I am curious if Al Horn’s White is better adapted to different climate or soil conditions than some other varieties. Have you completed a pH test for your soil? What soil type do you have? I assume in Florida you get fairly regular rainfall?
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Nice spreadsheet Ryan!
You have a very nice collection. What will you do with so much fruit?
Dennis
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Thanks Dennis! My list isn’t entirely up to date but I’m working on it. I’m hoping to feed the whole family haha. It would be nice to do the nursery thing on the side when the time comes, but I’m fully aware that turns into a full time commitment depending on how things go.
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Thanks for sharing, I will definitely update! I cant wait to taste. Wasnt coconutty?
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My soil is like beach sand almost. Years of constant tilling,plowing and planting. The PH is almost neutral. I constantly pile mulch,compost,tea bags , coffee grounds ,banana peels! The soil around my trees is completely opposite of the rest of my yard. We also get almost non stop rainfall from april to now and then the hurricanes and tropical storms until November.
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My theory for failure in south Florida is that Ammonium Sulfate, Ammonium Phosphate & Ammonium Nitrate all ion exchange with the high levels of Calcium Carbonate, creating Calcium Sulfate, Calcium Phosphate, Calcium Nitrate & Ammonium Carbonate.
And the Ammonium Carbonate 10.4pH burns the roots as it is released.
Nitrogen would evaporate from the soil & Calcium would be even more water soluble in an environment that already has too much!!!
If so the only Nitrogen salts appropriate for Florida is:
UREA, Potassium Nitrate, Urea Sulfate, Magnesium Nitrate.
The one I had was very over ripe, the skin was almost completely black and quite mushy. I generally never eat pawpaw at this stage. It had been mailed to me. At this stage I did not detect any coconut but it was unique and had hints of muscadine grape. I imagine it may taste quite a bit different when just ripe.
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I would think it would be a lack of winter cold which pawpaw needs.
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Derek, I think the questions become “How cold is cold enough” as well as “Do some varieties need less cold than others to go through necessary dormancy”.
Obviously some varieties are not recommended to be grown in the far north as they ripen too late most years. I would imagine some genetics provide less chill hours needed, just like some apples can be coaxed to grow and fruit in the tropics where other varieties would fail. On that same thought process, I imagine an artificial dormancy may be possible by stripping leaves as @applenut has learned in his efforts. Pawpaws as I know you are well aware are a different beast in many ways compared to other fruit trees so it might not be worth the effort.
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Some years they get practically no rain from November to late May. (Hence the sink holes in Florida from pumping water from underground.)
Not necessarily. Many exceptions. There is plenty of Calcium near Ocala.
And sour soils in swamps along US 17 in south central Florida.
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Has anyone tested pawpaws in all the different soil types of Florida?
All of the other species of pawpaws are in Florida, so they are probably a good indicator.
If 2 Vitis vinifera which have the same parent & one love the cold & the other the heat, one be Sulfur sensitive & the other Sulfur resident, then similar variations can happen in other species like Asimina.
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KSU says they need 650 to 750 cold hours based on research calculated on 25% budbreak. see below video
or this screen shot that sums it up
which means they only need about one month of 32 to 40 degree F weather. not all of florida gets that cold. My sister is in Orlando and I’ve heard issues of them growing there and with climate change I bet it will never grow there well.
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I’ve looked at KSU research.
False positive deductions based upon poor control.
They use lots of Magnesium Sulfate on their trees,
which increases the number of chill hours required to achieve hormonal transition.
Magnesium is a catalyst to Zinc Finger Protein Enzymes which detect heat, requiring an environment lower in heat energy to trigger transition!
Lack of chill is not why Bill Whitman’s pawpaw died.
And I have induced blooming in Tucson Arizona in summer on a (Mango x Overleese) hybrid Asimina triloba.
I’ve been running hydroponics experiments trying to determine optimal nutritional balance for Asimina triloba.
I have not yet discovered why pawpaw doesn’t like Florida, but it is not lack of chill hours.
Magnesium is so good at enhancing detection of heat that I have managed to wake many species up when lows are below freezing when wake up is normally 42°F.
This can be done by spraying branches with Magnesium Chloride, which has antifreeze properties plus is a catalyst to Zinc Finger Proteins.
Many species will wake up & bloom in freezing temperatures.
Epsom salt is also probably why KSU has “SW Injury” & (Mycocentrospora asimina, Rhopaloconidium asiminae & Phyllosticta asminae) fungi.
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I expect to finally see a bloom on my Al Horn in 2024.
…tick…tock…
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That is great news! Keep us posted.
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Awesome, look forward to it.
I’m buying 2 pounds of Al Horn’s White seeds.
Going to attempt to grow them hydroponicly in a greenhouse.
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