Wow.
Thanks Drew.
Dax
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I like to grow trees in pots that are not hardy here. Such as figs, Morus nigra mulberry and Pakistan too. I also have pomegranates in containers.
Here is one
These were delicious!
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ha ha ha!
Right on
Ideally you would start your own Paw Paw from seed in root pruning pot and then graduate up to proper size fabric / air pot in stages, this way you modify the root system from the get-go so it would be adapted to a pot environment minus tap root.
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Let’s say a fabric pot is used and it’s time to re-pot an old plant in a big bag… you’re going to need to completely wash the root-system, make a completely new mix, prune off 1/3 of the roots appx. while correcting root problems & finally repot it in another large fabric pot or whatever you choose to grow in.
You’re going to have to cut the tree back too at re-pot time to keep it in check. Don’t cut off more than 1/3 of what’s there.
I’d think of a 25 gallon to 30 gallon as the final stopping point for growing trees in containers. You’ll know when it’s time to re-pot because you won’t be able to keep them watered anymore; and they’ll begin showing signs of stress.
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Probably works fine as you describe, but unless there is a girdling root or something…I just move the plant to the new pot, dirt and all. If the new pot is 2 inches deeper, I’ll add at least 1.5 inches of new soil in the bottom, plop the plant in, and fill dirt in the rest of the way and maybe a little top dressing either dirt or much. Typically a 15 gallon pot I have no trouble lifting the tree out with one hand while holding the pot with the other…usually they are well under 100 pounds.
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Thank you for the link Dax, I had actually tried to figure out how to buy diatomaceous earth awhile ago and came up empty. Amazon, tractor supply, box stores were all dead ends.
I have found DE at my local nursery. Echters carries it here in Colorado. I don’t think the DE was cheap but if you are using very little of it I can see buying it from there.
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Drew, that is very helpful information! I know you said only pure DE for rooting cuttings, but I have a question/comment (anyone else who knows can also answer). I work in the mine drainage reclamation business, and years ago my company started to harvest the manganese oxide that was captured in our horizontal flow limestone beds (90%+ calcium carbonate equivalent to raise the water pH). The thing is, though, there is almost as much silicon dioxide as manganese oxide. Raw Materials - Clean Creek This page has our msds sheets for reference. My boss has noted that the giant bags of material sitting on his farm certainly grow plants. I’m wondering if this would be a reasonable “free to me” substitute? I know Mn is a required trace element along with Fe as trace nutrients, but I don’t think having them in higher levels would be an issue. Not sure though. I keep joking about turning the Mn into batteries since we import so much of it from other countries because it is a fairly rare element.
I’m not sure a pawpaw would survive the repotting and root pruning you describe. I know it works for other trees but from my (limited) experience with pawpaws and the “literature” I’m not so sure.
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The real answer is whether a pawpaw tree will grow large enough according to @BlueBerry to fruit and he seems to think a 30-gallon container will work. I would never use anything except a Rootmaker plastic container for air-pruning, or, a fabric grow bag. No contentional plastic pots that will spin the roots in other words.
There will come a time in appx. 4-5 years once the pawpaw tree from conversation will make it to size to be planted in it’s permanent pot/bag for the next 4-5 years. There’s then going to come a time when it’s going to need to be lifted from that (container) and given a whole batch of new soil. It’ll become too rootbound. That’s the problem. Otherwise anyone could simply continue to incorporate granular fertilizers or blood meal and fish bone meal and maybe sprinklings of dolomite lime.
The reason (any) tree that isn’t a (Large Oak or Pecan or some other) may be grown in pots when it’s a semi-dwarf tree to begin with is because pot technology these days is controlling the taproot by stopping it; then, it produces fibrous root tips in all directions and continues to produce fine feeder roots vs, thick and rubbery roots. That’s the advantage in today’s technology that really isn’t taken into account in today’s reads.
Dax
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No I totally understand and agree with what you’re saying- just that pawpaws seem to have extremely sensitive roots.
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You “caught me” in a “50/50 suspended thought” with that statement. Really excellent point, Triloba!
Dax
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It would be worth trying! I would think their is some way to use it in the garden. If just to raise the pH or provide calcium, silicon, and manganese. With silicon cell walls become harder, and internode distance is smaller. Useful to prevent lanky tomato seedlings. So yeah it may be worth trying as an amendment, or to root cuttings even germinate seeds. I like to use DE for rooting cuttings, but I still prefer to use a seed mix with equal parts DE a 1-1 ratio of seed starting mix and DE. for seeds. Friends of mine though had no problems using smaller grained DE like Napa floor dry, to germinate peppers and tomatoes. Some amazing results too.
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Cool, I will plan to bring a 5 gallon bucket of it home to try it out for various things. We are honestly at a point where we have so much of the stuff and not enough demand that we don’t know what to do with all of it haha. Maybe agriculture is the answer.
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Yeah I decided to go with some semi dwarf peach trees instead.
I ‘divided’ some one gallon pots that have 3 seedlings … putting one to a pot. Last Tuesday. No indications of stress so far…sitting in shade.
Fall dormancy isn’t as good for planting or moving this tree as spring or even summer. Roots don’t seem to do anything if top isn’t doing anything…and may rot rather than heal if injured in fall. (There may be exceptions.)
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I have grown pawpaws for 4 or 5 years in a one gallon pot. Have not ‘experimented’ to see how large the pot must be for them to be happy and bear fruit in.
I can’t find pine bark fines in PNW, best I have come across is orchid bark (fir) and Douglas fir bark mulch.
do they work well for fruit trees?
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Yes those are very good substitutes. Fir bark lasts like pine bark. Just as good or better.
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