diff --git a/include/linux/mmzone.h b/include/linux/mmzone.h
index 9c6181b78bfd01846c230b1d4b2bd7eb5b73237d..51f74519b0e850b7160539fc878300c9afc3a808 100644
--- a/include/linux/mmzone.h
+++ b/include/linux/mmzone.h
@@ -642,6 +642,8 @@ typedef struct pglist_data {
 	/*
 	 * Must be held any time you expect node_start_pfn, node_present_pages
 	 * or node_spanned_pages stay constant.
+	 * Also synchronizes pgdat->first_deferred_pfn during deferred page
+	 * init.
 	 *
 	 * pgdat_resize_lock() and pgdat_resize_unlock() are provided to
 	 * manipulate node_size_lock without checking for CONFIG_MEMORY_HOTPLUG
diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c
index 17c591f26fdfcd87922949667571ecaceb77e2f4..1fb49bcdb4da41204b6985f6e38b6495f7a2c08b 100644
--- a/mm/page_alloc.c
+++ b/mm/page_alloc.c
@@ -1627,6 +1627,13 @@ static int __init deferred_init_memmap(void *data)
 	BUG_ON(pgdat->first_deferred_pfn > pgdat_end_pfn(pgdat));
 	pgdat->first_deferred_pfn = ULONG_MAX;
 
+	/*
+	 * Once we unlock here, the zone cannot be grown anymore, thus if an
+	 * interrupt thread must allocate this early in boot, zone must be
+	 * pre-grown prior to start of deferred page initialization.
+	 */
+	pgdat_resize_unlock(pgdat, &flags);
+
 	/* Only the highest zone is deferred so find it */
 	for (zid = 0; zid < MAX_NR_ZONES; zid++) {
 		zone = pgdat->node_zones + zid;
@@ -1673,7 +1680,6 @@ static int __init deferred_init_memmap(void *data)
 
 		nr_free += atomic64_read(&args.nr_pages);
 	}
-	pgdat_resize_unlock(pgdat, &flags);
 
 	/* Sanity check that the next zone really is unpopulated */
 	WARN_ON(++zid < MAX_NR_ZONES && populated_zone(++zone));
@@ -1722,17 +1728,6 @@ deferred_grow_zone(struct zone *zone, unsigned int order)
 
 	pgdat_resize_lock(pgdat, &flags);
 
-	/*
-	 * If deferred pages have been initialized while we were waiting for
-	 * the lock, return true, as the zone was grown.  The caller will retry
-	 * this zone.  We won't return to this function since the caller also
-	 * has this static branch.
-	 */
-	if (!static_branch_unlikely(&deferred_pages)) {
-		pgdat_resize_unlock(pgdat, &flags);
-		return true;
-	}
-
 	/*
 	 * If someone grew this zone while we were waiting for spinlock, return
 	 * true, as there might be enough pages already.