-fertilizer and flower-fruit management because canopy performance depends on coordinated control of tree water status, nutrient supply, and crop load. Integrated soil fertility management in fruit crops is defined as the optimized combination of organic, chemical, and biological nutrient sources adapted to local conditions, with the goal of improving nutrient efficiency, sustaining soil fertility, and maintaining production without damaging the soil ecosystem (Srivastava et al., 2021). In apricot, a combined fertilizer-biofertilizer-vermicompost program increased leaf chlorophyll, fruit set, total yield, and net return, showing that integrated nutrition can strengthen both canopy function and reproductive performance (Kumar et al., 2024). In young persimmon, improved root-zone conditions through cocopeat substrate bags enhanced tree water status, increased canopy volume, increased first-fruiting-season yield by about 40%, increased fruit load, and later increased fruit weight and advanced ripening.

Irrigation should likewise be coordinated with canopy size, rootstock, and crop load. In persimmon, sustained or regulated deficit irrigation often improved irrigation water productivity without reducing marketable yield, although fruit weight sometimes declined and denser orchards could become water-stressed under insufficient supply (Porras-Jorge et al., 2025). Spring-regulated deficit irrigation in mature ‘Rojo Brillante’ also reduced fruit drop and increased harvested fruit number while maintaining yield per tree, but responses varied with rootstock and bearing behavior. Flower-fruit management should be linked to these canopy and irrigation strategies because pruning can act as fruit thinning, and improved light interception changes carbohydrate assimilation, shoot vigor, flowering strength, crop load, and fruit size (Cronje et al., 2021). In high-density persimmon, first-year thinning increased fruit set and short fruiting shoot production while reducing water sprouts, indicating that structural canopy adjustment can stabilize cropping more effectively when coordinated with crop-load regulation. For ‘Taishuu’, the most suitable application strategy is an integrated system: winter and summer pruning to maintain canopy porosity, density-specific spacing and rootstock selection, fertigation based on tree age and vigor, deficit irrigation where water is limiting, and timely flower or fruit thinning to keep source-sink balance and sustain both yield and premium fruit quality.

7 Current Research Issues and Future Perspectives

7.1 Need for further improvement of canopy structure evaluation systems

Current canopy evaluation systems still rely too heavily on simplified descriptors such as canopy size or projected area, even though fruit quality variation is driven by the combined effects of canopy shape, internal light distribution, and positional heterogeneity within the crown. Recent work shows that canopy structure and internal light should be quantified together, because canopy structure can dominate traits such as skin lightness and firmness, whereas within-canopy PAR more directly governs redness and sugar content (Yan et al., 2026). This argues for a more integrated evaluation framework for ‘Taishuu’ that combines structural variables, light metrics, and fruit-zone responses rather than treating canopy volume alone as sufficient (Wang et al., 2021; Guo et al., 2025).

A second limitation is that many traditional measurements are still laborious, low-throughput, and too coarse for dense or irregular orchards. Newer approaches provide a clear path forward: mobile LiDAR can reconstruct orchard point clouds and extract crown height and volume at tree scale, UAV LiDAR can segment individual overlapping crowns with high precision (Wang et al., 2025), and 3D reconstruction methods can simulate light interception using LIR and EIR rather than using only gross canopy dimensions (Qu et al., 2025). Future ‘Taishuu’ studies should therefore develop a canopy evaluation system that integrates canopy volume, porosity, branch distribution, crown overlap, vertical light gradients, and fruit-bearing position into a unified set of practical indices for pruning and orchard design (Xia et al., 2025).

7.2 Need for deeper understanding of the mechanisms linking canopy regulation and fruit quality formation

The second major issue is that the mechanism linking canopy regulation to fruit quality formation is still understood more clearly at the phenomenological level than at the metabolic level. Across fruit crops, improved canopy light conditions consistently enhance photosynthetic performance, fruit color, and some quality traits, but the pathways connecting canopy architecture to sugars, pigments, acids, and texture are only partly resolved. Positional studies show that fruits in better-illuminated canopy zones often have superior color, sugar accumulation, dry matter, and secondary metabolite profiles (Kviklys et al., 2022), but such evidence does not yet fully explain which molecular processes are most sensitive to canopy manipulation in persimmon itself.

More mechanistic studies now suggest the direction this work should take. Extending light duration in apple promoted anthocyanin synthesis and soluble sugar accumulation through transcription factors linked to pigment transport and sugar metabolism (Mei et al., 2023). In grape, different light qualities altered anthocyanins, sugars, and acids and were associated with large transcriptomic and metabolomic shifts in photosynthesis and flavonoid pathways (Zhang et al., 2021). In tomato, optimized red-blue light accelerated ripening and increased carotenoids, fructose, glucose, and flavor-related gene expression (Zhang et al., 2025b). For ‘Taishuu’, future work should combine canopy treatments with transcriptomics, metabolomics, and source-sink measurements to clarify how canopy openness regulates carotenoid accumulation, soluble sugar metabolism, volatile formation, firmness decline, and harvest uniformity under field conditions.

7.3 Potential development of digital and precision canopy management technologies

The third priority is the development of digital and precision canopy management technologies that can move canopy optimization from experience-based practice to data-driven control. High-precision canopy measurement is already becoming feasible for orchard management, and canopy volume has direct relevance for variable-rate spraying, dosage adjustment, and other input decisions. UAV- and LiDAR-based workflows can now detect, localize, segment, and classify individual trees for prescription mapping and targeted operations. In apple, one UAV deep-learning framework reduced spray volume by 47.92% relative to direct spraying while also enabling optimized flight paths (Wei et al., 2024). In citrus and litchi, LiDAR-based UAV variable-rate spraying improved canopy targeting and reduced ground deposition by about 64.1% and 90.4%, respectively (Chen et al., 2025).

The next step is to connect sensing not just to spraying, but to full tree-level decision support. Multi-source 3D phenotyping platforms already combine drone, LiDAR, and GNSS data to quantify crown volume, branch number, blossom traits, and growth-stage variation at large scale. These systems remain limited by occlusion, generalization across canopy forms, and incomplete integration of environmental variables such as radiation, rainfall, soil, and pollination. For ‘Taishuu’, the most promising future model is a precision canopy management platform that links 3D canopy sensing, light-interception simulation, fruit-zone monitoring, and variable-rate pruning, irrigation, fertilization, and spraying into one operational framework (Qu et al., 2025). Future research on ‘Taishuu’ should move toward quantitative evaluation, mechanism-informed regulation, and digital orchard management so canopy optimization can improve yield, fruit quality, and production efficiency more predictably.

8 Conclusions for ‘Taishuu’ Canopy Optimization

Canopy structure optimization is an important approach for improving ‘Taishuu’ sweet persimmon yield because orchard productivity depends on how canopy architecture regulates light interception, photosynthesis, and the balance between vegetative and reproductive growth. Across fruit crops, yield generally increases as light interception rises, but this response is strongest only up to moderate interception levels, after which internal light distribution becomes equally important. Narrower or better-structured canopies improve the efficiency of this process by increasing leaf area index at the orchard scale while maintaining more uniform illumination within trees. Canopy structure also determines the spatial distribution of fruiting sites, because shoot and leaf arrangement influence flower bud positioning, fruit set, and the allocation of fruit to well-illuminated canopy zones. In larger canopies, light distribution becomes the primary driver of fruit spatial distribution and consistently high yield, while in smaller canopies structural parameters remain more important. Evidence from modern training systems further shows that high-density plantings can raise yield potential only when canopy size is restrained and over-shading is avoided, because excessive density promotes vegetative imbalance and weakens fruiting efficiency. This conclusion is reinforced by studies showing that over-foliation reduces yield and that cultivar-specific optimization of LAI and canopy size is required for sustainable production. Therefore, in ‘Taishuu’, canopy optimization should be regarded as a core yield-improvement pathway because it expands effective fruiting space, improves canopy light-use efficiency, and stabilizes crop formation at both tree and orchard scales.

Rational canopy regulation enables the coordinated improvement of yield and fruit quality because canopy structure influences fruit quality through two interacting pathways: direct structural effects on canopy microenvironment and positional effects on within-canopy light distribution. Training systems can therefore create a measurable trade-off, with compact canopies tending to improve quality uniformity and expansive canopies tending to increase yield. The practical goal is not maximum canopy expansion, but a regulated canopy that captures sufficient light while preserving light penetration to inner and lower zones, because fruit size, color, soluble solids, and dry matter all improve with better light availability. This pattern is consistent with evidence that evenly distributed light promotes uniform flower bud initiation and fruit quality throughout the canopy, whereas excessive interception above optimal thresholds increases shading and irregular production. More open or planar canopies also maintain higher photosynthetic performance in lower canopy zones and improve water-use efficiency, fruit firmness, color development, and total production efficiency. At the same time, canopy responses are not purely linear, because high irradiance can induce photoprotective investment and diminishing returns in carbon gain, showing that quality improvement depends on balanced exposure rather than extreme openness. For ‘Taishuu’, rational canopy regulation should therefore emphasize moderate canopy size, adequate branch renewal, selective thinning of crowded bearing zones, and density-matched training systems so that higher yield is achieved together with better coloration, sweetness, texture, and harvest uniformity.

The future development of ‘Taishuu’ production should move toward precision canopy management systems that quantify canopy traits, predict light interception, and support tree-level decisions for pruning, spraying, and other inputs. Traditional pruning remains effective but is still largely empirical, whereas 3D reconstruction and simulation approaches now allow canopy light interception to be evaluated quantitatively using metrics such as light interception ratio and energy interception ratio. These tools show that canopy density, branch distribution, and overall morphology strongly affect interception efficiency, and that open, evenly distributed canopies perform better than dense, compact canopies. LiDAR- and drone-based phenotyping systems can already measure crown volume, branch number, and floral traits at tree scale with high spatial precision, creating a practical basis for scalable orchard monitoring. Related canopy-volume models also now achieve high accuracy for variable-rate orchard operations and provide a direct foundation for precision spraying and dosage adjustment. Emerging digital-twin and AR-assisted systems extend this further by enabling continuous 3D monitoring, simulated management scenarios, and branch-level pruning guidance, although robustness and field scalability still need improvement. UAV multispectral assessment also shows that canopy-scale prediction of premium fruit potential before harvest is feasible, which could help target quality-oriented interventions in ‘Taishuu’ orchards. Overall, high-quality and sustainable production of ‘Taishuu’ sweet persimmon will depend on integrating canopy optimization with digital sensing, orchard design, and precision regulation so that yield, fruit quality, input efficiency, and long-term sustainability can be improved together.

Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges the contributions of researchers in persimmon cultivation and canopy management whose findings informed the analysis and discussion in this article. Special acknowledgment is given to the authors of the original studies from which the figures were reproduced.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

The author affirms that this research was conducted without any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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