I don’t doubt your experience in the least Lucky. I have heard very contradictory discussions on this topic many times now and many have a strong opinion. I think it has a lot to do with rain/nutrient availability /soil health in general as to whether someone has success with a smaller root system. I’m not opposed to trying both ways to see what works for me personally, but if I was going to sell trees I’d lean towards a very large taproot just to be safe.
Hi,
This is my first time replying on this site, but I have to say:
Paw paw trees, at least at my location on the south shore of Long Island, NY, are crazy invasive! Those suckers are coming up everywhere!
The original trees I planted, over 10 years ago, had arrived as bareroot saplings from a mail-order catalog. No warning that they were invasive, and I thought they were supposed to be dwarf trees, or large shrubs. Now, they must be over 20’ tall. I made the mistake of planting 3 “varieties” in the back of my property, before the first two got crazy, some years ago. They are even worse.
I used to enjoy the fruit, and the birds/raccoons/squirrels made most of the fruit disappear.
I neglected my property for a couple of years, due to illness. Now, everything has become invasive: grape, kiwi, pipeline, and honeysuckle vines, elderberry bushes (trees?), etc. But, the Paw paws are too much. I can’t handle all the suckers, and nothing is eating enough of the fruit. They’re falling on the ground, and stepping on a large one is not fun, at all. There are also little seedlings from previous years I have to deal with. I’m starting to dislike the fruit. I can only eat one at a time. (Maybe two, if I’m really hungry.) I think the toxic chemicals in the seeds are also in the flesh, to some extent.
So, now, I’ve started cutting the trees down. It’s sad to cut down healthy trees, that are producing so much fruit, but I can’t deal with them, anymore.
So, reading someone suggest planting so many Paw Paw trees as a deer fence, makes me cringe.
Honey, if you’re 83, now, how are you going to handle it, when, years from now, each of your trees wants to become its own forest?
I would definitely stick with the fig trees.
Best of luck to you!
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Thanks for the warning, I have lived on my property going on 23 years, my paw2 tree’s are about 9 to 10 feet tall and they will be shortened this fall to about 8. Just top of the central leader. In my neighborhood I have seen some 20 footers, mine don’t produce suckers except one, way down the hill. You can trained them when young so they start fruiting at a very young age and stunt their growth. If you leave their seed laying around I can see a problem. I have about a dozen of them, that’s way too many for me, like you I don’t eat that much.
I’m having some problems logging on to this site, but I seem able to reply to you.
Yes, I should have kept the trees small, from the outset, but I just never knew it would get this bad. In the worst spots, in a square yard, there are about 10 seedlings and suckers. And, of course, several suckers sprout up around the stem of each one I cut. It just doesn’t end. I’m trying to bag the fallen fruit, among all my other projects to catch up with my neglected property. But, I see the seeds all over the ground, from previous seasons, and cleaning them all up will have to wait.
When I cut down the trees, and if I keep up with the sucker-cutting, do you think the root system will eventually “run out of steam” and stop trying to grow?
In most cases, the roots are more or less close to the surface. With native persimmon I,ll find the one closest to the main tree, try to jerk it out and cut it off closer to the tree rootball. With persimmon, if you let the new sprouts grow it will eventually weaken the mother tree. I don’t think it’s a fun job.
You could do what I did,check this out clearing bamboo.
Could I borrow that? Please?
The question I had, was: if I cut down the tree, and continue cutting off the sprouts, would they eventually stop growing?
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You notice the 2 paw2 trees in the picture?,a short one and a taller one that’s the time to train them, grow wide so that the branches inner weave. If you train a paw2 tree all by itself, you can make it a beautiful ornamental tropical looking tree in your landscape.
Best time to do that is around August after a drought when tree’s are suffering, starving for water. The big trees, you can them down to a 4 or 5 feet stump around the end of winter, pick out 4 new shoots close to the top and rub all other’s of. Thy will come back, just an option.
I’ve grown pawpaws for over ten years here in KS/MO. I’ve not seen them invasive here, where Louis and Clark discovered them as native trees at the intersection of the KS and MO rivers.
I’ve also not seen them throw up root suckers here. I do see the fruit fall to the ground and throw up new seedlings. I think the invasive part is the seeds which sprout easily, not suckers. But I would not call them anything near invasive here. Heck, honey locust, hedge, red cedar/juniper, and a good many other trees would be considered much more invasive here.
Of course Long Island is perhaps a different climate than the pawpaws natural climate here in the Midwest. But they are so far from invasive here, they are actually somewhat rare (in their original discovered habitat). I’ve tried to spread the seeds and had almost universal failure trying to get them to come up in forested areas.
The pawpaw fruit on my acreage are almost destroyed by coons and possums. They are a very aromatic fruit, which attracts those omnivores.
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After 6 years, my grafted Shenandoah set fruit for the first time this year. In addition, one sucker is coming up, too. I know for sure that it is a sucker because the tree never fruited before this year. I never dropped any pawpaw seeds on the ground (a friend gave me some of his pawpaws these past two years).
My guess is that the rootstock of @VickyNY ‘s pawpaw must be a kind that suckers badly. I hope mine would not be that bad!!
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Thanks for the correction Tippy. I didn’t know they suckered. I have some where I intentionally planted seeds below them and the seeds came up, so I thought they were all seeds. Based on your experience and the experience of Vicky, I’m wondering of some of them are suckers.
I’ve tried to plant seeds in forested areas and can’t get the seeds to come up. I think the difference is that below the established pawpaws, there was very little grass, whereas in the forested areas where I’ve tried to establish them, there is lots of fescue under the trees. Fescue is so competitive, it can be difficult to establish other desirable plants among it.
I tried replying via email to mamuang’s message, and attaching a couple of pictures, but I got an error msg, instead.
I was trying to show my two oldest Paw Paw trees. The largest has an 8" diameter trunk, and I now think is well over 20’ tall. Maybe 25’/30’.
I also have a picture of the density of the suckers/seedlings under the smaller tree, which I haven’t cleared-out, yet.
Most of them are absolutely suckers, and they grow very fast. I didn’t notice one coming up inside my overgrown hedge. It now has a 4" trunk, and is at least 15’ tall. I’m having a heck of a time removing it, without damaging the hedge.
My property came with a huge Sassafras tree in the back, that has forever been sending suckers all over. Some cherry trees acquired a few years ago, are starting to do the same. I had assumed this was normal. Could it be my soil, along with my climate?
I’d really like to show you people some pictures. I’m currently doing everything with android phones. Can someone tell me how to attach the pictures from my phones?
Thanks!
Vicky,
Perhaps this will be helpful to you. About halfway down in the FAQS are instructions on posting pics.
If you try the method in the FAQS and are still having trouble, you might look at the file size of the pics. I think the Discourse program is supposed to resize the pic, if the file is too large. But maybe there is an issue with that. If the file size of your pics are really big, you might try resizing them to a smaller file before uploading. Sorry you are having this trouble.
6.5 creedmore. Eat the deer
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That is one huge cultivated pawpaw tree.
My mature pawpaws are like that too. I took it down to 15’ and trimmed limbs back a bit to maintain a christmas tree like shape. Suckers pop and seedlings pop up everywhere once the pawpaw hits maturity. I think I started noticing them more after the 10th year.
I thought mine were all seedlings too until I started to dig them up and move them. Nine out of ten were suckers. Some of the suckers were 6 feet and probably 1" trunks when I moved them. I think once pawpaws get mature they have a stronger tendency to throw out suckers since they have no longer any need to invest into vertical growth of the main tree. I guess this is how colonal patches get started.
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Yes. So as I said at the outset, they are not the best choice for a deer fence, unless you eventually want a thick forest to keep the deer away.
I’ve decided to not cut down the two trees in the picture, at least for now. They are on the north side of the property, so not blocking any sun. I just have to keep on top of cutting down the intruders.
But, my PawPaw trees in the back of my property, have to go. They include the varieties “Canada’s Best” and “Taytoo”. It’s sad, but they’re just too much. I originally planted them to provide food for the caterpillars of Zebra Swallowtails. One book I read said they came this far north. I doubt that was accurate, but with the climate warming up, I thought there was a chance they would establish here (south side of Long Island, NY). I was buying chrysalises from a senior gentleman in VA, but I’ve lost touch with him. I had no-see-um netting over the (then smallish) trees, to keep away predators. You can still see one of the copper pipes in one of the pictures, that supported the netting. The butterflies did seem to lay eggs on the leaves, but they disappeared (earwigs?). Now, there’s no way I’m netting-in the trees.
By the way, I’ve recently dug up an “Autumn Golden Star” Chinese Haw, cut it down to about 5’, and cut the roots to fit in a 10" pot. It’s already sprouting new growth. I was planning to do the same with “Gold” Azarole. (I want room for other trees.) I thought I would put them on Craigslist, for a few dollars. Is that the best way to find good homes for them? Am I supposed to open up a new thread to ask this question? (I don’t know if I will have problems with that.)
FaceBook Market Place is what my friend suggests. She said you will get a wider range of potential buyers there.