Slugs have gone dormant in most of the yard, but I guess my weekly deep watering of the pawpaws has kept a local population “awake”… I do get a little too much joy from late night slug slaughtering, but it’s hard to put a dent in the local population of slugs and snails. It’s the PNW… slug heaven! But I’ll be out tonight, too, I think.
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would do the same here but the damned skeeters are wild as hell after dark here. i put copper tape around stuff i want to protect and it works pretty good. we have 4 types of slugs here from the 3in. big tan ones to the tiny yellow striped ones as well as some snails… if my chics werent so destructive in my food forest, id let them munch on them. being surrounded by abandoned fields doesnt help. its slug heaven!
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Wonder if anyone has links to literature that involves what kind
( species ) of mycorrhizae is good , effective , for pawpaws ?
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Davis is an outstanding cultivar and among my favorites but it is not talked about much lately. It is also a favorite of a neighbor of mine, and Michael Judd from MD highly rates this one. It is one of the oldest still in circulation selected from the wild in MI by Corwin Davis in 1959 if memory serves. This and taytwo were 2 of his very best selections in my opinion and still worthy to be planted in orchards today.
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Derek, I have read there is an authentic and a fake “Davis” in circulation. It sounds like you might have been lucky and found the good one. Do you have many other cultivars to compare to it for taste?
Davis comes closest in my opinion to sunflower in terms of texture and its ability to hold in good shape for some time post harvest. In other words it has a very nice dense texture compared to most, seeds are rather large with average production - production is somewhat less than sunflower. Flavor is comparable to sunflower being mild, and while a later ripening one for me it typically ripens a little before sunflower. Fans of the super sweet and strong flavored like susquehanna and taytwo might possibly find it too mild. It has light colored flesh. I believe I got my original tree from edible landscaping in VA many years ago.
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Thanks Derek! If I remember correctly it is the parent of a couple other selections too.
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I believe allegheny was a seedling of davis and NC-1 is a hybrid of overleese and davis. I also think Jerry Lehman used it a lot in his breeding so he must have thought highly of it.
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I am planning to graft many of Jerry’s selections this year. I’m excited to try and breed just a few seedlings.
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VE-9 is late ripening but has been misunderstood. People assumed that ‘VE’ meant ‘very early’ but it actually means ‘Valley East,’ which is a description of where the pawpaw was situated in Jerry Lehman’s orchard.
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I’ll have lots of Lehman variety pawpaws available this May.
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Yes,I have read that about the name designation and also,VE-21 is early to ripen,compared to some others.The following is from England’s Nursery.
VE-9 Prolific X Overleese - Average to large fruits. Late ripening, sweet, excellent flavor.
VE-21 Prolific X Overleese - Variety is very early, produces pawpaw that range in size from average to large, light yellow skin, and has a sweet, excellent pawpaw flavor.
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I believe I had gone off of England’s website for that information for my site Brady. I switched it to late after reading this discussion but I’m interested to hear from others as we find out timing for ourselves. It’s possible it is variable based on climate conditions too.
Has anyone else grafted or tasted Kentucky Legend* (thanks for the catch @TrilobaTracker) from Woody Walker /Pawpaw Planet? I have a request in for scions this year. At 3.5% seed ratio I believe it is the current leader amongst all cultivars. Woody believes it could be a seedling of either Jerry’s Big Girl or Peterson cultivars. My hunch (only speculation) is that it is a child of Susquehanna as it appears to have seeds not fully formed.
From Facebook -
In related news, Woody was discussing a desire for a backup germplasm repository with Neal. I think it’s a great idea.
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You mean Kentucky Legend, not Champion right?
I would like to hear from anyone too, but my guess is very few have tried it as he has not shared material yet I don’t think? Prior to now, that is.
3.5% is insane but I would have to see it to believe it. I had a few fruits with ratios that low or lower (one at 3.0) last year but it was just that - a few fruits. Most from that particular tree we’re in the 4 range (still great!). Anyway - not throwing shade but just saying …
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Yes you are correct. And yes, that seems like a pretty incredible %. I hope with time and some luck, we can get a few cultivars with only a few seeds on average. I’m confident it could be done, but quality has to be maintained too. Those few seeds might bring the final generation of seedless seedlings… we can dream, right?
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Cool cool - and man if we could truly get a peach flavor I would be in love with that
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KL was discovered by Woody Walker after Kentucky Champion. It’s a later ripening pawpaw, I believe after Susquehanna if I recall correctly.
The most mild pawpaw is still miles ahead of a peach in terms of strength of flavor, and even putting aside peaches, I don’t really think there’s anything in pawpaws that even remotely resembles any sort of stone fruit in terms of flavor.
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