Paw paw seedlings

I have a few pawpaw seedlings started in small pots last year. They grew 6-8 inches is all. Can I transplant them to a sunny permanent location now or do they need shade another year?

edit for more info: they are getting ready to break dormancy and I would like to transplant them to a location I cannot maintain/control. If they won’t survive yet I wont do it, if they should survive I will do it.

I’d give them filtered sunlight at the most,especially between 10am-2pm. Brady

The first thing I would worry about is root circling. Pawpaws put out a deep tap root. If you didn’t use air pruning containers, I’d check for that first. While that may not show symptoms for years, eventually root constriction will impact the tree.

I started mine last year. The first ones were started indoors under lights and the last ones I started were after the weather broke. All were started in RM 18s to prune the tap root and then transplanted to 1 gal RB2s or 5" Roottrapper bags. I kept all of them on my lower deck last year. It gets a couple hours of direct morning sun followed by filtered sun followed by afternoon shade.

My plan is to keep them on the lower deck again for one more growing season. I’m transplanting them to 3 gal RB2s for this season. From what I understand, seedlings lose the photosensitivity by the third growing season. This fall and next spring, they will be transplanted to their final location in full sun.

Here is a thread on another forum someone else started, but it includes a lot of my posts with pictures: Pawpaw thread It contains links to KSU and other good references on growing pawpaw from seed.

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