Fuyu Persimmon dropping fruit - followup

Last year, I posted the following:

My wife & I live on the border of Zones 6 and 7 and have a small Fuyu > Persimmon tree. We planted the sapling about 11-12 years ago. > > In the past 9 years the tree has put forth a number of blossoms that > have grown into small fruits. However, long before the fruit ripens, > most of it drops from the tree. In six of those years all of the fruit > dropped; in the other three years, most of it dropped. What is most > discouraging is that the year where we had the most fruit remain on the > tree was 1997, where it produced a couple dozen ripe persimmons. Since > then we've only had one year with fruit reaching full ripeness, and even > then only about half a dozen persimmons made it. > > What are some of the things that can causes fruit for this type of > persimmon to drop? >

The main suggestion we received was to thin the flowers. Other suggested culprits were pollenization (possible) and over-fertilization (unlikely, as we don't fertilize the yard or the tree).

We didn't try hand-pollenization, as one of our neighbors put in a bee box this spring approximately 200 feet from the tree. We thinned the fruits as close to the recommended one per 50 leaves as we could when they were about dime sized.

Fruit still tended to drop, but very slowly. In late summer we had an extended dry spell, and the remaining fruits held on until November. Result: our ten foot tall tree yielded around two dozen persimmons. My wife & I were able to enjoy about a half dozen of these in the first couple days of November. Squirrels beat us to the rest.

So now it would seem I need to find a way to keep the rain off the tree in late summer, and the squirrels from climbing the trunk in November... :-)