Combining this information with Richard’s chart re ancestry . . .
Middletown and Mitchell (both high), and Sunflower and Wells (both low), are isolated cases, mostly wild seedlings.
Overleese and NC-1 (both high) are related. If I read the chart correctly, NC-1 is a child of Overleese. Both evidently have whatever gene(s) produce high acetogenin.
Wabash and Potomac (both low) are related, siblings. Both evidently have whatever gene(s) produce low acetogenin.
I’m not sure what’s going on with Zimmerman and Susquehanna.
Does anyone have any insight regarding what these results might imply for heritability? Any prediction of the status of other varieties, maybe especially the other Peterson releases?
p.s. FWIW, Shenandoah is an open-pollinated child of Overleese.
Let’s just say there were halcyon days on this forum in which pawpaws could be discussed in peace and harmony.
Differences of opinion and disagreements, certainly, but a freedom from rants, self-righteousness, and tangential rabbit-holes.
That era ended a couple of weeks ago.
The humble pawpaw has never been so controversial.
I don’t see a cross depicted on the page, so I assumed that Overleese was the female parent and that it was open-pollinated. If so, the seed would have been taken from the fruit, which would have been taken from the tree. How could there be any uncertainty and to the female parent?
Someone on this forum – I thought it was you – recently published a chart with the title, “Ancestry of U.S. Pawpaws in Circulation c. 2022.” The chart shows Overleese as a parent of NC-1. So?
Your chart (above) shows Davis and Overleese as parents of NC-1. This is the source that I relied on initially. Now you tell me that Overleese is not a parent. Was this a clever trap? Did you provide information that you knew was wrong just so you could catch someone citing it? If so, that’s just dirty. If not, you should be more careful to critique your own material.
Seriously, my major point is that your genetic clusters map to high/low toxins. Whether Overleese is the father of NC-1 or just an uncle is beside the point.
Two questions for more experienced pawpaw growers:
How much should I thin the fruit? Should I remove whole clusters or thin within the cluster, reducing the large clusters of 5 or 6 fruit to 3 or 4? My seedling tree is 6 or 7 years old, approximately 12 feet tall, very dense leaf cover, grows vigorously and puts out a lot of root suckers, in about 60% shade, had 1 fruit two years ago, 7 last year, and about 60 this year, and produces large fruit between 1/2 to over 3/4 of a pound. I’m in Georgia zone 7b, mostly clay soil.
It’s hard to say how much you should thin. I thought I thinned pretty heavily last year on my 5 yr old trees but I ended up wishing I had thinned even more. My trees are in full sun though. In a shadier spot they likely won’t fruit as densely.
Pawpaws will naturally thin themselves out and drop fruitlets/clusters in June (which we refer to as “June drop”), so they will only hold on to as much as they can handle.
I do think it’s important, however, to thin fruits within a cluster if you want larger sized fruits and less weight on individual branches. I like the result of thinning to 2-3 fruits per cluster, but people will have varying opinions on this. I may even try thinning down to 1 fruit on some of my Allegheny clusters this year since that variety really does tend to overproduce and result in smaller fruit without enough thinning. Of course if you care more about seeds than fruit, then you may want to keep more fruits per cluster.
It’s also important to make sure that you don’t have too many fruiting clusters on any 1 branch, as that can easily cause breakage during a summer storm. Obviously that will vary based on the size and age of the branch. A 2nd year branch without any branchlets may only be able to handle 1 cluster, whereas a 3rd year branch with several branchlets may be able to handle a few. I try to think of it like a balancing act to keep the weight of fruit distributed evenly around the tree.
I believe an NC-1 was rated 2021 Best Pawpaw at the Ohio Pawpaw festival… but now I can’t find where I read that.
I am growing three pawpaw (one of which is NC-1) but have never tasted a pawpaw fruit! Even if I don’t care for the fruit, I think they are a valuable tree worth growing - native, interesting “sleepy” form and host for Zebra swallowtail butterflies.
The purposes of thinning the fruit are:
1)To increase fruit size by having less number of fruits.
2) To decrease weight so branches do not break under excessive load (usually caused by hand-pollination).
3) To encourage single fruits which then can be removed without tearing into the flesh (via cutting the peduncle or fruit stem free from the plant, as opposed to a multi-cluster fruit with one peduncle that necessitates tearing the fruit off to harvest them). This is for those interested in pursuing marketing the fruit, where single fruits with peduncle attached have longer shelf life.
4) To remove damaged, deformed, or otherwise blemished fruits early on so the tree does not “waste” it’s energy maturing them.
So, if any of these are goals for you, then thin the fruit. Otherwise for backyard use, multi-cluster fruits are fine and perfectly good. Also remember, the tree will shed many fruits on it’s own in June, so wait until Mid-June or so before thinning, and I recommend doing it with sharp snips and not with your hands. They are delicate.
Shenandoah same scenario as Wabash finally putting on at least 10 inches of growth a year. I have learned to go heavy on nitrogen. Purchased from Nolin river nut tree nursery.
